I would strongly prefer to stand pat, but if we do go for Mitchell, I’d be interested in the Westbrook maneuver as a possible way to keep the Mitchell trade from being a dead end.

But are you keeping RJ or not? If yes, it’ll be hard to open cap space. The max for RJ will start at 34M if the cap rises like expected. Let’s say he gives the team a discount and signs for 28M, to add to Mitchell (32.6M), Brunson (26.3M), Mitch (15.7M), Obi (6.8M), Hartenstein (8.2M), Deuce (1.8M) and Sims (1.9M), that’s 121.3M for 8 players. You’d open around 15M in cap space, and then you’d have the room MLE (around 5M).
It’d be better to try to use Randle and DRose to get useful pieces and stay above the cap than do this. Above the cap, and below the luxury tax, you have the full MLE (around 10M). It isn’t worth the trouble to try to get below the cap, because then you’ll need players to fill even more open spots and little money to do it.

KFNINJ, yes, it would be the same overpay in theory. But the extra #1 pick from the Lakers changes the calculus a bit in that it leaves us with an extra #1 for future deals. It also adds cap flexibility and gets rid of two guys that create fit issues in 2023-24. This makes it easier to make a trade for the next disgruntled star, or to facilitate 3-way trades.

I would strongly prefer to stand pat, but if we do go for Mitchell, I’d be interested in the Westbrook maneuver as a possible way to keep the Mitchell trade from being a dead end.

I’d still love to dump Randle, don’t get me wrong, but I see very little value in simply getting cap space in return. I’d rather get his contract broken down in smaller parts because then at least you can use those players in future trades, like the Mavs did with Porzingis (even though thr execution of it wasn’t that great as Bertans is also not a valuable asset by any means). Simply getting Westbrook and then waiving him would create cap space for next season, which I like in principle for rebuilding teams because then you can absorb bad contracts and expirings onto it for assets, but it doesn’t fit our timeline if Mitchell comes and we go full on competitive mode.

So I don’t know, I don’t see much value in helping the Lakers here, unless we can maybe dump both Randle AND Fournier, which I like a lot more, but that would cost even more probably.

He’s a massive expiring contract, so it’s a 1-year hit that has no relevance this year since we’re over the cap anyway.

Then the Jazz would get 2 unprotected Knicks picks, Lakers 2027 unprotected pick, and two additional protected picks from the Knicks

That would give Utah their 5 picks plus Grimes, the Lakers would get either shooting or playmaking and whatever Randle would be with LeBron and AD, and the Knicks would get Mitchell and Russ, who might just be a useful player in a scheme with Thibs…at least more useful than Randle. Or we could substitute IQ for Reddish and it still works.

Not ideal by any means but at least interesting.

For me, its not so much about how much cap space you have…it’s more about who you are using your cap space on. We are probably not getting a star in free agency so if you want to get a star via a trade, and all you need (fundamentally speaking) are matching salaries to do that. As such, you want guys who other teams kinda want at their salary. That ain’t Julius right now.

But that isn’t Westbrook, either, right?