I know. It also means helping the Lakers. So what? They don't have Shaq anymore & Kobe (assuming he resigns) has proven he can't carry the team by himself. It's being reported that the Lakers could be looking to trade Caron Butler in order to ease the log jam they have at SF. They definitely need a center & Dampier is still out there. He'd make a solid starting center for the Lakers. If he's willing to sign a contract that starts at ~$6.9 million for the first year, then our TE could be put to use & net us an up & coming SF in Butler. Butler was injured for a good portion of last year, but when he started back up, he was putting up solid numbers in points, rebounds, & steals. His shooting percentages were down last year, but that could be as a result of his injury. The previous year (his rookie year), he shot 42% from the field & 32% from 3pt land as a starter. I think that Howard will be more than adequate as our starting PF, so that position (imo) doesn't need any attention at this time. Butler, statistically speaking, causes me to have visions of a Ron Artest type of player. I know it's still too early to make that kind of comparison, but it is an intriguing thought. Anyway, here's the trade that would help both the Rockets & Rudy. Houston sends one of Nachbar, Gaines, Badiane, or Spanoulis/TE to Golden State. Houston sends next year's #1 pick to the Lakers. Golden State sends a resigned Dampier to the Lakers. The Lakers send Butler to Houston. The Lakers send next year's #1 pick to Golden State. If Butler continues to develop, that would allow us to play McGrady at the 2 & Butler at the 3, with JJ coming off the bench to relieve both. Assuming the Rockets sign Damon Jones with the MLE to be our starting PG, we could pick up an unrestricted backup center with the Veteran's Exception like Zendon Hamilton, Mamadou N'diaye, Loren Woods, Steven Hunter, Keon Clark, Scott Williams, Robert Traylor, or Kevin Willis. I'd look at Clark, Hunter, & N'diaye as my first 3 choices. Our new lineup could look like this when the season begins: C: Yao/Clark or Hunter or N'diaye PF: Howard/Taylor/Spoon SF: Butler/JJ/Nachbar(?) SG: McGrady/JJ/Piatkowski/Gaines/Griffin PG: Jones/Lue/Gaines Let the season begin.
the one problem that I can imagine is that, as I recall, Rudy l-o-v-e-d Butler and really wanted to get his hands on him. I'm not sure he would set him loose now. What do you think? Hey, HT, been meaning to tell you this: I LOVE ALL OF YOUR TRADE PROPOSALS. Wouldn't necessarily pull the trigger on all of them but I do like to read them. This one I wouldn't do: Nachbar, a #1, and the TE for Butler only?
I like the idea of this ... But, in my understanding, we can't send the TE AND players, although we can send picks. (OK, we need Aelliot, Gater or NIKEstrad for help here, since they are the experts, not me ... ) Dampier would have to agree to a 6.99 beginning salary or less, in order for us to use the TE , and I thought he was looking for more, like 9 or 10 mil. If Dampier was coming to LA, they would have to send some players of similar salary back . Caron is only making 1.5 mil or so a year, so LAL would have to send us Gary Payton to make it work. So, I think it would work more like this, doing a simultaneous trade: HOU sends TE/pick(s) to GSA for Dampier. GSA s&t's Dampier for 6.99 mil to Houston. HOU simultaneously sends Dampier to LAL, who send back Butler/Payton to HOU. The big question on this, is does Payton want out, does Dampier want to go to LAL, and would he be willing to sign for 6.99 mil? For more info, we can read this thread: <a href="http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80644">The TE, one more time</a> explaining the TE... and this one <a href="http://bbs2.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80674">NBA Trading Rules Explained</a> explaining the rules of NBA trades.
Unfortunately the Warriors have no use for a TE for Dampier when they could renounce him outright (cap experts feel free to correct me). And at under $7 million a season, Dampier would be close enough in salary to just outright signing with the Lakers for the full MLE. I think the Lakers have plans for Butler.
Agreed, Clutch. Too many reasons for this not to go through. I guess we'd have to send them draft picks, or send them some decent players for crappy ones, so they get cap space AND some value. Maybe if we took JVE off their hands for Taylor/Pike ... who knows ... but, that's a lot of variables.
Your JVG bashing is getting old. Why don't you follow the Lakers or Magic instead of the Rox? Obviously you don't like the owner, coach and players.
