I gotta disagree on this, Butler is 29, and this is not football where 30 is a known age where RBs wither off. I havent seen too many Wizards games, but if I was to make a guess his down play could have had something to do with all the crisis that team has been through this year, and if given a chance with a good team his game will rise.
Also, about Butler's durability issues, if you look at his recent history from the 06-07 season, where his injuries started piling up, he's still played 80 % of all games (233 / 293 ), including this year where he's only missed 2. If you look at his career #s as a whole, he's played in 85.5 % (531 / 621). Not great, but certainly not as bad as some make it out, and certainly not as bad as K. Martin.
Update It's that time of year again, when speculation runs rampant, rumors are reported the moment they are heard and everyone scrambles. As I reported roughly three weeks ago, the Wizards have been in talks with the Houston Rockets about a possible swap of Caron Butler for Tracy McGrady's expiring contract. Of course, other pieces would have to be included, since McGrady is owed nearly $13 million more than Butler this season. ESPN.com reported over the weekend that Brendan Haywood has also been mentioned in the deal. I wrote earlier that the Rockets aren't listening to any deal involving Mike James's expiring contract, but I don't see Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld surrendering two starters for salary cap space -- especially when Haywood is drawing interest from other teams. The Rockets definitely are interested in Butler, but something might not get done until closer to the all-star break, since Houston is also in discussions with New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. ESPN mentioned that the Wizards might be interested in Luis Scola, but Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reported that the Wizards are targeting Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry or Chase Budinger in addition to McGrady. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/01/AR2010020103455.html?sub=AR
I'm glad they aren't listening when Mike James name is in the list. And I know they are targeting Brooks, Landry and Chase but my offer would be McGrady, Scola, Lowry, Cook and a future 1st for Butler, Haywood and Jamason. Personally I think that helps us both fairly.
LOL seems like this writer just took the ESPN article from 2 days ago, added the Chron piece from yesterday, and labeled it an update
you can scratch Jamison off your list. LeBron has a boner for the guy. He'll make the Cavs trade for him. and i don't want to trade away our picks anymore. Morey is a genius with those.
What does it matter if the Rockets pick up Mike James, the guy is an expiring contract anyways. Heck, they can do what Washington has done to him all season, and the same the Rockets have done to Mcgrady, exile the guy. I cant see any reason why he should be a deal stopper. Who cares. I think Haywood would cost us a core player, and he would just be a rental. Mcgrady is not going to net us what most people are hoping for. If we can do this deal, I think it would be the best offer on the table.
Enter McGrady. McGrady to Washington. McGrady bought out and goes to Cleveland. Jamison to Cleveland. Big Z to Phoenix and bought out, back to Cleveland. Landry, Dorsey, Jermaine Taylor, our 1st and cash to Phoenix. Amare, Butler, and McGee to Houston.
Then send Jamison to Cleveland, let Cleveland send Hickson (to us if we're dumb enough to trade Luis) or to Washington. We get Ilgauskas' expiring and some re-sign-our-own-guys breathing space.
Probably won't. But we can sign and trade him to Miami if that's what he wants, get back expirings to use next season at the deadline, and get a young talent, basically the same situation we are in this year but with an added young piece. Amare's expiring is an asset either way. Besides, what if....... What if we got Butler and Amare and we were able to keep everything else intact? How good could we be this year? How far could we go? We are coming close right now. Top 9 rotation??? Brooks Butler Ariza Amare Scola Lowry Budinger Battier Hayes That unit will give LA and Denver a run for their money. And then what if....Amare decides he wants to stay here and DWade decides he wants to come over??? Can we do a S&T to get DWade if he tells Miami he is leaving?? I would think so. Butler/Ariza, picks, cash, young talent, whatever. That would give you a big 3 of DWade/Yao/Amare.....not bad. All sorts of options with Amare if you acquire him.
This. With the word being that Lebron is pushing Cleveland's management to acquire Antawn Jamison, I'm thinking that the three-team deals that have been thrown around here among Houston, Cleveland and Washington might actually translate into concrete talks among the teams' respective GMs. The basic "salary cap structure" of such a three-team trade would be McGrady to Washington, Jamison to Cleveland, and Butler/Ilgauskas to Houston (with the Rockets likely buying out or waiving Big Z so that he can return to Cleveland). My guess is that, for the Wizards to entertain the notion of dealing both Jamison and Butler in the same deal, they would need to get back at least J.J. Hickson, Chase Budinger and one or two first rounders from Cleveland or Houston. Plus, I could see Washington demand that Houston also take back Deshawn Stevenson. If that were the case, I would hope that Morey could then get Cleveland to take back David Andersen, thereby alleviating some of the 2010-11 salary burden of taking on Stevenson's $4.1M player option. Man, I've never seen a trade deadline with more possibilities. Watch Morey end up doing nothing with McGrady. Brian Cook, cash and a pick to Memphis for Lester Hudson, it is!
I do not see an untraded McGrady. I just don't. I actually think a Battier (+Dorsey?) - Thabeet deal could occur. Don't sleep on a Warrior deal...
The thing with that trade is that it would put us under the LT this year which would save Uncle Les over 10 million. He can buy a few picks for that kind of cash. You have to sweeten the pot to make your deal the best deal. We pick up 3 new starters including a C with reasonable contracts. The question is could Cleveland come close to matching that.
Has Thabeet been reported to being on the trade block? I haven't seen that anywhere, do you have a link, or just speculating a deal here? (Either way is fine with me, it'd be interesting if he was on the trade block though.)
