Knicks/Mavs/Wolves - Blount

[john2jer]

Would Blount be any good playing under D'Antoni? Seems like a good situation as far as being a big center with range. Now he doesn't have great hands and plays ZERO defense, but maybe as a 3rd center behind Darko and Lee.

Here's a quick throw together, maybe needs some 2nd round picks to be tossed around to make it work.

Wolves give: Mark Blount
Wolves get: Cuttino Mobley

Why? Wolves dump Blount and save ~6mil in real cash because of Mobley's insurance paid contract. Overall a win for Minnesota.

Knicks give: Jared Jeffries and Cuttino Mobley
Knicks get: Mark Blount, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, and Shawne WIlliams

Why? Knicks cut 1.95mil off their cap figure, double for lux, that saves them 3.9mil in cash when not considering Mobley's deal, but figuring that in, this trade costs them $3.7mil overall in 2009 dollars, but cuts $3.7mil off their 2010 figure downgrading Jeffries to Humphries. So it's nearly a wash real money wise, but it opens up more valuable cap space in 2010. They'd likely cut Jawai or Williams after this deal to get down to 15 players. Overall a win for New York.

Mavs give: Nathan Jawai, Shawne Williams, and Kris Humphries
Mavs get: Jared Jeffries

Why? Mavericks are at 17 contracts for 2009, thus need to cut two guaranteed deals anyways. This does with a trade and likely upgrades their bench for a potential deep play-off run. Jeffries is another versatile veteran player that adds length and defense to the 2nd unit. This trade costs Dallas 800k after the lux is considered in 2009, but prevents them from having to cut guaranteed contracts and improves them talent-wise.

Disclaimer: Using actual numbers from Shamsports and a spreadsheet this works just fine, but the trade checker says it doesn't due to Dallas taking too much back, but that doesn't make sense since they take back about 400k more than they send out. Trade checker is broke I assume.

[john2jer]

Now having looked further into this, I'm getting a little annoyed by the Atkins deal. We could have sent Atkins to New York and taken Shawne Williams in this trade, thus saving New York more money, and maybe they'd send a 2nd round pick to Dallas to balance the trade.

[the_bruce]

impressive

[Esohny]

Thumbs up.

[the_bruce]

Wolves and NYK get what they want.

Of course wolves make a killing here and should add value.

[Biff Cooper]

Now he doesn't have great hands and plays ZERO defense, but maybe as a 3rd center behind Darko and Lee.

Not saying he's anything resembling a good defensive center, but there were even a couple times I remember him playing decent man-to-man defense on Tim Duncan.

[john2jer]

Wolves can definitely send a 2nd round pick to Dallas. Maybe Houston's 2010 pick or New Orleans 2014 pick?

[Worm Guts]

I don't want to give away any actual assets in a trade like this.

[john2jer]

I don't want to give away any actual assets in a trade like this.

You wouldn't sell a future 2nd round pick for 6mil? Gotya.

[Worm Guts]

I can understand why Taylor would do it, but it doesn't really benefit the team basketball-wise in anyway.

[shrink]

Insured deals are exactly what I said about Harpring, including the Atkins remark.

Let's take the Mav's out for a second, and suppose the deal is

Blount + $3 mil cash for Mobely

DOES MIN DO IT? MIN adds $1.5 mil in "on the books salary" but its not real dollars anyway. 80% of Mobely's contract is covered by insurance, so his real cost is. $2.1 mil. Add $3 mil in cash, and the question is: "Would we mind losing Blount's production if we gained $2.9 mil?" YES!

DOES NYK DO IT? NYK subtracts $1.5 mil from their payroll, which is doubled for the lux for $3 mil savings. We also give them $3 mil. So the overall savings is $6 mil, while Mobely's insurance saves them $7.4. Their question is "Is 7-foot Mark Blount worth $1.4 mil?" I think that answer is PROBABLY.


The only problem here is that the Knicks may feel Mobely is worth more than getting a cheap Blount. <snicker>

One note: NYK could insert the cheap Warren Carter (I can't place him), and still fit within Blount's 125% + $100,000 range. That would add $1 mil in savings for the Knicks, if they wanted to get rid of Carter anyway, and make Blount only cost $0.4 mil

[shrink]

The DAL side looks reasonable too. NYK roster size might be an issue in the 4-for-2, but I think MInm could help clear some of the extra roster spots (and add value), if they took on some of these smaller contracts and sent out a larger deal to consolidate for NYK, like Antonio Daniels or Damien Wilkins. Instead of including cash, we'd use our cash to waive some of these guys that NYK or DAL would have to pay to waive. We might even keep someone like Jawai around.

I think iyou have the basis for a very solid trade, j2j. Go forth and multiply!

[Awoooga]

If Dallas would agree to this deal (I think that's the no no here), then I see no reason why Minnesota needs to be included. The Knicks and Dallas could just do the trade straight up. Sending Mobley's contract for Blount when it is not a necessary part of the deal is idiotic. No one wants Blount.

And BTW, the Knicks are not in the luxury tax this season, Mobley's deal will come off our payroll if we want it to in December.

[shrink]

And BTW, the Knicks are not in the luxury tax this season, Mobley's deal will come off our payroll if we want it to in December.

Can you show me some verification of this? I do not believe this happens under the CBA.

As to "why is MIN in the deal?" I answered this on the trade board:

This is a really good idea, but I think it needs to be expanded. MIN has two things they can put in here.

First, they are the one team here that's not over the lux. Any money they can absorb is money that other teams save doubled.

Second, DAL has 16 guaranteed contracts, and NYK has 18. MIN is at 14. Absorbing contracts in trade that the other teams would need to buy out would also be beneficial. For DAL and NYK, paying someone not to play is no fun, but paying them double not to play is even worse.

If MIN adds Antonio Daniels, they can throw about $4 mil in 2009 cap space at DAL, which, doubled for lux, is worth $8 mil. Mobely's insurance is worth $7.6. DAL gets $0.4 mil more, and deals with roster issues, and MIN gets $3.6 mil. Of course, MIN can include cash to even things out.

The problem on the DAL end is that they don't have enough trash right now. Sure, $4 mil in cap space is nice, and MIN will take unproductive players, but they need to be expiring unproductive players. What DAL needs is to make a trade preceding this that gives them this type of garbage, and then MIN can act as their garbage man.