Do We Need to Compete Now?

[twslam07]

There have been arguments made on this forum that we cannot wait for our rookies to develop due to the possibility of Cousins readiness to win now. The argument is if we wait too long to start competing, Cousins will become impatient and either demand a trade or leave in free agency. This proposal is a way to prevent that from happening.

Draft Day
When the Kings are on the clock come draft day, I suggest we strike a deal with Boston.

7th pick
Ben McLemore
Ray McCallum
Derrick Williams
Travis Outlaw

For

Rajon Rondo
Chris Johnson
Chris Babb

Why for Boston?
Boston is not necessarily looking to move Rondo, but they are rebuilding. After this trade, they will have 4 young, valuable assets who all have potential. That seems to be a good return for Rondo. After the trade, there team will look like this going into the 2014-2015 offseason:

5th pick, 7th pick, and 18th pick
PG – McCallum/Pressey
SG – Bradley (resigned)/McLemore
SF – Green/Wallace/Outlaw
PF – Bass/Sullinger/Williams
C – Olynyk/Faverani/Anthony

McCallum, Bradley, McLemore, Green, Sullinger, Williams, Olynyk, Faverani, the 5th pick, 7th pick, and the 18th pick are all valuable pieces that can be developed or easily moved down the line.

Why for Sacramento?
The Kings get Rondo who is one of the best defenders, rebounders, and playmakers at the PG position. There have also been talks about his jump shot improving. Not to say that he is a huge threat from outside, but it sounds like he has become a little more respectable. Obviously, the fact that he puts up a low amount of shots every game is a plus as well.

We’re giving up a great deal of young assets for possibly a 1 year rental of Rondo. Obviously, this deal would cripple us if Rondo doesn’t extend with us. It’ll be important to gauge his willingness to stay with the Kings after this season before making the deal. Competing this season, extending Gay, and continuing to add veteran talent should be good incentive for Rondo to stay.

After the trade, our team will look like this:

PG – Rondo/Thomas
SG – Terry/Babb
SF – Gay/Johnson
PF – Evans/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Thompson

Sign and Trade
With Rondo on the roster, there is no reason to keep Thomas on the team anymore. I don’t see them being able to play next to each other on the court due to the size mismatches on the defensive side which would limit Thomas’s minutes (Rondo averaged around 37 mpg the previous 3 seasons before his injury).

Rather than letting Thomas walk for nothing, the Kings should look to do a sign and trade for Thomas.

Isaiah Thomas (sign and trade)

For

Arron Afflalo

Why for Orlando?
Afflalo plays the same position as their future SG (Oladipo). They have been experimenting with Oladipo at PG, but you can tell that his natural position is at SG. They’ve also been playing the 6’5” Afflalo out of position at SF at times. Afflalo is a solid player, but by trading him they free up the SG spot for Afflalo and shift that talent to a position of need.

Orlando had three PGs on their roster last year, and it’s possible that none of them will be returning. Nelson has a team option next season, and at 8 million a year, I’m sure Orlando will release him at that price. Ronnie Price’s contract is unguaranteed so they can release him this year as well. E’Twaun Moore has a qualifying offer this year. I’m not sure if they will be bringing him back either. That means the PG spot is wide open in Orlando.

Thomas and Oladipo would be very good compliments to one another if Orlando saw Thomas as their future starting PG. Thomas would bring the scoring punch while Oladipo can guard both positions, share ball handling duties, and just be the glue guy all NBA teams need.

If Orlando decides that Exum or Smart is their starting PG of the future, they can treat Thomas as their sixth man of the future. Exum or Smart/Oladipo/Thomas has the potential to be a very versatile and dynamic backcourt for years to come.

Some might ask, “Why doesn’t Orlando just put in an offer sheet for Thomas and try to steal him away?” Well my answer to that would be they have the risk of driving Thomas’ price up versus trading for him and having him at a reasonable $5-6 mil a year. Also by signing him out right, they don’t have the ability to move Afflalo and thus remove the logjam at SG. Lastly, by trading Afflalo for Thomas, they maintain their cap space and can go after other free agents that fit around their roster.

After the trade, Orlando’s rotation would look like this going into the 2014-2015 offseason:

3rd pick and 12th pick
PG – Thomas
SG – Oladipo/Lamb
SF – Harkless
PF – Harris/Nicholson
C – Vucevic/O’Quinn/Dedmon

Drafting Exum and R. Hood this year would give them good potential at each position.

PG – Exum/Thomas
SG – Oladipo/Lamb
SF – Harkless/Hood
PF – Harris/Nicholson
C – Vucevic/O’Quinn/Dedmon

Why for Sac?
With Rondo on the team, Thomas is obsolete. Thomas is a talented player, but we need that talent at another position. By trading him for Afflalo, it gives us a veteran SG who can defend, hit threes, handle the ball, and score when needed. It also adds another level headed veteran to surround our young, franchise center with.

