Jonathan Givony @DraftExpress NBA source tells me Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza have been traded to the Washington Wizards for Rashard Lewis and the #46 pick
Okafor has two years left at 13.5 and 14.5 Ariza has 1 year left with a player option at 6.7 and 7.2 Lewis has 1 year left at 23.7 Rashard Lewis' 23.7 million dollar contract can be bought out for around 13.7 million? before July 1st. That would save New Orleans around 30 million ish.
RL: 22,699,551, 1 yr left (13M guaranteed) EO: 13,640,000 14,637,500 = 28,277,500 TA: 7,258,960 7,727,280 = 14,986,240 So, long term savings of about 21-30M for WAS. NOH now has one player to amnesty instead of two. Better question: can we leverage getting Okafor and #3? Okafor and #3 for Wes, change and #11? They don't need Okafor with Vesely, Blatche, Seraphin and Nene. That gives them Wall/Wes/(SF at #11)/Vesely/Nene with Gunner's Mate 1st Class Crawford, Blatche and Seraphin on the bench. Oh yeah, and MAJOR cap room. We get a lineup of Lillard/Batum/MKG/LMA/Okafor and around 10-15M in cap room.
Jonathan Givony @DraftExpress New Orleans now has unlimited cap space, in addition to the #1 pick, the #10 pick, and Eric Gordon. Not a bad time to be a Hornets fan.
Repercussions for Portland...does NO overpay for Batum now? Monte know him and has always liked him. With that much room it is a real possibility.
I don't understand how WAS makes that trade without getting the #10 back. Take on an extra $30M in bad deals to gain a 2nd rounder? Ridiculous.