Spitballing here ... Hill for Nicolas Batum. It works as a straight-up trade (Batum is making $24M this season). Charlotte needs to clear cap to keep Kemba this summer, and this move would allow them to do it. The Cavs would be taking on at least $30M in extra money (up to $57M if Batum exercises his PO in 2020), and of course they'd need to be compensated very well to do that.
It's kind of sad that after four years of LeBron and Finals appearances, we're back to having "Dan Gilbert's checkbook" as the organization's greatest strength. Yet here we are.
I don't consider it sad at all. Most teams will end up falling way off at the end of a cliff when they have a superstar leave via FA or retire. Not many are able to build a team that can find success when those things happen. The Spurs have been one of the few. And we can even see GSW's struggles WITH Durant when Curry is out.
Dan Gilbert's checkbook may be a plus. He paid out a ton of money over that four year period and if he is willing to eat contracts to get draft picks and/or young players over the next year or two, all the better. How many owners have been willing to leverage their cap space or ending deals to take on tens of millions of dollars they don't have to in order to get assets in an attempt to hasten a rebuild?
There are a lot of fair criticisms worth levying at Gilbert. He can interfere. He can piss off players like he did with LeBron in how he damaged that relationship and may have prevented LeBron from ever considering giving Cleveland the guarantees that were given LA and Miami. His letter and his attitude prevented that, though he was willing to swallow his pride and basically humble himself in front of LeBron to get him back here in the first place.
Dan Gilbert is far from a perfect owner, but he's also far from a terrible one. I'd rather he just shut up, write the checks, and trust some good basketball guys to get everything done. That's not going to happen, but I'm not sure who else would come in right now. We can all dream of LeBron owning the team in the future, but for now that is not happening.
Koby taking on Burks is indication to me that Gilbert is willing to spend for assets. The Cavs are in MUCH better shape than they were back when LeBron first left. They need to be sure they manage player acquisition better than they have over the past nearly 15 years - it started well before Gilbert ever bought the team.
So now we get the reset Acquire assets, find the things that can benefit the Cavs but also be mutually beneficial possibly.
Batum is a possibility. There may be several teams looking for relief next year in one way or another.
Or how about this:
George Hill to the Knicks for Lance Thomas, Courtney Lee, Frank Ntilikina, and the Knicks 2019 first unprotected?
Sounds crazy on the surface, but it also depends on what the Knicks goal is. Do the Knicks want to show Porzingas back healthy and try to encourage a Miami like team up?
The move mentioned above would give the Knicks over $70M in open cap space. Enough to sign both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to go along with Porzingis, Robinson, Knox, Hardaway, and a few others.
Why trade the first? Because it has a rather substantial cap hold that comes with it.
Why trade Ntilikina? Because you'd rather keep Knox and you want to clear space.
Will it happen? Not counting on it, but also not saying it can't. All depends on what the Knicks want to try. But they HAVE to do something like that if they hope to add two max level superstars next year.
And there's a team across the East River that will be looking to do something similar. Ditching Crabbe could give them enough space to sign two superstars and be able to keep both Dinwiddie and Russell. Burks could come into play there as could others.
There will be A LOT of options as we approach February and teams size up their playoff chances or their desire to return to relevance and take a shot at a superstar player in free agency. With guys like Durant, Irving, Butler, Leonard, Thompson, Kemba, Cousins (depending how his return goes) out there and others like Tobias Harris, Middleton, and guys like Randle also pushing their stock up, teams will want to clear space to take some shots.