On the flip side, if Dampier does a sign and trade where his starting salary is about $9-10 million then he becomes a Base Year Compensation player. This means that we might be able to get into the deal as a third party and pick up some spare parts. Its the same as what San Antonio did last year in the Brad Miller deal.
that's dumb, if we did this trade why wouldn't we just keep Dampier. he's a monster on the boards which is our glaring weakness. Why do we need Butler we already have a sg, sf and a center.
while the warriors could just let dampier go, this would give them some compensation while adding nothing to their cap (if one #1 is all they want, which i have no idea). as for the contract, if dampier really did a 6 year deal, starting at 6.9 million with the 12.5% raises, i think it would come out to about 54 million, or $9 million per season. however, i think dampier is looking for even more than $6.9M to start (i'm thinking he wants backsta...i mean boozer money), golden state would want more in a S&T, and i'm not sure how much we really want butler when we have JJ and it doesn't address the backup C or starting PG problem. interesting trade though that seems generally equal if not what everyone is looking for.
Clutch, If the numbers I'm using are correct, the Lakers have a current payroll of ~$43.2 million, even without Kobe's new contract added. Kobe's signing puts them way over the top & they still don't have a starting center or a backup center. The closest they have to a center is Medvedenko & he's a free agent PF that plays little to no defense. As of this post, the Lakers starting lineup is: C: ???/??? PF: B.Grant/Medvedenko(FA)/Cook/Malone(?)/H.Grant(?) SF: Odom/Butler/Walton/George/Fox (retiring?) SG: Kobe/Rush/George PG: Payton/Odom(?)/??? The Lakers are overloaded at the 2/3 positions. Dampier would be a nice addition to that starting 5. As for GS not having a need for the TE, they can hang onto it for one full year. Maybe they won't need it this year, but there'll most likely be a trade opportunity at the trade deadline, or next year's off season. With GS landing Fisher tonight, this article indicates that GS might be making a big trade before too long. I wonder if the Rockets are looking into trading for Van Exel? Hmmmm........ http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2579390 Agent: Fisher signs six-year deal with Warriors Associated Press Point guard Derek Fisher has agreed to a six-year, $37 million contract with the Golden State Warriors, his agent, Mark Bartelstein, said Thursday. A Warriors spokesman said the deal hadn't been finalized, but might be announced later Thursday night. Bartlestein expected the paperwork to be signed late in the day. Derek Fisher will head up the coast after signing a $37 million contract with Golden State. Fisher spent eight seasons with the Lakers, who drafted him out of Arkansas-Little Rock in 1996. The Lakers won three championships with Fisher as a primary ballhandler for Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant - but when Los Angeles signed Gary Payton last summer, Fisher was relegated to the bench. Fisher averaged just 7.1 points and 2.3 assists last season as Payton's backup, but didn't complain about his diminished role. In Game 5 of the second round of the playoffs, Fisher made one of the greatest shots in the Lakers' storied playoff history: an 18-foot jumper as time expired to beat the San Antonio Spurs. But Fisher wanted more playing time next season, and it probably wasn't available in Los Angeles. A day after Payton exercised his $5.4 million option for next season on June 22, Fisher opted out of the final two years of his deal with the Lakers. Fisher, who turns 30 next month, would have made just $3 million in Los Angeles in each of the next two seasons. Even Bryant's return to the Lakers didn't sway Fisher, one of Bryant's closest friends on the team. Bryant agreed to a seven-year deal worth more than $136 million earlier Thursday. Fisher will join a crowded backcourt in Golden State, with Speedy Claxton and Nick Van Exel also on the roster. But Van Exel and Claxton both spent significant portions of last season on the injured list, and forward Mike Dunleavy was forced to play point guard in the final weeks of the season. Unless one point guard is traded, Van Exel - another longtime Lakers point guard - might see more playing time as a shooting guard alongside Jason Richardson and swingman Mickael Pietrus. On Wednesday, Chris Mullin, the Warriors' new executive vice president of basketball operations, re-signed center Adonal Foyle to a six-year deal worth nearly $42 million. The Warriors, who have endured 10 straight losing seasons since last making the playoffs in 1994, expect to lose center Erick Dampier to free agency in the next few days.
