AWIZZINGBULLET wrote:Does anyone think Okafor can be traded straight up and warrant a 1st rd pick, if so, how high do you think realistically?
I think Okafor could bring us back an expiring contract plus some minor incentive (2nd round pick), or an equivalent contract plus major incentive (mid 1st round pick).
The important thing when trading Okafor is to understand that if we dump his salary, it doesn't really leave us all that much better position capwise. As it stands now, we project to be about $4M over the cap and $8M under the luxtax (That assumes we let Webster walk. Sign him and the math changes accordingly.) If we dump Okafor, we will be about $10M under the cap, just barely more than the $5M provided by the MLE. It doesn't give us that much more flexibility, particularly if we choose to resign Webster.
If we dump Okafor, we need to find a way to dump Ariza along with him. That would free up $18M in cap room (minus the cost of Webster if applicable) and put us into position to be a major player in free agency.
If we can't dump Ariza along with Okafor, then I think we're better off just keeping them both. Either that, or trade Okafor for an equally bad contract (and worse player) plus a reasonably high pick or good prospect.
One of the big considerations is who is available in free agency. The big names are Chris Paul, Andrew Bynum, Dwight Howard and Josh Smith, none of whom would be interested in joining the Wizards. After that, we're talking about guys like Paul Millsap, J.J. Hickson, Al Jefferson O.J. Mayo, Kevin Martin, Tony Allen, JJ Redick and Dorell Wright. Of all those guys, I'm not sure how many of them help us more than Okafor would. Millsap is the only guy that really intrigues me.