You are preaching to the choir brother. Just telling you that the other players were much older and sometimes age humbles you. :S
You take Oden and do this three team trade: New Jersey Out: Courtney Lee Eduardo Najera Devin Harris New Jersey In: LaMarcus Aldridge Travis Outlaw Jerryd Bayless Jeff Pendergraph New Orleans Out: Chris Paul Peja Stojakovic Emeka Okafor New Orleans In: Brandon Roy Devin Harris Steve Blake Joel Przybilla Martell Webster Eduardo Najera Portland Out: Joel Przybilla Martell Webster Steve Blake Brandon Roy LaMarcus Aldridge Travis Outlaw Jerryd Bayless Jeff Pendergraph Portland In: Chris Paul Emeka Okafor Peja Stojakovic Courtney Lee New Orleans new lineup: PG Harris/Collison/Blake SG Roy/Blake SF Posey/Webster PF West/Najera C Przybilla/? New Orleans saves a BUNCH of money (Shinn is in trouble) and arguably gets an upgrade in over all talent and better balance. Probably has the best back court in the league (Portland might compete there). Roy gets to be the man and play with an LMA like West, his favorite kind of Center (non-scoring) and a good PG in Harris. Roy's happiness in this theoretical trade isn't my top priority as in this theoretical situation he is dividing the team (I don't know that is happening I'm purely being theoretical here like the OP) New Jersey: PG Bayless SG CDR SF Outlaw PF Aldridge C Lopez And they have room to sign LBJ to a STACKED team in summer 2010 Portland lineup PG Paul/Miller SG Rudy/Lee SF Batum/Peja (Batum will be back late but its worth a few losses now due to a bad SF in order to dominate in the playoffs) PF Okafor/Cunningham/Howard C Oden/Okafor That team is I think MUCH more balanced with a SG who doesn't need the ball. A god like setup man and amazing backup in Miller (he could be traded for a SF later). You have to use trade exceptions but it works. I think all teams might bite on this trade.
Yeah I'm secretly KP in disguise. Dude this is predicated on the premise that Roy and Aldridge have formed some Evil conspiracy to shut out GO. I personally expect them to work it out, probably under a new coach. The OP asked what would you do if Roy was really forcing the issue and you had to choose. LMA and Roy + some role players for Paul and Okafor? Especially when you consider that Joel is probably leaving, seems like the best you could do if Roy and LMA really did want to freeze Oden out.
People talking about trading Roy and Aldridge are almost certainly going to have to wait until 2011-2012. Both of these guys are PPP players this year and BYC players next year, which makes moving them almost impossible unless you are doing a salary dump on team under the cap, and even then you aren't likely to get much in return. Face it, this is the core we've got for at minimum 3-4 years, they're going to have to learn to play with each other and KP is going to need to get off his ass and finally start the process of surrounding his core with the right guys.
I don't like the last trade, where we trade Roy and Aldirdge and have Okafor as our PF. I'm not a fan of his. But the Roy/Bayless/Outlaw/even Joel/and two 1sts for Paul and Peja would be sick as hell. Oden def. would be a 20/10 guy. He would get at least 10ppg on alley-oops, lol. But its not going to happen. Roy will learn to adjust his game to play with everyone else. Its part of being a professional. I like our team as is except for our PG situation. I like Batum at SF for now and the future, and of course our big 3. But a lineup of Paul/Rudy/Batum/Aldridge/Oden would be epic for sure.
If the conclusion or the prescription to fixing this team is "Trading Oden" or "Trading Roy and Aldridge". My response is "Fire The Coach". You want these guys to have one more shot with one other coach before coming to that determination. I think a smart, charismatic basketball coach can get these coefficients to work together.
McMillan is WAY more valuable to our team than Roy, Aldridge, or Oden!! Or all three put together. At least that is the impression i've been getting around here with all the Nate man-love goin' on! Anyway, I would really like to see what another (good) coach would do with this team. It is so loaded with talent.
Yo.... if we're lucky this is Kobe/Shaq II. They hated sharing the ball too but they dealt with it to the tune of three championships. I'm fine with three championships. Then Roy can bolt to Minnesota to prove he can win without Oden and Oden can stay and win 12 more like he promised. Man... the coach we need right now is Phil Jackson.
I've been saying it for weeks. I would trade Roy for Paul and not even think twice about it. Paul and Oden would be one of the best dynamic duos in the history of the NBA. Book it.
I'm pretty sure Paul won't be available unless a team is willing to pony up one or two inexpensive, blue-chip players. And by that I don't mean players like Rudy or Batum. I mean players like Oden or Rose or a prospect like LeBron James was when he was drafted. Paul is a once-a-generation point guard. As far as I'm concerned, he's the best point guard since Magic Johnson. They'll only deal him if they can get uber-prospect(s) and big cash savings.
Yeah.. Nate's whole notion of finding a shot within the first four seconds of the shot clock (basically impossible) or else working the clock for the final 4-5 seconds or whatever it is, annoys me. We must lead the NBA in FGAs with 1-2 seconds left on the shot clock, which end up being bad shots. We're just thinking way too much out there, instead of just going out there and balling.
Absolutely. The coach needs to be the "Ring Leader" in this fiasco, if there is one. Regardless, all the "big three" must sacrifice on the offensive end, in order to co-exist. The only person I see not wanting to, could possibly be Roy. Once Roy realizes that he needs to sacrifice offensively, the offense will be more smooth.
If he's giving him 50-60 million, then we should be able to keep Roy, and trade them Bayless and Rudy for Paul.
