What can I say I'm super bored waiting for real basketball to get started. So here's the deal we'll play a little game; the "game" is to come up with reasonable trade proposals designed to consolidate the roster and make PT and rotations more manageable while also preserving talent and competitiveness. Explain why you trade away certain players, why you target any player(s) and to possibly solve the future point guard dilemma (if you can). So post 'em if you got 'em. Here's mine: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ydpph2d Bayless and Rudy for Mike Conley Why we trade our guys: Jerryd's in all likelihood a ticking time bomb of unhappiness and probably will need a change of scenery sooner rather than later. Rudy's a starting quality two in the league. While sending him to Memphis seems cruel, at least he'll have a fellow countryman in Gasol to help him feel at home ... Iverson's a one year rental, Mayo will probably end up being their long term point guard (from the bits I've heard in the past year) and both Jerryd and Rudy would be looking at increased PT. Why we target Conley: He's one of those young guys who appears to be on the cusp of either being really good and at worst pretty good, he can hit the long ball which is important, he's got a relationship with GO and he's the right age to add now so he can understudy behind Miller and probably overtake Blake for backup minutes, if he really blows up and absolutely commanded playing time Miller or Blake would be pretty easy to move ... blake especially since he's expiring at the end of this season. drawbacks: We'd still be stacked at point guard and would probably have to follow this up with another trade to clear time. OK, I feel dirty after using the trade machine, I need a shower.
I'd like to see how the Rudy at PG pans out. The two young players I'd target are Conley and Robin Lopez. Memphis view Mayo as their PG of the future. This is something I really don't understand but it makes Conley attainable. Post All-Star break Conley played at another level. He's on the cusp of a breakout. Unlike Bayless, Conley is not a SG we have to convert into a PG. Robin Lopez is a defensive minded 7-footer in the mold of a PJ Brown. He's not there yet but in a few years he's going to be very good and a replacement for Przybilla.
Gerald Wallace for Trout and Martell http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y9q2mdn not that the bobcats would do this, but it would consolidate.
Miller and Bayless, (2 surly me-first guys who will never fit with the rest of this team) for Sergio.
I was going off of the assumption that Rudy or Nic would need to be included and I would 100% want it to be Rudy. And if I had to keep Outlaw or Webster, I would keep Webster. This is all a hypothetical if they wanted Rudy or Nic and Outlaw or Webster. So no, I'm not kidding.
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yanr2hg Przy and Blake for Okafor. NO gets a legit C, not a C/PF. They also get a great backup for Paul. We solidify Oden/LMA/Okafor as a 3-man big rotation getting 30-35 minutes apiece. If any one of them goes down for an injury we still have 2 really good starters. Not the case right now if, say, LMA got hurt. The money is even this year, but NOH gets another 10M cut off their lux tax next year. Effectively they traded Chandler for Joel and Blake and got 1 year off the deal. Another one would be this pipe dream, along the same lines: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y9uq4py Al Jefferson for Joel, Outlaw, Rudy and Claver's rights along with next year's #1. Minny can't play uptempo (like they want to) with both Love and Jefferson at the 4/5. They like Love enough to build around him in a pseudo-triangle, and Joel would go home to Minny (with a great chance of re-signing) to be the starting C. Sending Outlaw and Rudy would add instant firepower (Flynn, Rudy, Outlaw, Love, Przy) while in 2 years when Rubio comes over (with Claver) they have the 3 Amigos playing in the tundra. For us, we get another fit into that 3-man big rotation, but it allows us to "save" LMA to be the 4/5 in an uptempo unit. Pay him his money, start Oden and Jefferson with Blake and Roy, and play slowball until you bring in Webster and Miller and LMA and unleash hell.
Have you ever done something with the full knowledge that it's probably going to be a total trainwreck, but you somehow just can't help yourself? This was one of those times for me.
