Considering we made out like bandits on draft day without giving up any of our players with major value (RLEC, Martell, Trout, Frye, Sergio, Petteri) does anybody see KP standing pat for the rest of the Summer?  I'm guessing some serious roster consolidation is in the works.

I keep thinking that the addition of Diogu makes Frye expendable, and the addition of Bayless frees up a PG for a trade.

Here's what I was  thinking:

Portland recieves:

Shane Battier SF $5,883,600

Houston recieves:

Travis Outlaw SF $4,000,000

Channing Frye PF $2,480,240

Sergio Rodriguez or Petteri Koponen PG ~$800,000 (we'd have to give Petteri a contract for this to work, obviously)

Works on the ESPN trade machine, I'm just a little worried about giving up so much for a guy with his stats.  Battier is a hard working team player who can lock down any 2 or 3 in the league, but his numbers really aren't very good.   I mean, he  doesn't score, but with a frontcourt of Roy Rudy and Bayless, plus Aldridge and Oden do we really need another scorer?  He also shoots over 40% from three so that'd be a nice fourth/fifth option.  Plus he's a quintessential "culture guy."  I think it makes sense for Houston as well.

Bayless/Blake

Roy/Rudy

Battier/Martell

Aldridge/Diogu

Oden/Vanilla Gorrilla

Man I like the look of that.  Has everything: size, athleticism, depth, rebounding, solid D, scoring off the bench.  That's a championship team.  Plus we still have RLEC just in case.  Is there something obvious I'm missing why this wouldn't work.

I know a lot of people on here love Russell Westbrook because we need a defensive stopper at PG.  Problem is, we already have one, according to DraftExpress:

What makes Jarrett Jack stand out a bit in this excellent class of PG's in this draft is his defense. He is probably the best defensive PG in this draft along with Aaron Miles, but has more potential at the NBA level with this skill because of his excellent size and body. His footwork is absolutely fantastic and he never takes off a possession. He'll get right in the grill of his opponent and won't give him an inch. He is very physical and always plays the game with a lot of intensity, not having any problem getting scrappy or taking the charge. He has good anticipation skills and excellent hands, which makes him a constant threat in the passing lanes. He will not risk his defensive position to come up with the steal like other PG's in this draft who average a little higher in the steals category. He's also a very good rebounder for a PG, averaging 5.5 for the season. Georgia Tech is the best defensive team in the ACC and Jack is a huge part of that.               

Just goes to show that just because someone is a big-time defensive player in college doesn't mean he will be able to hang with the big boys.

Has anyone ever read the book "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely?  He's an MIT professor who looks at why people make the decisions they do.  Here's a link:

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/

Anyways, he has a chapter about how people tend to way overvalue what they believe is "theirs."  He conducts an experiment after a Duke Bball ticket lottery.  He asks people who lost what they would pay to get a ticket.  The average was around $175 because they were thinking that, although the game would be fun, they could get a lot of other stuff for $200.  Because they didn't own the tickets, they had formed no attachment to them, and all other potential possessions held as much value.

On the other hand, he asked people who had won tickets in the lottery what it would take to sell them.  The average was around $2,500 because people felt the tickets were "theirs," and started to value them more.  The point was the difference between what people would give up and what people would have to give up was huge.

Dave touched on this when he talked about how we are never no way no how ever getting Chris Paul.  How many times have we read that "Jack + Trout + 13" could net us Rose?  Yet if you look at it objectively, there is no way that would happen.  Would you take two bench players and a low lottery pick for a potential Hall-of-Famer? 

This is why so few trades actually ever happen.  And a superstar getting traded is usually an act of desperation where one team gets completely screwed (See: Minnesota, Memphis, Phoenix, Dallas etc...). 

This doesn't mean that a deal can't get done.  Just that what we have isn't nearly as valuable as we think it is.