Chad Ford: Trade for Paul was very close

Paul might as well have just said, "start spending or trade my ass."

Please, for the love of god, Larry Miller or whomever the hell else is answering the phones at 1 center court get this done!

 

If the master plan is a healthy Oden, and Steve Blake to get us to the promised land versus, getting arguably a top 5 player in the NBA at a critically important position then I think you need to take a hard look at your plan.

 

Chill, man.

 

The question is how? I still feel like we should look to move LMA for expirings and rookie contracts in an attempt to retain Batum/Oden. Need to hear Shinn's wishlist first and get a commitment on the follow up trade obviously lest we get Miles'd by our own genius. I have looked at rosters and really not many folks have anything the Hornets would want except unproven rookies. OKC has some stuff, but they wouldn't trade with us if they got a whiff of Paul to Ptown. OKC seems to be our big rival here from what I see as Shinn is who matters not CP3's opinion of where to go.

 

Watch him get traded this off-season, lets pray he ends up in Portland. I've always thought CP3 leaving NOH was a pipe dream, but the stars seem to have aligned and at the perfect time too. Most teams jockeying for LBJ/Wade/Bosh and distracted. I'm not saying he ends up here, I'm saying more then EVER before it seems possible you have to admit that.

 

You do not, not, not, under any circumstances, trade LA for expirings and young talent unless you are sure that you have a deal for Paul in place. And frankly, I don't think you're going to get it. Either look for a three team trade, or move Oden+Batum. I'm fine with moving Oden+Batum.

 

Ya, no doubt. I'm hoping he ends up here too. I get chills thinking of him running PG with Brandon at his side.

 

Damn straight. If you empty the cupboard and strike out you set the franchise back ... waaaaaay back.

 

Now if New Orleans were to accept a package centered around Batum and no Oden than my post can be disregarded. But, and truthfully, could anyone actually see us trading Oden potentially for Paul? Whether it be Miller, our new GM, whoever, can anyone see it happening? I just don't see the Blazers doing it because of how much time they have spent and put into him to get healthy and better. This is where the deal breaker is going to happen, if Paul is truely being traded at all.

 

Well duh, I agree with not trading LMA unless you had the next trade in place to execute immediately. I poked around on Trade Machine and didn't find much with teams that would willing trade with us that met the criteria. It inspired it's own non-trade related post actually.

 

What sort of deal were you looking for? Or, rather, what criteria? Just taking on LMA?

 

I wasn't looking hard due to constant justified mocking of my trade ideas . However, I was thinking young Centers, SF's and SG's on rookie contracts and expirings for LMA. Again ONLY if another turn around trade with NOH was agreed to be executed more or less instantaneously after the LMA trade.

 

I actually just found one that might fit the bill assuming Trade Machine hasn't failed me for the last time with old data:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=26kx5ay

Portland and Washington

Portland trades:

LMA

Portland receives:

McGee
Blatche
Thorton
Fatty Trade Exception

You then trade McGee, Blatche and Thorton, AMEC, JPEC and Batum for CP3 Okafor and Posey. You might have to mess with the numbers a bit but something like that.

 

I don't like that deal any more for N.O. The package from Washington is pretty weak, IMO. Might as well take the savings and pay LMA. Blatche has talent, but is an idiot. Thornton...meh. Outlaw's a better option. McGee is intriguing, but not enough. Difficulty is, to take on Chris Paul and Okafor together, we'd need to send out 21 million, roughly, in salary. A 3 way with LMA leaving gets it there, but I don't think you can then take Posey back also. Webster's contract, combined with Bayless and Batum got you there. LMA going out gets you there. Perhaps a 3 way trade, with NJ, Portland and N.O. It'd be tough, and I think to get there realistically, if you're taking on Okafor, you'd have to send out Miller, Joel, Aldridge, and then the other pieces they had wanted in Batum and Bayless.

Paul/A. Johnson
Roy/E. Williams
Babbitt
Camby
Oden/Okafor

I loev pairing ROy and Paul, but you decimate the rest of the team. Camby and Oden is a good combo, but I doubt Okafor's ability to play alongside Oden, so you'd then need another backup PF. At least with Camby, Aldridge and Oden, Camby can play with both, as either C or PF. So you have a backup C making 11 a year. No depth otherwise. Rookies and second year players. It's easy to say fill it in with MLE pieces, but so far in free agency, the MLE is going to crap guys like Amir Johnson, so you get desperate to find someone to fill in that slot. I think it becomes much more difficult now.

Now, if we can remove Okafor, that's a different story, but I dunno why they do that. Or, if we insert Camby instead of LMA.

 

LMA is better than Blatche or McGee? Thornton is junk, and they build around a combo of Wall and Aldridge?

 

A new owner doesn't want to be stuck in cap hell. A new owner wants to have a financially stable team, with cap room to make all kinds of fun deals and a young stable of talent. We can clear our bench and give New Orleans almost everything they want. They're not going to trade Chris Paul somewhere he doesn't want to go; they're going to treat him well because word spreads around the league how players are treated.

Monty knows our roster and knows what he can do with it. You know he loves Nico, and the French angle would play well down in The Big Easy. My guess is their MLE will go to Travis Outlaw or perhaps they can convince the Clips to take Peja in a sign and trade. He'll back up David West. Andre can teach Collison a few tricks before he gets kicked to the curb. Bayless becomes their scoring sixth man. Joel gets his contract paid by insurance and becomes a free agent at the end of the year. I'll throw so many first rounders at them Ted Stepien will call me crazy. If they want our Euro farm team, they can have it.

The NBA has shown one thing: You're either competing for a championship or you're rebuilding. Now is the time to use their one big chit to clear cap space and fill their roster with young talent. Fans will get behind a young, talented, exciting team. They'll also understand why Paul asked to be traded, the way we understood that Clyde had to go.

I think we can make this work.

 

I agree and I has teh wood thinking about Paul/Roy with some combo of LMA/Oden/Batum. I think trading LMA for more pieces NOH wants is the way to go. Someone (I'm looking at you Rastapopulous!) who's better at arm chair GM'ing needs to figure out a creative way to get it done. Obviously draft picks, cash and Euro farm are well on the table. I really think you want to Keep Oden/Roy and if possible one of LMA/Batum I'd prefer Batum.

 

You just talked me into it. Hey, get on the phone with Larry Miller, couldn't hurt to throw your hat in the ring.

 

I would definitely vote for half of this forum over some of the names I've heard floated.

Since we are likely to get another "Yes man", I'm hoping that Paul Allen has a young BBIQ heady nerd, with aspergers working the trade machine and feeding him decent suggestions.

I'm assuming on the aspergers part just because I'm pretty sure that's part of the screening process to get into Vulcan.