Would you offer Perkins, Ibaka and Harden for Dwight Howard?

[Vampire Diaries]

Extension or no extension

Harden+Perkins+Jones+Aldrich+Draft pick plus taking a nasty contract back


Westbrook+Thabo+Durant+Ibaka+Dwight

w/Maynor + Turkyglue off the bench

that team beats Miami and any other team in the nba

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[OlDirtMcBert]

He11 no. They might consider Westbrook and Perkins, but that would be based on opening enough future capspace for Harden and Ibaka while maintaining the ability to compete for a championship next season. Perkins only has value if the Lakers keep Bynum and Gasol, which I doubt they do. Westbrook's game hinges on his athleticism so much I can't help but think he and his max contract are the most ideal trade chip for the Thunder. When RW is 30, I doubt he's anywhere near the player he is now, and nowhere near as good as say Tony Parker because his IQ isn't very good. Harden could maintain his current ability until he's 35. Ibaka is the guy I think Presti makes a move with.

Damnit Presti...

[Emperor_Earth]

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7urrvsb
(Basically add Thabeet and JRich to the deals respectively)

As a Lakers fan I'm ideally pushing for a Bynum/D12 swap.
But as a fantasy GM in my spare time, I don't see how either team would pass this trade up.

Conventional wisdom goes that you: "never trade big for small/always trade small for big" and "the team that gets the best player wins the trade"

But ORL knows they have very little leverage thus must necessarily not get equal value for D12. They have to lose in any trade, if only slightly.

OKC cannot hope to retain Harden + Ibaka after their rookie contracts expire so must necessarily lose one of the two after next year. (If Eric Gordon is getting the max after playing like 6 games last season, a team will offer Harden the max. Likewise if Hilbert gets the max, Ibaka is getting near max offers. There's always a chance some idiot GM offers him the max too. Seriously, $10mill for Asik?!? And I thought HOU had a smart F.O.) For OKC, having D12 is better than having only one of either Harden or Ibaka while simultaneously dumping Perkin's albatross contract for a floor-spacer at SG.

A lineup of Westbrook-JRich-Thabo/PJII-Durant-Howard has serious staying power in the NBA with the top four players in that lineup three years from now all still locked up for at least another year (Westbrook, PJ3, Durant, Howard) With two deadeye shooters, a post presence, slashes, PNR players all in the starting lineup, there's definitely a chance for some good chemistry with Brooks manning the joint for the entire duration.

For D12, he has no mammoth legacy of Shaq/Wilt/Hakeem to live up to. Instead, he gets to join a rebranded franchise where he can be the first, and without Ibaka/Perkins, the only real big man. With OKC holding his birdrights and offering 20+ million more than any other team, the opportunity to create the most athletic starting 5 the NBA has ever seen (seriously, Westbrook, PJ3, Durant, D12?!) he'll be in the perfect place to adapt to the changing guard in the NBA to the stretch 4 and more small ball... with a frontcourt partner who still stands 6'10" and has traditional 4 height.

He will have no problem with teammate issues either. Westbrook is a hothead but while spectacular is not on KD3/D12's level of superstardom so he knows his place. KD3 is about the best superstar teammate you could ask for to share the spotlight. A 1/5 or 4/5 PNR with Westbrook/Durant would simply be unstoppable. The former would feature the two fastest/quickest/most athletic players at their positions respectively and the latter would pair what would be the two best players at their positions in a PNR. (Oh, and KD3 is the league's 3rd best shooter [Nash, RayRay] and D12 is the league's 3rd best finisher at the rim [LBJ, Griffin] so...) Really, I can't tell which combo is more devastating but that pales in comparison to the potential activity on defense. DPOY multiple times? Wait till he has an athletic team in front of him. With D12 down low, Sefo/KD3/Russ/PJ3 could go ballistic gambling on steals.

And for the Magic, having Harden + Ibaka's bird rights while getting a serviceable post defender as they rebuild is superior to any package the Rockets can offer.

So for ORL, their viewpoint is simple: LAL for the best player, OKC for the best future talent/balance, HOU for the best valued contracts (rookies) + most salary dumps, BRK for no reason at all.

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As a Lakers/Knicks fan, I would adopt OKC as my temporary third team if this deal went down. What true basketball fan could resist? This has the makings of a dynasty.

I wonder what OKC fans disposition to my tradecrafting several months ago now that Harden is gone.

Would you rather have D12 + Haywood + Aldrich + Cook or Ibaka + KMart + Lamb + two 1sts + a 2nd?

[hollasin35]

Ibaka & kmart package......haywood, aldrich, cook wouldn't be doing much. After Howard that deal is a waste, at least with ibaka deal have players & pieces to play with

[MellowRose]

What about Westbrook for Howard? As a Magic fan, I'd have loved to have Westbrook.