I would hope so, and you could be right. I am just saying if he has it in his mind to go to one of those three teams, then it makes it hard to retain him unless we made it very far in the playoffs/championship/won it all. Otherwise, if we were hypothetically one and done again, I don't like our chances to retain him.
Plus PA could lock him up forever. Also he could sign a max extension right? Paul Allen would probably sell the Octopus for a guaranteed Finals meeting with DWade etc. at this point in his life.
Portland needs to be selling the headache angle. Give them good value for CP3, and convince the that they would be better off with him being our headache.
I have no doubt the NBA will make this happen http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=28ylend
/End NBA fandom I'd start watching the WNBA if that went down and possibly kamikaze myself into Stern for the good of the sport.
I'll take a swing at a Chris Paul Extravaganza Deal. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2c4wwhf Why Portland does it: Duh. Why New Orleans does it: Trims a ton of salary, getting back two large expiring contracts. In addition three good/useful players who are relatively inexpensive. Why Oklahoma City does it: They get the talented big man they need to balance out their roster. Fernandez is largely salary filler, but he could be a decent temporary solution for them at starting shooting guard if he gets his game back together a bit. Basically, I want the main value asset Portland sends out for Paul to be Aldridge. He can't be sent directly to New Orleans because he's a fabulous mismatch for their needs: expensive and is very similar to a player they already have. So I tried to set up a three-way deal where Aldridge could be sent to the third team and the third team would have some solid, inexpensive pieces to give New Orleans (with Portland kicking in the expiring deals). Oklahoma City is really the only team that even comes close to needing Aldridge and having cheap, young assets. I'm not thrilled with making Oklahoma City better (as I think this deal does), but if Portland gets Paul while keeping Roy, Oden and Batum...I'll live with it. Probably still not enough for New Orleans, but well...not much should be enough for Paul. The premise that Paul could even be acquirable rests on New Orleans being willing to accept a talent downgrade in order to shed a lot of salary. And this does that.
That seems like a lot for OKC to give up. I'm not really an expert on that team, but I thought they were pretty high on Ibaka, and Green is solid too. Harden seemed like a disappointment in his rookie season, but he might improve.
OKC would be signing their western conference death warrant with this trade, it leaves us thin at the 4 or with Okafor/Oden not good. Perhaps LMA to NJN for mega trade exception + Favors? Send Favors on to NOH with filler, not sure that gets it done, I just think you want to look on the East Coast for a third trade partner. Anyone on the left coast would be fools to facilitate Paul to the Blazers IMO.
They would be bigger fools to facilitate a trade to LA, but then again it wouldn't be the first time Shinn sent his best player to the Lakers. Of coures, Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell ended up being better than Glen Rice after that trade.
If the owners actually go for the lockout it could actually be a big help in us keeping Paul if he was traded here, they want to reduce salaries and the number of years players can sign for making CP3's ~18mil player option final year more appealing for him to keep. And after this crazy offseason of FA moves I wouldn't be surprised if the owners wanted to place bigger restrictions on free agency, before the last CBA update there was a loophole that ended up allowing the Warriors to lose Arenas to Washington and the owners ended up pushing for and eventually closing that loophole. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the medium/small market owners push to get a whole new kind of restricted free agency extended to everyone to avoid seeing homegrown superstars in mass exodus to try and form super-squads to compete with the Heat etc.
To completely contradict myself you could try and coax GSW into this trade: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=22snngk Why GSW do this trade: Monta Ellis done messed up (moped) and they would get a great PG to run the break in Miller, a fast breaking SG to finish with the three or a fancy pass in Rudy and a solid combo guard who I imagine would be great in the break in Bayless. They also get two decent forwards out of the deal. Why NOH does this deal, they get Monta Ellis and Batum which is pretty decent value for CP3 along with MASSIVE cap relief, a legit center in Camby and immediate cap relief in Joel's insurance with a chance that he might be an asset down the line. Portland ends up with: PG: Paul/Johnson/Mills SG: Roy/Matthews/Williams SF: Matthews/Babbit/Posey PF: LMA/Okafor/scrub C: Oden/Okafor/ Ekwebe? some other scrub? Again looks mighty damn tasty to me. We could also throw in Williams, picks, $3 million and the rights to some Euros as well.
Well obviously, but help me to block out the devil idea of the Lakers getting CP3 from my mind please and never mention it again. By the way I contradicted myself with my next trade idea in true Idog1976 flip-flopping bitch fashion.
Well I am willing to take the risk on Paul, I am still a little scared he would bolt if he has the chance to. I do think we have better assets then those 3 teams mentioned and if we had to we could include Oden, though, I don't know if we would.
Another variant sends LMA to GSW: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=276p96r GSW do it because they get LMA for peanuts and can shut the fuck up. NOH gets truly absurd cap relief from JPEC immediately from insurance, V. Radmonovic in a year and Camby in two years. You could also give them Miller instead of JPEC if they want training wheels for Collison. They get a legit Center in Camby a great young 2 guard in Ellis to pair with Collison and tons and tons and boat load of Salary relief. Portland ends up with: PG: Paul/Johnson/Mills SG: Roy/Matthews/Williams SF: Batum/Matthews/Babbit/Posey PF: Okafor/Pendy/scrub C: Oden/Okafor/ Ekwebe? some other scrub? I'm not a fan of Okafor and Oden, but LOVE keeping Batum.
Hmm, I thought they were getting quite good value. It's a consolidation trade for them. Aldridge is easily better than any of Ibaka, Green and Harden. Ibaka is solid with some upside, Green is solid and Harden is still an interesting prospect. Them having value is why they get Aldridge and is the return New Orleans gets in terms of younger, cheaper pieces. None of the three are great, but they all have value. They would be improving their squad at the same time. They don't deal either of their two best players (Durant and Westbrook) and get a still-pre-prime big man who provides 18 PER production and solid man defense. I disagree that Okafor/Oden isn't good. It's not as well-matched as Aldridge/Oden, but Okafor is more of a 4 than a 5, IMO, and he would combine with Oden to create a completely impenetrable front line. Batum/Okafor/Oden would easily be the defensive front court in the game and could be one of the best defensive front courts ever. Portland would also win the rebounding battle pretty much every night. Okafor wouldn't provide a lot of offense, but with Roy and Paul as the guards and Oden's improving offensive game inside (and Batum shooting/slashing from the wing), Portland would have plenty of offense.
