Just finished reading this article about the Cavs current financials, and B Haywood's non-guaranteed contract needing to be opted out of by 8/1.
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/13309223/cleveland-cavaliers-trade-second-round-pick-rakeem-christmas-indiana-pacers-set-larger-deal
My idea is noted above: trade Evan Turner and Kelly Olynyk to the Cavs for Haywood's deal, and those 2019 2nd rounders mentioned. I believe Haywood is only guaranteed around $2mil, so opting out of his deal would actually open up additional cap room this year, while also doing two things:
1) Removing Olynyk from the books for the Summer of 2016
2) Allowing the Cs to sign Jonathan Holmes, who I think has a chance to be a better two way NBA player than KO.
For the Cavs, they add a very useful bench player in Turner, shooting and size from Olynyk on a rookie scale deal, and a trade exception for $5mil+ they can use in season if they need to (as they did last year to acquire Mozgov). They'd presumably walk away from JR Smith after such a trade.
While I would never do this trade to begin with. I believe the Celtics already have 16 signed players and need to get rid of one, so a 2 for 1 still would not open a spot.
Because Haywood's contract is not guaranteed, the presumption is that he would be released upon acquisition, thus making room for Holmes.
Oh. Sorry should have read it closer. So the idea is to give away two pretty good players just to open a roster spot for Holmes, who wasn't drafted.
Even worse now that i get the full picture.
It's slightly better, in my opinion. All that said, I think if the Celtics like Holmes enough to potentially make a 2-for-0 trade, the more sensible alternative is to just sign Holmes to a guaranteed deal in year 1 and let him win a job in training camp. If he beats two other guys out for roster spots then, then you can trade/release the two men out at that time. Fairly sure you could get a couple of seconds still in October.
And as a Holmes supporter, that's what they should do I think. If Holmes is better than PJ3, then let him earn that spot. If Holmes is better than James Young, as I think he is, same thing. If Holmes is better than Evan Turner (who is way underrated on this forum, moreso than Olynyk in my opinion), then Turner can go. Or whomever. And if Holmes is in fact not quite good enough, release him then. I'm fairly sure he'd be claimed on waivers as a minimum contract, so it's not like it would cost the team any actual dollars beyond whatever he gets paid in training camp. You have to have your roster down to 15 by the first game of the season, not the middle of July, so there's nothing wrong with using your extra cap room to make a low-risk signing like Holmes.
Fair enough. Could certainly see the Cs doing so (that is, letting Jones and Holmes duke it out in camp) and trying to find a home for one other player in the meantime.
But, the variable here are: whether Holmes would accept that deal in the first place under the circumstances, and whether the Cs might wish to keep BOTH players. If either are in question, use the Haywood deal to solve the issue.
Holmes is a free agent, so I have no idea what other offers he's getting, but as an undrafted guy, I'd think a fully guaranteed first year would do it.
But all the players who could potentially be moved (Turner, Jones, Young, Olynyk, and Sully) are cheap, so a lot of teams could be interested in September and October as well as now. And the price you're getting from the Cavs (two distant seconds from a team that will still very likely be a top 5-10 team in the league at that point, as their top 3-4 players now will be under contract then) is so low that rushing to grab it doesn't make sense. There are plenty of teams who have small trade exceptions and non-guaranteed players on minimum deals, if not $2-3 million in cap room, to be able to take on whichever player don't quite prove themselves worth, or better ones that do if they're willing to pay more. Give me 20 minutes and I'll list them for you.
Here are teams that can send back virtually no salary in a trade for some of the cheap players:
Brookyln -- $2.17 million in minimum contracts, only $50k guaranteed before 10/26
Chicago --$1.86 million in minimum contracts, only $420k guaranteed before opening night
Dallas -- $2.3 million in cap space (after presumably signing Justin Anderson to 120% of his slot value)
Denver - lots of cap space currently, probably around $5 million by the time camp rolls around, or the $4.7 million non-guaranteed contract of Kostas P. until October 4th if they use that cap space.
Golden State -- $5.3 million TPE once the David Lee trade is done
Indiana -- Currently about $4 million in cap space with 13 players.
Miami -- $1.95 million in non-guaranteed minimums until 8/1, when $420k becomes guaranteed (not including Whiteside, because I don't see him being traded).
Milwaukee - Trade exceptions worth $5.2 million and $4.25 million, respectively.
Minnesota -- Trade exception of $6.4 million expires in August
New York - $1.79 million in minimums, $220k guaranteed before 8/1, or $320k guaranteed by 9/15
OKC - Trade exceptions in the $2-3 million range for PJ3 and Luke Ridnour.
Orlando -- Currently $2-3 million in cap room, plus $1.8 million in non-guaranteed contracts through 8/1
Philly -- enough said
Portland -- more room than Philly
Sacramento -- $1.7 million in non-guaranteed minimums
Utah -- Several million in cap space, plus non-guaranteed contracts
That's 16 teams in addition to Cleveland who can take on a couple of players, many of them with time horizons well beyond 8/1, like it is for Haywood's deal. Certainly you could get better than a couple of late 2nds from the group of those. It's not like it's Haywood or bust.