The Blazers are desperate for a SF so they can move Roy back to SG. The problem is, you are talking about a GM who is allergic to making trades during the season.
Seems tough to find a trade that would work for both parties. The Bulls would want Fernandez + Expiring contracts since we're going to strike big in free agency next year with our own Andre Miller. And you guys don't have that many expirings left. Would you be interest in Blake, Outlaw, Rudy for Deng? Or Blake or Outlaw + Rudy for Salmons? I'd probably do either of them.
I'm thinking that the bulls need to get a PF who can muscle bigs and hit short jumpers. Tyrus and Hinrich for that guy, not sure who he'd be, maybe David Lee? Then sign Joe Johnson to the max deal (not a great value, but the most plausible scenario at this point). Then have Salmons as the sixth man. That should be doable under cap restrictions. Resign Miller to ~MLE sized deal, hope Salmons doesn't opt out, or sign him to a ~MLE sized deal. Rose, JJ, Deng, new PF, Noah with Salmons and Miller off of the bench. They'll need a backup PG for 10 min/night, but they should be able to get one off of the scrap heap. I'd still like to see Tyrus get a shot without a short leash, but with James Johnson so completely filling the tweener 3/4 with talent and no head role, I don't see a real need to taunt message boards everywhere by keeping both Tyrus and JJ.
Personally, I would be interested......but sadly, the front office refuses to hire me! Right now, there is a disconnect in the Blazer Brain Trust. The GM seems to have a very high opinion of Rudy, while the coach doesn't seem to think he and Roy can be on the floor together. Something has to give.
Hmm... this story is very familiar to Bulls fans. They remind me very much of the Bulls a couple years ago. It was obvious we had a bunch of assets that couldn't all see the court at the same time. It was generally thought we'd trade a couple of them for a better player, but it never happened and we basically let several guys go for nothing. Anyhoo, I think it's pretty hard to play a lot of Rudy and Roy together. Roy's made it pretty clear he wants to play a guard role and Rudy is probably good enough to start himself. Just not enough minutes to go around and it'd be obviously more useful to have an equivalently good SF to pair with Roy than a good backup. Isn't that just common sense? But yeah, Deng for Rudy and change works for me.
How's about this three way trade: Hinrich, Deng to Portland Miller, Jerome James to Houston TMac, Rudy Fernandez, Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw, Joel Pryzbilla, Jeff Pendergraph to the Bulls 1- Rose, Blake, Hunter 2- TMac, Rudy, Pargo 3- Salmons, <em>TMac</em>, Outlaw (he's out for several months with an injury), JJ 4- Tyrus, Taj, Pendergraph 5- Noah, Pryzbilla, Gray We subtract Deng and Hinrich ($20.4M) from next year's cap and add Rudy, Przy and Pendergraph who are on the books for $8.8M. So we get a net increase of $11.6M in cap space. Plus we get two actually useful players to round out next year's roster, and a prospect who might help. That deal would guarantee us max cap space (and then some) even if Salmons decided not to opt out.
That sounds good to me. I honestly feel like we could have a shot at Rudy. It's obvious he's gonna bolt once his contract is up, and there's just not enough minutes to go around on that team. Great talent, horrible coach. Especially wih the signing of Miller, Martell Webster coming back, and Nicolas Batum's emergence as their "future stopper". And while we're looking to trade with the blazers, why not shoot for the stars? If we could somehow get both Rudy and Batum + someone like Pryzbilla for Deng + James Johnson. Obviously your trade idea is much more feasible as they're apparently high on Batum, but it's worth a shot. Rudy is our main target anyways. By the way, what does everyone think about going after a potential borderline all star player (but underachiever) like Rudy Gay. With that team down the gutter and OJ & Gay at odds, I think they'll be willing to ship Gay for some talent. Playing around with the numbers, it seems really difficult to match salaries, but what do you guys think? Obviously, they'll want Tyrus and his contract, plus another expiring contract like Pargo.
