Trade & FA 2023-24: Vezenkov+Kings Are Done

[mvossman]

Two thoughts on this.

First, we could also try to dump Kleber to a team with cap space. I know, we love him and he‘s holding up the well-established German guy from Wurzburg tradition - which is a beautiful city about an hour away from me by the way - but in reality he doesn’t fit Luka‘s timeline and is far too unreliable from an injury perspective for the 11 million he costs us, for example compared to DJJ. That way we keep Hardaway‘s contract until the deadline, where it will reach it‘s highest trade value and could get us a nice asset from a team that changes from trying to win the championship to trying to win the lottery midseason.

Second, I feel exactly the same about Lively needing 30+ minutes to maximize his growth gradient. But what if he‘s coming back from the offseason ready to get 10 of those minutes at power forward next to Gafford in the role of Kleber? Similar to Wemby or Chet, who are sometimes playing the four, but without their ballhandling tasks and more in a stay in the corner and stretch the floor kind of role? Problem solved, you can play physical and athletic for 48 minutes at center with Gafford and Lively each getting 30 minutes per night.

Maxi would be more expensive to dump because he has two more years left and has no value to a rebuilding team.  He has more value to us than Timmy, while being more expensive to dump.  

I don't see Lively every playing power forward.  If he can legit hit open 3's, then he will be a great alternative to Maxi for 5 out offense.  I think adding a traditional center to the mix would take away the offensive value and not really add anything to defense.