The Denver Post’s Woody Paige wants to swap Carmelo (… and Camby, Kenyon and Atkins) for Billups (… and Tayshaun, Rasheed and this year’s first-rounder), but ‘Melo’s agent continues to deny that his client is on the block.
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Don’t see how this makes the pistons better, unless there’s a second deal in there somewhere. how about Prince and Rip for K. Martin and Artest in SacTown? I could live with that
While I enjoy Woody Paige’s absurd behavior on Around the Horn from a purely entertainment perspective, he’s over his head with this one. He really has absolutely no clue what he’s talking about and lacks perspective when he claims his proposed trade is “scary-good for both teams”.
Not only would this deal be squashed by Joe D. in a millisecond (Joe’s really going to take on Kenyon Martin’s contract and throw in the #29 pick this year? Riiiiight, Woody.) but Paige’s figures are wrong. This deal is very unlikely to be completed due to future cap concerns. Using the players proposed, the Pistons contracts add up to about $34.5 million for next season and the Nuggets’ contracts add up to about $40 million. Now I know the Pistons are about to shed around $8 million next month when some contracts expire, but are the Pistons just going to take on an extra $5.5 million instead of going after free agents and/or re-signing their own? Paige assumes the Pistons are going to happily take on a Carmelo contract that grows by about $3 million in price tag from ‘08-’09 to ‘10-’11, along with a player option, tack on another $1.5 million for that, in ‘11-’12? Sure, Woody, that seems right up Joe’s alley. This Carmelo nonsense strikes me as all smoke and mirrors.
Woody is just tired of having to deal with the Nugs, wishing for a better situation than a bunch of guys who can’t defend worth squat getting bounced out of playoffs like they should.
Woody’s trade proposal is purely speculation on his part about what he thinks would be good for both teams.
However, I just listened to Matt Dery’s interview with Joe D on WDFN and Matt asks Joe D about the rumors Detroit is interested in Carmelo. Joe says the following; 1) He can’t talk about other teams players who are under contract 2) Since teams have called after last weeks press conference that he is asking for their #1 guy, not #2/#3 and 3) He’s talked to 10 to 12 “other” teams as well.
So unless Iverson is the #1 guy on the Nuggets in Joe’s opinion (which I highly doubt), I think we can assume he’s at least let the Nuggets know that he has interest in Melo. But still, he’s talked to 1/3 of the teams in the league already even though trade season doesn’t even pick up till the draft, there will be tons of other scenarios thrown around at Pistons head quarters, so there is an extremely small chance of Melo wearing a Pistons uniform next year.
LB…you obviously have a good understanding of league rules regarding cap space/contracts etc. so I’m definitely interested in hearing your trade proposals you’ve been putting together.
If you break down this deal in detail I don’t think it is very bad. Rasheed Wallace for Camby adds defense but loses offense. Prince for Melo is losing defense but gaining a lot of offense. Atkins for Billups is losing a lot for the Pistons. Kmart for a draft pick (29 overall) is good for the Pistons. The Pistons really need a change. They have made 6 straight conference finals and have 1 championship. This trade changes everything.
Jim, thank you for the compliment but I’m not so sure my understanding is above average. I just do what the ESPN trade machine tells me is okay and then I do my best to cross-reference it for logic with how the contracts change in amount over the years (for example: Melo & Martin’s rise while Camby’s takes a nosedive) to see what it would do to a team in subsequent years. Point being, Paige is dreaming and while Joe is listening, I really doubt he gives up on Tayshaun in favor of Melo or sends Tay to the bench (though he’d be a sick 6th man). Further, I contend that Joe wouldn’t come within a sniff of Kenyon Martin’s anchor of a contract. That thing is really bad news.
Regarding my proposals: I’ve bounced most if not all of them off of Mike Payne and Matt W. already. I’m still in the process of conveying the most information that allows for discussion without making it unbearable to read. Ask either of those two, I’ve spent way too much time with the ESPN Trade Machine already.