By the way, if there was any indication halfway through the season (or whenever) that our main targets for free agency (Lebron, Wade, Bosh) were all going to resign and we had no shot, would you guys want to throw in all the chips for someone like Bogut or Horford? I'd love to see him team up with Noah again. And Horford will finally be at his natural PF position) And what do you guys think about these possible targets? Suns: Robin Lopez, Grant Hill Warriors: Brandan Wright (someone I feel we have a good shot at stealing away, another talented big man thats being underused by reliable Nelson, plus his shotblocking potential is unbelievable) Clippers: Marcus Camby (move Noah down to PF) TWolves: Kevin Love (i really dont see us getting him at all, but he and Noah would be a hell of a tandem)
I like the idea of getting Gay, but when it comes to getting Gay and practice I just don't think I could handle it. Um... what I mean by that is Gay is a good young player who can score and has all-around talent. But, is he content to, or trained by the dysfunctional situation in Memphis to be a guy who just wants to get his stats? Can he really play the 2, or is he a 3? If he's a 3, do we really benefit by trading for him unless we unload Deng? Would trading him for Deng be a good idea? We create a new contract issue going forward since Rudy will be an RFA. I dunno. Going gay raises lots of difficult questions.
Hmm... I'd think he and Okafor would get in each other's way offensively since neither can play far from the basket. I think the ideal fit with Noah is more of a face up player who can score, be it a center like Okur or Miller, or a PF type like Boozer or Amare.
Definite no to Boozer. I don't really like Amare all too much, he's a one trick pony to me. Highly improbable, but i'd love for us to get our hands on Horford. With that said, watching the game last night makes me want to go after Rudy even more. He'd be an extra facilitator who can shoot the 3 and keep the defenses honest.
Marc Gasol. I bet he is attainable at the trade deadline. Memphis is going nowhere. Gasol + whatever bad contract they want to dump for any of TT, JJ, Gibson, and either Miller or Jerome James for salary cap purposes. Move Noah over to PF. Resign Miller maybe as a backup. Or TT at a decent amount if that bridge hasn't been completely burned. Or somebody else. Still need a better shooting guard.
If we acquired at least Rudy and marc gasol this year id be a happy man. And every day, it looks like the rockets are closer to dealing tmac.
The person I would be most interested in acquiring at the deadline (barring a superstar) would be Kevin Martin. Tyreke Evans seems like he's become the center of the franchise, and he's best playing the 2. I imagine the Kings would consider a deal where they could get a decent amount young talent and financial relief. For us the trick would be figuring out a trade that would leave us enough cap room to still offer someone the max. Martin seems like the ideal No. 2 guy, he'd fix our shooting problem, and him, Rose, and Noah would be an attractive core group of guys to add a superstar too. I would guess we'd need three teams, but I wonder if a deal that involves Deng, TT, JJ/Salmons for Martin and extras could work out.
What about this: Bulls trade: Deng Bulls get: Kevin Martin, JJ Hickson Kings trade: Kevin Martin, Andres Nocioni Kings get: Luol Deng, Delonte West Cavs trade: Delonte West, JJ Hickson Cavs get: Andres Nocioni This works on trade checker. It's obviously insanely good for us. We get a better player, and our financial commitments for next year only go up a tick. In principle a Deng for Martin trade has some potential, since the Kings need a SF pretty badly and Tyreke Evans seems like he's best suited to be a distributing 2. Also, I think it's probably a good idea to trade Deng when his stock is high, and this gives us a chance to do it without suffering a downgrade in talent. I'm not sure why the Kings traded for Nocioni in the 1st place, but he really doesn't seem like a good fit there, and he has no business being their starting small forward. Getting rid of him in place for Delonte West saves them 10-15 million dollars over the next two years, and he'd see some playing time with Martin gone. The Cavs seem like a decent fit for Noc since they could use his shooting and his ability at the 4 would compliment all the big slow guys they have right now. In the end, I can't imagine this trade is enough to entice the Kings to let go of Martin, but I think it's a starting point.
