It's nearly impossible to find bigs who can make the kind of impact those guys have in the 2nd round or off the scrap heap. If your lucky enough for it to happen to you, great, but it's not something you can just do at will. There are some guys I think have untapped potential and could fit into what the C's are trying to do.
Steven Adams-OKC
I've been tooting my horn about attempting to trade for Adams for a while now. For us, he could be a better version of what we want Tyler Zeller to be. He's athletic and can run like Zeller, but he's better on the boards and much better on the defensive end. He can't create shots around the rim as well as Zeller can, and he's lacking a jump shot both from the mid-range and at the line. But on our team, playing 20-25 minutes a game next to guys that fit well like Amir, Sully or Olynyk, I think he fits really well. And considering how young he is, and how little attention has been paid to his offensive development in OKC, we could have a guy that gives us 12-14/10 with strong defense manning the middle for the near future. It seems like there's a trade just waiting to arise between us and OKC if some things fall the right way. Avery Bradley would fit on that team perfectly. Maybe some kinda deal involving Bradley, Zeller and change for Adams with Dion Waiters sent off to some place like Denver or Philly where he could play hero ball for 35 mpg and push the tank forward.
Alex Len- Phoenix Suns
Len is a guy I've never been quite sure about. He's absolutely huge, and fairly athletic considering his size, but despite being the 5th overall pick three years ago he's never really seized a major role on that Suns team. I mean, part of it has been injuries and the Suns play a style of ball that's not conducive to his strengths, and he did play over 20 mpg last year while certainly making an impact, but now with Tyson Chandler there he's struggling to find a place. Len showed a good amount of improvement defensively last year, which is key for him considering how big he is, and he rebounded at a strong rate as well. He's shown some pretty good skills in flashes last year and has a better jump shot than Adams, shooting over 70% from the line. In time he could develop a fairly decent mid-range shot. He's the kinda guy you could develop into a nightly double-double guy who anchors the middle defensively and you won't necessarily have to take out at the end of games. Swap him into some of Lee and Zellers minutes and I think he could fit in nicely. He'd be a guy who could get us some second-chance points off misses with his size and rebounding skills. Zeller fits in better with Phoenix's offense then Len does anyway. Maybe Zeller and the Philly 2nd could do it, or if were in good shape to make the playoffs, maybe our own 1st, but that's pushing it.
DeMarcus Cousins-Sacramento Kings
The grand daddy of em all. Hear me out though. The Nets are really bad. Like really, really bad. Bad to the point where, if something doesn't change for them, they could most certainly end up handing over a top-5 pick this year. They started out of the gate looking terrible, and if it keeps up the cash-in value of that pick is going to skyrocket. We have a billion other things to trade too, including more picks from the Nets!! Things are really shaky in Sacramento. The coach hates the star, the star hates the coach, there's volatile personalities all over your locker room (including our own Rajon Rondo). The owner is crazy, and has shot down coaches and executives like a Gatling gun. They have a lot of talent, but the pieces really don't fit that well. They're playing 3 centers a ton of minutes, and struggle with spacing. The main guys will still get their stats, but they're just ready for a couple losses to pile up and the whole thing exploding. Karl gets fired, Boogie wants out, Rondo stops trying, Rudy Gay jacks up shots like he's Kobe and they lose 7 in a row. Then we come to them with a package centered around our two likely lottery picks this year, Bradley, Evan Turner, Sullinger and whatever else it takes (not named Marcus Smart) to do it. If the Nets are really as bad as they look right now and that pick looks like a sure-fire high lottery pick it changes the dynamic. If you can offer a package built around a pick in the top 5 of the draft, on top of a likely late lottery pick this year, a mid-1st, high value 1st rounder from the Nets in 2018 and a bunch of solid young prospects with good potential and high salaried non-guaranteed contracts for cap space, you can offer the Kings a way to really accelerate their rebuild for the post-Cousins era and we get our all-star center.
Topic: In Search of the next (De)Andre... (Read 2889 times)