<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>If the Bulls are thinking blockbuster, a good place to start would be Denver's Carmelo Anthony, the league's fourth-leading scorer at 25.7 points. Anthony's agent, Calvin Andrews, told both Denver papers Wednesday that his client is not being shopped. But the Nuggets need some sort of makeover. Despite the league's third-highest payroll, Denver barely made the postseason and is 4-20 in playoff games since Anthony arrived in 2003. Maybe acquiring Hinrich and Luol Deng in a sign-and-trade would help the Nuggets establish some semblance of a defensive identity. Another player such as center Stephen Hunter would have to go to the Bulls to make the salaries add up. Anthony would be an interesting addition for the Bulls because he's a top-notch scorer who gets to the foul line and can play inside. If that doesn't work, what about Hinrich and Drew Gooden to the Clippers for Elton Brand? The Clippers could lose Brand next year in free agency, so they might want something now in return. The bad news is the former Bulls' No. 1 pick played just eight games last season because of a torn Achilles. Another power forward who may be available is Charlotte's Emeka Okafor, a restricted free agent. The Bobcats don't have a great need for more guards, however. Hinrich could conceivably go to Seattle for his college roommate, Nick Collison, plus project center Johan Petro.</div> From the Daily Herald. Don't ya love when your trade ideas end up printed in the papers? These hack writers in the Chicago papers should be paying me royalties, come up with your own damn trades. I'll give Sam Smith some credit there, he didn't steal trades from message boards, he used his own creative juices to come up with his wacky trades. If we could get Melo for Hinrich/Deng, and draft Beasley, Gordon-Melo-Beasley would be one of the best offensive trios in league history. Just need to get a distributor point guard (Can Duhon fill this role?), and make sure our bigman can throw it home (Noah showed improvement in that area later in the year). Duhon would be a bit of a liability, but the double can't always come off of the point guard. Eventually Noah would be left open downlow, and sometime the defender might have to leave Gordon/Melo/Beasley, which will be dangerous. Although I doubt Denver trades Melo, so no need getting my hopes up. (And unless Deng is getting a massive contract out of the deal, like near max, I can't see him wanting to go to Denver). Either way, as long as Paxson doesn't do anything stupid, like drafting Rose or sign and trading Gordon for chump change, we should be pretty good next year.
Hinrich and Gooden for Elton Brand? Sign me up. How about Ben, Tyrus, Noc, and Thabo for Vince Carter and Nenad Kristic? Rose Carter Deng Brand Kristic With a bench of Duhon, Hughes, and Noah to complete the 8-man rotation.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rosenthall @ May 26 2008, 10:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Hinrich and Gooden for Elton Brand? Sign me up. How about Ben, Tyrus, Noc, and Thabo for Vince Carter and Nenad Kristic? Rose Carter Deng Brand Kristic With a bench of Duhon, Hughes, and Noah to complete the 8-man rotation.</div> Hell no. No way I'm trading Gordon for Carter. Would consider the Tyrus/Nocioni for Krstic part. Although the trade would need to be expanded so we could dump Hughes on them.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BG7 Lavigne @ May 26 2008, 11:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rosenthall @ May 26 2008, 10:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Hinrich and Gooden for Elton Brand? Sign me up. How about Ben, Tyrus, Noc, and Thabo for Vince Carter and Nenad Kristic? Rose Carter Deng Brand Kristic With a bench of Duhon, Hughes, and Noah to complete the 8-man rotation.</div> Hell no. No way I'm trading Gordon for Carter. Would consider the Tyrus/Nocioni for Krstic part. Although the trade would need to be expanded so we could dump Hughes on them. </div> I'm not sure if I'd call myself a Vince Carter fan, but at his best, he's still around the 4th or 5th best player at his position. His last season was his least productive with the Nets. I don't watch them very often, was it because he's slowing down or because they weren't any good? One idea that I am coming around to is that if we draft Derrick Rose the Kirk-Ben backcourt is probably going to have to come to an end, and I think we'll probably have to trade them to separate teams, since any team getting them back will have the same problems we did. I think we're stuck with Larry Hughes unless we agree to take something equally abominable back. Including him in a package with Ben or Kirk effectively kills their trade value IMO. As a bench player he's still pretty good though, and after this season his contract won't be an issue. I think we're better off keeping him and shipping off our useful guys with other useful guys so we can really squeeze a good team out of our good fortune.
Carter is just getting old. He turns 32 next January. He doesn't really attack the basket with too much tenacity anymore. He's definitely on the decline. I think Gordon stays if we draft Rose (drafting Rose would be a big mistake though!). As I posted before, Portland has the perfect storm to absorb Hughes along with Hinrich. Same with Miami (and Hughes' contract fits into their 2010 plan), but that is if they decide to trade Marion....and Wade was out there lobbying for Marion to stay with the team today...so that might be out of the picture now.
