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If the Raptors do not get an opportunity to draft Kyrie Irving, Harrison Barnes, or (possibly) either of the Jones (by the way, if BC drafts Perry or Terrence, given his history at drafting, I'd say there is something to them). Personally, if the Raps can't get Irving or Barnes I'd look at scenarios to trade the draft pick.
I put this tradeup that has Raymond Felton and Pekovic coming to the Raptors and Jose leaving with the explanation here.
Let say in that trade, the Raptors were to swap their own pick for two picks the Jazz may have (say the Nets pick and MEM if they make the playoffs) or the Raps keep their own pick and trade it separately.
The Raps then do this trade. Trade will work after season.
TOR: Josh Smith, Jeff Teague
LAC: Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia
ATL: Chris Kaman, Ryan Gomes, Jerry Bayless, high draft pick from TOR
Why does each team do this?
LAC: Save $4M off their salary cap number (only $40.9M) while adding 2 decent, experienced role players. Under current CBA that gives them $17M to spend in free agency. Williams is better than anything at SF now and it allows them to develop Aminu. The key here is to save money but not in the traditional Donald Sterling way of saving (i.e. not spending). This saves cap space money to re-sign DeAndre Jordan and hit the Free Agent market. The Clippers should be major players in free agency as they are in one of the biggest markets in North America and they are offering the opportunity to play with arguably the most popular player in the NBA right now and all the attention that goes along with it.
ATL: They are 6-7 against the top 6 in the East and 2-10 against the top 7 in the West. They lost first round 4-3 vs BOS in 2008, second round loss to CLE 4-0 in 2009, second round loss to ORL 4-0 in a blow out in each game after taking 7 games to get past MIL in the first round. This is a good team but not a deep playoff team. Given their salary commitments this trade should help them. They get an All-Star C in Kaman allowing Horford to play his natural PF position - which he has been wanting for a couple of seasons now. They get a back up SF in Gomes. They get a back up PG in Bayless as a change might be good for Teague considering he has had little to no success in ATL. They get themselves under the current salary cap and save around $7.5M. Most importantly they get a high draft pick to draft a SF (P or T Jones?) as they get better in the short and long term.
TOR: The Raptors get a border line all-star who can score, pass, rebound, defend, block shots, get steals, and electrify the ACC at any given moment. He is shooting 34% from the 3 this year which is not great but not bad. He has a great long 2 jump shot. He would create the ultimate match up problems for opposing teams as they have a SF who can post up and muscle the opponent while a C who can draw other bigs away from the rim and post up smaller PF. Teague is a cheap back up PG who may surprise given a fresh start and a chance to reconnect with a college teammate in James Johnson. Giving up a high draft pick is a lot but if a future star is not going to be drafted (and my opinion is Barnes and/or Irving are the only ones with that potential) why not get a guy like Smith who would be a perfect fit and is hitting his prime. Like Bargnani, he is 25. The Raps would be right around the current salary cap of $58M with 12 players under contract and if Barbosa opted out it would be 11 players around $50-51M.
With both trades, the Raps would have a starting line up of this:
PG: Felton - 26
SG: DeRozan - 21
SF: Smith - 25
PF: Davis - 21
C: Bargnani - 25
The depth chart would look like this:
PG: Felton/Teague (22)
SG: DeRozan/Barbosa* (28)
SF: Smith/Johnson (24)/Kleiza (25)
PF: Davis/Amir (23)
C: Bargnani/Pekovic (25)/Alabi (22)
If the Raps were able to get 2 draft picks (NJ and MEM) from Utah for their own, they could add another young player via the draft (it would be around 17/18). They would also be able to sign a couple of character veterans to round out the roster.
Personally, I love the scenario laid out above and if I had any influence on the Raptors decision makers, I'd be all over this. This would be a young enough team to continue to grow but experienced enough to compete as guys like Smith and Amir, while only 25 and 23, have been in the league for 7 and 6 years.
Who do you think? Is this the stuff wet dreams are made of?
I put this tradeup that has Raymond Felton and Pekovic coming to the Raptors and Jose leaving with the explanation here.
Let say in that trade, the Raptors were to swap their own pick for two picks the Jazz may have (say the Nets pick and MEM if they make the playoffs) or the Raps keep their own pick and trade it separately.
The Raps then do this trade. Trade will work after season.
TOR: Josh Smith, Jeff Teague
LAC: Marvin Williams, Zaza Pachulia
ATL: Chris Kaman, Ryan Gomes, Jerry Bayless, high draft pick from TOR
Why does each team do this?
LAC: Save $4M off their salary cap number (only $40.9M) while adding 2 decent, experienced role players. Under current CBA that gives them $17M to spend in free agency. Williams is better than anything at SF now and it allows them to develop Aminu. The key here is to save money but not in the traditional Donald Sterling way of saving (i.e. not spending). This saves cap space money to re-sign DeAndre Jordan and hit the Free Agent market. The Clippers should be major players in free agency as they are in one of the biggest markets in North America and they are offering the opportunity to play with arguably the most popular player in the NBA right now and all the attention that goes along with it.
ATL: They are 6-7 against the top 6 in the East and 2-10 against the top 7 in the West. They lost first round 4-3 vs BOS in 2008, second round loss to CLE 4-0 in 2009, second round loss to ORL 4-0 in a blow out in each game after taking 7 games to get past MIL in the first round. This is a good team but not a deep playoff team. Given their salary commitments this trade should help them. They get an All-Star C in Kaman allowing Horford to play his natural PF position - which he has been wanting for a couple of seasons now. They get a back up SF in Gomes. They get a back up PG in Bayless as a change might be good for Teague considering he has had little to no success in ATL. They get themselves under the current salary cap and save around $7.5M. Most importantly they get a high draft pick to draft a SF (P or T Jones?) as they get better in the short and long term.
TOR: The Raptors get a border line all-star who can score, pass, rebound, defend, block shots, get steals, and electrify the ACC at any given moment. He is shooting 34% from the 3 this year which is not great but not bad. He has a great long 2 jump shot. He would create the ultimate match up problems for opposing teams as they have a SF who can post up and muscle the opponent while a C who can draw other bigs away from the rim and post up smaller PF. Teague is a cheap back up PG who may surprise given a fresh start and a chance to reconnect with a college teammate in James Johnson. Giving up a high draft pick is a lot but if a future star is not going to be drafted (and my opinion is Barnes and/or Irving are the only ones with that potential) why not get a guy like Smith who would be a perfect fit and is hitting his prime. Like Bargnani, he is 25. The Raps would be right around the current salary cap of $58M with 12 players under contract and if Barbosa opted out it would be 11 players around $50-51M.
With both trades, the Raps would have a starting line up of this:
PG: Felton - 26
SG: DeRozan - 21
SF: Smith - 25
PF: Davis - 21
C: Bargnani - 25
The depth chart would look like this:
PG: Felton/Teague (22)
SG: DeRozan/Barbosa* (28)
SF: Smith/Johnson (24)/Kleiza (25)
PF: Davis/Amir (23)
C: Bargnani/Pekovic (25)/Alabi (22)
If the Raps were able to get 2 draft picks (NJ and MEM) from Utah for their own, they could add another young player via the draft (it would be around 17/18). They would also be able to sign a couple of character veterans to round out the roster.
Personally, I love the scenario laid out above and if I had any influence on the Raptors decision makers, I'd be all over this. This would be a young enough team to continue to grow but experienced enough to compete as guys like Smith and Amir, while only 25 and 23, have been in the league for 7 and 6 years.
Who do you think? Is this the stuff wet dreams are made of?
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