Is 2014 a Perfect Time to Find a SF?

[twslam07]

The 2014 off-season is packed with quality SFs who will be unrestricted free agents. Here is the list:

Deng
Granger
Iguodala
Pierce
Sefolosha
C. Butler
World Peace
M. Williams
B. Rush
Battier

My first choices would be Deng, Granger, Iguodala, or Sefolosha, but in order to make a run at one of these players, we need cap room and we need to make our team attractive enough that they would want to come play with us.

2013 NBA Trade Deadline
At the deadline, we should look to make a deal that will help us with our big man situation as well as help us with our cap room in 2014. This is the trade I came up with.

Warriors Get:
Aaron Brooks
James Johnson
Travis Outlaw

Kings Get:
Andris Biedrins
Charles Jenkins
Jeremy Tyler

Warriors Rotation:
PG - Curry/Jack/Brooks
SG - Thompson/Rush/Bazemore
SF - Barnes/Johnson/Green/Jefferson/Outlaw
PF - Lee/Landry
C - Bogut/Ezeli

Kings Rotation:
PG - Fredette/Thomas/Jenkins
SG - Evans/Thornton
SF - Salmons/Garcia/Honeycutt
PF - Thompson/Robinson/Hayes
C - Cousins/Biedrins/Tyler

Why do the Warriors do this trade?
Biedrins is on a very bad contract (9 mil for the this year and the next) and he is a 3rd string C when Bogut is healthy. This trade is simply a way to shed some of his salary. Brooks has a player option at the end of this year and has been hoping to go to a team where he will be used. Sitting behind Curry and Jack won't make him too happy which will result in him opting out and looking to sign elsewhere next season. Johnson is a restricted free agent next summer, so the Warriors could simply not make a qualifying offer and shed salary that way. Unfortunately, Outlaw's contract does not expire at the end of the season, but with this trade, the Warriors would be able to shed around 6 mil of Biedrins contract for next season.

Hopefully in a month Bogut will be back or close to returning which will make this trade a lot easier for the Warriors to make. If Bogut ends up being out for the season, I see it difficult for them accepting this offer because it would leave them with Ezeli as there only healthy C.

Why do the Kings do this trade?
We need to have cap space for the 2014 offseason in order to sign one of the SFs mentioned above. Brooks and Jonson will be off our books in time but Outlaw won't. By doing this trade, it allows us to have more cap space in the year we need it most (2014).

Also, we have 3 PGs who should see floor time (Thomas, Fredette, and Brooks) while we also have 2 SGs who should see significant floor time (Evans and Thornton). This wouldn't be much of a problem if we had a coach who was man enough to stand up and tell some of our players "Sorry but you're on bench duty." Unfortunately, Coach Smart doesn't do that. Instead he opts to play large rotations where 13 of our players have at least 10-15 min. That's not a recipe for success. By ridding ourselves of more players, we should actually see more normal rotations which will ultimately make us better. It will allow players to begin to get consistent minutes EVERY night. This should help relax some of our players to where they aren't looking over at the bench every time they make a mistake to see if they are coming out. Finally, it will also help us begin to form chemistry between one another. It might sound weird, but too much talent can actually hinder your overall team performance if used in the wrong way. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if we had a coach who wasn't worried about hurting people's feelings and would tell them that they are on bench duty.

In addition, Biedrins would be a nice addition to this team for the next 2 years. He's a legit 7 footer who moves well, rebounds, and blocks shots. That is all we need right now. If he can come in and give Cousins 10-15 minutes of rest a game, I'm a happy camper.

2013 Off-Season
During the off-season, I'm going to assume that we resign Evans to the max (worse case scenario. Hopefully we get him cheaper.), release Garcia, and pick up the options for Thomas, Honeycutt, and Tyler (from GSW). I'm hoping we will be able to make a trade on draft night as well. I am assuming we will keep our draft pick (top 13 protected). These are the trades I came up with.

