david west/ chris bosh/chris paul

Maybe we can trade Travis and Jerryd for him.

only not as good?

for naming who you want to trade for (most do not even go that far). But, what does your trade actually look like? Who or what are you trading away and is the trade realistic? Travis for Chris Bosh is just not going to work.

I think your dreaming right now.

we should trade for Taureen Green

and in the current economic climate I’m sure we’ll see some economically motivated deals that are truly head scratchers, but there is no way Portland is landing an all star (think Bosh type players) without giving up at least LMA, maybe LMA + Rudy, Batum, Bayless, Webster, or a combo of those. As to superstars, NO wouldn’t even pick up the phone unless it was Roy and extra. KP is good, but he’s not that good – to get value, you need to give it.

………………….

I mean really?

New Orleans wouldn’t trade Chris Paul, maybe not even if Brandon was involved. Brandon has what is called a Poison Pill Provision after signing his contract extension for 2010, making it nearly impossible to trade him

Salary cap guru Larry Coon explains:

If a team trades an extended rookie between the date his extension is signed and the date it takes effect, his "trade value" for the receiving team is the average of the salaries in the last year of the scale contract and each year of the extension. This is called the poison pill provision. The sending team uses the player’s actual salary when calculating their outgoing salary. They use the current-year maximum salary in place of the (unknown) maximum salary for a future season, if necessary.

It is designed to make trading a player who just got extended very hard to not screw around with players coming off their rookie contracts and signing their next deal, so it fulfills its purpose and the name is fitting. Other teams would definitely have to be involved to give everyone a deal that makes sense. Try it out with the ESPN or RealGM trade machines.

I am on record stating that (the owner’s family of) New Orleans will rather sell the team or move it to a city where it can be more profitable (it was profitable last season) before trading Chris Paul. I stand to that. To give people a perspective: The fans of about every team lust after Chris Paul. Even teams that have great young point guards. Bulls fans discussed giving up Derrick Rose in a deal in the last days. Brandon Roy would undoubtedly be an interesting competitive offer, but it still would be unlikely to happen. Paul is more well-known for national/international marketing purposes, arguably the best point guard currently in the game, and at least on Roy’s level of importance for his team. We had our chance to draft him (or Deron Williams), and traded down largely because people in the organization thought Sebastian Telfair was the golden ticket at point guard. D’oh! That was it. That chance won’t come back until much much later in Paul’s career. If ever.

 
Furthermore, Paul is in the first year of his already started new contract in what is called Base Year Compensation, making matters even more difficult. There sure could be a trade constructed in theory (paging Tom Penn), but if it makes sense to all involve parties is very questionable. Here is a deal that might work in theory (it currently doesn’t in practice before an involved team would renounce some rights). And it’s not pretty:

New Orleans out: Chris Paul, Peja Stojakovich/Mo Peterson
New Orleans in: Brandon Roy, Thabo Sefolosha, first round draft pick from Portland

Portland out: Brandon Roy, Joel Przybilla
Portland in: Chris Paul, rights to e.g. Yotam Halperin (no money value, just has to be something)

OKC out: Thabo Sefolosha who also has a PPP (alternatively Kyle Weaver), rights to Yotam Halperin
OKC in: Joel Prybilla (the big man they need), Peja Stojakovich’s bad deal (alternatively Mo Peterson’s deal, but that’s not as attractive to Nola since it’s only half the money), $3 million cash from Portland, first round draft pick from Portland

As far as I can see this deal currently works for New Orleans and Portland with PPP and BYC, but for Oklahoma only if they would waive old free agent rights they hold that currently block their cap space (which they would then have instantly). Depending on the deal 1 or 2 out of Danny Fortson $9,895,485 cap hold; Malik Rose $11,471,250; Robert Swift $7,158,262. Then it should work. Would they do it instead of saving the money they would have to give Peja instead of going after a young FA? Doubtful even though they surely could use Joel.

As for the rest: David West isn’t better than LaMarcus, and Chris Bosh is more expensive and not coming here either.

PG- Paul/Bayless
SG- Roy/Webster
SF- James/Batum
PF- Bosh/Aldridge
C- Howard/Oden

I thing that team would be pretty good.

… but I think a MUCH better plan is to invest some (or lots) of Paul Allen’s money into the research of a certain South Korean geneticist, so that next time the Cavs’ come to Portland we obtain LeBron’s used jock strap and use his genetic material to clone three or four copies of him.

Of course we’d probably have to first put up money for his bail, seeing as he’s currently in jail. But hey, that’s a minor obstacle for so worthy a task.

 “The Los Angeles Lakers have acquired forward Pau Gasol in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak. The Lakers will also receive the Grizzlies second round draft choice in 2010. In exchange Memphis will receive forward Kwame Brown, guard Javaris Crittenton, guard Aaron McKie (who the Lakers signed earlier today), the draft rights to Marc Gasol and first round picks in 2008 and 2010.”

Kareem was traded for example; CP3 is no Kareem, he appears to me to be moody and fragile. I do have to agree – it would be fun to try and win with him though.