A Case of Kai Jones Vu?
Many seasons ago, garbageman wrote an award-winning article, "Why No Team Should Trade for Kai Jones". For those unaware, that season the league was at a crossroads. Beaten and battered, we were in the midst of a seemingly endless, dominant run by the Detroit Pistons who were on cruise control to another title.
Sound familiar?
The only blemish the Pistons faced that season were unpaid tax bills from their previous two titles and the upcoming free agency of their star Center, Kai Jones. The Pistons had two choices.
- Door #1 - hold onto Kai Jones, try and win a third title, and watch him walk that upcoming offseason
- Door #2 - trade Kai Jones for a similar talent (but a longer contract) and keep the train running to Title Town, creating the league's greatest dynasty.
The rest was history. The Pistons went on to win another title (the league's first and only 3-peat) and for good measure won a 4th straight title the season thereafter, cementing their legacy as the greatest team ever built, before the band broke up due to unpaid tax bills.
Fast forward to Season 70, we face a similar dilemma but this time with the league's reigning MVP, Pee Wee Kirkland. The San Antonio Spurs over the past decade have built one of the strongest teams to never win a title. The starting 5 of Alvardo, Kirkland, Miller, Newland, and Kozak is the stuff of dreams but Sim League is weird. Great teams sometimes just do not win a title, through no fault of their own. I chalk it up to the randomness of it all. It is the great equalizer in our league. Another truth about good teams is that they are expensive. The Spurs know this lesson quite well now given their recent tax troubles. And now we come to the point of this article.
What should the Spurs do about Pee Wee Kirkland?
The easy answer is to trade him. But how do you define the value of the reigning MVP? If no trade meets the Spurs' requirements I take EazyP at his word that they will go down with the ship and let Pee Wee Kirkland walk this offseason. Tax bill be damned. I know a majority of the league is also rooting for this outcome. Free agency is probably the most exciting part of sim league. Every team has a dream. One acquisition could turn an entire franchise around. Pee Wee Kirkland is that acquisition and more. Just look at the past few seasons, Remy Martin catapulted the Bulls to another title, Justin Amos transformed the Nuggets into a conference powerhouse, and Amen Thompson is the lynchpin of a sudden Wizards' resurgence this season. No offense to any of those guys but winning the Pee Wee Kirkland sweepstakes will be tantamount to Lebron James' "The Decision". It will change the entire landscape of the league, as Kirkland's new team becomes instantly relevant.
Now there are some risks involved in trading for Kirkland. The aforementioned Remy Martin, Justin Amos, and Amen Thompson were all free-agent defections. You could make this absolute blockbuster trade this week and lose him this offseason thereby crippling your franchise for several seasons. But this is all part of the game, you have to take big swings if winning a championship is your priority. At the end of the day, all you can do is just put your supermax offer on the table this offseason and let the sim gods decide your fate.
Now without further ado, here are four trade offers the Spurs could consider and why I think they would work. When considering a trade, I based them on the following three factors whose weight was dependent on the respective team trading for PWK.
- Salary cap relief - the Spurs need to reset their tax or they will just add another season to their tax bill woes and risk losing even more talent down the road while they try to claw their way back from the depths of tax hell.
- Prospect talent - if the Spurs do decide to move on then acquiring assets will either allow them to flip them more points in the future or one of these prospects becomes the new face of the franchise.
- The Kai Jones scenario - kick the can down the road, trade for a longer contract, squeeze a few points and/or draft pick out of the GM, and deal with this tax mess another season.
Trade #1: Minnesota Timberwolves
Spurs trade
Pee Wee Kirkland
Timberwolves trade
Benny Bridesmaid
2061 Timberwolves 1st round pick
Why it could happen
The Spurs get enough cap relief to slide under the tax apron, reset their clock, and obtain a former #1 pick, along with another potential #1 pick with the Timberwolves 1st rounder. Not a bad haul for the reigning MVP. But is it enough? I'd say yes (hence why I am writing this article) but at least it gets the conversation started. Now from the Timberwolves perspective, this one is a crapshoot. I do not know the Timberwolves GM or his propensity to gamble, but this is a gamble of epic proportions. The Timberwolves could lose PWK in free agency and watch this entire experiment blow up in their face. Now if they are ready to try and compete right now, then building around PWK would speed up the process tenfold. But if the Timberwolves retain PWK on a supermax and try to build around him I could see this as a win-win scenario for both teams.
