Supposedly the Hornets are so desperate to offload salary they're shopping Tyson Chandler. The player they really want to unload, though, is Stojakovic (because of his contract). Supposing we could pick him up for RLEC and nothing else, would anyone be interested? (Suppose it was that or no trade at all.) I sort of would. It helped that Batum listed him as one of the players he's found hardest to guard. He gets that shot off so quickly. And he's also an underrated passer and suprisingly good rebounder and not actually the worst defender in the world.
Interesting thought. I was thinking his contract was longer, but he has a player option for 2010/11. So we could use him for a year and a half, basically, and the summer of 2010, could look to potentially trade him, as a big expiring contract, in some sort of sign and trade deal.
I think he'd make the team minorly better this year, but not enough to make a difference (change seeding, change whether the team could win a round in the playoffs). Thus, I'd rather let RLEC (and CFEC/IDEC) expire at the end of the season and go after players like Josh Childress and/or Andre Miller.
No. Peja is a negative at this point, all things considered. Giving up the RLEC for a negative is not something I would support. Ed O.
I think the RLEC could pick up a better player than Peja. He's only shooting 41 percent this season, and isn't really the same player. Like Minstrel said, he'd be a minor upgrade, but not enough to get us over the hump of winning a first-round playoff series.
I like both those players BUT: 1. If we're actually signing Miller as a FA, what's the minimum # of years we can sign him to? He's 33 and he will likely go down hill soon. (He was part of the Baron Davis/Steve Francis cohort, and actually older than both.) I'd rather get him right now as a test run. (But would Philly move him now? Only if they know they're not going to re-sign him but want to try out a PG like Blake as a replacement - I'd be on board with that.) 2. How serious was Childress's injury? And is he really likely to be a step up from Batum? What does he do better than Batum, especially Batum in a couple of years? Peja at least has an all-world shot and one of the quickest releases in the league. Plus we wouldn't be committed to him long enough to cramp the style of our current SFs.
Ok, then they need to sweeten it with two point guards. And one of them should be named Chris, and one of them should be named Paul. barfo
Please no. The last thing Portland needs is a guy who chokes against LA in the western conference finals.
Man ... it's not really your fault if you've never watched him play much, but Childress does just about everything better than Batum at this point ... Batum undoubtedly has a higher ceiling because I think he's more athletic and probably more fluid than Childress, but all I can say is that Childress is the player I hope Nicolas someday matures into.
AV sucks. And Peja is a good shooter. He could be a good role player for the Blazers....and for Aresnal.
How about this three way (again, assuming nothing truly earth-shattering is available): Portland gives up: RLEC, CFEC, IDEC Portland gets former all-star SF and PG as promised! (Okay, Kirk Hinrich [was he ever an all-star? He did represent the US once, didn't he?] and Peja Stojakovic)) N'awlins gets all our expiring contracts in return for giving up Chandler and Peja Chicago swaps Hinrich for Chandler (which would be a funny home-coming for him) Seems to me Chicago makes out like a bandit here, so if there's any deal-sweetening it should come from them, probably to N'awlins, lest their fans totally quit on them. But if the Hornets really are bleeding money, that trade dumps a LOT of salary, and actually in Hollins and Julian Wright they've got fairly exciting young players to plug the gaps.
Way to be completely vague while at the same time condescending. Does he shoot threes better? Nope, he hardly shoots them at all. That's a pretty major deficiency in a SF in our system. Does he defend better now? A bit, but he's less athletic and less long than Batum, and Batum has all the tools. Does he score better than Batum? A bit, but again, we don't ask Batum to score. He actually has decent tools. I will agree that I like Childress as a person, and he might be a Battier-esque "Lego" type, but the fact that Atlanta this season is noticably better than Atlanta last season does not make me leap on the Childress bandwagon.
I always liked Chris Childs, at least when he was decking Kobe. But I can't think of any PG called Paul. Was Paul the PG of the Beatles? John was definitely the SG.
