So what. Like I said in the previous post, other teams could give them better cap relief and better players at the same time. We could get them (debateably) one or the other. Not both. Hughes + Gooden is a laughable offer for Amare no matter what else you throw in. It sucks. It's a non-starter.
The unique thing about our situation is Derrick Rose is assumed untouchable. Our best player, Ben Gordon, is virtually untouchable because of his no trade clause. So we could easily go in, and use everything else as trading blocks, and try to get a third member like Stoudemire or Bosh to our core, or even go for two of these types of guys at the deadline. Hopefully we don't sit on this! I think if we just make Rose/Gordon off limits, and then use everything else to get that elusive big man at the deadline, we can do a great deals towards rebuilding into a legitimate playoff contender. Rose/Gordon/Stoudemire for example, would be a pretty damn good core. It's just a matter of getting a defensive center, and some shooting wings around them.
Anyone worth a shit is going to keep them over the cap and earn about as much as Amare. Why would they want to move him otherwise for inferior talent? Cap space would be the only thing I see.
Well, reading the original article, they don't think much of his talent, and that's why they're moving him. I'd simply say they want a trade that maximizes their return along two dimensions. 1. Financial 2. Talent When you take both dimensions into perspective, I don't see that we can make a better offer than what I'd expect other teams to offer. I mean, Gooden's $7M + Hughes' $26M comes to $13M next year for Hughes instead of $16M or so for Amare. If they're looking for financial relief, sure, they'll lose on talent, but paying Hughes $13M is losing on talent and getting a shitty financial deal too. There are plenty of teams out there with bigger expiring contracts who could take on Amare. Detroit is willing to shop AI and Sheed, supposedly. You don't think the Pistons would trade one or both of those guys for Amare? And if you're the Suns, wouldn't you rather have an expiring contract than have to pay Larry Hughes $13M next year? And if you're trying to give it a go with Shaq and Nash for the rest of this year, wouldn't you rather have one of those two guys, who are probably both hall of famers, than Larry Hughes? Suppose the Suns traded Amare + JRich + Goron Dragic (they signed him for three years and he blows) for AI and Sheed. The Suns get to trot out 1-Nash 2-AI 3-Grant Hill 4-Rasheed Wallace 5-Shaq Granted they're all ancient, but that's a freaking exciting team. There will be a lot of people paying to see if the old geezers can make one more run at the title. And next year, they go from having $75M under contract to having about $45M under contract. Would the Pistons do it? Doesn't 1- Stuckey 2- Rip 3- JRich 4- Amare 5- McDyess Look like an Eastern conference contender? Sure does to me.
LOL The next move for the Suns in your scenario is to coax McHale out of retirement. Someone has to pay Hughes $14M next season. It doesn't have to be Phoenix, as he'd be an expiring deal after this season. I don't exactly know what Phoenix expects. They're stuck with Shaq at $20M so their window is either right now (immediately) or after Shaq expires, and Amare would be one of the better guys to have in either scenario. The only thing that makes sense is a swap of Amare for someone like Bosh, just so both guys can get a change of scenery. I don't see it happening.
Then they'd have to pay whomever they took on when they traded Hughes. Which wouldn't exactly meet the goal of cutting salary. To cut salary, they have to get a guy whose contract expires this year. Beyond coaxing people out of retirement, I think it's pretty obvious that, even at their age, it'd be much preferable to have Sheed or AI, as a player on the court, than Hughes. Or Gooden for that matter. I think they just think Amare is a pud, and he doesn't want to play with them. Or it's all way overblown, which is the most likely. I don't see any reason for them to trade him unless he just flat out refuses to play for them.
1) To get an even better player 2) To get rid of a cancer 3) To save LT taxes 4) To free up cap space for 2010 or some targeted FA 5) To get 2 players that round out the roster better 6) Kerr is a moron?
Drew for this season. Hughes didn't play horribly for us, actually, so they might get some use out of him. Gooden would be a double-double type replacement for Amare (if a deal went down), and Hughes' expiring could get them a $10M-$13M player next season. I'm not at all saying Phoenix is interested in dealing with us or even dealing Amare.
If they were interested in dealing for Drew and Larry, wouldn't they be more interested in dealing for Sheed and AI?
How about this? Bulls trade: Gooden, Tyrus, Kirk, Noc, Gordon Bulls get: TMac, Landry, Kaman Why: Cuts salary for 2010, Kaman + Landry fills the frontcourt out with two very good players. Rockets trade: TMac, Landry, Head Rockets get: Baron Davis, Noc, Gordon Why: TMac on last legs, otherwise a contender. Davis, Gordon, Noc + Yao, Artest, Scola, Battier, Rafer sounds like a really fun team to watch. Clippers trade: Baron, Kaman Clippers get: Kirk, Gooden, Tyrus, Head Why: Baron sucks for Dunleavy's system, Kirk would fit. And it's the Clip show and they clip salary more than anything.
Or this Bulls get: Kaman, Randolph Clips get: Hughes, Hinrich, Simmons 1- Rose 2- Gordon, Thabo 3- Deng, Noc 4- Randolph, Thomas 5- Kaman, Noah Interesting and terrifying at the same time.
