Trade #1
Pelicans Get: 8th Pick, Rudy Gay, & Marco Belinelli
Kings Get: 6th Pick, Tyreke Evans, & Alexis Ajinca
Why for Pelicans: The Pelicans trade back two spots to solidify their starting SF while adding another talented scorer who flourishes as a #2 or #3 option. In New Orleans, Gay will be able to be that type of option behind Davis & (possibly) Holiday. To help with their SG depth in place of Evans, Belinelli gives them a decent bench option who can hit threes and space the floor when in the game. With the 8th pick, the Pelicans take Poeltl which should compliment Davis well and give them their center of the future.
PG - Holiday/Douglas
SG - Pondexter/Belinelli/Dejean-Jones
SF - Gay/Cunningham/Gee/Babbit
PF - Davis
C - Asik/Poeltl
Why for Kings: The Kings trade up in order to draft Dunn as their PG of the future. Evans (although injury prone) would replace Gay as the secondary scorer to Cousins and be a good sixth man when the rest of the roster is filled out. Ajinca also gives them a cheap option at C who won't push Cousins out of position (like Koufos does currently).
PG - Collison/Dunn
SG - Evans/McLemore/Anderson
SF - Casspi/Butler
PF - Cauley-Stein
C - Cousins/Koufos/Ajinca
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Trade #2
Bulls Get: Taj Gibson & Tony Snell
Kings Get: Kosta Koufos & Ben McLemore
Why for Bulls: With Gasol thinking that he wants to entertain FA offers, he's not a for sure thing that he will be coming back. Koufos gives them a durable, defensive center who can fill the void (rather than bringing back Noah). He also compliments both of their young PFs well (Mirotic & Portis). Although both Snell & McLemore have struggled. McLemore has more potential. Also, if the Bulls move Butler, McLemore gives them a SG who can log some minutes. while McDermott is relied on as the SF of the future.
PG - Rose
SG - Butler/McLemore/Holiday
SF - McDermott/Dunleavy
PF - Mirotic/Portis/Bairstow
C - Koufos/Felicio
Why for Kings: Koufos is a good player and can be a starting caliber C if you have enough offense/scoring/playmaking from your other starters, Koufos can definitely hold down the paint on both ends of the court. Having said that, the Kings already have Cousins. Koufos forces Cousins to play PF which makes him less effective. Instead of the Kings 3rd big being a C, trading for Gibson shifts their 3rd big to the PF spot which allows Cousins to log all of his minutes at C. Although Snell has less upside than McLemore, he's the more versatile wing defender which is something the Kings need.
PG - Collison/Dunn
SG - Evans/Snell/Anderson
SF - Casspi/Butler
PF - Cauley-Stein/Gibson
C - Cousins/Ajinca
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Free Agency
After these two trades, the Kings would have $29.55 mil in cap space. I think their first order of business is to find a 3&D SG who can push Evans to the bench as a sixth man. Crabbe, Bazemore, & C. Lee would be the players I target. I'd probably go after Allen Crabbe to start as he's still young and probably won't cost us much as Bazemore. I'd offer $42 mil over 3 years (probably around $13.5 mil in the first year). That would leave us with $16.59 mil in cap space.
Then I would go after a SF who has some upside and could start. Solomon Hill is that guy to me. He's a terrific defender and his shot has been coming around lately. I'm not sure what his market price would be, but offer him up to $19.5 mil over 3 years (probably around $6 mil in the first year). That signing leaves us with $11.13 mil in cap space.
Next on the list is another big. Right now we only have 4 big man on the roster (with Hill & Casspi having the potential to play some PF) and none of them I would label as a stretch 4. Andrew Nicholson would be the man I target. A lot of attention goes to Ryan Anderson this offseason, but I think Nicholson is not going to be that far off. He's not a one dimensional scorer who gets his points just from shooting 3s. However, his 3pt shooting at PF would be a nice piece to add to a Cousins/Cauley-Stein/Gibson/Ajinca frontcourt. I'd likely offer him $16.5 mil over 3 years (probably around $5 mil in the first year) That would leave us with $6.13 mil in cap space.
Lastly, I would resign Seth Curry to give us 3 PGs on the roster. He played well in the limited minutes he got last year and can hit the 3 ball, run the PnR, play off the ball, & be a pesky defender. With Evans as the sixth man, Curry would probably flourish a little more with someone like Evans setting him up for easy looks as he cuts & curls off screens. I'd throw $10.5 mil over 3 years at him (probably around $3 mil in the first year). That would leave us with about 3.13 mil in cap space still (but no roster spots to fill). We can use that $3.13 mil in case I under valued any of my FA targets.
PG - Collison (28 min)/Dunn (20 min)/Curry
SG - Crabbe (26 min)/Evans (22 min)/Snell/Anderson
SF - Hill (24 min)/Casspi (16 min)/Evans (8 min)Butler
PF - Cauley-Stein (16 min)/Gibson (24 min)/Casspi (8 min)/Nicholson
C - Cousins (36 min)/Cauley-Stein (12 min)/Ajinca
Cousins - 36 min
Evans - 30 min
Collison - 28 min
Cauley-Stein - 28 min
Crabbe - 26 min
Hill - 24 min
Casspi - 24 min
Gibson - 24 min
Dunn - 20 min
That team has a lot of youth & potential while also being very competitive. Not to mention, the roster is stacked with good/solid defenders. If the Kings hire Joerger, I'm sure he could turn this group into one of the best defensive teams in the league.
