By the way, why would we even want to trade for Payton? It's not like there's any room in our backcourt for a quality starter, not to mention a superstar of Payton's calibre. Unless it was part of a three-way, I wouldn't give Langhi for Payton. I would, however, consider offering Terence Morris and Kelvin Cato for Rashard Lewis, but I'd have to think about it before offering Morris. Is Rashard a good defender? If he is, and we were able somehow to determine that Morris wasn't going to be able to be a good 3pt. shooter, I'd do it, but only given those conditions. We need a 3pt. specialist in our frontcourt to complement our backcourt. It's no coincidence Walt has a big game and shoots 4-8 from afar and the Rockets kill the Mavs. We need a consistent threat from 3 pt. land if we expect this offense to function and team to win.
We could play either Cat or Payton at the three. Cat spends a lot of time there anyway. Then we would have above average defense and tremendous offense from the SG and SF positions, the most dangerous on many teams in the association. This would allow us to develop TMO as Payton's replacement. Perhaps we could trade Glen or Walt as well to clear our logjam a little, I would even take Vin Baker. Griffin would be our PF/C of the future and we would only need to address either the three or the four position. Maybe Cato will even realize he can contribute and make the ROX title contenders. 1 - Francis/Payton/Norris 2 - Payton/Mobley/Francis 3 - Mobley/Williams(or Rice)/TMo 4 - Baker/KT/Griffin 5 - Cato/Willis While not a superstar, Baker with KT is a legitamate PF duo that should provide rebounding and a low post presence. Center is not addressed with this trade, but there don't seem to be a lot of options. Now Seattle is not likely to do this, but it does make good sense for the ROX.
