Today on his ESPN podcast, Brian Windhorst broke a little news from Las Vegas, at least it was news to me. If this has already been discussed on here, then my apologies.....but I haven't seen it.
According to Windhorst, the Pacers, on draft night, were offered the following for Paul George from the Denver Nuggets. I assume this was part of a 3 way deal with Cleveland, but in the podcast Windhorst did not specifically say that. This was the offer from Denver:
Gary Harris, SG
#13 pick in the 2017 draft. This pick became Donovan Mitchell, as Denver moved the pick eventually to the Jazz.
Let's assume this offer is true. Should Indiana have taken it?
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Harris is a 22 year old shooting guard from Michigan State, via Fishers Indiana, and Hamilton Southeastern High School. Last year for the Nuggets, he averaged 14.9ppg on 50.2% shooting, and he shot a robust 42% from 3 point range. More importantly to me, he is only making 2.5 million this year, and will be a restricted free agent with a small cap hold after this season.
Comparing the financials and ages to Oladipo (who I also like, this isn't meant to disparage Victor), Harris is younger by 3 years, much cheaper now, with more potential team control in the future, and a vastly superior outside shooter. I think 9 out of 10 talent evaluators would agree that Harris is a better player and investment than Oladipo, me included.
With the 13th pick, we could have went a bunch of different ways. Remember, that in doing this deal we supposedly still possess pick #18 as well. I personally would have gone with Donovan Mitchell at #13, and OG Anunoby at #18. If you prefer Leaf, you could also have had him at #18.
Or, as we know now, we likely could have packaged #13 and #18 if we would have wanted to get to at least pick #10, because we now know that Sacramento dealt that pick for picks #15 and #20. Not sure what we would have done there, but I personally would have just kept both picks.
So, if I were recommending moves to Kevin Pritchard, and if he would have followed my plan (based on what Windhorst reported today), we would have had:
1. Gary Harris on a 2.5 million dollar rookie contract for one more year, then a small cap hold next summer.
2. Donovan Mitchell at pick #13, OG Anunoby at pick #18, both on rookie deals.
3. And we would have had approximately $23,000,000 more cap room to spend in free agency this summer, or perhaps to roll over to next summer.
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What would I have done with the extra cap room we obtain by having Harris over Oladipo?
The possibilities would have been to try and sign Gordon Heyward to a max deal, though there is no indication to believe Heyward was interested in coming here, to my knowledge.
We could have done the same deal Brooklyn did with Toronto, and get Toronto's draft picks next year for Carroll, or been in position to take on other toxic deals for draft pick ransoms throughout the year.
I bet we might have been able to trade for Greg Monroe into our cap space, and maybe have gotten him for very little, giving us a good player off our bench, yet who wouldn't interfere with cap space next summer.
I would have signed Milos Teodosic instead of Collison, which would have also saved us money, assuming he would have signed here for the same amount. (which I know you can't assume, but go with me here)
I wouldn't have done this, but we could have been a contender to sign Paul Millsap, since we can assume in this scenario that Denver obtains Kevin Love instead.
We could have consider smart offers to Restricted Free Agents like Nikola Mirotic or Jamychal Green....even though our owner seems to discourage offers to RFA's for some reason.
I likely would have still offered Bojan Bogdanovic the same deal, so assume he is with us still. I also would have made a major play for Jae Crowder in the Boston salary dump scenario, offering them something to where they could have possibly kept Avery Bradley, or perhaps I would have traded for Bradley somehow.
Ultimately, I believe the package of Harris/Mitchell/Anunoby or Leaf (if you prefer, obviously I do not) plus the additional cap space both this summer and next summer would have been much, much better than what we actually did.
In fact, I would consider the failure to take the Denver deal, if as actually presented by Windhorst as true, to be almost general manager malpractice. But am I wrong? What say you, Pacers digest?
Tbird
According to Windhorst, the Pacers, on draft night, were offered the following for Paul George from the Denver Nuggets. I assume this was part of a 3 way deal with Cleveland, but in the podcast Windhorst did not specifically say that. This was the offer from Denver:
Gary Harris, SG
#13 pick in the 2017 draft. This pick became Donovan Mitchell, as Denver moved the pick eventually to the Jazz.
Let's assume this offer is true. Should Indiana have taken it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harris is a 22 year old shooting guard from Michigan State, via Fishers Indiana, and Hamilton Southeastern High School. Last year for the Nuggets, he averaged 14.9ppg on 50.2% shooting, and he shot a robust 42% from 3 point range. More importantly to me, he is only making 2.5 million this year, and will be a restricted free agent with a small cap hold after this season.
Comparing the financials and ages to Oladipo (who I also like, this isn't meant to disparage Victor), Harris is younger by 3 years, much cheaper now, with more potential team control in the future, and a vastly superior outside shooter. I think 9 out of 10 talent evaluators would agree that Harris is a better player and investment than Oladipo, me included.
With the 13th pick, we could have went a bunch of different ways. Remember, that in doing this deal we supposedly still possess pick #18 as well. I personally would have gone with Donovan Mitchell at #13, and OG Anunoby at #18. If you prefer Leaf, you could also have had him at #18.
Or, as we know now, we likely could have packaged #13 and #18 if we would have wanted to get to at least pick #10, because we now know that Sacramento dealt that pick for picks #15 and #20. Not sure what we would have done there, but I personally would have just kept both picks.
So, if I were recommending moves to Kevin Pritchard, and if he would have followed my plan (based on what Windhorst reported today), we would have had:
1. Gary Harris on a 2.5 million dollar rookie contract for one more year, then a small cap hold next summer.
2. Donovan Mitchell at pick #13, OG Anunoby at pick #18, both on rookie deals.
3. And we would have had approximately $23,000,000 more cap room to spend in free agency this summer, or perhaps to roll over to next summer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What would I have done with the extra cap room we obtain by having Harris over Oladipo?
The possibilities would have been to try and sign Gordon Heyward to a max deal, though there is no indication to believe Heyward was interested in coming here, to my knowledge.
We could have done the same deal Brooklyn did with Toronto, and get Toronto's draft picks next year for Carroll, or been in position to take on other toxic deals for draft pick ransoms throughout the year.
I bet we might have been able to trade for Greg Monroe into our cap space, and maybe have gotten him for very little, giving us a good player off our bench, yet who wouldn't interfere with cap space next summer.
I would have signed Milos Teodosic instead of Collison, which would have also saved us money, assuming he would have signed here for the same amount. (which I know you can't assume, but go with me here)
I wouldn't have done this, but we could have been a contender to sign Paul Millsap, since we can assume in this scenario that Denver obtains Kevin Love instead.
We could have consider smart offers to Restricted Free Agents like Nikola Mirotic or Jamychal Green....even though our owner seems to discourage offers to RFA's for some reason.
I likely would have still offered Bojan Bogdanovic the same deal, so assume he is with us still. I also would have made a major play for Jae Crowder in the Boston salary dump scenario, offering them something to where they could have possibly kept Avery Bradley, or perhaps I would have traded for Bradley somehow.
Ultimately, I believe the package of Harris/Mitchell/Anunoby or Leaf (if you prefer, obviously I do not) plus the additional cap space both this summer and next summer would have been much, much better than what we actually did.
In fact, I would consider the failure to take the Denver deal, if as actually presented by Windhorst as true, to be almost general manager malpractice. But am I wrong? What say you, Pacers digest?
Tbird
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