The way it seems to me is that Boston has all the leverage.
First let's get a couple things out of the way. THis draft is supposed to be terrible. I'm normally all about acquiring draft picks, but if this draft is as bad as everyone says and a late 1st rounder is equal to an average 2nd rounder in a normal draft... who cares whether or we get the picks or not. We're talking about D-league talent here. Is it better to have D-League talent on guaranteed contracts... or would you rather just use the roster spots to sign some D-leaguers to non-guaranteed deals? Whatever.
#2 - Jordan makes 10 mil this year and 11 mil next year. He's a 25 year old big man who just averaged 3 points, 6 boards and 1 block in the playoffs. He's not an impact player. He's kind of overpaid. Theoretically, if you had 10 million dollars in cap space... you probably wouldn't want to spend it on DeAndre Jordan.
#3 - Bledsoe. Meh. I don't get the fascination, but maybe it's just me. He's a backup guard. And regardless, the Clippers don't seem at all willing to trade him.
...
So we're talking about trading KG and buying out Pierce so we can get the above bag of "meh" assets. Boston has Doc under contract for 3 seasons with a no-compete clause... so he can't coach another team unless we LET him coach another team.
The threat is that the Clippers will walk away and hire Lionel Hollins... and that Boston will be stuck with "nothing". Let me ask you... does that really even matter? Would be be so bad to get stuck with "nothing"?
Clearly we'd do this trade in an effort to tank. And hope that the marginal Jordan/late 1st rounder assets would be worth something. But if we do this deal, we're still over the cap. We'll still be over the cap next year as well. Rondo + green + jordan + bass + Lee + Terry + Bradley + rookies ... you're over the cap.
So what happens if things break down here? Doc threatens retirement? Ok. Would KG follow him out the door? Fine. Would Pierce follow him as well? Cool. Big deal. WE don't get overpaid Jordan and a couple weak rookies on a par with D-Leaguers.
Either way, we're tanking for Wiggins. Either way, we're trying to lose games next year in an effort to jump-start this franchise with a top 5 pick in 2014. But the idea of Doc, KG and Pierce just "walking away" actually sounds somewhat appealing. In that theoretical scenario, you'd actually only have Rondo 12 mil, Green 9 mil, Bass 6.4 mil, Lee 5.2 mil, Terry 5.2 mil, Bradley 2.5 mil, 16th pick 1.6 mil, Crawford 2 mil = about 44 million dollars. With a cap set at 58 million... doesn't that mean we'd actually theoretically have cap space to offer Josh Smith or Big Al?
Then the question really boils down to... would you rather have DeAndre Jordan making 11 mil and some crappy late 1st roudner in this draft.. or would you rather just see KG, Doc, and Pierce all retire and have enough cap space to sign Josh Smith or Big Al?
Think about it. Who has the leverage here? You want to retire? Good! Even better than that garbage trade we were considering. And then we don't have to watch you try to win a title in LA. Am I wrong?
And Btw, hopefully from the CLippers perspective they can convince CHris Paul to sign with them when they plan on hiring Hollins and not bringing in Doc and KG. Good luck there, LA.