Feburary and THIS SUMMER

This season has been real up and down and I cant help but feel that if we dont do something drastic really quickly, then we will be kinda stuck with a mediocre team of unmoveable players. IF we are still treading water by the beginnning of Feburary then we ought to ship out anyone not named McGrady, Ming, or Sura with the intent to create capspace for this summer where there is a pretty good crop of available players that can help us (Joe Johnson, Michael Redd, Cuttino Mobley, Tyson Chandler, Kwame Brown)

I know, I know easier said than done, but it can be done. Our blueprint should be last years Phoenix team that expected to be a mid-level playoff team like us, but had a terrible season. They bounced back by creating cap space out of thin air, trading for Starbruy and Penny for McDyess and Ward, giving them the ability to add two quality players to a nice core of Stoudamire, Marion, and the rest. They were able to pull this off because these expiring contracts wouldnt even make a dent in creating capspace for the hopeless Knicks. To improve, we need to find a similar situation which can be found in Philly, where Glenn Robinson's $14 million contract will expire, but it wont be enough to get the Sixers under the cap. That being said, I propose this trade which will pretty much end our season, but it will allow us to add two quality FA's this summer:

Houston Trades:
Clearance Weatherspoon (To Chicago)
Reece Gaines (To Philadelphia)
Juwon Howard, Jimmy Jackson, Dikembe Mutumbo (To Miami)

Houston Recieves:
Glenn Robinson, Othella Harrington, Malik Allen, Frank Williams, Wang ZhiZhi, and Willie Green

Pretty straight forward, we get a ton of space, every single one of these contracts except Willie Green's ends this year. Adding this to Jon Barry and Boki coming of the books leaves us with more than $18 million in capspace to play with. I would love it if we got brought Mobely back for $8 million per and went hard for Tyson Chandler at about that same range, and use the MLE on a guy like Radmanovic.


Chicago Trades:
Othella Harrington, Frank Williams (To Houston)
Adrian Griffin (To Philadelphia)
Jannero Pargo (To Miami)

Chicago Recieves:
Clearance Weatherspoon

Not as clear to see why they would do this, but if you consider the fact that spoon would come of the books at the same time as Antonio Davis and the released Eddie Robinson, then it kinda makes sense. That gives them enough money to go get a bigtime FA or just pay their own guys without going to far into luxury tax territory.


Miami Trades:
Eddie Jones, future pick (To Philadelphia)
Wang ZhiZhi, Malik Allen (To Houston)

Miami Receives:
Jimmy Jackson, Juwon Howard, Dikemne Mutumbo, Jannero Pargo

Again, pretty straight forward. JJ does what Eddie does just a lot cheaper, Juwon basically replaces Laettner for the next few years, and Dike supplys a good defensive backup for Shaq . This would definately make them the East favorites this year if they arent already.


Philadelphia Trades:
Glenn Robinson, Willie Green (To Houston)

Philadelphia Receives:
Eddie Jones, Reece Gaines, Adrian Griffin, future pick

Might be the toughest sell, but they get a great defender and a local guy in Eddie Jones who figures to put up better numbers here than he did in Miami. Most importantly, they get another draft pick and a quality small forward in exchange for Willie Green a backup 2 guard and a guy who didnt even suit up for them this season.

This exact trade proabably wont happen, but something like it should. There are expiring contracts out there, we just have to agressively pursue them. For example, Dallas has Allen Henderson coming off the books at 8 million per. (Dike and Mo for Henderson and Bradley?) All I'm saying is that if we dont make a move, we'll be stuck in mediocrity for a quite a while.

Whew, that took a while.... Thoughts????


*P.S. I think we should try to get Rick Adelmen as a coah if JVG doesnt pan out