Hood can't defend, and is super inconsistent. Parker is comiing off two ACL tears. Middleton is the best piece in that trade. But still.. Our defender gets worse. Middleton is an overrated defender and Parker+Hood suck on that end.
By replacing CJ on the perimeter with Middleton our perimeter defense gets a lot better and if Collins continues to develop as a defender and shot blocker I just don’t see how it can be any worse then it is right now. Hood has the size and length to be a good defender and I still see potential for him on that side of the floor. I don’t think he will ever be a defensive stalwart or anything but I do believe he can be better.
We replace CJ with Hood...? Stotts doesn't make beret defenders. Thibs can't even turn Wiggins into a solid defender so an doubt Stotts could do so with Hood.
Defensively Middleton would replace CJ. Unless we’re playing a team not as strong at guard as they are at forward. I wouldn’t expect Stotts to turn Hood into a strong defender but I do think he could get to place where he’s not a liability. Plus we still have ET, Aminu, and Davis who are probably our strongest defenders. I also just think offensively that team would have so much potential and the ability to play a style much more suited for Stotts offense. So any dip on defense, which I don’t think there would be much if any, would be made up for on the offensive end.
Lol I know. Which pisses me off because I think if you put him on the market you would see a lot of options be made available.
OK, since John Wall is hurt, I am going to modify my proposed trade with Washington. One variant: Turner, Napier and Nurkic for Oubre and Mahimni. Saves about 4 million, gets us a guy we hope will be a longterm solution at SF. Mahimni can share center position; at least the two GM's don't have to look at their mistakes every night. Second variant: Harkless, Leonard, Nurkic, Napier for Oubre, Mahimni, Jason Smith. Saves five million immediately and Smith contract has one less year than Harkless and Leonard.
Well, one only makes this trade if they have already made a decision to not re-sign Nurkic and they believe Oubre has the potential to be an upper tier SF. I don't think I myself have enough information to make that decision.
Well if we weren't going to resign Nurk, why would we pay Mahinmi 16M a year? We could possibly get Oubre without giving up Nurk. Naplier+Connaughton+Vonleh+2nd for Oubre and Smith has a chance of working. They need a PG now that Wall is out and they need more bench help.
So if Chicago was willing to trade Mirotic for Asik and a 1st, I wonder if it's possible for us to trade Turner and a 1st for Mirotic and Pondexter. Slightly worse deal for CHI but we'd pick up Mirotics option. We could then go do this: UTA Gets: Napier (INJ EXC), Vonleh MEM Gets: Hood (TPE), Harkless POR Gets: Evans, Ennis, Chalmers We'd shed $8.5M now, swap out Vonlehs and Napiers expirings for Evans expiring, and shed $15M in salary for next year, while only giving up a pick and getting better. Lillard (36) / McCollum (12) McCollum (24) / Evans (10) / Pat (14) Evans (23) / Aminu (17) / Ennis (8) Aminu (10) / Mirotic (27) / Collins (11) Nurkic (25) / Davis (20) / Collins (3) Our only bad contract would be Leonard's, and wed have our full MLE to try to resign Tyreke. If not, we could replace him with anther decent FA wing, trade for one, or go with Aminu and Mirotic at the forward spots. If we traded Leonard and Mirotic at seasons end, we'd have around $30M in cap space if someone legit wants to come here. If not, were fine as constructed. Mirotic has shown he can get a 1st, which we could attach to Leonard. We'd have legitimate flexibility.
Tyreke Evans has been great this season and I think he could actually be re-signed for a full MLE next season but plenty of teams will be in the market for him. I think he will go to Celtics eventually, and if not then Philadelphia.
Hayward is injured and won't play this season. They need scoring off the bench and he could provide that. He'd easily get 25-30 minutes a night in their rotation, slotting in at both shooting guard and small forward. Smart would play only point guard then. Irving / Smart / Rozier Brown / Evans / Smart Tatum / Evans / Morris Horford / Tatum / Morris Baynes / Horford / Theis It's beautiful and offers so many possibilities. You can go small ball with JT at 4 and Horford at 5, you can go big with Al and Baynes in front of JT, you can go for a lockdown defense with Brown and Smart in the backcourt. Perfection.
I would love if we could pick up Hezonja from Magic in the summer. He's better than Pat, but we should get rid of Turner first.