Ever since Afflalo has come to Orlando, he has had to take on more of a scorer’s mentality. He’s averaged 14 shots a game. In his previous 5 seasons as a professional, he has never averaged more than 11 shots a game. I don’t see why he can’t revert back to his old ways and become that 3 and D player we need on the wing, and perhaps his defense will elevate considering he doesn’t have to spend as much energy on the offensive side.

After this trade, our team will look like this:

PG – Rondo/Terry
SG – Afflalo/Babb
SF – Gay/Johnson
PF – Evans/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Thompson

Free Agency
What we do in free agency depends on if Gay opts out and signs a new contract with us or if he opts in. If he opts in and we want to stay under the tax level, we will have to buyout Evans and sign two free agents to the veteran minimum to give us 13 players on our roster.

If Gay opts out and signs for $14 mil a year, we will have just under $7.6 mil under the tax level to work with. That gives us the option of offering the MLE. It would be wise to use it on another ball handler, wing, or lower level shot blocker. I would start out by targeting one of the lower level shot blockers available. That would be Jordan Hill or Ed Davis. If we can sign one of these guys, we have our starting lineup set for next season (Rondo, Afflalo, Gay, Hill/Davis, Cousins). However, we will have way too many PFs on this team. One of them will have to be moved in a trade. I’ve seen this trade pop up every now and then:

Jason Thompson

For

Jared Dudley

Why for Los Angeles?
The Clippers have a plethora of wings (Redick, Crawford, Bullock, Barnes, Granger, Dudley, Turkoglu). However, their frontcourt is not very deep. They have only Griffin, Jordan, and Davis on their books for next season, but Davis has a player option for only a little above $1 mil. I’m sure he’ll opt out and decided to test free agency. This leaves Griffin and Jordan as their only bigs next season. Thompson would give them a solid 3 big rotation while maintaining most of their wing depth. Along with a 1st and 2nd round draft pick and whoever they pick up in free agency, this will be their team heading into next season (I’m assuming Collison, Granger, and Davis will all opt out of their contracts):

PG – Paul
SG – Redick/Crawford
SF – Barnes/Bullock
PF – Griffin/Thompson
C – Jordan

Why for Sacramento?
After signing Hill or Davis, we will have a plethora of PFs (Hill/Davis, Thompson, Landry, Evans, Acy), but we won’t have much wing depth at all. Swapping Thompson for Dudley, eases the log jam at PF a little bit while adding a wing who can swing between SG and SF. This is what the team will look after the trade:

PG – Rondo/Terry
SG – Afflalo/Babb
SF – Gay/Dudley/Johnson
PF – Hill/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Evans

If we are unable to sign Hill or Davis, obviously we have to go in a different direction. I would recommend giving the MLE to a wing. I think Evan Turner, Thabo Sefolosha, Trevor Ariza, Caron Butler, and Danny Granger would all be good candidates for our MLE. If we are able to snag one of them , that should bode well for our bench, and it would give us a good wing rotation of Gay, Afllalo, and ???.

Regardless of if we give the MLE to a shot blocker or a wing, we’ll still need an extra ball handler on the veteran minimum. Beno Udrih, Earl Watson, Ish Smith, or Garret Temple could all be good candidates.

If we give Jordan Hill the MLE, trade for Jared Dudley, and sign Beno Udrih to the veteran minimum, our team will still be under the tax level and look like this going into the 2014-2015 season:

PG – Rondo/Udrih
SG – Afflalo/Terry/Babb
SF – Gay/Dudley/Johnson
PF – Hill/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Evans

Is this team capable of competing now? I would definitely say so. The team doesn’t have an elite shot blocker, but as Cousins continues to improve his shot blocking, Hill and Cousins should be able to protect the rim. On top of that, Rondo and Afflalo are both very strong defenders which should help with dribble penetration. Defensive rebounding would be extremely strong. Cousins and Hill are very good on the glass while Rondo and Gay are above average rebounders too.

Offensively, Cousins and Gay are the top two options with Afflalo being our off the ball scorer. Rondo will be our floor general and help get them plenty of easy looks. Floor spacing should be fine. Rondo is a weak shooter, but the rest of the starting lineup can knock down jump shots from outside.

The bench would be decent. Udrih is good at running the offense and knocking down open jumpers. Terry is extremely old, but if he returns to form, he could be a very good scorer off the bench for us. Dudley would be a 3 and D wing off the bench who is a hardworking, versatile wing. Landry would give us some more scoring and a low post presence off the bench. Evans would be our high energy, down in the trenches big who will bring strong rebounding and toughness.

Again, I think this team can compete right away. I don’t see Cousins leaving anytime soon with a team like this around him. I think Rondo would think twice about leaving as well. This team has some serious talent that. If used correctly, it can do some serious damage in the west.

Thoughts?

 

[TyFreak Evans]

So you're saying we should trade our two 2013 draft picks, both of whom have shown late in the season that they can play, as well as our 2014 draft pick who could just turn into a superstar for us in exchange for a dude who is injury proned (although I do like his game, don't get me wrong) and 2 dudes who are basically no namers?

With all do respect, sir/ma'am, is ye feeling alright?????????

