MIN - LAL

[shrink]

Songalia ($4.35) + create 0.9K TPE for Morrison ($5.26)

Atkins ($3.48) + $2.4 mil cash for Farmar + Sun Yue + Powell or Mbenga (total $3.64)

LAL saves $0.9 on the Morrison part, and $2.7 on the Atkins waive, for a total of $3.6 mil in savings in 2009. They pay $4.8 for Songalia in 2010. Both are doubled for the lux, so the difference is only $2.4 mil for the Lakers, which MIN includes to cover the difference.

LAL gets the best player in the deal in the useful Songalia to help back-up PF for two years, A TPE, and opens up roster spots to sign vet min free agents.

Btw, nate33, a great poster from WAS who has seen Songalia play for a while, suggested a straight-up deal of Morrison for Songalia, as I also mentioned previously. I asked for his impressions of Songalia:

Songaila does everything right except he lacks athleticism. He has a very high basketball IQ and is well schooled in Euro-style pick and roll tactics. He's a very good spot up shooter, a good passer, sets great picks and is an underrated post defender. He's no good at guarding guys on the perimeter and that can hurt when he switches on a pick. On the bright side, at least he'll deliver the hard foul before he gives up the bucket. His real problem is on the glass. He'll get you zero offensive rebounds and although he boxes out on the defensive glass, he has no lift and guys just jump over him to grab the board.

Songaila is perfect to play 15-20 minutes off the bench on a winning team. You don't want him starting against more athletic matchups though.

[Klomp]

LA wouldn't do the second deal.

[shrink]

The second deal saves them $7.9 mil with the lux, and is the impetus to do the 1st one.

These would have to be simultaneous though.

[Vega06]

Aren't they high on Sun Yue? I like both deals though, i've always liked Farmar, and Morrison could be a low risk high reward player for the upcoming season. This only makes sense if Rubio doesn't come over though.

[the_bruce]

I had this exact same thought, but simply eyeballed the numbers.

A deal like this could save LAL 7m this year when accounting for lux tax. They also get the most useful player in the deal.

This deal of course puts them well into the lux next year(~72m), but if the rumors of a reduced lux are true they will be near the edge with just their currently signed players.

The deal is slightly neutral for LA in terms of finances. They save 7m this year, but end up spending it next year.

Of course with the possible amnesty provision and taking contracts off counting against the lux delaying a year could end up saving some money. Depends I guess...

I dunno if I'm LA I give this serious consideration

[jballer_13]

Although this move would totally fill out our roster I would do it just to get rid of Songalia's extra year.

Flynn/Farmar/Brown
Ellington/Wilkins/Q
Gomes/Brewer/Morrison/Yue
Love/Pecherov/Cardinal
Jefferson/Mbenga

Brown would be easy enough to cut if Rubio is brought over. I would think that Sun Yue would be bought out and some sort of real PF would be brought in at the vet min to balance out the forward situation. I guess I don't know how much LA cares about saving money but Songalia's production alone would benefit them more than the 4 guys we get back. One thing though, I don't see them making any moves until the Odom situation is resolved. If they bring him back this deal looks more attractive as they'll be much further in the luxury tax.

[shrink]

I agree that this would be an alrenative if they didn't keep Odom. What would work nicely for them is to sign-and-trade Odom to address a different need, like a good defensive PG like Hinrich.

[tviper]

I don't think LA would make this trade. Although it is true Farmar's minutes might be reduced this season, I don't see them giving up on him for cap savings unless it was all in one year. In other words, I can't see taking on the 2010 salary of Songalia to save tax this year with Atkins when it means giving up multiple players that know the system and are being developed. I think it is close, but ultimately no dice.

I think Atkins could go to someone like NO who needs to save lux tax $. Perhaps:

Atkins for Hilton Armstrong - saves NO 2.1 M x 2 = 4.2M, gives the Wolves a young true C to develop

[sabonis11]

Anybody think that the reason we picked up atkins was in order to get rid of songaila to save the max space we could in cap room for 2010? And does it seem possible that Kahn thinks he could convince a big time FA to come to MN?

I don't know how LA fans would feel about it but I think a deal involving Songaila+Atkins for Morrison+Farmar would be pretty good for both sides.