Are We Screwed If Wizards Do A S&T For Cousins Next Summer?

[Phantom255x]

So I was thinking about this the past few days as we heard all the Irving rumors, but you can tell Cleveland's reign is about to end, and it's likely after 2018, BOTH Lebron and Irving are gone from Cleveland. And while Rose is still a great player when healthy, Irving to me is better than him and I don't see how Rose really upgrades Cleveland ESPECIALLY if Irving is traded as a result.

So the East may be a dogfight between Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Toronto for years to come I assume (especially if MIL and PHI take huge strides next few seasons and PHI are actually healthy).

But something that came to mind and I've seen over the past few weeks in threads... people talking about how the Wiz can get Cousins next summer through a sign and trade 

If Pelicans duo of Cousins-AD doesn't work as expected, they'll keep AD but probably let Cousins (and others) go.

Washington may be willing to do a sign and trade with NOP for Cousins (to fit him in their cap space since right now they may be paying a luxury tax as it is).

Maybe something like Porter (max guy), picks and small assets for Cousins?

Does that work, and could a sign and trade be worked out between WAS-NO for Cousins, or is there no way that's possible and I just posted all this for no reason?

Anyways, if it is possible and it does happen, yeah Cousins could be a cancer BUT that Wizards team becomes a lot more talented and idk if the team can handle a trio of Wall-Beal-Cousins lol. ALTHOUGH I'd assume our bench would still be a lot better than Washington's, but as we've seen in recent years, talent wins in this league. 

[gouki88]

DMC/Morris/?/Beal/Wall is a pretty frightening lineup for us I have to say.

Assuming the starting 3 is somebody like Oubre I wouldn't be too scared because Hayward has a massive advantage over him, but that is a big team I wouldn't like to face. Dunno about how legit this potential move is cap wise, but the prospect isn't a nice one.

Milwaukee is the one that scares me a lot if Jabari can keep healthy and Thon can mature as he should. That is insanely lengthy and athletic, with very impressive and different skills at every position. Not sure about their coaching however.

[jaketwice]

Cousins is a cancer player - and mark my words, he won't be on a good team. Because he will be on the team. His personality will invade the locker room and destroy the chemistry necessary to establish a winning culture.

[RJ87]

I do think Washington is the biggest threat for Cousins in free agency, he and Wall are still really tight and supposedly he and Wall had talked about teaming up together before.

I could also see them doing a S&T because will want pieces back instead of losing him outright and Porter would make a lot of sense for them with Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday presumably still being there.

[Moranis]

Washington has to avoid the tax to be able to acquire a sign and trade player, which makes it tricky for them.  A far more likely scenario would be a trade at the deadline.  Something like Porter and Gortat for Cousins, Hill, and Asik.  Though Porter has a no trade clause until July 8, 2018 so he would have to agree to that trade.  I think that would be a pretty reasonable trade for both teams (Pelicans get out of the tax this year, dump future salary, and of course get a solid young wing and decent center back, while the Wizards get the best player in the trade and some depth). 

[saltlover]

It will be very, very difficult for the Wizards to sign-and-trade for Cousins, because you cannot make a sign-and-trade and go over the hard cap.  The hard cap is forecast to be $129 million next year, and the Wizards currently have $128.5 million allocated to 12 players next summer.

It's not impossible, but it would mean they'd fill out even more of their roster with minimum salary dreck next year than they have this year and last year.  The roster would probably look like this:

Wall
Beal
Cousins
Morris
Gortat
Mahinmi
9 players making the minimum

Maybe they could ship out yet another 1st rounder to move away Gortat, assuming they didn't send that pick along with Porter for Cousins, but depth does matter in he NBA, even in the playoffs, and we would not be screwed.  Wall and Cousins don't have the magnetism to lure top minimum salary talent to make up for it.

[footey]

So I was thinking about this the past few days as we heard all the Irving rumors, but you can tell Cleveland's reign is about to end, and it's likely after 2018, BOTH Lebron and Irving are gone from Cleveland. And while Rose is still a great player when healthy, Irving to me is better than him and I don't see how Rose really upgrades Cleveland ESPECIALLY if Irving is traded as a result.

So the East may be a dogfight between Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Toronto for years to come I assume (especially if MIL and PHI take huge strides next few seasons and PHI are actually healthy).

But something that came to mind and I've seen over the past few weeks in threads... people talking about how the Wiz can get Cousins next summer through a sign and trade 

If Pelicans duo of Cousins-AD doesn't work as expected, they'll keep AD but probably let Cousins (and others) go.

Washington may be willing to do a sign and trade with NOP for Cousins (to fit him in their cap space since right now they may be paying a luxury tax as it is).

Maybe something like Porter (max guy), picks and small assets for Cousins?

Does that work, and could a sign and trade be worked out between WAS-NO for Cousins, or is there no way that's possible and I just posted all this for no reason?

