http://www.nypost.com/sports/15266.htm DON'T WAIT FOR WALLACE Peter Vecsey January 11, 2004 -- DON'T expect to get a whiff of Rashweed Wallace at the Garden any time soon, at least not camouflaged in an orange and blue uniform. Portland yesterday rejected the Knicks' latest (and, in all probability, last) offer for its Mayor Of Madness. According to a northwest explorer and later corroborated by an East Coast emissary, the Blazers feel there's more to be had from another team than what the Knicks proposed - Kurt Thomas, Dikembe Mutombo and Shandon Anderson - or whomever else on their roster they ultimately may decide to offer as replacements. In fact, accentuates the Oregon source, the Blazers already were presented with a better offer for the injured Rashweed (sprained ankle) by another team, but that also failed to satisfy management's strict specifications; he declined to divulge the team. The Spurs, Rockets, Mavericks, Grizzlies, 76ers and, perhaps, the Pistons have phoned in bids. Had the Knicks offered them the same stuff sent to Phoenix - Antonio McDyess, a pair of first rounders, Maciej Lampe the rights to Milos Vujanic, $3 million to pay off Charlie Ward's contract - most likely the deal would be done by now; the Blazers aren't tempted by the above proposition. "Hey, if I'm Isiah Thomas I would've reached out for [Stephon] Marbury before Wallace, too," the source submits. "He got Stephon for all the right reasons. Just as we're going to hold on to Rasheed until we hear the right deal." This may or may not happen before the Feb. 19 trade deadline. Don't look for the Blazers to suffer a panic attack. They're beginning to believe the best buy for the 6-10 free agent-to-be won't surface for six months and four days when a sign-and-trade is exceedingly more preferable than agreeing to a mid-level exception. The Jazz, Nuggets and Clippers will have craters of cap room ($10.2M to $33.9M), and thus don't have to play that game. Still, those teams aren't appealing to Rashweed and doubtless the feeling is mutual. The Spurs, Pistons and Suns will have $8M or less available, but San Antonio needs every penny of its $6.4M to re-sign Manu Ginobili, Detroit is trying to free up more money than $6.2M to re-sign Mehmet Okur, while Phoenix isn't expected to spend squat unless Kobe Bryant says, "I do," at which time Jerry and Bryan Colangelo will have to generate more accessible revenues than the $8M or so currently at their disposal. "There's no cause for alarm," says the rainy-day resident, the strategy being, of course, to get the message across to Rashweed, agent Bill Strickland and interested suitors. "There's no rationale for making a bad deal. The way we figure it, without a sign-and-trade, come summer Wallace could wind up another Juwan Howard," who plummeted from $20.625M in Dallas to $4.917M in Orlando.
If Rasheed wants to be signed and traded to Houston, would he agree to 6.9M per year with 10% escalations (3-yr contract)? He won't sign outright for the Jazz or Clippers, and Denver won't want him. So signing outright is out of the picture. The other teams apparently need their money, so they're out of the picture. But the Blazers won't agree to a sign and trade unless we send them SOMETHING, and we don't have a draft pick, so what do we do? If Rasheed's going to sign for 4.5M, it will be one of the texas teams, no doubt about it. Will anyone pay Rasheed more than 7M per season? Right now, I'm really appreciating this trade exception - it will be very valuable in the future, even if we use it on anyone else.
It seems that JVG lost trust in YAO, as well as a lot of fans here, maybe Rox should trade Yao for Wallace.
How has JVG lost trust in Yao? :/ He just couldn't get the ball today! One bad game..Celtics did this last year too. Good job. I don't want to trade any of our players for Rasheed Wallace. I'd love to sign him in the offseason though. I would trade Moochie and Amaechi but they're gone already. I want to keep Yao, Steve, Mobley, Taylor, and Jackson. Piatkowski and Padgett are good guys too. Cato please keep too. Rasheed..I don't know. I'd rather get Troy Murphy or Mehmet Okur and Desmond Mason or Brent Barry.
Randolph is a power forward/small forward. Mo Taylor and some scrubs like Alton Ford...or Clarence Weatherspoon and...we don't have anybody! I guess we could give them Nachbar..
