Smart, Semi, Green, BOS 1st, MIL 1st
for
Kuzma, Bradley, Cousins
I think I'd do that even believing Cousins won't come back this year. I just think Kuzma would be a real nice fit on the team and think Bradley could give you much of what Smart does (though not as well).
Post Trade
PG - Walker, Wanamaker, Edwards
Wings - Brown, Hayward, Bradley, Langford
Swings - Tatum, Kuzma, G. Williams
Bigs - Theis, Kanter, R. Williams, Poirier, Cousins?
Lakers get Smart who can be their do everything type player and is basically an improved version of Bradley and Rondo at this point. Add Semi as a defender down low. They also get a couple of late 1st's to replenish their young players or that they can use in trades.
Not sure either team does it, but I think it is a reasonable enough trade value wise for both teams.
Bradley is extremely injury prone. He has played in 23 of their 37 games this year, 63 last year, 46 the year before that and 55 the year before that. Smart gets a bit banged up himself but his low the last 3 years was 54 and every other year he has been above 60 with a 79 and 80 game season in the last 3 years. Given that Bradley is in his 9th or 10th season I only expect this to get worse. I don't have a strong opinion on Kuzma, but where would he get the minutes with Hayward, Tatum, and Brown? I would like to somehow take a flier on Cousins because i have read there is a belief he may come back this season. With Howard and Mghee on the roster we could certainly use one of those three guys for a playoff run (least into javale), but I doubt Lakers would do anything to help us out.
Kuzma is a straight up 4. I imagine he would get in the 24-30 minute range playing PF with Tatum picking up the rest if that trade went through (Tatum would get the rest of his minutes at SF when Hayward was on the bench). Brown would get only SG minutes with Bradley/Langford taking the rest. I think it would work just fine, but I like Kuzma. Not a world beater, but I think he would fit in well and is a real PF, something the team could use and gets Tatum more time at his more natural SF position. I don't think Cousins is going to play this year. If he does it is a bonus. If he doesn't, he expires, but maybe Boston and him like his rehab time here and he comes back on another 1 year prove it type contract.
The trade I proposed essentially comes down to what you think of the Kuzma/Smart portion as that really is the main component being traded by each team. I'd prefer Kuzma (such that I'm fine giving up some late 1st's to get it done), especially with the team makeup, but that may just be a personal preference.
I can't say I have a strong enough opinion on Kuzma to debate him, but I am really fearful of the idea of losing Smart. In addition to being our best perimeter defender, I feel like he really makes our team more versatile in that he has the strength to guard much bigger players for a few possessions with some success, which is something our team really lacks (I believe he even annoyed Giannis for a few possessions). I would definitely be scared to lose this and Bradley definitely can not guard bigger players the way smart can (even if I had confidence he could stay healthy). In general it stinks we don't have more trade able salaries.
Yeah Bradley can't do that anymore, but Brown can. And frankly I think Brown is the team's best perimeter defender. Smart plays hard and is definitely a good defender, but I do think he is overrated in much the same way Crowder was when he was here. I remember all of the people saying we couldn't lose Crowder for many of the reasons that people express about losing Smart. The team was fine without Crowder (actually got better on wing defense) and I think they'd be fine without Smart. The team would also get a lot better on offense, both in adding a solid offensive player like Kuzma (and the better shooting Bradley) but also in removing one of the worst shooters in league history. Smart quite simply is an epically bad shooter, which makes him overall a very bad (if not epically bad) offensive player. Boston went 7-2 without Smart during his 9 game absence for a reason. I get 9 games isn't a huge sample size, but it is like a quarter of the season so far. And that is without adding anyone to replace him.
I think Smart's perceived value has always been overrated on this board, but it has reached insane levels this year when people were touting him as an all star caliber player. That is not Smart. He is a role player. Always has been and always will be. I think Kuzma has far greater top end potential than that. And while Bradley is older, injury prone, and not what he once was, I do think he can give you 75% of what Smart can defensively, while at the same improving the offensive fit given his vastly superior shooting (and his knowledge of knowing when not to shoot).
