In all honesty, I would...
1. Sit down with Deron and have a brutally honest conversation in which he shares his thoughts on the state of the team, its players, coach, etc. He is what drives us going forward, not Jerry, and if we can get his insight into what he believes our flaws to be, and we can internally improve in those areas, or externally if there seems to be a consensus that internal improvement is not enough or not possible, then we go that route. We also need to directly challenge him as a leader. He needs to know he needs to improve his leadership skills, both on the court and off. Can he help make Jefferson a better player this off-season, a truly night and day better player? I think Big Al has as high a ceiling as just about anyone. Can Deron help get that out of him? Also, can Deron learn to keep his cool and remained poise in the worst of on-court situations and flourish in these spots rather than cry and wilt? He needs to know that being very good won't win a ring. He needs to be truly great. Exceptional in every way. In addition, we need to truly appease him and tell him we will do whatever it takes to do that and then stick to our guns. Lip service is not enough. Patchwork trades are not enough. That is not a criticism of our recent moves. It's just what we can't do if we want to retain him and win a ring.
2. Hold Jerry more accountable. He's been very successful but some of his decisions are quite questionable. And I would guess that no one dares question him because, well, he's Jerry and gets a free ride. That's a problem. If he doesn't like it, fire him and go after JVG. It'll sting for a few months but time heals most wounds.
3. Trade Memo for anything. Absolutely anything. One 2nd round pick. Cash. Anything. Hell, I'd trade him and a 2nd rounder for nothing. Obviously there's only a couple teams with cap space to do this without acquiring someone in return but I don't care. Get him out of here. If we can't, let his contract play out and re-sign him only on the very cheap for about two years, 4M. If he doesn't like that, let him find a better deal. He's not the key to winning a ring anyway.
4. Not trade AK unless we get something strong in return. Assuming no trade happens, re-sign him at no more than three years, 16M. If it's too low for him, let him find better money elsewhere. He gets a bad rap but he's too injured and when he does play, he rarely shows up. That's not worth 7M+ a year. Especially with a new CBA coming.
5. Re-sign Watson, Fes and Elson on the cheap for two to three years each. Watson surely deserves it. Good length is tough to come by and those guys off the bench are solid. A Deron-Watson due is stellar.
That's not enough to win a ring. But it's where we should start. I think the key to how we go forward is Jefferson. We know what we have in Deron. But do we really know what we have in Big Al? If we don't see a very noticeable difference in him next year, both physically and in his on-court IQ, we need to look to move him before next year's deadline imo. We don't have a decade for him to make marginal improvement every year. Deron's career will be over before he knows it and unless he pushes Big Al and Big Al pushes himself to be the best he can be, which imo is a great player, then he's a waste of our time.
