Not an optimism thread. What are people's ideas if we lose the pick? Almost every off-season thread revolves around the idea we have Towns, Okafor, Johnson, etc. No suicide or murder threats. Just honest plans if we lose the pick. Do we go after a big free agent? Do we try to tank knowing we have our pick in next year's weak draft? What is the best course of action?
Package all 3 picks and Hill to move up as much as you can. Still solid talent in the mid teens, nothing like the top 5 but better than the alternative. We can't walk out of the draft without at least one impact player and the odds of getting him in the mid 20s isn't extremely high. I know we need as many cheap contacts as possible, so the more picks we hold on to the better (I've said as much on several occasions), but we HAVE to get something of value on the court from this draft class. That and cry. Cry in the corner for months. Those two things sum up my plan B.
Honestly, I wouldn't be that upset. We still have the Hou pick, we have Randle coming back from injury, looks like we stole Clarkson in the draft and could have been a lottery pick, and we would have our pick next year when Westbrook is going to be a FA. Also, hopeful Kobe comes back next year healthy and signs for a cheap deal the 2016 season. Also have cap space to sign people, starting to trust our Front Office a bit more, time will tell tho. A lot is riding on Clarkson and Randle and who we get with out Hou pick and who we sign in the offseason.
Judging from last year when we had cap space.... The FO will go after Rondo AND Love or some combo of top tier unrealistic FA (LMA and Gasol). I know we don't have cap space to do it, but that didn't stop the FO last year to try and pair Lebron and Melo. We will be caught up in that the 1st week and a half of free agency, while the good second tier players, which are probably better than Rondo and Love sign deals. Mitch will have a press conference saying we tried our best in free agency and losing the pick was just bad luck. He will then announce the signings of Lin/Davis/Hill/Johnson and say that he thinks this is a playoff team and LakerNation should be excited. Clarkson/Lin Kobe/Brown/1st rounder Wesley/Young Randle/Black/Kelly Hill/Davis/Sacre
Greg Monroe, Hibbert or Brook Lopez will make me forget losing the pick. KLove will also be a good consolation prize. Get a point guard for the Hou pick, maybe George Lucas?
Nothing will make me forget losing the pick (especially no one from your list) . If we get DJ and a decent SF i'll be semi happy though.
I would take a look at Kevin Love and some of the mid tier guys. I actually think there will be some good guards and small forwards available with both the Houston pick and our second rounder. I don't think we will get lucky and end up with another Clarkson, but I think we can get good players. I could see talented guys who struggled this year like Cliff Alexander slipping to the second round. Despite the way things are going, Mitch has shown over and over again that he can make deals happen. The last round of deals just didn't work out. But he got Howard, Nash, and even CP3 here. I think we didn't bring in anyone this year mainly because we didn't like any of the options. So we swung for the fences and went after Lebron and Melo. This summer I expect Mitch to be active. Kevin Love will be on our radar. I am not as down on Rondo as others. Main question with him is his health of course. If Byron is right, there are guys who want to play here so there are definitely ways to improve the roster outside of a top five pick.
Meh.....not so bad....that 5 spot looking almost as dynamic as the 3 spot, and entering an era with next to no good Big men in the league. Hill probably increases range to deep 3s and Wes has to "get it" by next year don't we think??
Seems to be a lot of people going to the bar and crying into their beer. Unfortunately Mitch can't just do that. So what do you do if you're Mitch? Personally, I throw a 9 million a year (poison pill?) offer at Khris Middleton. I then try to do what abeer said and package Hill with all 3 of our picks to move into the mid teens where I would pray for Dekker. Then just fill in with more minimum salary guys. I could see Doc's summer unfolding though. But I would be willing to bet we end up with Rondo before we end up with nothing. I can't sse the front office holding their load for that long.
If we lose the pick, package any combination of Hill, Kelly, and our 3 draft picks to move up to 10-20. In that range we'll end up with at least one of Kaminsky, Dekker, or even Jerian Grant. Let's say it costs Hill and our three picks to get up to 10 (Indy) to grab Dekker early. Here's the salary situation: Kobe- 25 Young- 5.2 Randle- 3.1 Dekker- 3 Kelly- 1.7 Clarkson- .85 Black- .85 = 39.7 million + 6 Cap Holds @ 525,000 = 42.85 million (24.55 million available) Sign Monroe to a max contract worth roughly 16.85 million. New working Cap amount: 8.22 million Sign Lin to a 4/20 million dollar deal. New working Cap amount: 3.75 million Sign Ellington to a 3/12 million dollar deal (remaining cap). New working Cap amount: 1.05 million Give that to Sacre. Give Jabari Brown a non-guaranteed minimum type deal. Clarkson/Lin Bryant/Ellington/Brown Dekker/Young Randle/Kelly Monroe/Black/Sacre Sign a couple vets like Price and maybe Travis Outlaw or something to fill in the depth spots. It's a young, dynamic, energetic team and Kobe. I dig it.
I don't mind this at all. The question is can we move up? I think the pick we may need to look at is the Nets'. Atlanta owns Brooklyn's pick which is currently at 11. We may be better off with Brooklyn making the playoffs because that would drop the pick to 15. Atlanta is in win now mode and they may be looking at a veteran like Hill to backup Milsap and Horford. The only bad thing is Hill's cap number is a little large with Carrol and Milsap being priorities this offseason for them. But I wouldn't mind trying to move up regardless of whether or not we keep the pick. But that's not what this thread is about. We have tons of threads about building a team with our top pick in play.
