12-01-2019, 10:58 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2019, 11:09 AM by DanSchwartzgan.)
I spent a little time looking at defenders who don't totally suck on offense on 538.com and have come to the conclusion that the best combination of age, defense and positional need would be Jakob Poeltl. The 24 year old will be RFA this summer. I'm not sure the Full MLE will be quite enough to keep the Spurs from matching, so getting him now and controlling him this summer would be helpful. I know, I know, he doesn't even start for a sorry Spurs team. But, that is more a product of the non-three-point abilities of Aldridge and DeRozan. Put him on a team that has good outside shooters and his O improves. His D is already good.
I don't see a direct reason for SA to just send him to us, but they will probably start their fire sale (tank) relatively soon. Our opportunity would be to help them sell off DeRozan or whoever else they trade by taking on some salary using Lee and/or our TPE. There are probably half a dozen teams that could be targeting DeRozan, so I won't try to outline specifics. But, SA's best move at this point is to acquire assets, do a two year tank and have a ton of cap space in 2021 (which they already project to if they don't take on any long term money between now and then).
I don't see a direct reason for SA to just send him to us, but they will probably start their fire sale (tank) relatively soon. Our opportunity would be to help them sell off DeRozan or whoever else they trade by taking on some salary using Lee and/or our TPE. There are probably half a dozen teams that could be targeting DeRozan, so I won't try to outline specifics. But, SA's best move at this point is to acquire assets, do a two year tank and have a ton of cap space in 2021 (which they already project to if they don't take on any long term money between now and then).