Well you'd be paying him $4.5 million to walk...would you rather do that?
It's clear from the trading deadline happenings that the front office wants to move Zeller. Of our 5 bigs, I think that's the right move. He has the least talent/potential of the five.
so what happens when he inevitably misses at least half the season?
i'd either 1) try to find some trade for him that actually benefits the team during the off-season OR trade/cut him before his contract becomes fully guaranteed.
gilbert is a billionaire yadda yadda yadda but $5M is still a lot to piss away on a guy who will in all likelihood spend much of the 2nd half in a suit.
i've wanted to move him since 2010, but i think doing so is all the more important now because we finally have some sort of a young core from which he is actually taking important minutes. if they do not trade away anyone in the front court, i don't see how they can feasibly keep him, or why they should. and if they happen to draft a big, preferably a rim protecting c if at all possible, moving him becomes even MORE important.
The right move, in my opinion, would be to trade Andy and TT and then draft a rim protector in the 2014 draft. Zeller is still young and has room for improvement. I don't think it's a stretch to think that he could become a capable 3 point shooter in some time; maybe even as soon as next season. We should move TT to clear up room for Bennett at the PF spot and move Andy while his trade value is at its "highest". I don't know why the FO was pushing so hard to trade Zeller at the trade deadline. He was actually looking pretty good.
AB/Zeller/Hawes
Hawes/2014 pick/Zeller
A decent frontcourt for the moment with a lot of room to grow and improve. This lineup would allow us to be very flexible in our rotations as we could adjust to any opposing team and create and exploit mismatches on our end.
but how many rim protectors are there and where are they slated to go?
i agree with finding a rim protector, but i don't see why it should be limited to the draft. if they can trade for one and draft a player that fills a need elsewhere, great. though, the one advantage is rim protectors tend to be pretty expensive so getting one on a rookie deal would help. just depends on what else is available at that point. a lot of people seem to ignore the $$ aspect even though it's more important than ever, so i guess we're just going to have to see what options actually materialize once the off-season comes around.
also, i would hope the plan for after next season would be to start the rim protector at center. understand bringing him off the bench as a rookie, but he will need to start sooner or later.