TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[F Gump]

1 If by "hold onto Westbrook" you mean buy him out or release him instead of giving up assets to trade him, I think that's exactly what I'd do were I in their shoes.

2 [Then, sign Kyrie, JT opined.]

3 If you can get reasonably usable players by trading him without giving up the picks, great!

I don't think 3 is a realistic option for LA. I can't envision why another team would do that. LA won't want bad multi-year contracts, and RW is not in demand at all, so how does LA compensate for what they want to get.

I like 1, in theory -- just let the clock run out on RW, then start again w/o paying to get rid of RW -- but in reality it's not so enticing. One problem with it is that the buyout doesn't make your team better, it just sends RW home. You don't get any opportunity to sign other talent in his place, because his salary is still on the cap sheet. The other problem is that when he falls off the cap sheet in 2023, you still don't get enough cap freedom to do enough to change the team. 25-30M might get you 1-2 average-to-good players (players like Kuzma and KCP and Harrell), but not a star.

That ties into 2, where "they can sign Kyrie in 2023" sounds like a thing, but it probably doesn't work. The issue is that it would take Kyrie willing to accept a HUGE discount from a max. I don't think he would. That's why he wanted a trade to LA, because he wants more (max) money, not less.