I’ve never thought much about the rumors that are posted in the Sacramento Bee, especially after that rag once claimed that Yi Jianlian’s camp was trying to get the Chinese Man of Mystery traded to the Kings because they are so close to the Chinese population of San Francisco. Never mind the fact that Sacramento is exactly the same distance from San Fran as Milwaukee is from Chinatown on the south side of Chicago.
Anyway, they are claiming that Miami wants Ron Artest and is dangling Shawn Marion to make it happen.
So while I’m sure that rumor is complete hogwash, I started thinking: how can the Bucks get involved in a deal like that? Everyone loves to go on about Joe Alexander as the next Marion so how about going for the real thing?
Here’s the deal I was able to come up with:
Sacramento sends Artest to Miami and receives Desmond Mason, Charlie Villanueva and the Bucks’ 09 first round pick.
Milwaukee recieves Shawn Marion and Mario Chalmers and sends Mo Williams to Miami (plus the aforementioned Mason, Villanueva and a pick to Sacto).
Miami receives Artest and Mo Williams in exchange for Marion and Chalmers.
(One way to mix up the draft picks — Sacramento receives the better of the Bucks or Heat’s 09 first round pick, and if they take the Heat’s pick then Miami receives the Bucks’ pick. This is to offset Chalmers coming to the Bucks.)
The results of this trade:
Sacramento receives an expiring contract, a young power forward who is better than anyone they already have and a pick for the expiring contract of a guy who is completely nuts and who they don’t really want. Should they let Villanueva walk after the season then it turns into two expiring contracts, so no extra salary commitments.
Miami rebuilds their team with a starting four of Williams, Wade, Artest, Beasley and rounded out by either Mark Blount or Udonis Haslem.
The Bucks roll out a starting lineup of Bogut, Marion, Jefferson, Redd and (uh oh); but save $12.5 million next offseason which drops them under the cap and eases the burden of adding Bogut’s extension and Jefferson’s $15 million 10/11 salary.
Honestly, the major problem with a deal like this is from the Bucks’ perspective. They would be going into the season with a point guard rotation of Charlie Bell, Ramon Sessions and Mario Chalmers. Chalmers was an absolute and utter steal at #34 in my book (typical Kevin McHale to then trade him away) — I had him rated as the #8 prospect in the draft. But you can’t depend on any rookie point guard to step in and run a team. Since Ramon Sessions is still a total enigma, that means Charlie Bell would have to be up to the task as the starter. Would that work? Maybe so — he is big for a point guard and tries hard on defense, so that should work just fine for Scott Skiles (who used Chris Duhon in that role for three years).
I wouldn’t worry about losing a first round pick — that Bucks lineup would be built to win this year, and Chalmers would be a better prospect than anyone the Bucks would get in next years’ weak draft.
In reality Sacramento would probably shoot that down because they would want either Kenny Thomas or Shareef Abdur-Rahim to be included in an Artest trade so they can clear out part of their power forward logjam (and they did just draft Jason Thompson as well). But considering that Thompson probably wont do much this year, and if they do this trade and play out the next two years they would be set to fall $35 million under the cap in the 09/10 offseason, it’s not a bad deal for them.
I think it’s a cool idea. We all know it would never happen, but it’s worth dreaming about.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Timmothy // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:54 am
That’s probably the best trade I’ve read about on a blog. It’s logical, practical, and would make each team much better. Nice!
2 MIL-ILL // Jul 16, 2008 at 5:56 am
Bogut, Marion, Jefferson, Redd and Bell as our starting five? Aside from Bell, you would have 4 people insist on being ‘involved’. Skiles is good, but not that good to make that work out.
Philly should do a sign and trade with Iguodala to Milwaukee for Redd and Sessions – with Brand now in the line-up, Iguodala is expendable and they get a good prospect in Sessions for cheap. AI and Bogut up front would be awesome!
Trade Villanueva and Mason for David Lee and Jamal Crawford. Solid Bench Player and a SG to fill Redd’s vacancy and NY get a bit of cap relief and NY native Charlie.
Bogut, Iguodala, Jefferson, Crawford, Moe Williams
Bench: Bell, Alexander, Sessions, Mason, Lee & Gadzuric
That front court and Jefferson would be stellar! The back court can be contingent upon Moe’s defense – in which earlier in his career, he has proven to be quite good at.
3 Brett Boyer // Jul 16, 2008 at 7:13 am
Scott Skiles couldn’t stand Crawford the first time he coached him and would never want him again.
If you thought Williams and Redd was a lousy defensive combo, a backcourt of Crawford and Williams would blow your mind.
Crawford is the ultimate tease — he looks great at times making people think he’s going to turn the corner, but he’s so bad half the time that he kills you. It all balances out to an incredibly average player who plays awful defense. There’s a reson he’s never been on an even semi-decent team — because he’s just talented enough to kill you. He’s not that young any more — he’s never going to change.
A S+T Redd/Iguodala trade is intriguing, but Iguodala would have to agree to that, and his primary position is small forward. He played 80% of his minutes there last season and only 2% at PF (the rest at shooting guard). I don’t see him wanting to come to a team with Jefferson already in place, since he is the one who would be forced out of position.
4 MIL-ILL // Jul 16, 2008 at 8:40 am
I see your point. Then perhaps shift AI to SG trade Charlie V and Desmond for Malik Rose’ expiring contract and David Lee.
Bogut, Lee, Jefferson, AI and Williams.
Young promising team with potentially some serious defense.
5 MIL-ILL // Jul 16, 2008 at 8:50 am
Europa and others at Realgm.com agree on adding Lee to the line-up as well.
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=824852&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=45
I’ve been a fan of Lee for quite sometime, my suggestion was made prior to knowing what was said here. But anyway, it’s assuring others think in like-kind…
6 Luke Uriniuk // Jul 16, 2008 at 9:36 am
I really like the trade you worked out, but is there anyway to throw in Danny G. for either Kenny Thomas or Shareef Abdur-Rahim. I can’t imagine either of those two players being any worse than Danny G., maybe Abdur-Rahim because he seems to get injuried so easily. How does the money situation look with those exchanges thown in?
7 Brett Boyer // Jul 16, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Gadzuric is paid more and for more years than Kenny Thomas and Abdur-Rahim. Gadz is stuck here for at least 2 years until his contract is ready to expire. Abdur-Rahim may retire because of knee problems.
People need to realize that trading for David Lee is a pipe dream — he is only on the trading block because Donnie Walsh wants to shed bad contracts but knows full well that Lee is the only player on his roster who has any value. Walsh would package Lee in a deal that includes Curry, Crawford or Randolph and sends back big contracts with 1-2 years remaining. You cannot get David Lee for nothing.
I saw Paul Millsap and Anderson Varejao mentioned in that RealGm thread, and I have to cut down those options right now:
Milsap is almost impossible to trade for because he only makes 750K this year, so there is no way to send back reasonable value. Utah also needs to keep him around because Boozer can opt-out this offseason, so they may need Milsap to be their starter next year. It would be next to impossible to pry him away from them because he’s such cheap insurance in case Boozer gets hurt this year or leaves next year.
There’s almost no way Cleveland trades Varejao within the division, and even though they drafted JJ Hickson (great pick) he’s very young and a year or two away. Any team with LeBron is an instant finals contender and they can’t afford to have Joe Smith and Hickson as their only power forwards.
8 Luke Uriniuk // Jul 17, 2008 at 9:07 am
Any thoughts on the possiblity that the Bucks could be picking up T. Lue for 1-2 years? I like it as long as he can play defense too.
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