Trade 1: Bulls trade Larry Hughes and Tyrus Thomas to New York for Al Harrington, Malik Rose, and a protected #1 pick. Trade 2: Bulls trade Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni to Portland for Raef LaFrentz, Travis Outlaw, Sergio Rodriguez 1- Rose, Rodriguez 2- Gordon, Thabo 3- Deng, Outlaw 4- Harrington, Noah 5- Gooden, Gray Not great, but well balanced and opens up space to resign both Gooden and Gordon (or someone else) this summer and still have cap space in 2010 to offer to a big name.
How's about this one. Reading about the TWolves, the really obvious thing that sticks out to me is that McHale seriously screwed the pooch (not the only time he has, but the most recent one) in thinking he could team up Kevin Love and Al Jefferson. They’re every bit as redundant as having Kirk is with Derrick Rose, or having Nocioni is with… well… anyone, but especially Deng, Gooden, Thabo, Tyrus, etc. While neither of those guys are completely ideal, I think Jefferson is a very good player (I’d trade anyone but Rose to get him). I think Love will be pretty decent as well. He’s already posting very solid numbers by most every measure I’ve looked at (PER 16.4, 82 Games shows him with a positive net +/-, my rating system shows him to be a borderline starter already as a rookie, and productive on a per minute basis). So maybe he’s the guy to look at. Maybe we try to take care of everything in one fell swoop: Bulls trade Kirk, Noc, Tyrus, 2009 #1 pick Wolves trade Love, Collins, Cardinal, Madsen Would that get it done? Collins, Cardinal and Madsen have short-term deals. Love will still be on his rookie contract in 2010.
Bulls sign Shawn Marion for the MLE and re-sign Ben Gordon. The Bulls trade Larry Hughes for Emeka Okafor at the trade deadline. The Bulls sign Omer Asik in 2010. The Bulls trade Kirk Hinrich for Raef Lafrentz, and Andres Nocioni to Golden State for Jamal Crawford. PG-Derrick Rose/Jamal Crawford SG-Ben Gordon/Jamal Crawford SF-Luol Deng/Thabo Sefolosha PF-Shawn Marion/Joakim Noah C- Emeka Okafor/Omer Asik
Next trade deadline. Charlotte is a crappy team still, and Emeka Okafor is just a double double guy with no potential to be a franchise player anymore, and is locked up for a lot of money. I would be surprised if Okafor didn't become available for an expiring contract before 2010. Larry Hughes is valuable. And Jordan still owes Paxson for that shot.
Despite the fact that Jefferson and Love are not an ideal tandem, I don't see McHale giving him away so early. And I certainly don't see the taking back a bunch of players on their second contracts when they're not even competing for a playoff spot. In a situation like that, there's no way I would trade a young prospect. McHale has traded away Roy and Mayo in two draft day trades in the last three years. Those are two of the most versatile, up and coming shooting guards in the league. Oops. But back to your original thread concept, Mike, I'm all for the 2010 plan. I'm willing to lose anybody but Rose or Gordon to do it. We're probably stuck with Deng at this point. I'm willing to let go of Noch, Hinrich, Gooden, Thomas, or Noah to make that happen.
How about a trade revolving around Luol Deng for Michael Beasley + Marcus Banks? Pat Riley really likes Luol Deng, and it appears that Riley might have been sincere in not liking Beasley at draft time. Beasley is not exactly setting it on fire on the court, only averaging 14/5 on a poor scoring efficiency. Not bad, but not exactly great either. Perhaps Riley would want Hinrich, another player he really likes, in the trade as well, and sacrificing his 2009 capspace for Hinrich, and go with Hinirch/Deng as the start of Wade's core, and use their 2010 capspace to get Amare, Bosh, etc. at the 4. It would give the Bulls a young, but potentially offensively dominating trio of Rose-Gordon-Beasley. The frontcourt would still need to be addressed defensively, but Beasley should be able to give us some production at the 4, and would love all those open jumpers are offense generates for the power forwards. If the Heat would agree to this trade, we'd then swing our lineup into something like this: PG-Derrick Rose/Lindsey Hunter SG-Ben Gordon/Thabo Sefolosha SF-Larry Hughes/Thabo Sefolosha/Andres Nocioni PF-Michael Beasley/Andres Nocioni C- Aaron Gray/Joakim Noah/Tyrus Thomas Going forward into next year. That would bank are entire future pretty much on developing both Rose/Beasley. I'd assume we could use the MLE for a halfway decent veteran center, and we have Asik coming in 2010 anyhow.
Hinrich to Minnesota for Kevin Love and Brian Cardinal Gooden and Thomas to Sacramento for Brad Miller Nocioni to Dallas Jerry Stackhouse 1- Rose 2- Gordon, Hughes 3- Deng, Thabo 4- Love, Noah 5- Miller, Gray
<hr style="color: rgb(209, 209, 225); background-color: rgb(209, 209, 225);" size="1"> <!-- / icon and title --> <!-- message --> Trade 1: Bulls trade Larry Hughes and Tyrus Thomas to New York for Al Harrington, Malik Rose, and a protected #1 pick. They're not doing that
Be that as it may, I don't like to shoot down light bulb ideas but when was the last time a team traded a first-round draft pick before the first trade deadline? Especially a young big? I think it unlikely. Such is life.
How about Michael Beasley if things don't improve? He wouldn't be available until next season at the trade deadline at the earliest. It would help a ton if Deng blew up in the 2nd half of this season and early next year so we could swing some type of trade. Beasley has all the skills we would ideally want out of our power forward, can run the court, dribble, and shoot.
Heh, how about this? Trade Larry Hughes for Troy Murphy Trade Ben Gordon and Cedric Simmons for Mike Miller Trade Luol Deng and Drew Gooden and Chris Kaman, Ricky Davis and Jason Hart Redirect Jason Hart and Ricky Davis to Charlotte for Matt Carroll Trade Noah and Tyrus to Minnesota for Kevin Love and Mark Madsen (fallback - to Toronto for Andrea Bargnani!) Trade Thabo to Portland for Sergio Rodriguez and Shavlik Randolph 1- Rose, Rodriguez 2- Hinrich, Carroll 3- Miller, Nocioni 4- Murphy, Love, Madsen, Randolph 5- Kaman, Gray That'd be a perfectly reasonable set of trades, right? I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, right? (Yes, there is, but I was just trying to figure out if I could play with the trade machine enough to make it sound plausible)
Heh, are you dissing my new hometown? Larry Bird did express some sentiment along those lines, didn't he, but in practice I think he wants to win too. I just can't figure how he intends to do that with TJ Ford.