 

[TyFreak Evans]

Oh, and you basically made the best argument against making this deal by stating that Rondo may not sign an extension with us......

 

[twslam07]

So you're saying we should trade our two 2013 draft picks, both of whom have shown late in the season that they can play, as well as our 2014 draft pick who could just turn into a superstar for us in exchange for a dude who is injury proned (although I do like his game, don't get me wrong) and 2 dudes who are basically no namers?

With all do respect, sir/ma'am, is ye feeling alright?????????

Is that how we label Rondo now? A dude that is injury prone? Not an all NBA defender? Or the league leader in assists? SMH

 

[twslam07]

Oh, and you basically made the best argument against making this deal by stating that Rondo may not sign an extension with us......

I said it would be important to gauge his willingness to stay with the team long term. Obviously, the Kings have no business doing this trade if Rondo is going to leave the next year.

 

[TyFreak Evans]

Is that how we label Rondo now? A dude that is injury prone? Not an all NBA defender? Or the league leader in assists? SMH

I never denied that he was an all NBA defender. Or he consistently is amongst the league leaders in assists. I just said he is injury proned. And I, IMHO, would NOT take the risk.

 

[TyFreak Evans]

I said it would be important to gauge his willingness to stay with the team long term. Obviously, the Kings have no business doing this trade if Rondo is going to leave the next year.

Correct me if I am mistaken, but was it not Rajon Rondo who said he would not sign an extension/long-term deal with Sacramento?

 

[TyFreak Evans]

If we want to acquire Rajon Rondo, we would have to acquire a crap load before even thinking about it. That's all I am saying. He is not coming to the Kings with the current roster, or even the roster you propose in your original post.....

 

[randymoss1881]

No more Rondo talk that's over you don't give up assists let alone Ben for someone who won't reup before the trade.

 

[pshn80]

I don't think Rajon Rondo is key to the future of the Kings. I do thunk we need to move to make the team better, right now, over the summer. This needs to and will be done not because if Cousins but because Ranadive and the season ticket holders that make Ranadive's engine work want significant improvement. Rondo? He is one if a hundred ways to improve the team. Good hunting FO.

 

[twslam07]

Correct me if I am mistaken, but was it not Rajon Rondo who said he would not sign an extension/long-term deal with Sacramento?

It was based off a rumor that had our 1st round draft pick being sent to Boston before the trade deadline.

 

[twslam07]

If we want to acquire Rajon Rondo, we would have to acquire a crap load before even thinking about it. That's all I am saying. He is not coming to the Kings with the current roster, or even the roster you propose in your original post.....

So you don't think a supporting cast of Cousins, Gay, Afflalo, Hill, Dudley, Landry, Evans, Terry, Udrih is appealing to Rondo? You'll be hard pressed to find a team that is 13 mil under the tax level with more talent than this one.

 

[twslam07]

No more Rondo talk that's over you don't give up assists let alone Ben for someone who won't reup before the trade.

If he doesn't want to reup, then I'm not throwing away our future for one year of Rondo.

 

[twslam07]

I don't think Rajon Rondo is key to the future of the Kings. I do thunk we need to move to make the team better, right now, over the summer. This needs to and will be done not because if Cousins but because Ranadive and the season ticket holders that make Ranadive's engine work want significant improvement. Rondo? He is one if a hundred ways to improve the team. Good hunting FO.

A team shouldn't try force themselves getting better because of season ticket holders. A team should try to force themselves to get better if your ultra talented and dominant center is growing tiresome of the organization's losing ways.

 

[VF21]

You put a lot of thought and effort into your proposal, but there are several major problems:
1. The front office is very high on our McRookies.
2. There's no reason to believe that each of your trade partners for the Kings would think the way you think they would think (even though I commend you on a lot of work in this regard).
3. I'm no longer convinced that Rajon Rondo is the answer to our question at the 1. I think the price we would have to pay to get him is way too high, especially when - as you've pointed out - it could end up being a one-year rental.r
4. You're banking on a free agent like Davis or Hill wanting to come to Sacramento. I don't think we can make that assumption quite yet.

Again, a lot of effort and if it all worked - an impressive upgrade in our team. I just don't see it happening.

 

[Bricklayer]

My general answer to the question posed in the title is "yes". I am trying to get people to understand that we are suddenly running out of time, and the reason is Cousins. Its now us who are are holding him back, not the other way around. I think he's the exact opposite of disloyal right now. But over time that will change if we fail him.

Now whether your process is the best way of going about things is another question. The theory is good (well except for trading JT for a washed up Dudley). If you can get a committment from Rondo to resign with the Kings then he is still a major factor. But you have to do this right from beginning to end, and can't lose stacks of assets for 1yr rentals.

 

[twslam07]

Personally, I would be patient and build the team through the draft and the development of our players. That's how you build a consistent winning team if you're a small market team. Unfortunately, we drafted our franchise player 4 seasons ago and our draft picks since then have not produced many future fitting pieces (McLemore, McCallum, Robinson, Fredette, Honeycutt, Thomas, Cousins, and Whiteside). From those draft selections, we produced our franchise C (Cousins), a sixth man PG (Thomas), a potential starting SG (McLemore), and a backup PG (McCallum). That doesn't give Cousins much help.

