Aaron Gray to Blazers - Trade Proposal

Seriously, what is with you folks that you can’t see what a monster Bayless is going to become?

Trade him for a 29 year old solid journeyman with a career PER of 14.6?

Makes absolutely no sense to me.

Brandon is almost impossible to trade this year because of the poison pill provision. I’m too lazy to look it up, but if I remember correctly, this means that Portland can only count his salary for this year as going out, while the other team has to count his salary for next year as coming in.

Now, I’m also too lazy to look the numbers up, but let’s say Roy makes $4 million now and $13.5 million next year. That means Portland can only take back $4 million in salary (that’s all they send out under the rules), but the other team has to send out $13.5 million, since they are taking back $13.5.

So can Roy be traded at all this year? Yes, under two scenarios. One is if a team that has cap space is involved. If a team had $10 million in cap space, they could send us $4 million in salaries, and we’d have a salary match, and they could take Roy — they’d have $14 million in space to take his contract after sending us that $4 million. Only OKC has significant cap space, and Roy isn’t going there.

The other scenario is a massive trade. If we add another $16 million in salaries, then we are sending out $20 million. Under the 125% rule, we could bring back $25 million. The other team would be sending out $25 million, which would allow them to bring back $31 million, and we would be sending them $30 million, so the trade would work. Effectively, to trade Brandon anywhere except to a team with cap space, we would have to trade another $16 million in salaries (Joel, Andre, and Jerryd, perhaps) and take back $25 million.

So, that’s Brandon.

Now for CP3. He’s BYC. That means his team can only count half of his salary as going out, but the other team has to count all of his salary as coming in. CP3 makes about $14 million. That means to trade him, N.O. can only take back $7 milliion, while the other team will get $14 million. This is much more doable.

Again, there is only one team with that much cap space, OKC. However, there ARE teams that have trade exemptions. Someone is going to have to absorb some salary, and a team with a trade exemption could, in a three team deal. Suppose that the team that gets CP3 sends $5 million in salary to a team with a trade exemption and $7 million to N.O. They have sent out $12 million and taken back $14 million, within the 125% limit. N.O. has taken back and sent out $7 million.

CP3’s salary complications can also be solved with a blockbuster trade. Suppose they send out, in addition to Paul, an additional $10 million, and take back $20 million. Now, they’ve sent $17 million, within the 125%, and the other team has sent out $20 million and taken back $24 million. This also is within 125%.

So both of these guys can theoretically be traded this year, but practically, it is very difficult. And to trade them for each other is probably impossible even if you lumped in the entire rosters. Portland in trading Roy would be sending out $4 million, and taking back $14 million (CP3). N.O. would be sending out $7 million, and taking back $13.5 million (Roy).

If each team added in $20 million more in salaries, N.O. would barely be legal, but Portland still wouldn’t. You would have to add in an additional $30 million plus in salaries to get this one legal, which would take Joel, Andre, Martell, Travis, Steve, and someone else.

If it weren’t for the Darius chunk out of our cap space, we’d have a shot at making this work, but otherwise, it just won’t fly.

Next summer, two things change. First, CP3 won’t be BYC anymore. That means his salary can be traded straight across. Second, Brandon stops being Poison Pill and becomes BYC. That makes it hard to trade him, but much more practical. See the discussion above for how tradeable CP3 is now, while he’s BYC. Basically, next summer, we would have to add another $10 million in salaries and they would have to add another $6 million or so.

Another significant issue here is that LMA is Poison Pill right now, and BYC next year. So that means that we can’t really include him in any of these deals, or he just makes them harder to work out.

My approach is only less disruptive and logically going to work if we actually implement a real pick and roll or other approach that goes away from so much isolation offense.

We could use the iso in the fourth, if that really is our most efficient play, but my guess is it would cease to be our most efficient play if we learned to run the pick and roll well.