SwishSquared
01-15-2015, 04:34 PM
It's been reported that the Nuggets are shopping some of their vets to gauge value and perhaps go into tank mode. I thought of a potential plan to rebuild the team and was wondering if this would be too drastic of a plan. Here's a big, 4-team trade:
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=leszklc
Denver receives a top 10 protected 2015 first from Portland, a top 7 protected 2015 first from Charlotte, and OKC makes their pick only top 10 protected (instead of top 18, as it was in the Waiters trade. DEN now owns that pick via the Mozgov trade).
Charlotte upgrades at PF and potentially downgrades at back up SG in Harris, but they also get to dump Lance. I think they'd rather get the 8 seed again instead of going back to lottery, but that's just my feeling.
OKC improves its starting lineup and weakens its backup bigs. With this trade, they do get closer to being under the tax. They'd just need to salary dump Jackson mostly. They'd finally get a 2-way SG that they can (presumably) trust to play big mins in the playoffs.
Portland improves its bench by bringing in Chandler. He's mostly Batum insurance, but Chandler's versatility will allow him to play multiple positions.
This means that Denver would go into tank mode and potentially have up to 4 first rounders. They can play all these young guys to see if any would be in their long term plans (like Vonleh, who's barely gotten any time due to injury and positional logjam). If Vonleh seems like a keeper, then Denver can focus on improving its wings and round out its bench.
I doubt they out-tank some other teams, but with their likely mid-lotto pick, they can get one of top SG/SFs, then package some combo of 2 of their other first rounders + second rounder(s) + cash to move up. Imagine if they could end up with Hezonja, Oubre, maybe another backup big, and a combo guard (in 2nd round). They'd also be sitting on like $45M worth of expiring contracts. Their cap sheet in 2016 when cap explodes would have rookie deals, RFAs, and Lawson. Could pursue multiple max players.
Potential 2015-2016 rotation (of just young guys):
Lawson-Hezonja-Oubre-Vonleh-Nurkic
M. Paige-Hairston-PJ3-McGary-Dakari Johnson
Expiring deals in summer 2016: Nelson, Foye, Lance, Gallo, Hickson, McGee
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=leszklc
Denver receives a top 10 protected 2015 first from Portland, a top 7 protected 2015 first from Charlotte, and OKC makes their pick only top 10 protected (instead of top 18, as it was in the Waiters trade. DEN now owns that pick via the Mozgov trade).
Charlotte upgrades at PF and potentially downgrades at back up SG in Harris, but they also get to dump Lance. I think they'd rather get the 8 seed again instead of going back to lottery, but that's just my feeling.
OKC improves its starting lineup and weakens its backup bigs. With this trade, they do get closer to being under the tax. They'd just need to salary dump Jackson mostly. They'd finally get a 2-way SG that they can (presumably) trust to play big mins in the playoffs.
Portland improves its bench by bringing in Chandler. He's mostly Batum insurance, but Chandler's versatility will allow him to play multiple positions.
This means that Denver would go into tank mode and potentially have up to 4 first rounders. They can play all these young guys to see if any would be in their long term plans (like Vonleh, who's barely gotten any time due to injury and positional logjam). If Vonleh seems like a keeper, then Denver can focus on improving its wings and round out its bench.
I doubt they out-tank some other teams, but with their likely mid-lotto pick, they can get one of top SG/SFs, then package some combo of 2 of their other first rounders + second rounder(s) + cash to move up. Imagine if they could end up with Hezonja, Oubre, maybe another backup big, and a combo guard (in 2nd round). They'd also be sitting on like $45M worth of expiring contracts. Their cap sheet in 2016 when cap explodes would have rookie deals, RFAs, and Lawson. Could pursue multiple max players.
Potential 2015-2016 rotation (of just young guys):
Lawson-Hezonja-Oubre-Vonleh-Nurkic
M. Paige-Hairston-PJ3-McGary-Dakari Johnson
Expiring deals in summer 2016: Nelson, Foye, Lance, Gallo, Hickson, McGee