On the other hand, I trust Cousins' loyalty to Sacramento, and I think we'll be able to build a contender before his contract is up. However, it's always in the back of my mind that Cousins could snap and say "Enough is enough!" and demand a trade or skip town.

But again if I were to have it my way, I would keep our young talent and build through the draft. If Gay opts out and doesn't return to Sacramento, I want to see Williams be promoted to our starting SF. When the draft roles around, there would be two strategies I would have in mind. If we luck out and fall in the top 3, I'm taking Embiid, Wiggins, and Parker in that order. If we get stuck with the 7th pick, I would look to trade it for two late first round picks. Chicago (16th and 19th pick) and Phoenix (14th and 27th pick) would be possible trading partners. I would opt for Chicago's picks over Phoenix's picks if possible. I would target Hood/Anderson and Payton with the two picks.

 

[Bricklayer]

Personally, I would be patient and build the team through the draft and the development of our players. That's how you build a consistent winning team if you're a small market team. Unfortunately, we drafted our franchise player 4 seasons ago and our draft picks since then have not produced many future fitting pieces (McLemore, McCallum, Robinson, Fredette, Honeycutt, Thomas, Cousins, and Whiteside). From those draft selections, we produced our franchise C (Cousins), a sixth man PG (Thomas), a potential starting SG (McLemore), and a backup PG (McCallum). That doesn't give Cousins much help.

On the other hand, I trust Cousins' loyalty to Sacramento, and I think we'll be able to build a contender before his contract is up. However, it's always in the back of my mind that Cousins could snap and say "Enough is enough!" and demand a trade or skip town.

But again if I were to have it my way, I would keep our young talent and build through the draft. If Gay opts out and doesn't return to Sacramento, I want to see Williams be promoted to our starting SF. When the draft roles around, there would be two strategies I would have in mind. If we luck out and fall in the top 3, I'm taking Embiid, Wiggins, and Parker in that order. If we get stuck with the 7th pick, I would look to trade it for two late first round picks. Chicago (16th and 19th pick) and Phoenix (14th and 27th pick) would be possible trading partners. I would opt for Chicago's picks over Phoenix's picks if possible. I would target Hood/Anderson and Payton with the two picks.

for the reasons you stated that's just not open now to us. It was with Cuz as a rookie and Reke as a sophomore. But we completely failed to move forward. Now we are much more like a team like Portland was last year. or Minny, but that is obviously what you fear. We've got to move forward. I would guestimate the no complaints threshold for each year of Boogie's contract to be roughly:

2014-15: 40 wins. 38 bare minimum to avoid flat out rumbles and threats from agents and whatnot. 40 to get a bare level of satisfaction/ok we're going the right direction.
2015-16: 46 wins, and more importantly, a playoff spot. Its an absolute must. We have to get Cuz into the dance by his 6th year, or Minnesota's situation will be hanging all over us.
2016-17: 50 wins, or 2nd round of playoffs. Preferably both. That will be the year on which Cousins' decision whether to resign with us will hinge. If we're not a pretty serious playoff team by that time, our peril will be extreme.
2017-18: at least high 40s and another playoffs, etc.

Cousins desperately wants respect. The last and biggest barrier to it is one that we control, not him. He will NOT endure years more of being called a loser and missing out on honors without incident, nor should he. This is our summer here.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

We need a player like Afflalo, so lets get it done. Would move IT for him in a heartbeat

 

[twslam07]

for the reasons you stated that's just not open now to us. It was with Cuz as a rookie and Reke as a sophomore. But we completely failed to move forward. Now we are much more like a team like Portland was last year. or Minny, but that is obviously what you fear. We've got to move forward. I would guestimate the no complaints threshold for each year of Boogie's contract to be roughly:

2014-15: 40 wins. 38 bare minimum to avoid flat out rumbles and threats from agents and whatnot. 40 to get a bare level of satisfaction/ok we're going the right direction.
2015-16: 46 wins, and more importantly, a playoff spot. Its an absolute must. We have to get Cuz into the dance by his 6th year, or Minnesota's situation will be hanging all over us.
2016-17: 50 wins, or 2nd round of playoffs. Preferably both. That will be the year on which Cousins' decision whether to resign with us will hinge. If we're not a pretty serious playoff team by that time, our peril will be extreme.
2017-18: at least high 40s and another playoffs, etc.

Cousins desperately wants respect. The last and biggest barrier to it is one that we control, not him. He will NOT endure years more of being called a loser and missing out on honors without incident, nor should he. This is our summer here.

