I agree. Crowder is an upgrade over Mo as a starting SF. He's is a better 3-point shooter, gets to the FT line a lot more, where he is also a much better FT shooter. He's a better rebounder, a better passer and a better defender. In some areas Mo is almost as good, and since he's 3 years younger may eventually catch Crowder in those areas. But Mo's improvement has been frustratingly slow and incremental. At this point, I think his
best case upside is Jae Crowder.
Mo is on a reasonable contract, but Crowder is on an even better contract. I'm not concerned about the age thing as Crowder is the same age as Dame. Anyone Dame's age or younger fits our window.
I mentioned in another thread yesterday that Patrick Beverly and Lou Williams are also both available as salary dumps and that, according to the ESPN Trade Machine, either could be swapped straight up for Festus Ezeli (however, I'm not sure if that's true in Beverly's case as the ESPN Trade Machine is still using 2016-17 salaries and Beverly is on a declining contract).
In any case, both BOS and HOU are REALLY looking to dump as much salary as possible. So, I REALLY hope Neil is able to use the FEEC to land one of Crowder, Beverly or Lou Williams. My preferences are:
Crowder - 1a
Beverly - 1b
Williams - 3
Crowder and Beverly both address needs, both fit our window and are both on very team friendly contracts - something that is going to be very important going forward. Williams would be our oldest player, is only under contract for one more season (at only $7 million) and is a MUCH better 6th man than anyone we currently have. I give a slight edge to Crowder over Beverly, as Crowder would improve our starting 5 while Beverly would make out bench much better by giving us someone that can guard opposing PGs.
So hopefully Neil can use FEEC to land one of these three and maybe he can work a 3-way trade with BRK that lands us the other two - and helps us also shed some salary.
My perfect storm that takes advantage of using all of FEEC, BOS's and HOU's desire to dump salaries and BRK's love of Crabbe:
1) FEEC to BOS for Jae Crowder - works salary wise, gives us an upgrade at starting SF that is locked up on a very cheap contract for three more seasons and lets BOS dump $6.8 million in salary. Easy-peasy, win:win.
2) Allen Crabbe to BRK, Patrick Beverly and Lou Williams to POR for all of BRKs non-guaranteed contracts. We may have to throw in something like a lottery protected future 1st round pick to BRK and maybe HOU also throws in a future 2nd round pick, or something. I REALLY don't want to take back another bad contract (like Mozgov) to make this work. BRK is so far under the cap, they can EASILY take on Crabbes contract without sending back any salary.
This gives us a defensive minded back up PG and a much better 6th man, both of whom are under very team friendly contracts. It also lets us get out from under Crabbe's contract. BRK currently has 5 guys with non-guaranteed contracts, all that make between $1.5 and $1.7 million each. This lets HOU move both Beverly and Williams to clear cap space. With their draft picks going to BOS, BRK is desperate to acquire talent and future draft picks in any way possible. They valued Crabbe enough last summer to offer him this contract. If they still value him that much, here's their chance to get him and also acquire an additional draft pick, or two, for their troubles.
The timing is tricky, because Crabbe can't be traded to BRK until July 8 and all those two of those 5 non-guaranteed BRK contracts have a deadline of 6/30. So, this may need to go down in multiple trades. Because BRK is so far under the cap, it should still be possible. For example, they can execute two trades with HOU now involving Beverly and Williams for their non-guaranteed picks and agree to a separate trade of Pat Bev and Lou Williams to us for Crabbe and a pick to be completed on July 8.
And if BRK also wants Mo Harkless, if we already have obtained Jae Crowder for FEEC, I'd be willing to throw him in too to sweeten the deal. I like Mo and he's one of our few players with a reasonable contract, but if we have Crowder, Mo becomes completely redundant. Because of his still young age and reasonable contract, he may be the incentive BRK needs to help us and HOU get what we want. By moving their 5 non-guaranteed contract to HOU, BRK would have enough space to absorb both Crabbe's and Mo's contracts. From their perspective they would be landing two starters under the the age of 25 and one or two future draft picks and all they would be giving up are a bunch of nobodies they were going to cut anyway. Sure, they give up most of their cap space, but it's not like they have had good luck acquiring free agents, even when offering to overpay them.
That sounds complicated, but it's really not. It could be executed as multiple simple trades. For us, we get a better starting SF, a solid back up PG that is 1st team all defense and one of the best 6th men in the game, and shed a shit ton of salary in the process.
BNM
