Players Who Could Be on the Move

Shapecity · Dec 11, 2009

Hanukkah began Friday night, Christmas is two weeks away … and trading season in the NBA is about to get more bountiful.

Tuesday is the first day on the 2009-10 hoops calendar that more than 70 of last summer's free agents are eligible to be included in deals.

It's an influx of potential trade assets that naturally increases everyone's options and historically starts to stir more serious trade discussions, with teams having a better feel for their rosters after completing a fourth of the season and with the league's annual trading deadline in February just two months away.

The full list of 72 players who will soon be trade-eligible can be found below in Box 8, but we've narrowed it down for starters to the five most recognizable names most likely to be made available by their new teams.

Miller
1. Andre Miller, Portland Trail Blazers

Miller would have occupied the No. 1 slot here even if the Blazers weren't in the market for a competent big man and/or wing player after losing Nicolas Batum (shoulder), Travis Outlaw (foot) and now Greg Oden to the second season-ending knee injury of his young career.

Reason being: Most of general manager Kevin Pritchard's peers around the league have believed for months that Pritchard only signed Miller -- after failed free-agent runs at Hedo Turkoglu and Paul Millsap -- to ensure that Portland at least came away with a tradable asset last summer … which is projected to be the last summer for a while that Portland has salary-cap space.

And for all the ongoing skepticism about how the ball-dominating Miller fits as a backcourt partner with Brandon Roy, there's no doubt that the 33-year-old is moveable in the first year of a three-year, $21 million that is only guaranteed for the first two years. Quite moveable.

As covered in this cyberspace last week when we surveyed advance scouts about the opening quarter of the season and again by Professor Hollinger in this post-injury analysis of the Oden-less Blazers, Miller might actually find it easier to operate in Portland's offense with Oden off the floor and less of an emphasis on throwing the ball inside. Harsh as that sounds, given Oden's unquestioned likability and hideous luck, Miller and Roy appeared to be the main sufferers from the lack of offensive flow that has plagued Portland this season as Oden's role expanded. If the Blazers open things up a bit more with Oden sidelined, as Roy envisions, that could really help Miller.

Yet the reality remains that Miller and Roy are an iffy tag team because both need to see so much of the ball to be effective, which explains why Miller has only started nine games. There's this, too: While NBA front-office sources say there is considerable outside interest in young (and mostly forgotten) Portland guard Jerryd Bayless, Miller's more substantial salary -- $6.7 million to Bayless' $2.1 million -- would probably bring a bigger talent payoff in a trade.

"They need a Mo Williams-type to play with Brandon Roy," said one rival team executive in the West. "They need a shooter to play off him."

Robinson
2. Nate Robinson, New York Knicks

The Knicks are 4-1 in December and enter Friday's visit to New Orleans on a three-game win streak that has featured precisely zero minutes for lil' Nate.

So you can safely conclude that, yes, Robinson will soon be eminently available to interested trade parties … which is why we have him so high despite the fact that his eligible-to-be-traded date is actually one week later (Dec. 22) than the rest because he signed later this offseason.

Just don't forget two more important disclaimers.

A. New York will only take back expiring contracts for Robinson, who could only squeeze a one-year deal worth $4 million out of the Knicks last summer in spite of his unrivaled popularity at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks' understandable determination to preserve every ounce of their projected summer of 2010 cap space cuts down severely on potential trade options.

B. Robinson cannot be traded without his consent as a player on a one-year deal who will possess full Larry Bird rights with his current team at season's end. And I'm reliably told that Nate won't waive his veto power to go just anywhere, even if it means more minutes and shots.

As one Western Conference exec suggested, New York is bound to try to package Robinson with Eddy Curry or Jared Jeffries -- players that the Knicks are truly eager to move -- as opposed to just shopping Robinson on his own.

The safest conclusion, though, is that dealing Robinson is not as easy as it would seem, even if you're prepared to assume that the Knicks' recent mini-revival without Robinson is going to continue and that they're fine with trading him independently of what happens with Curry or Jeffries.

Gortat
3. Marcin Gortat, Orlando Magic

Gortat is listed here because he so badly wants to be on this list. It's common knowledge leaguewide that the 7-footer was deeply disappointed when Orlando matched the Dallas Mavericks' five-year, $34 million offer sheet in the summer, leaving Gortat to hope that the passing of Dec. 15 will trigger serious trade discussions that will land him somewhere he'll get to play regularly.

The problem?

Magic general manager Otis Smith is adamant that he won't move Gortat. At least not in the short term.

It was widely assumed in July when Orlando retained Gortat from Poland amid a flurry of pricey offseason maneuverings that Smith had a deal in place to dispatch him after Dec. 15. You don't hear that theory any more.

Even though Gortat is averaging a measly 6.8 minutes per game in December playing behind Dwight Howard, Smith regards him as indispensible Howard insurance.

The updated assumption in GM circles, then, is that Gortat won't be made available in trades until the summer, after the Magic see how far this high-dollar, all-in approach takes them.

Gortat, meanwhile, regards himself as "kind of like a ticking time bomb." That was his description when we chatted in the visitors' locker room in Dallas in early October, which teasingly put him in the building he thought would be his new home court for Orlando's exhibition opener.

"It's weird now, because I was always dreaming about signing this contract and [having] this mental release that I'm going to be on the [same] team for five years," Gortat said that night. "Now I've just got to wait and see what's going to happen.

"I don't think I'm going to go in and ask [management] what they're [planning for] me. I believe that, if I'm going to go somewhere else, I'm going to go to a team where I'm going to play. I don't think I'm just going to be traded to sit on the bench.

"… Obviously my [personal] situation could look maybe a little bit better if I was in Dallas. But I'm still on a great team, great organization, playing with Dwight Howard, working with Stan [Van Gundy]. It's a huge opportunity for me, and I wish Dallas good luck for the whole season. I hope our teams will meet in the Finals."

Bass
4. Brandon Bass, Orlando Magic

Smith insisted earlier this week when asked by the Orlando Sentinel about Gortat and Bass that he has no plans to trade either one.

But Bass is finding it increasingly harder than Gortat to score regular playing time and is bound to attract suitors no matter what Smith says publicly. The clear vibe in circulation is that Bass, who landed a four-year deal worth $16 million from the Magic, is the more gettable of the two … especially since Gortat has the right to veto any trade through July 13, 2010, because he was a restricted free agent last July when he signed an offer sheet with Dallas that the Magic matched.

Rival teams say it's not Orlando's style anyway to initiate a lot of trade chatter. The Magic apparently often prefer, as one personnel man put it, to "entertain what other people propose."

So give this one time to develop.

Sessions
5. Ramon Sessions, Minnesota Timberwolves

New Wolves personnel boss David Kahn doesn't give many hints to nosy scribes, especially considering he's a former sportswriter, but more than one team we've consulted continues to believe that Sessions -- if you allow us to employ the proper GM-speak -- was signed by Minnesota with the intent to "flip" him.

I do wonder if it's too soon for such flipping, since Minnesota can't even try to convince Ricky Rubio to come to the States before the 2011-12 season because of Rubio's new contract with perennial Spanish club power Barcelona. It's also unclear what sort of market Sessions could generate after a slow start with the Wolves and when he's just one season into a four-year, $16.4 million deal.

Yet I've also heard a couple of GMs say they do expect Sessions to be made available and that his contract is not so prohibitive. We'll see.
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Source: Daily Dime

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Players Who Could Be on the Move

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