Trade Drawer Black Friday 13th - Think Financials, Not Players

It’s a bigger hole short and long term than SF, at a much more important position on the court, and one which is significantly harder to fill. Good wings are plentiful, if we really feel we need to upgrade the SF we can do that down the line or with other assets.

Use the RLEC + talent to get us a PG!

Indiana is in a lot of trouble financially. It’s a long shot but they might be willing to sell off Granger at the price of taking two or three of their horrendous contracts, i.e. Murphy/Dunleavy/Tinsley/Foster

I wonder if teams won’t be even worse off later in the year. Not all will be able to dump salary before the deadline and fewer teams are able to take on salary (a depressed market); meanwhile attendance will deteriorate, fan disatisfaction will rise, etc… Will we hold pat till the summer, keep Raef’s big deal for our own program, do a minor trade to pare down the roster and get a veteran? We’ll find out in less than a week.

Travis, Rudy, RLEC to Phoenix
Caron Butler, Etan Thomas to Portland
Amare Stoudemire to Washington

Thoughts?

I heard today on 95.5 the blazers are looking to land Young Buck. He left G-Unit a little while back, has had problems with the IRS so he comes REAL CHEAP. I think he would be a good pickup, he’s real hungry right now and has a lot of heart. I know a lot of guys on the team enjoy southern rap so buck is a good fit in Portland.. Hope KP pulls the trigger.

If Phoenix is really desperate to cut salery why have we not heard anything about Shaq getting moved? I think there will be alot of heated discussions about Shaq the next few days. Portland has bird rights on LA and Roy in the summer of 2010 why wouldent Portland make a move for Shaq to clean out some the question marks on this team and have 25 million come off the books in 2010? I think Portland could make a serious push for Lebron.

Portland pulls a deal with Minnesota. Miller and Foye for RLEC. Minny does it because Miller is on the books for this year and next and gets some more cap relief. Foye is the sweetner that gets Portland to pull ther trigger. They get a shooter in Miller who will make teams pay early and often for their sagging D. Foye is a strong, tall, athletic PG who can play better D than our current guys.

and we take another contract back, doesn’t matter who.

This deal must be done.

I thought of it before Norsk – check the tapes.

Says this about Portland today.

2. Portland Trail Blazers. They face two options here: Go into the summer with something like $8 million in cap space, or try to realize greater value by trading Raef LaFrentz’s expiring $12.8 million contract in the next week. The issue with making a deal now is that the Blazers may have to include draft picks and young players, though they have such a wealth of assets that they can afford to do whatever they wish.

I keep reading they’re in the market for Stoudemire but I cannot believe it. They love what LaMarcus Aldridge delivers on and off the court, and they believe he’ll become a dominant star at both ends of the floor. Why give up on him or cloud his future by bringing in Stoudemire? The Blazers have to be looking into other trading opportunities.

Then he goes on to say who he feels is the right guy for Portland to target.

2. Steve Nash to Portland. Maybe the Blazers don’t see it this way, but I view Nash as the perfect complement to their young team. He would provide nonintrusive leadership, handling the ball most of the time but also yielding it to become a terrific spot-up shooter when Brandon Roy takes over. In the short term, the Blazers would become harder than ever to guard, with Nash serving as a bridge to hasten the improvement of Aldridge, Greg Oden and others. After next season, Nash would either step back into a lesser role or depart as a free agent, but in the meantime he would spike the talents of his younger teammates.

Other trades could be disruptive (if they brought in a star scorer to alter the growing balance between Roy, Aldridge and Oden) or ineffective (if they acquired a blue-collar veteran who may or may not turn out to be worth his salary once the Blazers have tried to carve out a role to fit him). Nash is the answer.

I understand the reports that Nash is the one "untouchable’’ on the Suns’ roster: Remove him and their team could look ugly. But the Blazers have enough rebuilding assets to at least bring Phoenix to attention, and in the end Portland may be able to make a deal without hurting its core … if in fact the Blazers share in this view of Nash.

link

This is my Trade: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=d338hx

Who wouldn’t do this deal? Everybody wins, Portland fills the need at two positions, bolsters their perimeter defense without compromising on old guys or giving up a core guy. Phoenix gets cap flexibility and two young guys with some interesting potential, plus a much needed backup PG. The Bulls finally get their big man in Amare, and fill in the void left at SF with Outlaw. Also they secure Amare’s backup with Frye, a young player with potential. The only team I could see pausing on this is Chicago, due to the fact that Paxon is kind of a wuss (see Pau Gasol, Kevin Garnett) and overvalues his players. But I think the idea

But I think that practically it would be hard to get through. I just think that trading with Chicago is really hard to do (as you mentioned), and even more difficult in a 3-way deal.

Anyone know what his defense is like?

Is a healthy Arenas a good fit?

He can drain 3’s, is only 27, averaged almost 30 points just a couple of years ago, and because of Brandon we don’t need a high assist distributing PG. I like the idea of two attacking guards who can also dish. Downside is injury and contract (which is why you get him at all) and because he is hurt you don’t get to integrate him now. I don’t know about his defense. Thoughts?

That is the reason why he might be available… so don’t you pull the trigger on that? If you wait until he proves he is healthy, you don’t get him. If his defense is solid and he is a hard worker, then he fits. If you can get him without giving up Bayless or Blake, you have both a great backup and future replacement to minimize the risk. Would Washington give him up for RLEC and change? Who would it take to get him? Is it worth giving up Rudy?