I bring up the cap stuff to propose a trade.
Houston is stacking chips to make a big splash. We are expensive as fuck.
I think they whiffed on KD and will have a tough time landing George. We can advance their timeline, gain significant salary flexibility to go hard after Hartenstein and probably even make another move and get some of that juicy Houston pick stash in the process without doing much to dismantle this team.
This centers around sending Julius to Houston. I appreciate him as a player, acknowledging what he has done for us, what he has been through, and the leader he has become. I am concerned about how he has to adjust his game working the shoulder back and how it will hold up and I note that he is expensive and will get more so. So I propose this
Julius Randle and and Jericho Sims for Steven Adams and Tari Eason, an unprotected first and a lightly protected first. We would save 16 mil doing that, getting us far enough down to make a competitive offer for IH. RealGM thinks the trade works and they have updated their stuff to 2024 including the draft class.
This lets us resign Hartenstein and Achiuwa and, if he takes a small haircut, Burks.
We would then look like this
Hartenstein Robinson Adams
Achiuwa Eason Bol
Anonoby Hart Dadiet
Bridges DiVincenzo Burks
Brunson McBride Kolek
The scoring shifts a little to the backcourt but the D and the athleticism improve. You can two-way one or more kids if you want to add minimum vets.
To sweeten it for Chip, McCullar gets a two-way or exhibit 10 and we add Bol Bol to the frontline as a last piece.