And who exactly do you suggest we replace Batum with? And were gonna beat those guys with a bench of Hezonja/Kaman/Crabbe?? Haha so basically we go back to a historically bad bench, give away youth, just to get a little bit better at C by getting Drummond.
He'll get the max next year and with Lillards max extension as well, will leave us with no cap space for years to come, with no youth developing, and having already traded away a first round pick every other year. So we'll have no flexibility and be in the exact same spot we are in now
If that is what you got from my post, I feel bad for you. Hopefully this helps you understand.
Never did I say our bench would be Hezonja, Crabbe and Kaman, first of all. I'd even boot Kaman out for his 5 mill salary most likely.
We would be at around 20 mill in comitted salaryafter trading Batum and, possibly, letting Kaman go. Which would leave us with 40ish mill in cap space l minus cap holds.
Just to clarify,
I said we would have a new completely revamped benched because we would free up around 10 mill in cap space from Batum's contract in addition to the cap space we already have, while adding the 8th pick (who could, or could not be) NBA ready in addition to a starting center.
Thus, our new roster would be completely revamped resulting in:
Lillard /
Afflalo (I personally wouldn't resign Wes for anything more than 10 mill, especially with Afflalo on the books)
Hole at SF
Aldridge
Drummond
8th pick
10 mill in salary freed up by Batum trade in addition to what we already have (2 5 mill players?)
25 mill else to play with, 30 if we drop Kaman minus (cap holds and draft hold)
The suggestion above, taking out Meyers or McCollum, preferably Meyers but doubt it, so I'll say we keep mccollum.
Thus, our roster could end up looking something like, depending on who we get at 8: Currently, Kristaps, Justice Winslow and Stanley Johnson are 789 on draft express. 2 of them are SFs, so I assume back up SF would be addressed, but I'd take Kristaps if available.
Lillard / CJ Watson? Lin? Cory Joseph? (All should be available around 5 mill, give or take)
Afflalo / McCollum / Crabbe
Winslow OR Stanley Johnson / Mike Dunleavy OR AL farouq aminu (could also go pricier and try and land Demarre, Crowder or Tobias if we get Kristaps at 8)
Aldridge / (Kristaps at 8) OR Luc Richard, Amir Johnson, Ed Davis
Drummond / Koufos or the like
Everyone mentioned should be available for around 5 mill or so each with obvious exceptions. From that list.. for a little over 20ish mill you could conceivably add Watson, Dunleavy, Luc Richard and someone like Koufos and then draft Winslow or Stanley Johnson. Given I believe we have more than 20 mill with this trade, you can play with the percentages for each and get a better SF for a worse backup PF or C, Yada yada.
"Haha so basically," your post, which is critical of our depth after making this trade, is entirely wrong and misguided based on the previous points mentioned, resulting in us adding through the draft and free agency.