http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=518074 "The Wizards continue to get inquiries about SF Caron Butler. He's an All-Star caliber player, but if the team does not make a move at the deadline, it is going to wind up smack in luxury tax territory. They can't trade PF Antawn Jamison or PG Gilbert Arenas because of their contracts, so Butler remains their only option."
They are 21 out 30 in league attendance, down from 15 last season. Maybe the enticement to save dough will get them to bite at the last minute. One can hope.
Arenas and Butler for RLEC, IDEC, CFEC, SREC, and Travis? We get a very good SF and whatever Arenas turns out to be when/if he recovers. Wizards get a whole bunch of cap relief and a chance to start over. Question is, do the wiz really want to dump Arenas? Or are they ok with collecting insurance and waiting to see if he recovers? Are we willing to take a chance on Arenas? He's untradeable for years if he comes back and isn't fabulous. On the other hand, he could take medical retirement and then go play for Memphis. Or he could pick up where he left off and give us an all-star at every position (when Oden and Aldridge get there, I mean). barfo
I'd do it even if I knew Arenas would never play another minute. Portland is going to be well over the cap anyway, once they start re-signing their young players. Being even more over the cap doesn't make the team any less competitive. Of course, it's easy to spend Allen's money. Fun, too. But if he were okay with paying Arenas' contract, I'd be happy for Portland to take his salary in order to get Butler virtually for free, talent-wise. If Arenas actually does end up contributing, bonus.
You may be right. It is a big risk financially. But the payoff, if it works, is absolute domination of the league. barfo
And, let me guess, Yi's gonna be The G.o.A.T., right? You and our very own resident Chicago Bulls homer should get a website goin' together. You could do the "player scouting" and he could do the "power rankings"--LOL! That shit would be priceless... at least for everything else there'd still be MasterCard, though! You guys could be like Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, if they were, for some-odd reason, fans of the NBA. The only question would be who's the former and who's the latter, in terms of the movie's title. I'm not sure who would be who, exactly, but I think you guys could sure give each other a run for your respective... uhh... "money."
That might be true but I doubt it with Arenas being a huge risk to never play again or maybe at best a shell of his former self. I don't think no matter how rich you are you can't take a 111 million dollar risk when it isn't even needed. I think if the Wiz were going to make a trade we could get Butler without Arenas terrible contract. I think PA would just laugh and make KP hangup if they made that offer.
It all depends on what you believe about his chances of recovery, I guess. It obviously only makes sense if the blazers have reason to believe he's got a good shot at making a full recovery. The advantage to taking Arenas is that we are doing them such a huge financial favor that we don't have to send them young talent back. If they are just giving us Butler, they'll presumably want something more than capspace in return. barfo
We already have maybe Roy, Oden and LMA that will get max or at least very large contracts. Rudy and Bayless will need to bigger contract in a couple years plus we have other players like Outlaw, Webster, Blake etc that are making 4-5 a year. You add in Butler's large contract and then take Arenas that might not even play again at 111 million and we would be way into luxury tax. PA is rich but he didn't get that way being that dumb.
Agreed. If they are stuck with Arenas, then why not keep Butler, get a draft pick next year and try to compete. But, if you can get rid of Arenas' contract (at the expense of losing Butler) at least you only have Jamison's contract to deal with. If they trade Butler, the will likely be much worse and still have two untradeable contracts.
Here's what should happen: We trade Bayless (or Rudy)/RLEC and get Caron. Phoenix trades Amare and get the RLEC/Bayless (or Rudy) Wizards trade Caron and get Amare. Wizards sell tickets with Amare, and Jamison slides to SF. They trade Butler out of conference. Phoenix saves its precious money and gets to sell a hot young guard. They trade Amare out of conference. Portland gets the SF we covet. Dang. That just makes too much sense for everybody. Obviously, there's some salary issues to make the contracts work.
I'd be happy for PDX to take the Arenas poison pill to get Butler. If Allen is willing, it would make this team incredibly dominant. iWatas
