Oh the Melo fans are so salty, it's unreal.
Give them a chance, maybe say like 40 games next year.
Get some young athletic wings/guards around them. Stress ball movement, player movement, defensive intensity.
If the team sucks, and Willy/KP get exposed, you move KP to 5 and Willy to 6th man role. Now you know for sure. You end up with a lottery pick again in 2018. But the right move is to try and to trade the current core away so that KP/Willy and the 2017 lottery pick can start together fresh next season.
This is easily what we can do to accomplish time for Willy/KP together and also apart.
Take Willy out at the 6 minute mark, and bring him back in when KP sits.
Take KP out at the 9-10 minute mark, and bring Willy back in.
Around the 4 min mark of the 2nd Q take Willy back out and KP back in.
You can do the opposite and take KP out first as well. Same design.
They basically would play 12 minutes together, and wouldn't close a half unless they played well together as starters. Willy would still get minutes around 26 minutes for sure, and KP would get 34,
Something like
Hernangomez/Porzingis
Porzingis/Thomas
SF/Holiday
SG/Lee
PG/Baker
Extra Depth: Noah, Kuzminskas, Randle
Need 3 new starters in this scenario.
Means Melo/O'Quinn trade bait. Rose is let go. With Melo/O'Quinn should be able to get a starter back. Get a starter with letting Rose walk, use capspace on starter that fits. And draft a player at 5/6/7 wherever we are in the draft, to start.
Give it a look see what happens, maybe Willy/KP can play or maybe they can't. Maybe KP is in over his head as the man, and maybe our 2017 pick will not be ready to start and win games. We don't really lose, because the worse we are, the higher we pick in 2018. The better we are, the more it means that KP/Willy/2017 pick can be winning players worth inveesting in longterm.