Renting Steve Nash

Phoenix has made it clear that Nash has to ask for a trade and he is a very loyal guy. Toronto does not want to pay Calderon salary of 11 million next year and they want a young PG in return. It’s clear that Batum is balling right now and Portland might have to break the bank to re-sign him because if he walks Blazer Nation might storm the ROSE GARDEN and I might lead them…lol

because this Blazer team is strictly short term. There are exactly 2.5 players worth keeping and maybe E. Williams makes it 3. The Brandon Roy team is dead, dead, dead, and it still beaks my heart.

Suns say they are not trading Nash unless he requests it. Nash says he is not requesting a trade. Therefore it can be assumed that Nash will not be traded unless someone convinces him to change his mind.

First I do think that Nash would enjoy playing in Portland for a myriad of reasons that have been listed many times this year. I’ll list em…

1) He’s a Pacific Northwest guy and this would bring him closer to his home (owns home in British Columbia), his brother (lives in Vancouver), and his business interets (Partial owner of Vancouver Whitecaps).
2) He would be immediately embraced by the Portland fan base, and Nash would benefit and feel grateful for the energy we bring.
3) Paul Allen is not afraid to pay a star of his caliber.

Next, I strongly believe that renting Nash for the remainder of this year, then having the upper hand in negotiating a new contract puts us in a very strong position for a soft-rebuild around LA, Nash and Batum. (Not a bad three for other free agents to want to play with). I think Nash would be interested in a three year contract (third year team option) around 8-10 million a year with incentives on games played to hedge his age.

That’s right, I did say Batum in my last statement. My proposal keeps our young star to be in Portland and here is how I would do it.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=6pvtmml

Portland

PG: Nash / N. Smith / A. Johnson
SG: We$ / Crawford
SF: Batum / Childress / Babbitt
PF: LA / C. Smith
C: Camby / Frye / K. Thomas

Phoenix

PG: Felton / Price / S. Telfair
SG: S. Brown / Redd / E. Williams
SF: G. Wallace / Hill / Dudley
PF: Warrick / Morris
C: Gortat / Lopez / C. Johnson

A couple of caveats and reasoning behind this:

Portland obviously picks up the only point guard available to us right now that can help us win now, but we also get Channing Frye returned to us to backup Camby and find someone who can actually hit the three ball on a regular basis. Of course we are stuck with the albatross that is J. Childress, but its not like he’s any worse than Babbitt. I know our SF position is pretty thin with this trade, but we do have an extra roster spot that opens which gives us the chance to make a lopsided trade, D-League call up or the rare free agent pickup of Wilson Chandler who will be coming back from China soon. Or as Bill Simmons put, we could coax them into giving us Grant Hill for that last spot.

Phoenix does this for a couple reasons. First they get something back in return for an already departing Steve Nash. Second, then pick up two expiring contracts ($17 mill worth) on players that can actually produce if they chose they fit their system. Add to that they lose the stink hole that Childress, 6 mill over four years, brings and its a pretty attractive deal. Third they pick up a couple relatively attractive young pieces in Elliot Williams and Chris Johnson which they can use any way they want. The hold up in this deal for them is getting rid of Frye, however he has already been in and out of the lineup this year, and given the financial flexibility they gain with this deal I’d say its fair.

Oooook. So go ahead and tear this idea to shreds. I know its not perfect but I think it helps us fundamentally in the two areas we need the most help in. Backcourt prowess and three point depth.

Cheers.

is how bad our team looks on paper, and even worse on the court. Aside from Aldridge and Batum of course. The rest are role players.

I have always like Nash. I don’t like to speculate much unless there is some real chance it could happen. I have heard nothing substantial, and without a GM, we are hampered even more. The Blazers are idiots for not getting that part done. We will always be a step behind until we get a full time GM.

i can’t see PA trading big pieces to get Nash if it looks like we are headed for a 7th or 8th seed and a matchup with the Thunder

i was dumb to believe the hype about him being a 40% shooter from 3-pt based on a partial season with Nuggets. He can’t keep anyone in front of him and can’t hit an open 3. Meanwhile, Dre is getting it done in Denver like the pro he is.