Yes, I found this quite humorous as well. I'd take Artest in a second, but still have questions as to his desire. He's the closest thing to Rodman the league has seen in some time, but his self professed fantasy to take off a month at the begining of the season to promote his "love" album make me seriously question his real agenda. He seems a little more into self promotion than team success.
EXACTLY. If your PF scores 10ppg less than the average starting PF, even if he saves you 5ppg more than the average PF through his defense and rebounding, you're still down by five points. Ideally, we would put an Otis Thorpe type to put next to Yao. Since there aren't many guys out there like OT anymore, I think we should go all out and try to get Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
If we really could get any of those four with the MLE that would be great. Personnally I think Swift will be looking for a pay raise not a cut. And the other three will probably end up with pay cuts. Each will end up making between $8 and 10 mil. Let's check back at the end of free agency. Now it is more likely Portland would consider a sign and trade deal involving SAR. But what of value does Houston have? They don't need expiring contracts. They could just release SAR and immediately cut payroll.
Which brings us to the model of the Bulls-Knicks trade last year. Jamal Crawford and Jerome Williams for Othella Harrington, Frank Williams, Dikembe Mutombo and Cezary Trybanski. Trybanski was cut, Williams barely played, Mutombo was traded (and thought to be completely done), and Harrington ending up playing in the rotation (18 mpg) was a surprise for a team with Chandler, Curry, and Antonio Davis. For Jamal Crawford, they got out of Jerome Williams' contract and really 2 players who combined for about 30 minutes (Harrington+Pike via Mutombo). Jamal Crawford was a RFA at that, so they really had more leverage. That trade was all about getting out from under Jerome Williams' contract even for nothing but expiring contracts and losing Crawford. Portland has no shortages of players who want out/they want out. The cost of SAR in a sign and trade won't be talent from our end- it would be our expiring contracts. In a sign and trade, SAR will come duct taped with Theo Ratliff, Ruben Patterson, Darius Miles, or Derek Anderson. Depending on how imaginative JVG is, a package of Miles+SAR provides an interesting fulfillment of our needs without adding to salary at all immediately. That would depend on JVG's thoughts on Miles guarding twos (JVG likes TMac on 3s), which some, myself included, think he's capable of, as well as Miles' shooting (lack of) ability. Conventional thought says surround Yao/TMac with shooters, but perhaps another slasher with Miles' unlimited athleticism wouldn't hurt? Similarly, you could probably acquire Zach Randolph for expiring deals by taking one of those guys with you. Unfortunately, the Bulls are pretty much out of bad contracts, so this logic doesn't really work for Chandler/Curry. It does work for Memphis with Swift (Jason Williams, Brian Cardinal, one of their wings), or Boston with Toine (Raef Lafrentz, Mark Blount, Ricky Davis). I don't think Marshall is worth sign and trading for- if he wants more than the MLE, forget him.
I really think that SAR, Swift, and Donyell will have to settle for the MLE if they truly want to move on to a better situation. A sign and trade is more likely though, at least for SAR, imo. In addition to what Nike added, a 1st rounder could be tossed in, and expiring contracts are valuable, for trading chits if nothing else.
Miles would be interesting at the 4 in a small lineup with TMac at the 3 and 2 little guards. Or we could go big with Miles defending the 2's and TMac the 3. I like the flexibility and the skills he brings to the table and there is no coach in the league who would be better for him than Van Gundy or somebody like Popp. I think the Rockets would do a deal for him duct taped to one of those others if they could do it for expiring contracts. Then we still have the draft, the MLE, and the Euros to add more talent.
