I agree Jerry West is great at what he does but seriously he isn't a god. He's made mistakes in his tenor as a gm. Plus, I really like Swift alot and I think he could be a energy guy.
Oh, and yeah, I would love to stick it to the Grizzlies for the Posey deal. It would be such sweet revenge. Jerry West woudl have his work cut out for him. If he doesn't match, we're even. If he does, good luck re-signing your own players next summer. In fact, we might even go for one or two of them (Battier would be nice).
Getting Wagner instead of Newble still doesn't rape them. Why would we want to do them more of a favor than we already do by helping them to re-sign Boozer?! Why do you Cavs fans hate the Rockets so much?!
How would matching preclude him from re-signing his own players next summer, as long as the owner is willing to spend the money?
From what MemphisX said in the NBA forum, the Grizzlies owner is a Billionaire and is willing to pay his players. Just because the Grizzlies got Cardinal doesnt mean they will let Swift walk for nothing. I bet the Grizzlies match any offers. They are all about obtaining and keep ASSETS. They arent going to lose any of them for nothing. They NEED all of those assets to trade up to get higher caliber players. I would love to get Swift and even make an offer to him, but I bet the Grizzlies match.
The Grizzlies owner is no Mark Cuban. Swift, Posey and Cardinal are all signed to maximum MLE deals. That's 15M per season on its own. J-Will makes an easy 8M. Bonzi makes a lot of money, around 6M. Gasol would demand the MAX and would get it. Mike Miller, Tsakalidis, Lorenzen Wright... It won't be easy to keep matching contracts. Unless they get a verbal agreement from these people in that case.... Oh, wait, THE JAZZ! So yeah, the owner would be hard pressed to spend that much money. Re-signing Gasol, Watson and Battier is difficult enough without having a high payroll. With teams like the Knicks, Jazz, and Hawks ready to pounce on their FA's, it could get ugly. They will lose some talent, no doubt about it, unless West wheels and deals soon. I'm predicting he deals Swift and Lo-Wright to the Warriors for Dampier and Troy Murphy.
For a guy who doesn't have some of the "net worth" clout of many of his peers in the NBA, Les sure does take risks to get a winner. The other 2 major sports owners in the Houston area (Bob McNair and Drayton McLane) have net worths that dwarf Les', but the little Elmer Fudd troll still has the nuts to go after some blockbuster talent. I give him nothing but credit for that.
I doubt Cleveland will move Ilgauskus. That is $14m off the hooks next year! Lets say that Cavs allow Boozer to leave, and allow Ilgauskus contract to expire; they will likely to have a high lottery pick, and hell of a lot of money to throw in next year's free-agency. There is no point in taking dead contract like Mo's by making short-term and not well thought trade. After hearing from Nike that there is virtually zero possibility of Boozer being traded, most we can expect IMO is somebody like mid size contract like Battie or Mc Innis. Mind you, I think we can go a long way with the group of players that we have in our disposal and I would like to see how actually Yao and T-Mac complements each other before we make commitment to role players. While I am high on Swift, and at the going rate, I reckon he deserves full MLE, I do think Grizz will actually match it. And like Memphis X said, West will try to package him in a deal with expiring contract like Wells to get bonified star. Young talent and expiring contract like tradedable commidity especially to a team that is trying to rebuild. Anyway, I think Jimmy, Yao, Mc Grady, Howard is good enough to make some noise - and who knows with some good like i.e. Fakers we might make it to the finals . One thing for sure: No more bad contracts unless we get considerable talent in return!
we have to move mo before going after swift. we also need to find a PG and a C before we do anything else. i would offer seattle mo and a pick for daniels and a center. that trade would do everything we need. add a PG and a C and move mo. then we can offer the max MLE to swift. and find a use for the TE.
Swift would be a huge addition because nobody on our team is ready to guard Duncan, Garnett or Novitski for that matter. I would prefer to spend our big dollars on Swift and then take a less expensive route on the pg situation, like jones or ward. we get more value. i honestly do not see a multimillion dollar difference between jones/ward and fisher/hudson.
If we're going to use Swift to guard the big forwards of the West, then Juwan Howard comes off of the bench? And then MoT is nixed? Just some thoughts to consider.
Hmm, apparently I'm a bit misinformed about the Grizzlies GM. What gives you guys the impression that he will spend like Dallas or the former Blazers? Because that's the guy of money we're talking about. Gasol (Max contract), Swift (MLE), Posey and Cardinal together are about 25M. Lo Wright, Wells, and J-Will make up another 24 or so. So that's already 48 or 49, not counting: Mike Miller Earl Watson Shane Battier Tsakilidis Antonio Burks Andre Emmet Ryan Humphrey Dahntay Jones Sergei Lishouk Troy Bell Oh and this is assuming they let Bo Outlaw just walk as well. I don't know what the deal is with the contracts of Bryant Reeves or Michael Dickerson either. They're very close to 70M with everyone re-signed, and are not championship calibre. Is that what the Grizzlies are willing to spend? With the salary cap at around 45M?
Man, Jerry West has so many people faked out. He's the freaking Tony Soprano of the NBA. Everybody doubts their own hand when this poker stud is at the table. I think we're in a better position going after Swift than we were with the Posey situation last year. The Cardinal signing is obvious that they're not afraid to lose Swift. So why do that if you want Swift back?
