Ric Bucher reports that cavs make offer for Oneal..

[Da_James_Gang]

Ric Bucher said that the cavs have an offer on the table forJermaine Oneal. The offer is the 19th pick, Wally Szczerbiak, and Anderson Varejao. He said this around 1:30pm on a live draft special on epsn.......

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Ew.

[Da_James_Gang]

Ew.

lol just giving you guys a heads up for whoever didnt see it.......

[fdefore]

I'd need something else from the Cavs. Maybe include Tinsley for Snow to make it palatable for us? Or maybe have them include West?

[cdash]

Nooooo way. Nothing about that deal I like. Nothing. The 19th pick isnt exciting, I am not at all a fan of Anderson Varejao, and Wally Szcerbiak blows. However, if our underlying goal here is to have a roster that is 90% White, we will be one step closer with this deal.

[basketballwacko2]

Sideshow bob is an ok player, wally would never play the #19 could get us a good bench player/prospect. Not enough like someone said add in JT for Snow and West and I'm close to ok from a financial aspect. Still the Toronto deal is better if there. But again sometimes the best trade is one you don't make.

[joew8302]

I hate this deal as well. But the Cavs traded their first rounder last year, can they even make 19 available?

[mizzoupacers]

Whoever said Wally blows, well the point here is to get his big expiring contract--$13 million worth.

Varejao is not a bad player, he's a young Jeff Foster basically, and for roughly the same money as Jeff. We could flip one of them to another team for something worthwhile, other teams can always use a high-energy low-post player who is solid defensively. Varejao has two years on his contract, if he picks up his option for the second year, which he might not be inclined to do if you remember back to last year when he held out for months because he didn't like what Cleveland was offering him.

The nineteenth pick is what it is--probably it will produce a minor contributor, although there's a chance it could produce a really good player (or a complete bust).

I'd prefer the Toronto deal, because T.J. Ford is better than anything we get here if he can stay healthy. But this supposed Cleveland deal isn't THAT bad. I really waver back and forth, though, on these scenarios where we trade JO for 50 cents on the dollar. Should we take that, or should we risk another year of possible injury time and bad blood between JO and Bird in hopes of doing better at the trade deadline, or next summer, or possibly getting a resurrection of the All-Star we used to know and admire? Dunno.

[count55]

I think the Cleveland deal is just a financially-motivated deal and would not choose it over the Toronto deal. Question is...will it be up to Bird or Colangelo on the Toronto deal?

As to the rumors about NY & NJ being interested, my guess is that they want to do deals centered around Zach Randolph and Richard Jefferson, respectively...I'd rather take the finances of the Cleveland deal than one of those.

As to whether or not to sit on JO...if the Cleveland deal is the best we can get, then it's right on my borderline, but I'm not a big believer in JO's value going up from here, and I'm very concerned about what happens if we have a repeat of last year's 42-game debacle.

[joew8302]

If we have a repeat of last year for JO it is simple, he is an expiring contract the year after and we see what we can get then. I mean his value is at an all time low, so I don't see the point in trading low. His value can only get better, if the Cleveland offer is the best we can do we might as well hold on to him. I mean no sense in doing Cleveland a favor and taking out their trash while possibly giving them a piece to a championship.

[basketballwacko2]

NJ is an interesting possibilty they are wanting to clear salary so they can make a play for LeBron James. So they would have incentive to move Jefferson, they also have 2 picks #10 and #21. If the contract of KVH can be traded check out this deal JO for #10, Jefferson, KVH and Marcus Williams. Then move Jefferson to Portland for #13 and Raef, McRoberts, Jack and Fernadez. Portland really wants a vet SF from what I've seen. They still have the #27 and could still deal for Barbosa.

[count55]

If we have a repeat of last year for JO it is simple, he is an expiring contract the year after and we see what we can get then. I mean his value is at an all time low, so I don't see the point in trading low. His value can only get better, if the Cleveland offer is the best we can do we might as well hold on to him. I mean no sense in doing Cleveland a favor and taking out their trash while possibly giving them a piece to a championship.

It's only at an all-time low if we don't have a repeat of last year. If he ends up missing 20+ games, then his value will continue to decline. If you want a potential preview, check Marbury's value, which is virtually non-existent...

Francis ($14.5 mm) was packaged with Frye for the pig that is Zack Randolph & Filler, and he (Francis) was acquired for the expiring contract of Penny Hardaway ($15.6) & Ariza.

Not a great deal of value in just having a jumbo expiring, unless you want to package a lot of assets along with it (as in Al Jefferson, Gomes, Green, and two first rounders to marry up with Ratliff's expiring for Garnett). I don't see us having that many other assets, and I don't see a Garnett-type player being on the block again.

Plus, for the contract to have value, we'd have to be willing to take back some bloated contracts at the end of it.

I don't like the Cleveland deal, but it is close to my go/no-go decision line. As I said earlier, I believe it is more likely for his value to decline than it is to rise over the next year.

[bravesatl]

wally wasnt bad in the playoffs, he would definitely get some minutes, and getting him might mean bye-bye to daniels, which i hope happens...

[granger05]

At basketballwacko's suggestion, this works on the trade checker:

Portland in:
Richard Jefferson
Portland out:
Raef LaFrentz
Rudy Fernandez
#13

New Jersey in:
Jermaine O'Neal
#11
New Jersey out:
Richard Jefferson
Stromile Swift
Marcus Williams
#10

Indy in:
Raef LaFrentz
Stromile Swift
Marcus Williams
Rudy Fernandez
#10 & #13
Indy out:
Jermaine O'Neal
#11

These players could be the framework for a deal with picks or some other cheap prospects moving around as well. I took a pass at balancing the picks.

Why for Portland:
They get to fill their hole at SF. Jefferson is reasonably paid and seems like a team player and good citizen. They give up a low teens pick and a highly touted foreign prospect, but this seems about the right value for Jefferson.

Why for NJ:
They seem keen to move Jefferson, presumably for a LeBron run. Their side of the deal is basically only with us and I've seen this version kicked around before, it's just that our roster has no need for Jefferson. I don't know if the pick swap matter much, but if gives us first dibs at Gordon if he falls.

Why for Indy:
This is pretty much the kind of deal we're looking for. We move JO for expiring contracts, a prospect coveted by our GM, and a pick (plus an upgraded pick).

I think this is pretty reasonable all around, and it combines a few other rumors we've heard with Jefferson.

[Indydave]

My initial reaction-- ho-hum.... AV would at least allow us to move Jeff Foster in a future trade, Wally would literally be buried somewhere on the bench for a year, but would be a very nice expiring contract, and the 19th pick is right where Bird wanted to be in the draft-- it just dosen't excite me though.

I think this will come down to how badly Bird wants in the draft for a 2nd 1st rounder.

[DowJones]

Most of us Cleveland fans have little interest in this deal as well. Hopefully this is all just crap.

[cdash]

Whoever said Wally blows, well the point here is to get his big expiring contract--$13 million worth.

Yes, I understand that. That doesnt change anything about the deal for me. At least the expiring deal we would get in the Toronto trade is useful here as an extra big.

[CableKC]

If the Toronto deal is still available.....I would do the Toronto deal over this version of the Cavs deal.

[Wizop]

I like it - even though it would make us the only team in the league able to field five white guys. Diener, Mike, and Wally with two from Jeff, Troy and AV. that 19 pick is just what we want. sure sawing off Tins would make it better still but maybe that is our counter offer.

[Grang33r]

I'm sure this wasn't the only offer they recieved. But yeah, Toronto deal blows this out of the water....