Would you pull the trigger on this trade if you were the GM?
Portland Trades: #6 pick, Nolan Smith
Houston Trades Kyle Lowry
As its been said Goran Dragic likely wont sign with a team unless he's guaranteed a starter. I think Houston likes him better than Lowry. I'd bet that in order to sign Dragic, Houston is willing to trade Lowry and get something back rather than lose Dragic for nothing on the free market. A #6 pick and a backup PG is a reasonable offer.
Portland Trades #11 pick, Shawne Williams, Kurt Thomas
New Orleans Trades #4 pick, Emeka Okafor
New Orleans is rebuilding and wants a star player that a #4 pick could get them. However, they own a 2nd lottery pick and Okafor's contract is a huge burden, 13.5 mil, that New Orleans wants out of even more. Portland would give up the vast majority of their cap space to get a solid, starting center with the rebounding and defense to compliment LMA's skillset. Kurt Thomas is serviceable and cheap for a veteran center to replace Okafor and Williams is a 3 mil thrown in to help lessen the blow of Okafor's contact. Most importantly, we move up to #4 where Beal or MKG are obtainable.
Assume that the moves eat up all of our cap space, only leaving room to resign Batum and Hickson. We would have to go over the cap to sign our 2nd round picks, Claver and Freeland to rookie scale contracts, and Joel Pryzbilla to a vet's minimum contract. We could also resign Flynn using his bird rights. After the trades and signings, our lineup looks like this:
PG: Lowry, Flynn, #40/41
SG: Matthews, #4, Williams
SF: Batum, Babbitt, Claver
PF: Aldridge, Hickson, #40/41
C: Okafor, Freeland, Pryzbilla
I realize there are a lot of ifs here but assume for arguments sake that all of these things were possible. Would you do the deal? Is this a team you could get excited for? Where would you project a roster like this to finish in 2012-13? What matchups in the west would we struggle with?
Poll
Would you pull the trigger on these trades?
Yes to both. Get it done! (179 votes)
Yes to Lowry, No to Okafor (67 votes)
Yes to Okafor, No to Lowry (33 votes)
Maybe with some slight changes to thrown in players (30 votes)
No way to either trade (66 votes)
375 total votes


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