TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[ItsGoTime]

I would say none of those players are integral to this team individually, but you are taking a big hit to team depth, especially losing Timmy.

So that means we are worse this season (unless there is any chance we can convince Westbrook to come off bench when Luka is out, but I seriously doubt it).

I am also very skeptical that with 37 mil in cap the following offseason we can do any better than wood/Timmy/Maxi/Bertans.  Given our free agency history and the current trend of extensions, my guess is we do worse than keeping those 4 players.  So that means we are worse for next two seasons.

The argument at that point would be that at least we have shaved off the bad contracts and are now under the cap.  My argument would be that's actually a bad thing.  If you look at the average contender salary, its over 180 mil.  You almost have to go into the tax in order to be a true contender to pay for both stars and depth.  If we go below the salary cap, it will be very difficult to get near the tax line anytime soon.  If we do trade for a 30+ mil player, we would have to send out valuable depth just to salary match.

So we are basically removing depth for at least the next two seasons while making it difficult to get our salary up to contender level.  I'm not sure lottery protected first is worth that.

Max extend Wood as soon as you see the buy in and fit saves you $4M from his cap hold. Extend Maxi at $7M or less starting and extend that amount to $14.5M or more based on his starting amount. Don’t use the money to sign FAs but in trade for players better than your outgoing and more expensive to give cap relief and add picks to fill the gap in value. Get creative with it. Options.