Head down a different road?

Here's a chain of events I came up with that I feel are fairly realistic and could end up strengthening this team......

1) Offer the trade exception to Memphis to get James Posey back
Posey is an excellent defender. He's long and athletic, imagine the terror TWO 6'8" athletic guard/fowards would cause. JVG would love him. I don't know if Jerry West really would give Posey up right after signing him but they do have: Mike Miller, Bonzi Wells, Dahntay Jones (early 1st round pick from '03), Shane Battier and now Andre Emmett at SG/SF and Memphis is over the cap, Posey could be expendable and a trade exception could be useful. Now, if Jerry West can somehow recruit Kobe....i'd say there's no reason not to give up Posey.

2) We have 3 PF's, 2 of which are capable starters in the Eastern Conference. I think we should take advantage of the Cavalier's situation with Boozer slamming the door on them. Both Howard and Taylor would be productive starters on the Cavs. Personally, I would like to see Taylor moved more than Howard. You may laugh at this, but Taylor could be an All-Star in the Eastern Conference. He could easily average 15-19 PPG and 5-8 RPG and given the conference is pretty depleted as it is, he could warrant All-Star consideration if he was healthy. That being said, let's take a look at some trade proposals:

A) Taylor for Tony Battie/Kevin Ollie
B) Taylor for Tony Battie/Ira Newble
C) Taylor/1st rounder for Tony Battie/DaJuan Wagner (very unlikely, I realize)

-OR-

If the Cavs fill their vacancy at PF otherwise, they were very much interested in Piatkowski (hence the discussed Pike for Ollie swap). We need a backup center, Pike for Battie checks out.

3) We still have the MLE at our disposal.
Depending upon how the above scenario's would play out, we could then decide how to tackle the PG spot. We could then use that to sign Barry or Fisher, maybe as a last resort Hudson.

Perhaps Antonio McDyess could hold true to his desire to play in Houston and take the vet minimum. However, I realize McDyess is drawing plenty of interest so if any of this has any chance of happening, something must happen soon.

Potential Depth Chart:
PG Barry/Ollie*/Lue
SG McGrady/J. Jackson/Gaines
SF Posey/Nachbar/Griffin
PF Howard/McDyess/Weatherspoon
C Yao/Battie

.....one can dream

 

Yup, pretty much.

We essentially let Posey walk so we could sign JJ, Pike and Griffin. Griffin and Pike were non factors all season so it comes down to Posey vs. JJ. Now granted, JJ had one hell of a season and was HUGE for us but in all honestly we probably would have been better off just giving Posey the MLE and keeping him.

 

I don't know what Jerry West's plans are and neither does anybody on here. I was just merely looking at scenarios given both teams strengths/needs. Memphis has a surplus of swingmen and Posey is one of their higher paid ones. Yes he did play well this year and we probably should have kept him, and maybe the trade exception alone isn't enough for him. I just figure West might want to make every effort to clear as much caproom as he can to make a splash in free agency.

And I don't think there's many that would argue Posey as their MVP, however I won't take away anything from the guy because he's a good player and had a great year. Maybe I got a little carried away with the trade exception's actual value. If Posey was available, adding a future 1st rounder along with the exception might be a more realistic offer then.