I agree with your premise, but it is a possibility that Gay walks this offseason. If he does, what are we going to do? If we resign Thomas, our rotation will be:

PG - Thomas/McCallum
SG - McLemore/Terry
SF - Williams/Outlaw
PF - Evans/Landry/Acy
C - Cousins/Thompson

I'm sorry, but I don't see that team sniffing your "38 bare minimum" limit you have set in the 2014-2015 season. We will have a top 10 pick this year, but it's likely that player won't be able to contribute too much to this "38 win" team we need to become (much like how McLemore was this season). That leaves us to solve this issue with free agency or trades. Counting our 2014 draft pick's salary, we will have approximately 11 mil in cap room. However, big name free agents rarely opt to come to Sacramento which leads me to believe its very unrealistic to put any stock in finding our replacement #2 option in free agency, and if somehow we get lucky, the top unrestricted free agents are Lowry, Stephenson, Carmelo, and Deng. With the exception of Carmelo, I don't see any of those guys as our #2 option replacement. As far as Carmelo goes, he's come out and said that it's about winning for him. I'm not sure he'll be thrilled to come to the 28 win Sacramento Kings for $11 mil a year. That leaves us with a trade to bring aboard our #2 option, but how many of those are available to trade for? Eric Gordon? Kyrie Irving? Thad Young? None of these guys scream out as attractive options to me.

Do you see where this is going? As a small market team, it can be much more difficult to drastically improve a team without your core pieces already in place. We have to be prepared that there might be no other option than to be patient and develop our youth.

 

[Bricklayer]

Do you see where this is going? As a small market team, it can be much more difficult to drastically improve a team without your core pieces already in place. We have to be prepared that there might be no other option than to be patient and develop our youth.

Or alternately to use that youth to drastically improve the team. Youth is a great thing at a certain point in a team's life cycle. But when you reach that point in the cycle where you want to win, youth is an active impediment. If its somebody special, if its Cousins, sure.

The general point would be that there is nothing to be saving youth for. There IS no future without Cousins. Without him you are back to nosediving into the lottery year after year desperately hoping to be able to draft him again and start over. The rest of our youth is collectively nothing compared to that piece. So anybody not named Cousins is completely 100% fungible if it can help. Draft picks, players, nice guys, bad guys, anybody. Just where we are now. One day hopefully 15 years from now Cuz will just have retired for us and be on his way to the HOF, and then all of a sudden kids, youth, draft picks will once again become paramount. Just not right now.

 

[KingMilz]

PG – Rondo/Udrih
SG – Afflalo/Terry/Babb
SF – Gay/Dudley/Johnson
PF – Hill/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Evans

Replace Gay with Hayward or Ariza and that would be the near perfect off season from my point of view. You got elite rebounding, a elite passer one very good passer and two solid shooters. Literally every single player is a solid to very good defender. Every single player also knows there role and we got 2 very good ball stoppers who playmake in Rondo/Cousins .

 

[twslam07]

Or alternately to use that youth to drastically improve the team. Youth is a great thing at a certain point in a team's life cycle. But when you reach that point in the cycle where you want to win, youth is an active impediment. If its somebody special, if its Cousins, sure.

The general point would be that there is nothing to be saving youth for. There IS no future without Cousins. Without him you are back to nosediving into the lottery year after year desperately hoping to be able to draft him again and start over. The rest of our youth is collectively nothing compared to that piece. So anybody not named Cousins is completely 100% fungible if it can help. Draft picks, players, nice guys, bad guys, anybody. Just where we are now. One day hopefully 15 years from now Cuz will just have retired for us and be on his way to the HOF, and then all of a sudden kids, youth, draft picks will once again become paramount. Just not right now.

I understand your argument and agree with it, but as I stated in my earlier post, I just don't see the execution of it being very realistic if Gay jumps ship.

 

[twslam07]

Replace Gay with Hayward or Ariza and that would be the near perfect off season from my point of view. You got elite rebounding, a elite passer one very good passer and two solid shooters. Literally every single player is a solid to very good defender. Every single player also knows there role and we got 2 very good ball stoppers who playmake in Rondo/Cousins .

You do realize that Hayward is a restricted free agent. It's not very likely we'll get him considering Utah has around $28 mil in cap space next year. I don't see any reason for them to let him walk, and with our cap hold on Thomas, we only have 11 mil in cap space. Is that enough for Utah to let him go? You tell me. Maybe Npliam can give us a sense for how much Utah values Hayward.

If Gay leaves and we sign our 1st round pick (7th pick), we will have approximately $11 mil in cap space (counting Thomas' cap hold). We could sign Hayward before offering Thomas a deal in order to maintain our cap space, but if someone comes along and offers Thomas a contract, we will only have a limited amount of time to match thus reducing our cap space. So we would either have to work quickly to get Hayward or release Thomas. However, if we release Thomas, our only PG on the team will be McCallum. We would either have had to draft a PG with our pick, or sign one to the MLE or vet minimum. Lowry and Bledsoe will get more than the MLE, so that leaves only Chalmers and Collison as players who could be worth the MLE.

 

[Big Cuz 15]

There have been arguments made on this forum that we cannot wait for our rookies to develop due to the possibility of Cousins readiness to win now. The argument is if we wait too long to start competing, Cousins will become impatient and either demand a trade or leave in free agency. This proposal is a way to prevent that from happening.

