If.... -Pacers lost to Pistons in the ECF... -and the Pistons were able to keep Rasheed Wallace with the current line-up Doesn't A trade for both Cato for Al Harrington (or Jonethan Bender) become an atrractive trade on both fronts? I'd say yes Pacer have Cato and O'Neal to match up against Ben and Rasheed. Rockets get a good or potentially great small forward in the line-up that can back up at the 4 spot. makes sense on both sides of the trade to me, what do you guys think.
Besides the salary cap aspects of it, I'm down. Those 2 players are just about at the stage of development where they're set to have breakout years towards whatever kind of player they'll become. No different than any other high schooler. What are they making and whats Croshere making? Maybe throwing in Croshere would make the salaries work. I realize Bender or Harrington/Croshere for Cato would be talentwise in Houston's favor but they get a good bigman and unload Croshere's contract. We've wanted him for a while and he'd be a great bench guy.
Well I've been calling for a Harrington trade for a while now (not that I'm the only one or anything). If we could get Harrington for Cato I'd do it in a second. But I doubt it would happen so I'd offer Cat for Harrington. Then maybe send Steve to the Clips for Wilcox/Maggette and the #2 and we'd be in business.
Indiana's definitely going to want to shake up that team after Detroit made a move and beat them. Is Artest available at all still? Even if we kept Francis, I'd still be down for moving Mobley and Cato for Artest and whoever (Foster?). Mobley is the scoring they need from Reggie. He can retire or whatever and they'll have some extra money. We move Jackson over to the 2, have Artest guard faster players to cover up Jimmy's slower lateral movement. Foster can just split time at the 5 and 4. Or better yet, we pull away a Harrington or Bender in addition to Artest, but that'd take a load of tradebait to get done. Or at least too much to make it worth it.
Where do I sign to swap Cat (God love him) for Al Harrington? I'd love him as a JVG 3. He'd be a good person to match up with the athletic fours that can run the wing or the big 3's that can bang...much like I had envisioned our using EG (God love him) before all of his troubles.
Sorry, I haven't typed the word "McGrady" in a while. Oh that felt good. McGrady. Just compare: Steve, Harrington, Croshere or T-Mac, anybody I'd deal with Indiana but we shouldn't give up both Cat and Cato. We'd need Artest for that to happen.
Cato for Harrington is pretty equal already IMO....all you really need is cap filler on Pacer's part (maybe Anthony Johnson or something) You are essencially(sp) trading Cat and 2nd for Croshere. I find that as a bad deal on the rockets part, but thats just my views on it.... if We give up Cat to Pacers I expect more I am sure Artest is out of the question for the Pacer... but maybe throwing in pika would help... I think it this case you keep Cato and possibily package him or jj with someone else and the TE for a PW. With this finals appearance Wallace seems to be ungettable unless Rockets had a Yao/T-Mac to suede Sheed to join our forces for less....
My 2 cents.... * The Pacers losing to DET was as much about Tinsley and JO being banged up as it was about talent. I don't see a knee-jerk reaction on their horizon. * The Pacers are already grooming Fred Jones to be Reggie Miller's replacement. Not sure how much interest Mobley and his 2005-06 Player Option would have to them. The Pacers like Freddie Jones a lot. * Cato and Mobley make a combined $13.9m. Harrington is at $6.3m. * Harrington has near-freakish athleticism and could become an excellent player. But he makes a lot of repeat youthful mistakes that may never go away. * Turning Kelvin Cato and Cuttino Mobley into an All Star SF (Artest) is pretty far fetched IMO. Artest won't be 25 until November and still has a lot of upside.
What if we took someone off their hands? Mobley and Cato for Harrington and THEIR choice of Pollard or Foster would be good IMO. Their team would look like: Cato/Foster O'Neal/Cato/Croshere Artest/Bender/Croshere Reggie/Mobley/Freddy Tinsley/Anderson/Johnson I think that's MUCH better than their current team. Mobley fills Harrington's role of 6th man, while they improve their C position tremendously. I would swap MoT for Croshere and Foster as well if necessary. But not for Croshere alone - we need a PF/C back in this deal.
Don't overrate our players now. Artest is still the premier defensive guard in the league. I like the guy and he would be perfect under JVG, but Indy would expect a lot more for this guy.
Not only that, but IIRC, he scored 18 pts/game this year on top of being the defensive player of the year.
So basically, since he had a great year and his attitude seems to have gotten much better, he's not available for anyone but Francis or just a better package? For what he would add to the overall team, I don't think he'd be worth it. Yeah, definitely stick with Harrington/Bender and change.
Man, I'd love to make that sort of move. Cat/Cato/2nd rounder for Artest/Croshere. Granted, Croshere isn't exactly a center, but he's tall enough and strong enough. He can stretch the defense out to the 3 point line. People here bashed him, and yes, he's overpaid, but he can play. He just needs minutes. Artest? 'Nuff said (not that I think Indiana would trade him, except he started to blow up again at the end of the Pistons series; when he forearmed, uh, Rip Hamilton, the Pistons went on a tear). Hell, Detroit could use offense. Revisit the trade: Steve for Billups and Darko, maybe. Sorry. It's the offseason. Sorry, sorry. I can't help it. It's a sickness. We need our own AA meeting. "Hi, my name is Mike." (group together saying) "Hi, Mike." "It's been three days since my last trade proposal." (applause)
