Trade options?

We definitely need some depth to make up for the time being... I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions?

Here are some things I came up with... Keep in mind that I'm looking for solutions that will help us in the short term (6 weeks) and won't hinder anything we do in the long term...


1) Calvin Booth makes 1M, rarely plays because Etan Thomas and Brendan Haywood eat up all the minutes. They have Antawn Jamison and Andray Blatche playing PF. At some point, Ruffin and Songaila will return too. I think the Wizards would definitely bite on saving half of the 1M they owe him if the guy is going to play no minutes EVEN when they're having injuries. Booth can block shots and has a nice jumper, but will usually not be on the floor longer than 20-25 minutes due to foul trouble. Still, having a jumper and being able to block shots helps.

2) PJ Brown has come up numerous times in the past. Again, not good for more than 20 minutes, but he will give you 20 minutes of decent scoring, good rebounding and great defense. Final year of his contract. Bulls won't let him go for just expiring contracts, but maybe a 2nd round pick will sway them? It would be tricky getting him. I think we can acquire Kevin Ollie for a portion of the TE from the Sixers, then turn around and trade Ollie + Sura + 2nd round pick for Brown. Ollie is just an example of a short contract. The main idea is: acquire a small contract via TE (prefferably big man) and package it with Sura and 2nd rounder to make it happen.

3) Malik Allen + Mike Sweetney + PJ Brown would be a nice little coup as they all have expiring contracts and are all big men. It would be tricky to make this dea too, but here's an idea: Malik Allen + Sweetney for the TE and a 2nd rounder THEN in a seperate trade Juwan Howard + Scott Padgett for PJ Brown. The idea is that Juwan has 20M on his contract with an early termination option for the final year which is worth 7.3M, and he is the only guaranteed contract going their way. On the other hand, they're dealing PJ's 8.5M, Sweetney's 2.6M and Allen's 1.8M which is a total of around 13M plus a second round pick. Take into account that juwan would fit in there better than any of the 3 guys and is a Chicago native. I think we could squeeze a deal here, although I am reaching a bit.

4) Kenny Thomas for Juwan Howard straight up. We know what Kenny brings: undersized, good scorer, decent range, good rebounder. We take on 4 years of KT's contract here but it may be worth it. KT could be a nice fit when Yao/Mac are back.

5) Steven Hunter + Kevin Ollie from the Sixers if they don't consider them a part of their rebuilding plan. Long contract for Hunter, but makes less than 4M per year for the whole contract. I was thinking: Sura, Padgett, Lucas and a 2nd rounder for Ollie and Hunter. Sura's expiring, Lucas makes peanuts but may earn some minutes at backup PG while they're rebuilding, and Padgett is on a non-guaranteed contract. On the other hand, Hunter could provide valuable minutes at the 4/5 and could be Deke's replacement next season. Ollie would provide a good 15-20 minutes behind Sura, solid defense, protects the ball.

None of these are major moves, but I think a few tweaks could help this team maintain respectability till Yao gets back. If we're .500 when Yao comes back, we'll make the playoffs, and give whoever we face in round 1 nightmares. Right now, we NEED help/size at the 4/5. We NEED a backup PG if T-Mac is not around to handle the ball half the time. We NEED to NOT play Alston 38 minutes.

We're going to have to make sacrifices, but this team has waited long enough for Sura to come back, and unless he's coming back very early January, then this is a business and we have to make use of his contract. Lucas took less money to come here, but hasn't met expectations. Padgett is a good filler because he's not guaranteed. We don't need our draft picks this summer because we can NOT be in the lottery with this team.

Any ideas or thoguhts?

P.S. This is not a panic thread. This is a "how can we keep this ship afloat till we're back to full health" thread.

 

Nahh. Screw it. We will loose now if we play Span and Novak. It was a good argument when we were winning because

Before: Let them play, loose some games, we might get a slightly lower seed, but our rookies will be ready to go in the playoffs where it matters most.

After: Play these guys, lose more games, don't make the playoffs, and hope we make it next year.


This is the best conference ever. It has never been harder to make the playoffs than it is this season. I'd rather span and novak keep getting spotty minutes, practice hard, and make their mark next season IF it means not making the playoffs.

Again, I've been saying what you're saying all season. But circumstances changed. It was a matter of missing out on topping the midwest versus being a 4th or 5th seed. Now it's 7th, 8th or bust. We can't risk bust.

Besides, those guys will still get good enough minutes. Novak has been horrible, and Spanoulis was inconsistent. JVG is playing Lucas which means that if the rookies earn it, they will play.

We are not giving away major pieces here. We're just maximizing the use of our resources.

 

He wasn't excellent the last time he was here.

But the reason I like him is because he's clearly more experienced using his size as an advantage, he's a better defender, in EXCELLENT shape now, and he's a very good per-minute rebounder. Quick on his feet.

I like his game. I know he has range too. Juwan is shooting even worse than the previous seasons' 46%, I'm sure KT can match his production from 15 feet.

IIRC, KT was even taking 3's when he was a Rocket. He cut that out because he was Antoine Walker-esque from down there, but at least it shows he has some range.

 

I agree, we should use the roster's maximum potential.

But that's not what I'm asking here.. I'm suggesting ways to raise the capacity of the roster, not maximize the capacity we currently have...

Basically... You are saying "we're using 90% of our potential, we should be closer to 100%"..

Whereas, in this thread, I'm saying "there's a ton of threads about increasing the usage of our roster... How about we IMPROVE our roster such that using 90% of it AFTER trades is a better team than using 90% of it BEFORE trades, and any steps taken to use a higher % is great, but not what we're discussing here."