Draft Day
When the Kings are on the clock come draft day, I suggest we strike a deal with Boston.

7th pick
Ben McLemore
Ray McCallum
Derrick Williams
Travis Outlaw

For

Rajon Rondo
Chris Johnson
Chris Babb

Why for Boston?
Boston is not necessarily looking to move Rondo, but they are rebuilding. After this trade, they will have 4 young, valuable assets who all have potential. That seems to be a good return for Rondo. After the trade, there team will look like this going into the 2014-2015 offseason:

5th pick, 7th pick, and 18th pick
PG – McCallum/Pressey
SG – Bradley (resigned)/McLemore
SF – Green/Wallace/Outlaw
PF – Bass/Sullinger/Williams
C – Olynyk/Faverani/Anthony

McCallum, Bradley, McLemore, Green, Sullinger, Williams, Olynyk, Faverani, the 5th pick, 7th pick, and the 18th pick are all valuable pieces that can be developed or easily moved down the line.

Why for Sacramento?
The Kings get Rondo who is one of the best defenders, rebounders, and playmakers at the PG position. There have also been talks about his jump shot improving. Not to say that he is a huge threat from outside, but it sounds like he has become a little more respectable. Obviously, the fact that he puts up a low amount of shots every game is a plus as well.

We’re giving up a great deal of young assets for possibly a 1 year rental of Rondo. Obviously, this deal would cripple us if Rondo doesn’t extend with us. It’ll be important to gauge his willingness to stay with the Kings after this season before making the deal. Competing this season, extending Gay, and continuing to add veteran talent should be good incentive for Rondo to stay.

After the trade, our team will look like this:

PG – Rondo/Thomas
SG – Terry/Babb
SF – Gay/Johnson
PF – Evans/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Thompson

Sign and Trade
With Rondo on the roster, there is no reason to keep Thomas on the team anymore. I don’t see them being able to play next to each other on the court due to the size mismatches on the defensive side which would limit Thomas’s minutes (Rondo averaged around 37 mpg the previous 3 seasons before his injury).

Rather than letting Thomas walk for nothing, the Kings should look to do a sign and trade for Thomas.

Isaiah Thomas (sign and trade)

For

Arron Afflalo

Why for Orlando?
Afflalo plays the same position as their future SG (Oladipo). They have been experimenting with Oladipo at PG, but you can tell that his natural position is at SG. They’ve also been playing the 6’5” Afflalo out of position at SF at times. Afflalo is a solid player, but by trading him they free up the SG spot for Afflalo and shift that talent to a position of need.

Orlando had three PGs on their roster last year, and it’s possible that none of them will be returning. Nelson has a team option next season, and at 8 million a year, I’m sure Orlando will release him at that price. Ronnie Price’s contract is unguaranteed so they can release him this year as well. E’Twaun Moore has a qualifying offer this year. I’m not sure if they will be bringing him back either. That means the PG spot is wide open in Orlando.

Thomas and Oladipo would be very good compliments to one another if Orlando saw Thomas as their future starting PG. Thomas would bring the scoring punch while Oladipo can guard both positions, share ball handling duties, and just be the glue guy all NBA teams need.

If Orlando decides that Exum or Smart is their starting PG of the future, they can treat Thomas as their sixth man of the future. Exum or Smart/Oladipo/Thomas has the potential to be a very versatile and dynamic backcourt for years to come.

Some might ask, “Why doesn’t Orlando just put in an offer sheet for Thomas and try to steal him away?” Well my answer to that would be they have the risk of driving Thomas’ price up versus trading for him and having him at a reasonable $5-6 mil a year. Also by signing him out right, they don’t have the ability to move Afflalo and thus remove the logjam at SG. Lastly, by trading Afflalo for Thomas, they maintain their cap space and can go after other free agents that fit around their roster.

After the trade, Orlando’s rotation would look like this going into the 2014-2015 offseason:

3rd pick and 12th pick
PG – Thomas
SG – Oladipo/Lamb
SF – Harkless
PF – Harris/Nicholson
C – Vucevic/O’Quinn/Dedmon

Drafting Exum and R. Hood this year would give them good potential at each position.

PG – Exum/Thomas
SG – Oladipo/Lamb
SF – Harkless/Hood
PF – Harris/Nicholson
C – Vucevic/O’Quinn/Dedmon

Why for Sac?
With Rondo on the team, Thomas is obsolete. Thomas is a talented player, but we need that talent at another position. By trading him for Afflalo, it gives us a veteran SG who can defend, hit threes, handle the ball, and score when needed. It also adds another level headed veteran to surround our young, franchise center with.

Ever since Afflalo has come to Orlando, he has had to take on more of a scorer’s mentality. He’s averaged 14 shots a game. In his previous 5 seasons as a professional, he has never averaged more than 11 shots a game. I don’t see why he can’t revert back to his old ways and become that 3 and D player we need on the wing, and perhaps his defense will elevate considering he doesn’t have to spend as much energy on the offensive side.