*in the process of determining a way of conveying
I heard someone, perhaps on ESPN, say that Portland would be a good place for Billups, seeing as he’d bring veteran leadership to a young team. #1 player on that team? Brandon Roy. I’d be on board, and LaMarcus Aldridge looks good too.
Glenn: Kevin Pritchard is no idiot. I sincerely doubt he’s going to part with either of those two. However, that being said, I still like Portland a great deal as a potential trading partner.
Portland is an interesting potential trade partner because they have a lot good young talent. I really like Brandon Roy’s game, and a backcourt of him and Stuckey would be a lot of fun to watch, but I would be really surprised if Portland would trade him. They also have a really talented pg/sg, Rudy Fernandez, coming over from Spain this year. A core of Roy/Ferrnandez/Aldridge/Oden plus Webster and Outlaw could be really scary in the near future, but that is a lot of potentially big contracts to hand out over the next couple years. Pritchard is an aggressive GM though, so maybe he’d be interested in bringing in a veteran leader like Billups to pair with his young guys.
Portland has Petteri Koponen too. I’m guessing, they figured either him or Fernandez will supplant Blake and Jack as their PGs.
MATT W., are they doing that blogger mock draft thing again?
It is unfortunate for the Pistons, but there seems to be a lot more reasonably competent GMs out there now then there was a few years ago. Guys like John Hammond (Bucks), Sam Presti (Oklahoma City Sonic Boom), Kevin Pritchard (Trailblazers) are actually smart. It’s amazing. Also, a couple of teams that could be fleeced were raided last year (Grizzlies & Timberwolves). What bad GMs are available for Joe to manipulate? I guess there’s Jordan in Charlotte, Bird in Indiana, maybe a few more. But it sure is a lot harder to find incompetence than it used to be.
LawyerBoy: I can see the Blazers parting with one of those young guys for equal value from us if we take a Darius Miles (is his contract still running?) or a Raef LaFrentz (not sure if he’s still on the team…) in return. Would Roy be worth biting the horrible contract of a broken-down player?
Plus, as we’ve seen with those young players needing new contracts, it’s tough to keep everyone (ask the Bulls). Having a vet or two who can start or play sixth man at a reasonable price for an all star would be very helpful in making sure that young potential translates into affordable talent.
Not that he necessarily would do it, but I think he would have to consider it.
Glenn: Since Miles has been “retired” due to injury, the NBA granted the Blazers a cap exception on his contract because of some clause allowing teams to not have injured players’ contracts count against the cap. I believe the Blazers still pay him, it just doesn’t count in their cap figure. That being said, Raef LaFrentz is owed about $12.75 million this year and then his deal is done. Would Raef’s expiring contract be worth it? I suppose, but we’d have to send them Dice and Chauncey (and maybe even the #29 pick) probably, with only Raef and Roy return. I have other ideas which generally tend to center around Joel Pryzbilla. I’ll explain it all when I finally get time (hopefully tonight) to put my thoughts together coherently.
Man, Portland’s in good shape. A big man rotation of Oden, Aldridge, Pryzbilla and Frye. Roy and Outlaw. A solid PG in Blake with open competition amongst the youngsters. Oh, and a lottery pick in a draft where they can get a nice backup for the SG/SF spot.
QD: I have been saying it for months, ‘08-’09 Portland is the ‘07-’08 Hornets. Portland went 41-41 (good enough for 10th in the West with no Oden this year, plus Miles’s contract counted against the cap this season). Two seasons ago New Orleans went 39-43 (ninth in the West) only to this season, go on to a 56-26 record, a #2 seed & the conference semis. The (immediate) future looks mighty bright for a Portland team, sitting with the #13 pick this year and the impending transfer of a quality guard in Rudy Fernandez.
Interesting footnote according to Wikipedia: Then-assistant GM Kevin Pritchard told his higher-ups (GM John Nash and President Steve Patterson) to take Chris Paul at #3 in 2005. They decided to trade the pick to Utah instead. Not surprisingly, Nash and Patterson have both subsequently been fired, and Pritchard is the man in complete charge.