TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[mvossman]

I'm just working under the assumption that because Wood hasn't accepted that two-year extension, they're dead-set on moving him. That could be incorrect, but with so much of the offense coming from guards now, and such a need for Luka/Kyrie to be the only suspect defenders in the lineup, it actually does make a lot of sense to move him at this point, imo. I think his defensive struggles have been overblown, but he's an offensive player, for sure. 

The trade off for Wood is getting them to take Bertans. Rubio, imo, is actually a piece that raises the ceiling of the next few years. He's a competent PG off the bench who can be a point of attack defender almost as effective as Ntilikina, only in the form of someone who could actually play 20 minutes a night in a playoff series. 

It makes the team better this year and more flexible moving forward without requiring draft capital. 

If there's a better deal out there, I'd take it, but I'm honestly pretty convinced that 

A) Wood is going to be moved
B) They're probably only looking at expiring money right now

I'm not sure how this makes us better this year?  Love is a clear downgrade from Wood and Rubio looks like he is going to need a year to fully recover from his injury.  

I don't get the focus on clearing cap space for next season?  If Kyrie walks for nothing, this will have been a complete failure of a trade (unless we win it all).  If we don't hold on to Kyrie, the plan would be to S&T him to LA for (potentially) Harris and assets.  In that scenario we are not going to have tons of cap space next offseason regardless.