I offered this before, but I've made a few changes to create a more complete roster. As we all know LMA time with this team could be coming to a close and we need to retool as quickly and as efficiently as we can. I'm not saying we should sign up bad contracts just for the sake of filling holes, but we do need to focus more on winning now rather then collecting assets. We have plenty of rookies plus many second rounders so we should start looking for some veteran leadership.
Our glaring holes:
Center
sixth man
back up pf
Here is what I purpose we pick up Gortat and Evans
Gortat: A good defensive presence, good p/r game, good around the basket, shot-blocker and rim protector, but most importantly only 7.7 mil next season compared to other centers of similar production is actually a bargain. Also he is younger than dalembert (another center to consider picking up)
Evans: Ceiling= possibly our best player
Floor = 15ppg , good slasher, competent sixth man
Tyreke Evanshas star written all over him. His skills (slasher, good ball handler) gives the blazers something we lack and his ability to score is also quite impressive. Plus, his defense is average to good when motivated....and i'm sure he will have more motivation winning with the blazers than losing with the kings.
Honestly, Evans is the only "star" player that Portland could possibly get and they should be willing to shed 10-12 mil for him.
How to get Evans and Gortat
We start out with 11.5 mil (somewhere around that), #10 pick, #39 pick, #40 pick, #45 pick and Kosta Papanikolou
1. At the draft combine we watch centers that could fall to #10 and decide whether or not they fit better with the team than Leonard. We look at Len, Plumlee, Olnyk, Dieng, Whitey, Gobert
2. If Olshey decides that one of these prospects have a better future than Leonard then we trade
Leonard, Freeland, Claver, 3 mil and a second rounder to Pheonix for Gortat
If Olshey decides that none of the prospects have a better future than Leonard then we trade
#10 pick, Freeland, Claver, 3 mil and secound rounder to Pheonix for Gortat.
3. Both of these trades leave us with about 17.8 mil – 7.7 (gortat contract) = 10.1 mil under that cap
11.5 mil – (#10 pick/Leonard contract) – (Freeland contract) – (Claver contract) + (Gortat contract) = 10.1 mil under that cap
4. Now we could offer Evans a 10.1 mil contract and use the bi-annual exception on maynor giving us the final line up of
pg: Lillard/Maynor/Williams
sgMatthews/Evans/Barton/
sf:Batum/Kosta papa/ 2nd rounder
PF:LMA/2nd rounder/ vet min
C:Gortat/Leonard or #10/ vet min
This is a fantastic #7-8 man rotation line up. Still not deep but much deeper than last year (#5-6 man rotation). Barring injury, we could be talking 5th seed or sixth seed easily. Plus, if Gortat doesn't work or Meyers (or any other center) shows significant improvement. We can dump him after this year and use the cap space to solidify the bench for even higher seeds in the future.
Plus any improvement from Williams, Barton or any of the second rounders is bound to happen making the bench even more solid.
Only question is 10.1 mil enough to get Evans? If not can we backload his contract? Can we go over the cap? not really sure on the details here
What do you think? What seed would this team be?