Pistons Get:
Marcus Thornton
Kings' 1st Round Pick

Kings Get:
Rodney Stuckey or Charlie Villanueva
Pistons' 1st Round Pick

Pistons Rotation:
PG - Knight/Stuckey
SG - Thornton/Singler/English
SF - Prince/Daye/Middleton
PF - Drummond/Jerebko
C - Monroe/Kravtsov

Kings' 1st Round Pick
Pistons' 2nd Round Pick

Kings Rotation:
PG - Fredette/Thomas
SG - Evans
SF - Salmons/Honeycutt
PF - Thompson/Robinson/Villanueva/Hayes
C - Cousins/Biedrins/Tyler

Pistons' 1st Round Pick
Kings' 2nd Round Pick

Why do the Pistons do this trade?
In this trade, the Pistons will be trading back around 2-5 spots, but they get a good SG in Thornton who can come in and start for them right away. Their starting lineup is starting to look pretty solid (Knight, Thornton, Prince, Drummond, and Monroe) so with their lottery pick they can sit back and draft the best player that falls to them. In addition they rid themselves of a player they don't really need/want in Stuckey or Villanueva.

Why do the Kings do this trade?
The Kings do this trade in order to get a more valuabel player. I really hope the Kings try to go after an athletic shotblocking big. I would be happy with Austin or Gobert with this pick. Both still need a little more time to develop, but they are both tall, long, athletic, shotblockers.

They also get cap relief in the 2014 off-season by trading away Thornton for an expiring (Stuckey or Villanueva) which will help them go after one of the SFs mentioned above.

Lastly, we free up playing time at SG which will allow Evans to record all of his minutes at SG. Finally, he won't be yanked around anymore.

2013 NBA Draft
With our 1st round pick from the Pistons, I want us to target Isaiah Austin or Rudy Gobert. Like I mentioned before, they are both tall, long, and athletic. They are good rebounders, shotblockers, and jump shooters. They both need some more time to develop and add weight, but with Cousins, Thompson, Robinson, and Biedrins on our roster, that is not a problem.

With our second round pick, we should look at going after a wing. I like Brandon Paul and Rodney Williams. I think both could come into the NBA and give a little production

Kings Rotation After the Draft:
PG - Fredette/Thomas
SG - Evans/Paul
SF - Salmons/Honeycutt
PF - Thompson/Robinson/Hayes
C - Cousins/Biedrins/Austin/Tyler

We could probably sign another wing to the veteran minimum for 1 year just to give us some more depth. How about Garcia?

Kings Rotation Going into the Season:
PG - Fredette/Thomas
SG - Evans/Garcia/Paul
SF - Salmons/Honeycutt
PF - Thompson/Robinson/Hayes
C - Cousins/Biedrins/Austin/Tyler

2014 NBA Trade Deadline
As the trade deadline approaches, we should be looking to move Hayes. He won't be getting much playing time with Cousins, Thompson, Robinson, Biedrins, and Austin in front of him. It makes sense to try and move him for an expiring. It might be difficult to move just him though so we might have to package him with someone a little more valuable.

Bobcats Get:
Isaiah Thomas
Chuck Hayes

Kings Get:
Ramon Sessions

Bobcats Rotation:
PG - Walker/Thomas
SG - Henderson/Gordon
SF - Gilchrist/Taylor
PF - Biyombo/Thomas/Hayes
C - Mullens/Haywood

Kings Rotation:
PG - Fredette/Sessions
SG - Evans/Garcia/Paul
SF - Salmons/Honeycutt
PF - Thompson/Robinson
C - Cousins/Biedrins/Austin/Tyler

Why do the Bobcats do this Trade?
This is a value trade for the Bobcats. With Thomas they get a good, young PG rotation with Walker and Thomas. Thomas shoud do very well in the second unit for this team. Hayes will come in and help them with their post defense which is something they need. Biyombo and Thomas are good shotblockers, but their post defense needs help. It seems Thomas is always hurt too so Hayes will be good insurance if/when he goes down.

Why do the Kings do this Trade?
This trade is simply to cut out Hayes' contract to give us more cap space to work with in the 2014 off-season considering Sessions' contract is expiring at the end of the year.

2014 Off-Season
It's finally here! The moment we have all been waiting for. I recommend that the Kings release Salmons, Biedrins, Sessions, Garcia, and Tyler, make a qualifying offer to Honeycutt, and sign Cousins. Thankfully, we can sign other free agents without Cousins new contract coming into play in our salary cap. If I understand the new CBA, it states that his qualifying offer would be the only thing factored into our cap room not his new contract. This would leave us with a total payroll of 39 mil going into the offseason giving us roughly 20 mil in cap room. Hell, if Lebron opts out, we could make a run at him. Now let's get back to reality. Deng would be my first choice out of all the SFs available partly because he would be one of the youngest at 29 years old. He is big, strong, and athletic. He is a great defender and rebounder. He is a good scorer who can knock down threes, and he's also a good passer hovering at around 3 APG the past 3 years. I'm going to say his market price is going to be around 10-14 mil a year by this time, so I'm going to assume the worst and say we get him for 14 mil a year. That leaves us with around 6 mil to work with.