Anyways, if it is possible and it does happen, yeah Cousins could be a cancer BUT that Wizards team becomes a lot more talented and idk if the team can handle a trio of Wall-Beal-Cousins lol. ALTHOUGH I'd assume our bench would still be a lot better than Washington's, but as we've seen in recent years, talent wins in this league.

You lost me when you said Rose is still a great player when healthy.  Did you watch any Knick games last year?

[tarheelsxxiii]

Depends on the prognosis for 'Boogie' meningioma. 

[ETNCeltics]

Very unlikely. Morris and Wall have 2 years left on their deals. Meaning Wall will want the max and Morris will want a huge raise. Washington wouldn't be able to hold that team together financially. NBA revenue has leveled out now, and a team like Washington would wind up with more payroll than they have in revenue.

What we're going to see is very few teams are going to carry more than 3 big contracts, and many won't carry more than 2. Washington would likely unload Morris along with Porter if they made a deal for Cousins. They're already over the cap, and they'd be way into luxury tax if they kept all those guys.

[saltlover]

Very unlikely. Morris and Wall have 2 years left on their deals. Meaning Wall will want the max and Morris will want a huge raise. Washington wouldn't be able to hold that team together financially. NBA revenue has leveled out now, and a team like Washington would wind up with more payroll than they have in revenue.

What we're going to see is very few teams are going to carry more than 3 big contracts, and many won't carry more than 2. Washington would likely unload Morris along with Porter if they made a deal for Cousins. They're already over the cap, and they'd be way into luxury tax if they kept all those guys.

Wall signed (or at least agreed to) the supermax extension -- he'll be getting Harden money beginning in 2019-2020.  $37.8 million that year.  I think the bigger obstacle is the sign-and-trade, since there are rules that could prevent it from occurring at all.  They're already exploring their financial limits even if they just keep Porter's salary, but yes, Boogie will increase that pain at a time when they'll likely be eligible for the repeater tax.

[tonydelk]

I think washington is done in regards to high profile moves unless one of Beal or Porter are traded.  That's a lot of money to pay for a team that still wouldn't win a championship.  The C's are showing how to have a good team with 3 superstars and close to tax payer levels.  You need to fill out your last 7 spots with young rookie contracts.  The next phase of the C's rebuild is to find some young draft and stash players that can come over when Horford and IT are coming off the books in 3 years.

[Phantom255x]

It will be very, very difficult for the Wizards to sign-and-trade for Cousins, because you cannot make a sign-and-trade and go over the hard cap.  The hard cap is forecast to be $129 million next year, and the Wizards currently have $128.5 million allocated to 12 players next summer.

It's not impossible, but it would mean they'd fill out even more of their roster with minimum salary dreck next year than they have this year and last year.  The roster would probably look like this:

Wall
Beal
Cousins
Morris
Gortat
Mahinmi
9 players making the minimum

Maybe they could ship out yet another 1st rounder to move away Gortat, assuming they didn't send that pick along with Porter for Cousins, but depth does matter in he NBA, even in the playoffs, and we would not be screwed.  Wall and Cousins don't have the magnetism to lure top minimum salary talent to make up for it.

TP. Ah okay, that makes sense now. Thanks again @saltlover 

That's good too because lets be honest, Gortat killed the C's for much of the series. I could only imagine what Cousins could do.

[tstorey_97]

CousinsW/L..9-8 with NO
This year 26-39 (?) with Sac
2015/16---33-49
2014/15---29-53
2013/14---28-54

He has lead the league in technicals (2016/17) and I assume has, from this achievement, lead the league in ejections.

Quote from Sac GM at time of trade to NO...(can you hear the sighs or relief in the background?)

"It was time for a change and I decided this was the best direction for the organization", Divac said in a press release. "Winning begins with culture and character matters. With the upcoming draft class set to be one of the strongest in a decade, this trade will allow us to build the depth needed for a talented and developing roster moving forward..."(From SBNATION)

I would like to translate the above statement by GM Dirac: "We do nothing but lose and apologize for Cousins. He's helped us go through six different head coaches trying to fix him. We are attempting to build a winning team through character and team play and Cousins stands in the way. I want to thank him for piling up more technical fouls and ejections than any other player in King's history and am sure that his future goal of setting NBA records in those two categories are within his grasp as he gets traded from one desperate franchise to the next. Our clubhouse is stable again...thank God."

Opponents, if they think they need to, can just assign a player to tweak Cousins enough to get him T'd up and then ejected. Marcus Smart doesn't know anything about this strategy.

It's a team sport, play with your mates and help them win...or be a one dimensional stat machine like Cousins...speaking of stats, his +/- last year? -26...it's kind of a dumb stat so it really fits the player. He gets triple doubles and double doubles and he leads the league in losses and getting thrown out of games.

Is Cousins a potential threat to the Celtics next year?  I have to say he is more likely a threat to whatever team has him starting for them.

[chilidawg]

No. 

[CelticsElite]

No. The wizards are not scary. They have a lot of money into non-modern centers and Otto freaking porter, and they slightly overpaid for wall.


The pelicans are not trading cousins.