This has been interesting and all that, but the deal being discussed is something like this: Hinrich makes $11M Wallace makes $15.5M adds up to $26.5M Hughes makes $12M Gooden makes $6.4M Adds up to $18M Cleveland still needs to ante up another $2M for CBA purposes. Talent-wise: Hughes has been hot garbage since going to Cleveland, though he was terrific with the Wizards. I personally like Hinrich better in all things basketball, though Hughes has a height advantage. Wallace is still better than Gooden, IMO, but Gooden does things at his position that the Bulls could really use. Neither team has that much to lose in the deal, but Cleveland stands the most to gain. If Wallace plays similar to how he did last year, he's a score. If Hinrich does, it's a slam dunk winner for the Cavs. I do see why the deal is appealing to Paxson, though. Do the math. The Bulls would save something on the order of $6.5M in payroll to help re-sign Deng and Gordon. Or not; it's cap flexibility, something he values more highly than talent and winning.
Hughes is guaranteed to miss at least 20 games. The Cavs could include Newble or Damon Jones as a filler. It's a huge risk by the Bulls if they go through with this trade because Hinrich and Wallace are off to slow starts and have low value right now.
I think Gooden is better than Wallace by a lot, and I think Hughes is better than Hinrich as well. Hinrich just has better numbers because he has the ball in his hands 80% of the time.
Sam Smith talks about this trade: <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>In my desire to help all 30 teams with trade ideas, I've developed a core of volunteer assistants and sometimes an interesting suggestion comes along. An e-mailer who's had some good information before wrote last week to say the Bulls and Cavs were discussing Kirk Hinrich and Ben Wallace for Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes. I've been unable to confirm if there have been such discussions. But I know the Cavs have locker-room and chemistry chaos. Damon Jones and Ira Newble declined to enter games last week, and the Cavs are desperate to deal Hughes. His contract—money and years—pretty much matches Wallace's, and if the Bulls can find anyone to take Wallace's contract, you'd think they would. Interesting how quickly his sore foot healed. Hughes, though injury-prone, is the kind of big guard the Bulls are missing. And they have had talks about Gooden in recent years. Plus the Cavs have been desperate for a point guard. There's interest around the league in Hinrich, and if I were to move him I'd probably want more. Dumping that Wallace contract, though, could be appealing.</div> Generally reinforces my thoughts that I'd rather not give up Hinrich for just Gooden. To put it simply, I don't think we need to add anything to the deal to get Hughes for Wallace. If that'd be addition by subtraction, you do it, and then you look for a better trade for a big elsewhere (like Gasol), because our real frontcourt problem is we're loaded with tweener forwards.
The real drama that the Cavs had with Vareajo and Pavlovic is without question tied to the subprime / housing crisis - given the core business of Cavs ownership I can't see any deal being done by the Cavs that takes back more salary then what they are giving out and they would be on the hook for more longer with Hinrich and Wallace moreso than what they would with Gooden and Hughes With what appears to be the subtext to the Cavs issues is quite possibly the real story - the dominant text , all of which , is going to impact on the ability to put a decent team together around Lebron James Cavs are out at $74M - this seaosn and next with big luxury tax bills , and where , the underlying business which is meant to support would be bleeding profusely Smart GM's will be wired to this and will be able to buy good cheap Cav assets at good value to the buck I would be looking for deals like Thabo and Khyrapa for Pavlovic Duhon, Griffin and Aaron Gray for Drew Gooden Betcha the Cavs would bite too Wallace Gooden Deng Pavlovic Hinrich Gordon - 6th man <u>bench </u> Noah Smith /Thomas Nocioni/Thomas Curry Who knows you might be able to expand the trade in a 3 way and offload Drew Gooden and Andres Nocioni for Pau Gasol Gasol takes Gooden's place in the starting line up and Thomas falls in with Noah, Smith , Curry and whoever the vet point guard signing is in the 2nd unit Might need to sign a vet back up point guard like Randy Livingstone or someone like that to finish out the season
I've thought about that a fair amount Sausage King, and I'm just not sure Dan Gilbert gives a rat's hiney about his legitimate business concerns any more. If they were really that concerned, why go over the LT to re-sign Varejao and Pavlovic in the first place? I daresay if Jerry Reinsdorf was in that situation, he'd have Lebron out there selling beer and peanuts before the game.
Bump... Abe, where are you? I've come to gloat about Dan Gilbert taking on even more salary They're now $12.5M over the tax threshold and probably committed to being about $10M over next year. Truth be told, I'm sure he's none too happy about it, but Lebron strikes me as the sort of guy that'll threaten to bolt unless the Cavs spend to the hilt. Of course, he'll bolt anyway because this team isn't going anywhere by adding Wallace and Szczczczczczcrbiak, but he's gotta keep the dream alive for a bit.