I say with the remaining 6 mil we go after Chalmers. He would be a great fit next to Evans. He is a great off-ball player who can handle and dish at times. He is a terrfic defender and 3pt shooter which is exactly what we need out of this position. He's also a very good sized PG which should make it easier to matchup with any opposing PG. If we're able to acquire these two players our rotation will look like this going into the 2014 season.

Kings Rotation Going into the Season:
PG - Chalmers/Fredette
SG - Evans/Paul
SF - Deng/Honeycutt
PF - Thompson/Robinson
C - Cousins/Austin

Kings' 1st Round Pick (top 12 protected)
Kings' 2nd Round Pick

Cousins, Evans, and Deng would be our big three. Fredette would be our scoring punch off the bench. Thompson and Robinson would be our energy garbage big men. Austin would be our shotblocker. Honeycutt would be a glue guy off the bench who can knock down 3s, and Chalmers, Evans, and Deng would all be lockdown perimeter defenders. This team would be hard to matchup with even for the best teams in the league. Deng could guard Lebron or Durant as good as anybody else could. Evans could matchup with Wade on defense, and Chalmers could matchup with Westbrook on defense.

 

[DesertFox]

Your ideas are nice always a good read, but way too complicated to be anything but fantasy.

You can cut out all the middlemen and little moves, go straight to Thornton and Outlaw/Brooks for one of those soon-to-be FA.
Then try to re-sign that FA SF, and if he bolts or sucks, use that cap space to sign one of the other FA's.

If the new SF is a strong defender, go with a Jimmer/Evans backcourt, otherwise Evans/Salmons.

Jimmer/Evans/SF/Trob/Cuz
IT/Salmons/JJ/JT
Brooks/Honeycutt/Hayes

 

[twslam07]

Your ideas are nice always a good read, but way too complicated to be anything but fantasy.

You can cut out all the middlemen and little moves, go straight to Thornton and Outlaw/Brooks for one of those soon-to-be FA.
Then try to re-sign that FA SF, and if he bolts or sucks, use that cap space to sign one of the other FA's.

If the new SF is a strong defender, go with a Jimmer/Evans backcourt, otherwise Evans/Salmons.

Jimmer/Evans/SF/Trob/Cuz
IT/Salmons/JJ/JT
Brooks/Honeycutt/Hayes

We could always just look to do the Brooks, Johnson, Outlaw for Biedrins, Jenkins, Tyler trade and the Thomas, Hayes for Sessions trade this season. It's more likely the Bobcats and Warriors would do these trades this season since Biedrins and Sessions are not expirings. If we just pull off those two trades and forget about the Thornton deal, we would have around 11-12 mil in cap space for the 2014 offseason. I'm not sure how much the market price would be for the SFs I listed, but I think we would need a SF who can handle the ball a little more considering we would only have Fredette, Evans, and Thornton as guards. Iguodala might be the best choice for us then.

2014 Rotation:
PG - Fredette (29 min)/Evans (19 min)/2014 2nd Round Pick
SG - Evans (18 min)/Thornton (30 min)
SF - Iguodala (36 min)/Honeycutt (12 min)/R. Williams - 2013 2nd Round Pick
PF - Thompson (25 min)/Robinson (20 min)/Austin (3 min)
C - Cousins (38 min)/Austin (10 min)

Cousins - 38 mpg
Evans - 37 mpg
Iguodala - 36 mpg
Thornton - 30 mpg
Fredette - 29 mpg
Thompson - 25 mpg
Robinson - 20 mpg
Austin - 13 mpg
Honeycutt - 12 mpg

 

[rainmaker]

The 2014 off-season is packed with quality SFs who will be unrestricted free agents. Here is the list:

Deng
Granger
Iguodala
Pierce
Sefolosha
C. Butler
World Peace
M. Williams
B. Rush
Battier

Looking at this list you need to take into account how old some of these players will be and that many will be on the downside of their careers, if not on their last legs all together.

