If you're willing to trade your (by far) best player, you might as well go for a full blow up. So this is a trade proposal where Charlotte tries to get as much picks and young talent they can extract by filling other team's needs. Here under a full overview and reasons why it benefits the involved franchises. Let me know what you think about it. Took a lot of work to get this working on the trading machine
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yc6usl8u.
Charlotte HornetsIn: Ntilikina, W.Hernangomez, Smith, Shumpert, S.Hill, L.Thomas, Asik, Noah, ’18 Brooklyn 1st, ’18 New York 1st (top 3 protected), ’18 Chicago 2nd, ’19 New Orleans 1st, ’20 Miami 2nd
Out: Walker, Lamb, Batum, Kidd-Gilchrist, Howard, O’Bryant
Positives: Get some young talents with Ntilikina and Hernangomez, as well as a couple of first round picks. And with the worst roster in the league their own picks also jump in value.
Negatives: By obtaining so many bad contracts there's not much cap relief. Probably best to arrange a few buy outs (like Noah)? Rebuilding will take some years (but a lot of cap space clears up in 2020).
Rotation: Ntilikina/Carter-Williams/Stone - Monk/Bacon/Smith/Graham - Hill/Shumpert/Thomas - Williams/Kaminsky - Zeller/Hernangomez/AsikCleveland CavaliersIn: Holiday, Hardaway, Howard, T.Allen, O’Bryant
Out: I.Thomas, Crowder, T.Thompson, Smith, Shumpert, ’18 Brooklyn 1st, ’20 Miami 2nd
Positives: Getting rid of all the long term bad contracts and a few players who don't fit on the team. Having starting guard(s) and a center who can have a major positive effect defensively.
Negatives: Losing all the pieces that were acquired with the Irving trade (besides Zizic).
Rotation: Holiday/Rose/Calderon - Hardaway/Wade/Osman - James/Korver/Allen - Love/Green/O'Bryant - Howard/Frye/ZizicNew York KnicksIn: Walker, Batum, Kidd-Gilchrist
Out: Ntilikina, Hardaway, W.Hernangomez, L.Thomas, Noah, ’18 New York 1st (top 3 protected), ’18 Chicago 2nd
Positives: An All Star PG can lift the team into the playoffs. Instead of having a useless big contract with Noah it's better to have some highly paid players who can contribute from Charlotte.
Negatives: Losing a promising guard with Ntilikina and a first round draft pick.
Rotation: Walker/Jack/Burke - Batum/Lee/Baker - Kidd-Gilchrist/McDermott/Dotson - Porzingis/Beasley - Kanter/O'QuinnNew Orleans PelicansIn: I.Thomas, Crowder, Lamb, T.Thompson
Out: Holiday, S.Hill, Asik, T.Allen, ’19 New Orleans 1st
Positives: Getting rid of the bad or expensive contracts from Holiday, Hill and Asik, which could enable them to resign Thomas and Cousins. Also finally having a reasonable SF with Crowder.
Negatives: Losing a valuable player with Holiday and a first rounder that might have a lot of variance.
Rotation: Thomas/Rondo/Nelson/Jackson - Lamb/Moore - Crowder/Clark/Cunningham - Davis/Miller/Diallo - Cousins/Thompson/Ajinca