I'm not a Tim Jr fan, but that's kinda crazy talk.
Firts off, it would make more sense to move aging Courtly.
Then we have no G's capable of replacing Tim's scoring (except maybe Burke who seems best as a backup PG).
I really don't like the idea of moving an asset for nothing.
We did that with TyC, Shump, JEarl. It makes the building process harder.
The Lakes already have KCP at SG.
You could trade Tim for KCP, but why would the Lakes do that?
LAL need some steady players around LeBJ, not more erratic performers like Hardaway. Maybe I'm wrong, but on-court isn't Hardaway turning into JEarl? -- an erratic bomber who can get hot and play inattentive D. And LBJ has seen enough of playing with JEarl.
We have Lee, Mario, Dotson, Mudiay and Frank as functional shooting guards if we move Tim.
While it’s true that the Lakes have KCP and Hart at SG, they are moving as quick as they can into win now mode. This makes Deng’s contract, as useless to them as JoNo’s is to us, a big problem for LA. While expensive, Hardaway is far from useless. With all of LA’s playmakers, Hardaway’s skill set could be a valuable option as someone to get the ball to out in transition, on cuts, or from deep.
We’re not especially focused on winning now. Deng would be a good vet for both Knox and Vonleh to learn from. Adding Deng also gives us 3 major expiring deals to shop or eat the season after in JoNo, Deng, and Lee. We can use that 48 million in cap ballast to attack the market during the 2019 season before 2020 FA season gets started or use the space available in summer 2020 to make moves.
There is zero chance Deng gets run behind LBJ, Kuzma, and Wagner. There is a decent chance Timmy can keep pace with Hart and KCP and thereby carve out some minutes.
Mario at power forward is like Jimmer in the NBA, way out of his depth and in over his head. It’s not a position I want Knox playing at this point. Deng gives us another guy behind Vonleh and Thomas to man the spot ahead of Kevin & Mario while at the same time opening more minutes for those two on the perimeter in more natural positions.
