monsterpile wrote:If the expectations are so low we are basically doing a deal to do a deal might as well start looking at what teams might do for rental prices for Butler. I'd also look at taking flyers on young players that would be restricted FAs that you could also walk away from if they suck.
My deal off the top of my head would be Fariid, Russell and some sort of draft compensation (even the Knicks 2nd rounder) for Butler.
I'm not advocating for these types of deals but stuff like that will be out there and I might rather do that than the much talked about Miami Richardson deal.
A deal for players like that and I'd expect a likely lottery pick in return. Otherwise, I'm with Abe in wanting at least one young guy on the upswing with lots of upside on a longer term reasonable cap-friendly deal. Richardson fits that bill.
It's important to understand that just letting Butler walk doesn't leave us in position to compete in the free agent market next summer. Without Butler, we'd have a $102 million payroll if Teague opts in and we re-sign Tyus to an amount roughly equal to his qualifying offer. And that's before factoring in cap holds for our first round draft pick. I didn't include Aldrich either. The cap next summer is expected to be $109 million. The point is that we won't have any cap room to speak of unless Teague opts out. And we all should not it's unlikely we'd get difference-maker types to sign here as free agents. We haven't even been able to do that with Butler here.
If we were to do the Richardson deal, our payroll would be around $125 million with a luxury tax threshold of around $132 million. So we could stay barely under the luxury tax threshold even if we did the Richardson/Waiters/pick deal with Miami. And we'd have an extra 1st round pick that might be enough to jettison Gorgui's or Waiters' contract. Maybe swap Patton and the Miami 1st along with Gorgui for an expiring contract. I'll take that over losing Butler and ending up with no cap room to compete for elite free agents. And even if Teague opted out, does anyone really believe we could compete for a difference-maker in the free agent market? Talk about a long shot!
The benefits of the reported Miami deal would be:
1. We'd get a talented young wing w/terrific upside and a long-term team-friendly contract.
2. We'd get an extra 1st rd pk to get another young talent or use to trade Gorgui
3. We'd likely end up in the lottery next summer with the chance to draft a top talent.
Getting a guy like Richardson and ensuring a lottery pick next summer are both key because, with Butler leaving, this team has to have at least one other allstar player to pair with KAT. It seems clear to me that other allstar won't be Wiggins. We're simply not going to get that sort of all-star caliber player via free agency. So we'll have to rely on the draft or a trade that brings us a young player with that sort of potential. That's where we're at. Richardson and a lottery pick would give us two shots at a potential future all-star to pair with KAT. Keeping Butler would probably keep us barely out of the lottery with no additional young talent and not enough cap room to compete for elite free agents, which we probably wouldn't be able to lure here even if we had the cap space.
