FanPost

Trade Travis?

I'm not necessarily advocating this position -- but as I started to reply to the main-page thread about our bubble youngsters, I began to think that there are a few reasons to consider it.  Hear me out, BE, and then tell me what I've missed.

1) As of now, our depth chart for next year 2-4 looks something like this. 2: Roy/Jack/Rudy/Martell; 3: Martell/JJ2/Trout. 4: LMA/Trout/Frye. All together, now, "Minute crunch!"  Even if Jack gets traded, Martell still won't be getting more than a couple of minutes a game at the 2 -- if that, with Roy playing 40 minutes a game and Rudy vacuuming up his scraps. In addition, Martell lacks the ball-handling skills to be an effective 2, which by default slides him up to the 3.

Martell (28 mpg) and Jones (23 mpg) ought to combine for about 40 mpg next season, leaving 8 at the SF for Travis. Now let's say LMA averages 36 minutes a game next season: a reasonable estimate, as he's at 34.2 in his first full season as a starter. Even if Frye gets traded, that's still only 12 minutes a game for Outlaw backing up the 4 and 20 total -- more than a 25% decrease in his playing time from this season.  His value as a trading chip will likely never be higher than it is right now, and that value will fall concordant with the decline of his minutes.

  1.  Proceeding from 1 begs the question: will Travis be worth more to us getting spot minutes backing up the 3 and 4, or as a trading chip to address a position of greater need -- like, for example, that glaring hole in our backcourt?  I think valid arguments can be made for both sides, but what if we could trade Outlaw, Jack, and our number one for a signed-and-traded Calderon? I think that's a deal Toronto would certainly consider. Wouldn't Calderon/Roy/Martell/LMA/Oden and Blake/Rudy/JJ2/Frye/Pryz plus whatever picks we buy and whichever second-rounders pan out be a dang good team?
  2.  Here's our second unit as of next year: Jack/Sergio, Rudy, JJ2, Outlaw, Pryz.  Two things jump out at me. Number one, we're gonna be hucking jumpers all day long, and number two, we're gonna get absolutely pounded on defense and on the boards.  Playing that sieve-like group of perimeter defenders who offer weak rebounding means that we need at least two guys who are going to offer intimidation, rebounding, and interior defense. We have one and Trav ain't it.
We could trade the other guys for lockdown perimeter defenders who can rebound and keep Travis...or we can trade Travis, our most valuable, realistically movable trade chip, for an answer at the one and find a rugged PF to plug in his place in the second unit -- going a long way towards answering the doubts framed above in the first paragraph of 3).  Maxiell, Millsap, and more recently Landry were all second-rounders within the last two years who fit this description perfectly. I see no reason why KP can't find a similar player given our abundance of second-round picks this year.

So that's one side of the argument.  What's the other?