What an abysmal offseason.

[Stan.Helsing]

So in this hypothetical the Pelicans are trading Zion & Valanciunas away and getting Jarrett Allen from the Cavaliers and Scoot Henderson & Anfernee Simons from the Blazers? Can you explain how that would work or was it just a typo?

Not a typo and not trying to debate how they do it, so go with the flow please. How would you feel against that hypothetical Pels team?

 

[twslam07]

Not a typo and not trying to debate how they do it, so go with the flow please. How would you feel against that hypothetical Pels team?

How would you feel if we added Jaren Jackson Jr at PF and Desmond Bane at SG? How would you feel that team would fair?

 

[Hoovtrain]

Lol

 

[Stan.Helsing]

How would you feel if we added Jaren Jackson Jr at PF and Desmond Bane at SG? How would you feel that team would fair?

The Pelicans have the assets to potentially add Scoot+Anfernee (trading Zion + pick) and Allen (trading Jonas + Naji + picks). The Kings don't have the assets to get JJJ and Bane without giving up key players.

Anyway, is it so difficult to answer a hypothetical question without me having to pull teeth? It's a relatively straight forward question...

Funnily enough, I saw this hypothetical roster posted on a Pels forum, and a lot of Pels fans think they would be worse off without Zion... but you seem to feel this would be way better than what they have now.

 

[sactowndog]

I certainly didn't intent to imply that if I did. But one can't help but marvel at the offensive potential of our roster as currently constructed.

As far as defense - I think several of our key players will and have been getting better on defense as part of their natural development: Davion and Keegan, notably. Also, Sasha is a bit of an unknown defensively. I think it'll be more clear just exactly what "holes" we have defensively on our roster towards the middle/end of next year. And my opinion was that prioritizing other things was the smart thing to do at this time. Will be interesting to revisit the wing defender discussion a year from now.

Also: Edwards. As you all know I'm the driver of that bandwagon. You can't say that Monte is neglecting wing defense when he made an extremely targeted (and apparently highly scouted) acquisition of a high quality but languishing wing defender last season. Edwards has some of the best lateral movement for a dude with his size AND wingspan that I've ever seen, which makes the amount of floor space he can impact just unbelievably huge. Once the rest of his game rounds out - I'm not ruling out that he is our "quad 3" defender. I trust his shot will come along.

Trust me your aren’t alone on the Edwards bandwagon. I watch summer league specifically to see how Edwards and Queta progress. Where they play are our best areas for growth as a team. Jones seems like a great kid but his improvement over Huerter is constrained.

btw. I love Davion but watching Booker just rise and shoot over him really showed how his size limits him defensively. But if you want a person to stop Curry, Ja, Fox or Scoot he is your guy. If I were New Orleans I would absolutely trade a wing for him.

 

[kingsfan101]

The Pelicans have the assets to potentially add Scoot+Anfernee (trading Zion + pick) and Allen (trading Jonas + Naji + picks). The Kings don't have the assets to get JJJ and Bane without giving up key players.

Anyway, is it so difficult to answer a hypothetical question without me having to pull teeth? It's a relatively straight forward question...

Funnily enough, I saw this posted on a Pels forum, and some Pels fans think they would be worse off without Zion... but you seem to feel this would be way better than what they have now.

I honestly don't think that at this stage, with his injury history, Zion+pick can fetch you Scoot+Anfernee.

I know it's hypothetical, but since you presented it as a plausible case as against the cheeky comment about Kings getting some players, just wanted to weigh in.

Add to this the fact that Blazers will be trading Dame. They will likely build around Scoot and some critical piece they can get for Dame.

 

[Spike]

I see that you're in one of your moods again.... sigh.

The Pelicans have the assets to potentially add Scoot+Anfernee (trading Zion) and Allen (trading Jonas + Naji + picks). The Kings don't have the assets to get JJJ and Bane without giving up key players.

Anyway, is it so difficult to answer a hypothetical question without me having to pull teeth? It's a relatively straight forward question, albeit one that might require you to use a little imagination.

We have the assets for OG. Can we have use him in our hypothetical?

 

[macadocious]

So looking at the Domas contract it looks like Sasha went into cap space. I think we still have the exception. That’s weird.

 

[coolhandluke]

Does that mean the Room Exception at $7.7M is still available?

 

[macadocious]

I think so, but not 100% sure.

 

[TaxMan]

We have the assets for OG. Can we have use him in our hypothetical?

I don't think we have anywhere near the assets for an OG trade, unless we're willing to give up Keegan. I would love to eat my words, but it's just not going to happen with a deal centered around Mitchell/Huerter unless we get rid of our Atlanta pick protections and then are willing to throw in future firsts.

 

[Stan.Helsing]

We have the assets for OG. Can we have use him in our hypothetical?

How about you give two answers then? One with OG and one without OG?

 

[funkykingston]

Random weird hypothetical question... if the Pelicans remade their roster by trading Zion and bringing in Jarrett Allen, how confident would you be against them over the next 5 seasons? Who wins in a 7-game series?

