2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[DanSchwartzgan]

Yep.  I would much rather send out Powell or Bullock than Maxi, but Harris would be a good fit on this team.

I say that, but Tobias is a PF.  You would obviously make this trade to start him.  You can't start KP, Harris and a center.  That wont work.  So this trade would be predicated on them giving up that silliness (at least starting games) or you would need to trade away KP.

A couple of reminders before I get to my main point...

The silliness of the Powell/KP pairing has produced a net rating of 8.5 in their 19 games together since 11/15.  The stench of the first month of the season has probably wrongly influenced too many of us to believe these two can't co-exist.  The recent trend is positive.

A reminder for those who only looked at Harris's 3% for the current season and deduced he's not a floor spacer.  He has a higher career 3% than Hardaway.

Now to my point.  Yes, you would start Harris (or Simmons) in the front court next to KP.  That would leave Luka, DFS and _______ as the other starters with __________ either being Brunson or Bullock.  Harris is THJ-esque in his defensive prowess, but a much better ball handler and initiator.  If he starts you probably have to return Brunson to the bench.  Is that a good strategy for retention?  Probably not.  But, if you start Brunson, Harris and Luka, you have the same defensive issue you had when Hardaway was starting.  The protected pick in 23 might interest me if it was unprotected, but this trade doesn't jive with Kidd's effort to improve the D.

Simmons next to KP on the other hand, would probably make us the best D in the league (KP, Simmons, DFS, RB and Luka).  You don't have to worry about how Brunson will feel being moved to the bench because he was part of the deal.  I think we overrate Maxi around here and it seems Chriss could be on a path to replace much of what Maxi does.  Removing THJ and Brunson would kill our bench scoring.  You'd have to stagger Luka and Simmons and neither playing alongside Frank, Green and Sterling provides enough three point shooting to make the roll ability of either Powell or Chriss useful.  We would definitely need to draft or sign another ball-handler who can hit a three and hope Green turns into a knock-down outside shooter himself.  I don't think a Simmons deal makes us better in 2022.  The question is can you build around KP/Simmons/DFS and Luka and be better in the long term?