Previous Rumored Lopez Trade Discussion

I would much rather Brook Lopez, especially for that trade, than Okafor.

Thing is though with Okafor, nothing changes much about how the team plays, since he would be used like Kanter is off the bench, not a starter.
You get Lopez and everything changes how you run your offense, and your defense.

Yes please for that trade

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trading a bunch of expirings for Lopez hits the cap space pretty hard for the potential 2017 pick trade for a $15+ million player like Fournier.

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MM suggested his realistic favorite route was trading for Lopez with 2018 dumping Asik to Brooklyn and then trading 2017 with AA for Batum . I commented that while technically possible to do that uneven second trade, realistically it would be extremely difficult to structure the first trade just to be able to pull off a draft night trade for a $20M+ player. He didn't respond.

Trading for Brook Lopez would be so fricking stupid.

If that trade went through, we'd have this for next year:

no pg
Buddy/Moore $12M
Hill/DC $15.4M
AD/Diallo $24.6M
Lopez $21M

That's $73M there.
If they can somehow get rid of Ajinca's salary and spread out Asik, then that's another $3.5M, plus Qpon's $3.8M, so basically $7M more.

So we are at $80M, and need 6-8 more players.
there's enough to sign Jrue, and then scrubs, or enough to trade away your draft pick for a $20M player, and then scrubs.

I guess if you can trade for Fournier, and you're at $95M, you can still resign Jrue to $20M and be under the tax, but then you have to find 4-5 guys for a combined $5-7M to stay under the tax, and you'd have to find them before you resign Jrue I believe.

I'm no expert on the salary cap so I could be wrong on a few things.

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So we are at $80M, and need 6-8 more players.

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You are at $97M with Jrue's cap hold and ~$100M with minimum cap holds.

Add another $1.5 for Dante's cap hold, Lopez is $22.6 next year, you have to count Holiday's cap hold and then there are roster holds.

Even if you stretch Asik and dump Ajinca, you are at about $102.5 million with a $103 million cap with

Holiday (hold) $16.9
Buddy/Moore $12.1
Hill/DC/QPon's insurance money $20.25
AD/Diallo $24.7
Lopez/3 roster holds/Asik stretch $28.5

The only way to trade for someone like Fournier would be trading Moore and Ajinca. Add Hezonja to that trade and it doesn't work. Compare that with trading for Okafor and you have $21 million more to work with so you could trade your 2017 pick straight up for Fournier and Hezonja.

I'm not saying that's what I want to do, but if this is the plan, going with Lopez follows the path we've been on too many times before of not having enough real NBA players on the roster. If they are looking at Okafor as a starter and not backup, that seems pretty stupid. But this early in a rookie deal it's a less costly mistake to make.

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No way in hell I would want that trade. Giving up all the "flexibility" on the roster along with a pick for a 29 year old center with one year and $23 million left on his deal. I would much rather Okafor as at least it has some hint of a potential future player, rather than giving up a lot of assets for one year.

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exactly what this guy said