After this trade, our team will look like this:

PG – Rondo/Terry
SG – Afflalo/Babb
SF – Gay/Johnson
PF – Evans/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Thompson

Free Agency
What we do in free agency depends on if Gay opts out and signs a new contract with us or if he opts in. If he opts in and we want to stay under the tax level, we will have to buyout Evans and sign two free agents to the veteran minimum to give us 13 players on our roster.

If Gay opts out and signs for $14 mil a year, we will have just under $7.6 mil under the tax level to work with. That gives us the option of offering the MLE. It would be wise to use it on another ball handler, wing, or lower level shot blocker. I would start out by targeting one of the lower level shot blockers available. That would be Jordan Hill or Ed Davis. If we can sign one of these guys, we have our starting lineup set for next season (Rondo, Afflalo, Gay, Hill/Davis, Cousins). However, we will have way too many PFs on this team. One of them will have to be moved in a trade. I’ve seen this trade pop up every now and then:

Jason Thompson

For

Jared Dudley

Why for Los Angeles?
The Clippers have a plethora of wings (Redick, Crawford, Bullock, Barnes, Granger, Dudley, Turkoglu). However, their frontcourt is not very deep. They have only Griffin, Jordan, and Davis on their books for next season, but Davis has a player option for only a little above $1 mil. I’m sure he’ll opt out and decided to test free agency. This leaves Griffin and Jordan as their only bigs next season. Thompson would give them a solid 3 big rotation while maintaining most of their wing depth. Along with a 1st and 2nd round draft pick and whoever they pick up in free agency, this will be their team heading into next season (I’m assuming Collison, Granger, and Davis will all opt out of their contracts):

PG – Paul
SG – Redick/Crawford
SF – Barnes/Bullock
PF – Griffin/Thompson
C – Jordan

Why for Sacramento?
After signing Hill or Davis, we will have a plethora of PFs (Hill/Davis, Thompson, Landry, Evans, Acy), but we won’t have much wing depth at all. Swapping Thompson for Dudley, eases the log jam at PF a little bit while adding a wing who can swing between SG and SF. This is what the team will look after the trade:

PG – Rondo/Terry
SG – Afflalo/Babb
SF – Gay/Dudley/Johnson
PF – Hill/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Evans

If we are unable to sign Hill or Davis, obviously we have to go in a different direction. I would recommend giving the MLE to a wing. I think Evan Turner, Thabo Sefolosha, Trevor Ariza, Caron Butler, and Danny Granger would all be good candidates for our MLE. If we are able to snag one of them , that should bode well for our bench, and it would give us a good wing rotation of Gay, Afllalo, and ???.

Regardless of if we give the MLE to a shot blocker or a wing, we’ll still need an extra ball handler on the veteran minimum. Beno Udrih, Earl Watson, Ish Smith, or Garret Temple could all be good candidates.

If we give Jordan Hill the MLE, trade for Jared Dudley, and sign Beno Udrih to the veteran minimum, our team will still be under the tax level and look like this going into the 2014-2015 season:

PG – Rondo/Udrih
SG – Afflalo/Terry/Babb
SF – Gay/Dudley/Johnson
PF – Hill/Landry/Acy
C – Cousins/Evans

Is this team capable of competing now? I would definitely say so. The team doesn’t have an elite shot blocker, but as Cousins continues to improve his shot blocking, Hill and Cousins should be able to protect the rim. On top of that, Rondo and Afflalo are both very strong defenders which should help with dribble penetration. Defensive rebounding would be extremely strong. Cousins and Hill are very good on the glass while Rondo and Gay are above average rebounders too.

Offensively, Cousins and Gay are the top two options with Afflalo being our off the ball scorer. Rondo will be our floor general and help get them plenty of easy looks. Floor spacing should be fine. Rondo is a weak shooter, but the rest of the starting lineup can knock down jump shots from outside.

The bench would be decent. Udrih is good at running the offense and knocking down open jumpers. Terry is extremely old, but if he returns to form, he could be a very good scorer off the bench for us. Dudley would be a 3 and D wing off the bench who is a hardworking, versatile wing. Landry would give us some more scoring and a low post presence off the bench. Evans would be our high energy, down in the trenches big who will bring strong rebounding and toughness.

Again, I think this team can compete right away. I don’t see Cousins leaving anytime soon with a team like this around him. I think Rondo would think twice about leaving as well. This team has some serious talent that. If used correctly, it can do some serious damage in the west.

Thoughts?

if you trade for rondo, how you gonna afford him and rudy when the contracts are up? they would eat up majority of the cap unless you get either of them to take some significant pay cuts

 

[pshn80]

Or alternately to use that youth to drastically improve the team. Youth is a great thing at a certain point in a team's life cycle. But when you reach that point in the cycle where you want to win, youth is an active impediment. If its somebody special, if its Cousins, sure.

The general point would be that there is nothing to be saving youth for. There IS no future without Cousins. Without him you are back to nosediving into the lottery year after year desperately hoping to be able to draft him again and start over. The rest of our youth is collectively nothing compared to that piece. So anybody not named Cousins is completely 100% fungible if it can help. Draft picks, players, nice guys, bad guys, anybody. Just where we are now. One day hopefully 15 years from now Cuz will just have retired for us and be on his way to the HOF, and then all of a sudden kids, youth, draft picks will once again become paramount. Just not right now.

