Suppose Sacramento continues on their downward trend, and they blow it up within the next month or so.
Suppose we offered something like this:
Lee (salary-filler, expiring), Jerebko (salary-filler, expiring), Sullinger (promising young talent to resign long-term), Rozier (promising young PG), Brooklyn 2016 pick, Dallas 2016 pick, and Brooklyn 2018 pick
First, is this enough to get Cousins and Gay without including Smart? This would in all likelihood give them two top-five picks this season (their own and Brooklyn), promising PF and PG prospects, salary relief, and a pick in 2018 when they won't have their own pick. They could legitimately have a roster like this next year:
PG: Rozier
SG: Brown/Mcelmore
SF: Simmons
PF: Sully
C: WCS
Second, would you take both DMC and Gay if Sacramento had a fire-sale? It would give us a lineup of:
PG: Smart, IT
SG: Bradley, Turner/Hunter
SF: Gay, Crowder
PF: KO, Amir
C: Cousins, Zeller
Between our upgraded talent and our youth and depth, I think that's a lineup that challenges to come out of the East this year, as long as both Gay and DMC buy into Stevens' philosophy. I think Cousins is an MVP candidate on our team in the East, because there's not many bigs capable of slowing Cousins down in the East (Drummond, Whiteside?).