Pierce, Butler, WP, Battier are well past their primes, will want to play for a ring and we might not get even a solid year out of them at that point, with WP probably having the most left at that point but putting him on this team at this point in his career won't work imo for obvious reason.

Deng I like. A good glue guy with a few years left at a pretty high level. Granger, maybe. I'd probably go after him for a decent amount but my gut tells me he'll be moved in a trade with Paul George's emergence and any shot to get him will be in a trade. I used to think MT for Granger was a good place to start but I don't think MT has much trade value now, definitely not what he had last year.

Rush is a decent player but I'd hope we can do a considerable amount better in the SF department. Sefolosha is a SG. Iggy is also intriguing.

Thing is, we have no idea what our backcourt situation will look like come 2014, so this conversation serves little purpose to me. Who's our PG at that point? IT? Jimmer? Reke? Someone else? Is Reke still a member of the Kings? If Reke is our SG, how good is our PG at shooting? If Jimmer can play as a starter at that point an Reke still is hitting 3's at 35%+, then a guy like Iggy makes sense. If we have a poor shooting PG, our SF needs to be able to hit the 3. If we had a PG who's not on this roster who's a very good defender and still had Reke, then our SF doesn't need to be a great defender and we can go for more of a known shooter.

We should have offered AK more money. We wasted money on Hayes, Outlaw and Brooks when we could have offered AK 2-3M more per year when he was interested. When we were talking to him and he apparently was interested, the rumored offer was around 4 yrs/28-30M. Could have offered him 4yrs/35-40M and have our SF problem answered for awhile. He's extremely important to Minn and has played damn well, as a support player, exactly what we needed. Good thing we spent our money elsewhere though....

 

[Warhawk]

We should have offered AK more money. We wasted money on Hayes, Outlaw and Brooks when we could have offered AK 2-3M more per year when he was interested. When we were talking to him and he apparently was interested, the rumored offer was around 4 yrs/28-30M. Could have offered him 4yrs/35-40M and have our SF problem answered for awhile. He's extremely important to Minn and has played damn well, as a support player, exactly what we needed. Good thing we spent our money elsewhere though....

Agreed. What a lost opportunity.

 

[The_Jamal]

Iggy and Deng are two of my favorite players in the league. Elite defensive players, quality #2 options to a guy like Cousins, great locker room personalities, and know their roles within a team. They would be at the forefront of my FA bid if we get that far.

 

[TTown Kings]

I think any trades this season are a pipe dream. With the current ownership situation I just don't see the team doing anything with the roster at all.

 

[Dreadnought]

As said before, Deng and Iguodala are two players I would not mind overpaying to get. For any household name, Sacramento is going to have to overpay, and one of these two might be worth it.

 

[bajaden]

I think any trades this season are a pipe dream. With the current ownership situation I just don't see the team doing anything with the roster at all.

At least until the ownership situation is resolved, which would mean the offseason. I could see a minor trade being done, but nothing major.

 

[KevinSalvadori]

At least until the ownership situation is resolved, which would mean the offseason. I could see a minor trade being done, but nothing major.

I agree with this, but let's dream a minute. Take Amico's recent article stating Sacramento could be one destination for Smith, who ATL has soured on after watching his numbers decline and his demands for a higher new contract getting him about $17m+ per year. I think there could be a simple trade brewing potentially involving 'Reke to get us a starting SF and "face" player. My idea? JT, 'Reke, and Brooks to ATL for Smith and PF Mike Scott. This makes our starting 5 some variation of DMC/ThRob/Smith/Thomas/MT, and lets us keep the expirings from Cisco and JJ to throw towards a new contract for Smith. The rotations shorten a lot too, leaving us a bench of Hayes/JJ/Salmons/Fredette/Garcia, with Outlaw, Tyler, and Scott as junk-time players. If Smith walks, while it would suck, it gives us another 13m (22 total) to throw towards reshaping this roster under new ownership, starting with a distributing PG. Seems to me like it could be a win for everyone.

 

[Gilles]

Smith is angling for a max, and that's not a max for a guy, who just finished his rookie contract, it will be 30% of salary cap max. Unless Reke is getting rookie max, he's far better option, and even if he does, it's still better than Smith for 30% of the cap.