Above I said "I Liked" and I do. However I have to admit that each time I read Brick's accurate assertion that Cuz is "IT" as the team, I wince a little bit. I believe that "Cuz is it" is trumped by "Cuz and another player who play together very well and can start a team". We don't seem to be there yet and we need to bridge that gap before we can move on. If you believe this is true, I'm quick to admit I don't know how the FO can do this. They will but how and when.

Today's Bee has three Kings articles that really caught my attention, one on each player's salary and contractual status, one on Cuz and his role as cornerstone with insights to how it is going that was of great interest to me, and one on the new team and ownership of May, 2013 and what events, decisions and other factors have led us to a 28 win season. Not so much new as comprehensive and insightful.

 

[Npliam]

You do realize that Hayward is a restricted free agent. It's not very likely we'll get him considering Utah has around $28 mil in cap space next year. I don't see any reason for them to let him walk, and with our cap hold on Thomas, we only have 11 mil in cap space. Is that enough for Utah to let him go? You tell me. Maybe Npliam can give us a sense for how much Utah values Hayward.

If Gay leaves and we sign our 1st round pick (7th pick), we will have approximately $11 mil in cap space (counting Thomas' cap hold). We could sign Hayward before offering Thomas a deal in order to maintain our cap space, but if someone comes along and offers Thomas a contract, we will only have a limited amount of time to match thus reducing our cap space. So we would either have to work quickly to get Hayward or release Thomas. However, if we release Thomas, our only PG on the team will be McCallum. We would either have had to draft a PG with our pick, or sign one to the MLE or vet minimum. Lowry and Bledsoe will get more than the MLE, so that leaves only Chalmers and Collison as players who could be worth the MLE.

The general feeling on a Hayward is that he is a really good player but that he isn't an elite player than can carry a team offensively. He is a good defender and really good in transition D but he isn't efficient offensively. I think that many in the Jazz organization feel kind on the same way that the Kings felt about Tyreke. If you can sign him for the right price he would great but you can't give him the keys to the franchise.

 

[Letsgokings13]

I have a hard time seeing IT walk, unless the offer is too much. He and Cousins are too close and I think Cuz's opinion will weigh heavy with our owners.

 

[bajaden]

You do realize that Hayward is a restricted free agent. It's not very likely we'll get him considering Utah has around $28 mil in cap space next year. I don't see any reason for them to let him walk, and with our cap hold on Thomas, we only have 11 mil in cap space. Is that enough for Utah to let him go? You tell me. Maybe Npliam can give us a sense for how much Utah values Hayward.

If Gay leaves and we sign our 1st round pick (7th pick), we will have approximately $11 mil in cap space (counting Thomas' cap hold). We could sign Hayward before offering Thomas a deal in order to maintain our cap space, but if someone comes along and offers Thomas a contract, we will only have a limited amount of time to match thus reducing our cap space. So we would either have to work quickly to get Hayward or release Thomas. However, if we release Thomas, our only PG on the team will be McCallum. We would either have had to draft a PG with our pick, or sign one to the MLE or vet minimum. Lowry and Bledsoe will get more than the MLE, so that leaves only Chalmers and Collison as players who could be worth the MLE.

Your sort of playing on both sides of the field if you don't mind me saying so. On one hand, you proposed a plan that has some very questionable moves in it. By questionable, I mean very unlikely that all those moves could be pulled off. But you make the assumption that they could. On the other hand, you shoot down just about every suggestion proposed by others. The chance of being able to pull off everything you proposed is about a billion to one. Just too many players, teams and GM's involved. But hey, its a plan and more than anyone else has proposed. Reasonable or not.

One of my problems, is that your proposing all these moves, but when responding to what happens if Gay walks, you throw out a roster made up of whats left of the team, thereby assuming that the Kings won't make any changes to the roster. I seriously doubt it comes down to your plan or nothing. I do like some of your moves though. I'm not a big fan of Rondo but if we could retain Gay, I do think he would be a good fit on our current team. I also think your overpaying for him.

By the way, draft picks don't have a cap hold of any kind, so we would actually be a little more under the cap than you stated.

 

[twslam07]

if you trade for rondo, how you gonna afford him and rudy when the contracts are up? they would eat up majority of the cap unless you get either of them to take some significant pay cuts

In my scenario, our payroll would be at $68 mil next year if both Gay and Rondo take $14 mil/year contracts, and we would have 11 players on our books. Considering the luxury tax will be at $81 mil in the 2015-2016 season, we will have plenty of space to work with.

Do you consider $14 mil a year a significant paycut for Rondo and Gay? It is for Gay, but there is nobody out there who is going to give him that size of contract. He's a #2 option, and $14 mil a year is a fair offer. Same goes for Rondo. In his last year of his contract, he'll be making just under $13 mil so this new contract would be considered a raise.