If you were in charge, what would the 2016-2017 Kings look like?

[twslam07]

4 Team Trade
Bulls Get: Kosta Koufos & Ben McLemore
Hawks Get: Rudy Gay & Tony Snell
Rockets Get: Taj Gibson & Thabo Sefolosha
Kings Get: Jeff Teague, Trevor Ariza, & Montrezl Harrell

Trade Belinelli for highly protected future 2nd rounder
Let Rondo walk
Butler opts out
Do not extend a QO to Moreland
Waive Dukan
Draft Buddy Hield

PG - Teague/Collison/Curry
SG - Hield/Anderson
SF - Ariza/Casspi
PF - Cauley-Stein/Acy/Harrell
C - Cousins

At this point, we'd have $39.1 mil in cap space. With the remaining cap space, you sign Kent Bazemore (hopefully Teague is helping recruit), Ryan Anderson, & Cole Aldrich.

PG - Teague (30 min)/Collison (18 min)/Curry
SG - Bazemore (28 min)/Hield (8 min)/Collison (8 min)/Ariza (4 min)/Anderson
SF - Ariza (26 min)/Casspi (22 min)
PF - Cauley-Stein (18 min)/Anderson (30 min)/Acy/Harrell
C - Cousins (36 min)/Cauley-Stein (12 min)/Aldrich

Cousins - 36 min
Teague - 30 min
Ariza - 30 min
Cauley-Stein - 30 min
Anderson - 30 min
Bazemore - 28 min
Collison - 26 min
Casspi - 22 min
Hield - 8 min

Everyone in the starting lineup is a good to great defender and can matchup with anyone in the league on that side of the ball. Cousins would have plenty of room to operate with 40%, 38%, & 37% 3pt shooters around him (not to mention Cauley-Stein is starting to flash a jumper). Offensively, it goes through Cousins, but Teague is there to help be the secondary scorer in the starting unit. Not to mention a Cousins/Teague pick and roll would be much harder to guard considering teams will have to respect his shooting & ability to get to the rim. Off the bench, you have three very potent scorers in Collison, Casspi, & Anderson who all compliment Cousins very well and can space the floor. On top of all of that, you have Hield in the background developing and hopefully becoming a useful player to add depth.

No doubt in my mind that this team would challenge the Clippers & Thunder for a top 4 spot under the right coaching.

Thinking about this a little more, it's probably unrealistic that we'd be able to pull off such a trade. I don't think we have the right assets to get both Ariza & Teague.

If we want to move on from Gay, I really only see one team that would want/have a use for him, and that would be New Orleans. There have been reports that they want to move forward with a Davis/Holiday tandem leaving Evans as the odd man out. Pelicans have a huge hole at SF. Gay for Evans works salary wise and makes sense for both teams. Gay goes to a team where he can still play off a big man and be a second or third option (making him more effective) while being surrounded by solid defenders (Holiday/3 and D SG FA/Davis/Asik) to hide his weakness. Meanwhile, the Kings move on from Gay while bringing back a player who can fill the role of super sixth man. Evans has also improved his 3pt shot which makes pairing him with Cousins on the floor a doable option.

With the starting SF spot open, I would give Houston a call to see how willing they are to part with Ariza. They certainly regressed this year and may be possibly looking to retool around Harden. Ariza is 31 and might not be seen as a long term fit with the team (especially since Howard will likely be gone). That leaves Beverley, Harden, McDaniels, Brewer, Dekker, Motiejunas, Jones, Harrell, & Capela on the roster. That's a pretty young core. If we offer our 2016 1st (top 10 pick) for Ariza, I think Houston would be willing to do it.

Then if we continue on to trade Belinelli for a protected 2nd, trade Koufos & McLemore for Gibson & Snell, sign a 3 and SG in FA, & use the MLE on Aldrich, we would end up with this roster going into next year:

PG - Collison/Evans/Curry
SG - Bazemore/Snell/Anderson
SF - Ariza/Casspi
PF - Cauley-Stein/Gibson/Acy
C - Cousins/Aldrich