Why it will not happen
The Spurs feel it is not enough. Maybe the Timberwolves do not want to risk it this soon. Both could be true for all I know. Maybe the Spurs do not want to see Pee Wee in the division anymore. Maybe the Spurs do not want to put a brand-new GM to the test this early in his career. Only the Spurs know the truth here.
Trade #2: Brooklyn Nets
Spurs trade
Pee Wee Kirkland
Nets trade
Fly Williams
2061 Nets 1st round pick
Why it could happen
The power of friendship. The Spurs and Nets are no strangers to blockbusters, most recently Jose Alvarado headed to San Antonio. Now could the centerpiece of that deal for the Nets in Fly Williams be the centerpiece for another blockbuster? This one is a prime example of kicking the can down the road but it at least extends the timeline for the Spurs and the Nets' disastrous season could yield the Spurs another useful asset with the looming lottery pick. The Nets could also take the next step in their build and have a true superstar for Supreme Cook and Bones Hyland to play alongside next season and beyond.
Why it will not happen
The Nets simply do not want to take a risk and disrupt the status quo. Plus, the Spurs do not get any tax relief. This is an example of a trade where I think how I view these teams will be different than their actual GMs. I'm leaning towards this not happening more because I think the Nets fundamentally believe this build can succeed as is. I do not agree with that assessment but my opinion is just that, an opinion.
Trade #3: Golden State Warriors
Spurs trade
Pee Wee Kirkland
Warriors trade
Kevin Cross
2061 Warriors 1st round pick
Why it could happen
Similar to the Nets deal above, but Kevin Cross has the coveted purple potential so this one looks better. The Spurs extend their contention window to at least next season but also get more time to flip Cross if they choose to do so down the road. The Warriors cash in and upgrade their backcourt and head into next offseason with supermax deals looming for both PWK and Bricker. With their frontcourt already in place, PWK immediately upgrades this lineup to a conference favorite (at the very least) for the foreseeable future.
Why it will not happen
Again, the Warriors have a plan with this build and this trade simply blows that up at the risk of ruining the last few seasons of work for nothing if PWK walks this offseason. I'm not quite sure what to make of Kevin Cross either if the Spurs were to acquire him. Again this deal is far from ideal because it does not solve the Spurs' tax woes but at least it gives them more ammunition to get their bills under control.
Trade #4: Detroit Pistons
Spurs trade
Pee Wee Kirkland
Pistons trade
Trent Dawes
Why it could happen
The Spurs "joked" about this offer during their preseason presser. If they were purely cynical, I could see them doing this no question but unless the other trades in this article or the real offers the Spurs receive are just absolute dogshit then why not? IamQuailman embraces the role of villain too and as a Sim League oldhead I think nothing would give him a bigger boner than breaking ballsohard's record and creating the greatest team in Sim League history. The league would riot and Quailman would laugh all the way to tax hell.
Why it will not happen
This is the doomsday scenario. A reverse Kai Jones if you will. The Pistons acquire another purple for their multi-headed dildo of a squad and supermax him this offseason along with Markkanen and Carrasco. The Pistons break their old record, get a 5-peat, and destroy the league. Fun.
Conclusion
I'm not sure how to end this article. I wanted to just throw out some ideas and see if they worked and while I accomplished that I'm just not sure any of these deals make perfect sense for both the Spurs and the respective teams mentioned. This is an unprecedented time in the league. We have never faced the prospect that the League MVP could leave his incumbent team because of an unpaid tax bill. We will know in a few days if this reality comes to fruition but in the meantime, if any of the aforementioned GMs see this article before the deadline they can weigh the pros/cons of trading for Pee Wee Kirkland and decide is it worth the risk? I would 100% say YES. But then again, I'm asking you not to trade for PWK at the end of the day. Do you know why? Because I've already got my max offer DM to The Negotiator lined up.
