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Buckner, #31 or Boston '09 for Steven Hunter and #20.

For Denver, they shave off one year off of Hunter's salary (who only played 6 mpg last season. Buckner gives them a veteran defensive wing who can hit the three and is much more stable than j.r. smith.

For Minnesota, we get (if healthy) a legit 7 footer who is athletic, relatively young, can block some shots and rebound. We also get in a good position to draft one of Rlopez, Aijinca, McGee, Hibbert, Kosta, or maybe Speights.

Hunter - RLopez (or whoever)
Jefferson - Gomes - Richard
Brewer - Gomes - Jaric
Mayo - McCants - Jaric
Foye - Mayo - Jaric

I'd do it.

Between Camby, Nene, and Martin, I can see why Denver would have no use for Hunter. Is Buckner's exprining enough to cover the cost of moving down from the #20 to the #31? Im not sure. I do it, not sure Denver does.

Denver would not do that, they are trading for a worse pick and Buckner's longer contract.

cpfsf wrote:Denver would not do that, they are trading for a worse pick and Buckner's longer contract.

Buckner is nonguaranteed after next season (well, he has about $1mil guaranteed, but for all intents and purposes he is an expiring).

Denver is up against the lux, they might not be able to afford to pay their first round pick, they might prefer to move back to next year's Boston's pick or to take a guy in the 2nd Round that they can stash in Europe for a year or two.

Yes for us, and if DEN doesn't make some other move, maybe a yes for them.

The Nuggets had Buckner before -- hope that doesn't affect their decision.

Good idea, prefuse73.

shrink wrote:Yes for us, and if DEN doesn't make some other move, maybe a yes for them.

The Nuggets had Buckner before -- hope that doesn't affect their decision.

Good idea, prefuse73.

maybe...they like him?

I like it a lot. With Denver up against the luxury tax this deal could make a lot of sense for them.

Steven Hunter has a player option for '09 at 3.9 million.
Buckner is guaranteed 1 mil for '09.
They only (potentially) save 2.9 million in '09.

Their salary in '09 depends on if they re-sign Iverson, and for how much. If they let him walk they'll be comfortably under the lux.
I completely agree that maybe they'd like to get out of the 1st round to save that money this year,
but they may need more incentive than that.

They'd probably do it for the Miami pick alone, but I don't know if I'd be willing to do that, it could very easily fall in the 11-15 range next year.

But if we've got a C we really, really like available at 20 (mcgee/koufos/hibbert) that we value as a starting NBA center, we've got to do it because this draft is so deep that next year there will likely not be a player of similiar quality available in the 11-15 range. Plus I really like being able to keep 31 and 34 this year, I think the draft is 35 deep at least and we should get 2 outstanding players there.
Hopefully Ajinca and Hardin.

They have 2 awful, unmovable deals in Nene (4-43) and K-Mart (3-46.5) that will eat up nearly half their cap by 2010.

Thank goodness we're not in that position.
Jaric looks like a bargain next to those 2 slugs.

I threw something similar to this out on the trade board a while back and it didnt get an awful lot of support from the Denver side (although not a lot of replies either). I doubt they'd be willing to add their draft pick to a deal like this.

http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=783349