I'm thinking the Blazers want to clean up their image, I dont see Mo doing that. It would take Mobley imo
Sane - What's in the SnT for POR? Even if the CBA allowed it (it doesn't) why does POR SnT Wallace for nada? When he leaves they have cap room and when they get cap room they lose the exception. You can't have both. Teams will definitely pay Wallace $7m. He's as good as Walker, SAR, and Jamison and they all make between $10m-$13.5m. The true value of the TE eludes many people but if the Rox have any player POR wants, you tack on $6.9m and SnT Wallace for that Rockets 2004-05 contract + $6.9m. This is true not just for Wallace, but any player whose contract expires this season that the Rox want to SnT for 2004-05.
Wallace's game has fallen off. He shoots too many 3's. He doesn't mix it up down low like he used to.
I really dont understand why fans here love Wallace so much. He's a cancer. Remember how he threw a towel to his teammate's face? Threw the ball to his teammate's back from behind? Said he doesnt care where he plays as long as he gets the check? Laughing happily after a blow out loss with his teammates? Technical fouls? He's good but is it worth to risk the fortune of WHOLE TEAM on this guy? Not to mention his agent did mention he demands over 10M per year.
Ok, so what I'm understanding is we can't send the TE alone for Wallace. Then again, who would we send to Portland for Wallace? We'll have to guarantee Wallace that Francis and Cat are staying, and we all know Yao isn't going anywhere. This leaves Cato, MoT, Weatherspoon, Boki, Pike, JJ, Wilks, and AG. Right now, best deal I can think of for Portland is TE + Boki + AG for Rasheed. How does this help them? AG makes the minimum, and Boki makes just under 2M. AG plays a few minutes on their rebuilding team for practically free, he's a good guy, hard worker. Boki is young and may blossom or not, either way he's expiring and could be worth the risk. Right now, the scenario I'm thinking about is sending Boki or our second rounder to Chicago to conince them to give us the 2004 first rounder rather than 2005 and 2006 second rounders, then draft this player, and ship his 1M dollar contract along with the TE to Portland for a re-signed Rasheed Wallace on draft day? Is this possible or is it impossible to arrange a sign and trade on draft day?
You mean the protected first rounder in 2004 or the second rounders in 2005/06 that we traded to the Jazz?
Sane - Let me be more specific. The minimum the Rockets can send is a draft pick and the TE. That's the case for Wallace or any other player. Obviously, that won't be the best offer on the table and we've already seen that Wallace and his agent expect more. Sane - Logically, the Blazers are not going to take Pike, or Boki, or AGriff because those types of players can be had with the cap space they get by letting Wallace walk. IMHO, if the Rockets can't/won't put more on the table, then POR is not listening.
Then it will HAVE tobe a 3-way and it will HAVE to include Cato. I'm thinking Pacers, Mavericks, Bucks, or Toronto may be able to offer us some decent pieces. The question is, what the hell do the Blazers want? Do they consider Qyntel a part of their future? If so, that locks up the 2/3/4 spots (DA, QW, ZR). Davis has one year after this so they won't let him go. They have Stoudamire at the point and his contract expires after next season, so they won't let him go either. So here's what they need: Young players, a bunch of cheap backups with short contracts (just for rent), draft picks, taking away Ruben Patterson or Derek Anderson's contracts. They don't want Cato and MoT, so basically.. If the Blazers won't do TE and a future pick for Rasheed (I think they would do this), then we have to trade Cato or MoT for a few pieces, one of which is good enough to package to the Blazers with the TE to get Rasheed Wallace. Something like Cato and Pike for Al Harrington and Jeff Foster, then turn around and trade Al Harrington plus a small part of the TE to the Blazers for Rasheed Wallace. At this point, we still have part of the exception. If the Pacers refuse the earlier deal, then use this part of the trade exception to take something off their hands, maybe a few small contracts to ease their cap situation. Wow, I'm starting to think this will only work if CD is hooked on getting Rasheed Wallace, which is what I'm hoping for.
