Nice trade. Certainly a long way from the homer trades we usually see. I do have a few problems with it, though: 1) It takes the one remotely strong/power player we have, on a team noted for being rather soft, and replaces him with another player who, rightly or not, also bears that label. 2) With the quite real possibility of Yao being in a fair amount of foul/conditioning trouble, it leaves us with an inside duo of Raef and Eddie for very long stretches on a lot of nights, and they'll just plain get beat up. Aside from those issues, which are significant, this is the kind of move I feel we should be looking at rather than trying to always acquire another All Star for bench players. I actually think that LaFrentz has still got a lot of upside, although I think his best value would come as a center for an Eastern team.
I would only do it if we could then turn around and trade Lafrenz and the cap space for Brand. The trade you mention is great for cap space but I feel its like just giving Cato away. As far as Raha goes I never liked him although I like it that he doesn`t miss many games. I would however do either of those deals in a heartbeat if we could get rid of the Norris contract. Theres no way I would trade EG and Rice for Raha. Weren`t they offering Raha straight up for EG before?