Scoot............... GTA, Kira
Anfernee.......... McGollum, Hawkins
Ingram............. TM3, Dyson
Herbert............ Nance, Liddell
Allen................ Zeller, Robbins

(VERSUS)

Fox.................. Davion
Huerter............ Monk, Colby
Murray............. Duarte, Edwards
Barnes............. Lyles, Sasha
Sabonis........... Len, Queta

We can't even accurately predict how actual teams will fare, let alone hypothetical ones. But I will say that Pelicans team wouldn't scare me nearly as much as the current team if Zion were to actually stay healthy. Scoot may be great in time, but it will be a couple years before he's a real threat. And that roster doesn't have a dominant scorer and is lacking in outside shooting in the starting lineup, even if you replace Simons with McCollum as I'm sure he actually would start in this hypothetical.

 

[sactowndog]

I don't think we have anywhere near the assets for an OG trade, unless we're willing to give up Keegan. I would love to eat my words, but it's just not going to happen with a deal centered around Mitchell/Huerter unless we get rid of our Atlanta pick protections and then are willing to throw in future firsts.

the problem is GM’s rarely trade bigs for small. If we are going to trade anyone it has to be a very good small like Monk or perhaps Vezenkov if he shows he can hang….

 

[Spike]

I don't think we have anywhere near the assets for an OG trade, unless we're willing to give up Keegan. I would love to eat my words, but it's just not going to happen with a deal centered around Mitchell/Huerter unless we get rid of our Atlanta pick protections and then are willing to throw in future firsts.

Oh, I'm not saying that I would even remotely think about giving up what is being asked to bring over OG. I think it's dumb that apparently other teams can make hypothetical trades that have no way of happening in an effort to minimize the stance that our FO has taken this off-season, which was to stay the course and let things simmer a little more.

 

[PorchSurfin]

All of the smoke coming out about how the Kings feel about Murray is an extremely strong indication there is a fire there. I doubt any team is seriously calling the Kings about Keegbot.

Masai is a numbskull anyway. Got lucky in the Kawhi deal, but other than that, he is no genius. He's solid but not spectacular.

Toronto would be smart to go for a deal centered around Huerter and Mitchell with a future first (26) and a future swap, maybe a couple seconds. OG is not reupping next year to play with their team as currently constructed.

It might not be a bad idea to explore a sign and trade next offseason when the 24 pick conveys.

Edit: I would also add all of the angst and second guessing of the offseason are pretty stupid at this point. No one move was going to make the Kings immediate championship contenders. Mike and Monte have 2 more offseasons (at least) to figure that out. This wasn't a make or break offseason.

I actually think it was smart of them to not hamstring this team going forward. Resign Monk next off-season and hope your new players (Vezey, Jones, Kessler) have shown enough to either slide in for more time or be used as a trade piece for a bigger deal.

Nome of the moves being thrown around in this and other threads move the needle so much we would instantly be in the conversation (and let's be real, it's Sac, so we will always be sneaking up on someone until we aren't).

I dont have the knowledge or the time to start in on who will be available next offseason and what our capspace will be like, but fear not compares! Twslam did a solid thread last year about this offseason so I'm sure discussions will be had.

Now forgive me while I put my seat belt on as I'm here for the offensive explosion we are soon to behold come October!

 

[Stan.Helsing]

We can't even accurately predict how actual teams will fare, let alone hypothetical ones. But I will say that Pelicans team wouldn't scare me nearly as much as the current team if Zion were to actually stay healthy. Scoot may be great in time, but it will be a couple years before he's a real threat. And that roster doesn't have a dominant scorer and is lacking in outside shooting in the starting lineup, even if you replace Simons with McCollum as I'm sure he actually would start in this hypothetical.

Good reply. I was asking the question from a strategic point of view, as a worst case scenario. That hypothetical Pels roster would be a worst-case-scenario to me... because of the overall talent, varying skill-sets and options that their coach could use. Anyway, I asked a simple worst-case-scenario question... but then got faced with counter-hypotheticals of JJJ, Bane, OG, etc, it honestly felt like pulling teeth, lol. The question wasn't even aimed at the Kings FO, cause I do not think this off-season was abysmal (although it could have been better).

 

[funkykingston]

Good reply. I was asking the question from a strategic point of view, cause I was always taught to include the worst case scenario. That hypothetical Pels roster would be a worst-case-scenario to me... because of the overall talent, varying skill-sets and options that their coach could use.... but it does not seem like we have many posters here who like their core beliefs being questioned, even in theory. Our guys is the bestest!! Sports fans! Anyway, I asked a simple worst-case-scenario question... but then got faced with counter-hypotheticals of JJJ, Bane, OG, etc, it honestly felt like pulling teeth, lol. The question wasn't even aimed at the Kings FO, cause I do not think this off-season was abysmal (although I think it could have been better).

The worst case scenario with the Pelicans will always be Zion getting in shape and staying healthy. He's absolutely a game changing talent when he's on the court. As good as Scoot Henderson looks like he'll be, he doesn't create nearly the same types of problems that Zion can since Williamson is similar to Giannis in terms of flat out being able to impose his will on defenses.