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After reading the apathy towards Bill Walker, it makes me realize that I may be taking too subjective approach to potential trade targets for the Wolves. I would like to hear what players you'd like to trade for, and could be reasonably afforded. I want to avoid skewing the results to the players I would mention, but let me at least provide direction by asking for players in two categories:

CATEGORY ONE: LOW LIKELYHOOD, HIGH UPSIDE YOUTH

Most likely candidates will have many of these characteristics:

1. They've been given opportunities, but have not made the most of them.
2. They may have had injuries.
3. The team may be a contender and needs a roster spot over youth.
4. The team may be a contender and doesn't have minutes to develop youth.
5. The team has alternate youth at that position.
6. They aren't 2009 draft choices

From what I've seen, most teams seem to believe in potential, and become even more invested after they've drafted a guy. They see him for what he could possibly be, not for what he most likely is. Players with the characteristics above may have lost some of their shine, and a team may be willing to forget their dreams for something more pragmatic.

CATEGORY TWO: POTENTIAL STARS WE'D SPEND 2010 CAP SPACE ON

Most likely candidates will have many of the characteristics:

1. A flaw that has gotten in their way (injuries, attitude, etc)
2. He doesn't fit the direction of the team (young player on old team)
3. A team that has financial need - perhaps over the lux
4. A team that wants to change direction.
5. Someone we'd be willing to trade for now, rather than wait for 2010 and give nothing or try to grab in free agency or a cap space sign-and-trade

This may cause another team to be willing to trade a star.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PLAYERS WE'D LIKE FOR BOTH GROUPS

5. Younger player
6. Longer and athletic
7. Able to run
8. Not a PF or PG

Like I said, I don't want to name and specific players myself, but I certainly have my ideas. What I'd like to hear are your ideas. Give me some names in both categories and I can hopefully develop some trades that will be more appealing to you guys.

A scenario I'd like to see is the Sixers giving up on Iguodala and going with Young, then trading him for some of our expirings and either another young player or a pick. I think he's somewhat overpaid but we're going to have to overpay in free agency too, and he definitely fills a position of need for us. It's probably not going to happen but it'd be sweet in my opinion.

I think okc is going to have to make a move with Jeff Green at some point and I would love to make a play for him.

I love the idea of Iggy, but dislike almost all trades for Jeff Green if they involve Kevin Love.

Here is my list of players I'm interested in...I'll obviously leave out some of the hyped players like Griffin and Rose, lottery teams most important building pieces and Superstars like LeBron, Wade and Kobe because we're not gonna get them anyhow
I focussed on young players who can become long time starters.

No specific order:

Andris Biedrins - good defensive-minded Center
Marc Gasol
Brook Lopez
Serge Ibaka - as a big coming of the bench
Spencer Hawes, Roy Hibbert (just in case Hollins plays bad )
Earl Clark - gotta see how he develops but I like him
Jeff Green
JR Smith (despite attitude - great offensive player - we'd need players around him who focus on D though)
Andre Iguodala - solves not the shooting issues, still a great SG but it will be hard to get him.
Rudy Fernandez
Rudy Gay
Donte Greene (for a low price only but I think he has some potential)
Demar Derozan
Nick Young

Roy Hibbert
Jeff Green
Andre Iguodala
Rudy Fernandez
Eric Gordon

Less desirable:

Gerald Wallace
JR Smith

Less realistic:

Andris Biedrins
Brook Lopez
Danny Granger

Luol Deng might be interesting. Long contract, down year, coming off injury, but a couple years ago he was pretty highly thought of.

On the slightly cheaper side, I'd love to have us go after Martell Webster.

On the even cheaper side, maybe CJ Miles?


Actually this would work:

MN sends
Gomes
Blount
Wilkins
Pick

MN Receives
Deng
Miles

Chicago Sends
Miller
Deng

Chicago Receives
Boozer
Blount
Wilkins

Utah sends
Boozer
Miles

Utah Receives
Miller
Gomes
Pick


Course, that ties up a lot of salary on a risk...

Deng's contract is horrible. I'd better pass on him...

I think Eric Gordon belongs in the category less realistic too. The Clippers will built around him and Griffin. I don't think they consider trading him for any of our players at the moment.

Iggy and Kevin Martin would be my top 2 targets.

Stand pat.

Nice! I've wanted to see this thread for a while now. I might have started it myself but for the fact that no one on this board knows who I am.

CATEGORY ONE: LOW LIKELIHOOD, HIGH UPSIDE YOUTH

I'm going to leave this one alone. Any of the candidates I've seen floated around would work as long as they don't cut into our 2010 cap space. No trade of (expiring vet) for (boom/bust expiring young guy) would be seen as a bad thing for me. However, I've got to be realistic about this. Anyone we get will be leaning heavily toward the bust side, and then if they do pan out, they're gone anyway unless we use our cap space on them. If a trade presents itself we should go for it, but I also don't think we're doing ourselves any great disservice by standing pat.

CATEGORY TWO: POTENTIAL STARS WE'D SPEND 2010 CAP SPACE ON

via Free Agency
1) LeBron James
2) Dwyane Wade
3) Rudy Gay
4) Joe Johnson (but only if the contract is very reasonable)
5) Josh Childress

Via Trade of Cap Space + Cheap/Free Assets
1) Chris Paul (one can dream, no?)
2) Danny Granger (even less likely, but his team is lousy, stuck at mediocre, and lacks flexibility...)
3) Kevin Martin
4) Rudy Gay (S&T, if we can't get him as a free agent)
5) Andre Iguodala
6) Gerald Wallace
7) Joe Johnson (S&T, again only if cheap)
8) Andris Biedrins (more for mancrush, less for fit)
9) Ronny Turiaf

Targeted teams: New Orleans, Indiana, Sacramento, Memphis, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Atlanta, Golden State

Players on their Rookie-Scale Contracts
There's a long list of guys I'd love to have, but I don't advocate pursuing them because:
1)There's no way to use cap space savings as an outgoing asset unless their teams were to attach a bad contract with them.
2) In light of 1), we would probably have to include a young, cheap player of comparable value. Any such trade would be a lateral move offering roster balance and little more.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PLAYERS WE'D LIKE FOR BOTH GROUPS

1) Superstar
2) Young but also ready to contribute
3) SG/SF
4) Shooting
5) Defense
6) Physical package (size, length, speed, athletecism)
7) Upside

ChazzleDazzle wrote:On the slightly cheaper side, I'd love to have us go after Martell Webster.

I wouldn't go that far. He's a nice player, but he's also signed to a fairly sizable long-term deal. The events in Portland since his signing that deal have resulted in his pretty much having negative value to them. He's eating up cap space, coming off injury, and any minutes he'd get would come at the expense of Batum and Fernandez.

However, he'd be a nice fit, though still a bit overpaid on the Wolves. Could we perhaps draw up a deal in which we take him off their hands and are paid Rudy Fernandez for our troubles? I see almost no way to extract Fernandez from them alone; he's an $8 million/year player who will make $1.5-$3 million/year through 2013. However, they'll almost assuredly lose him after that, with the bulk of their money being tied down by the Roy/Oden/Aldridge troika.

I think it would have to be a 3 way deal. The Blazers are interested in quality for quantity deals for players that would help them win now. Is there another team with an available SF/PF type in the $6-$8 million range who could take the minutes currently going to Fernandez, Webster, and Outlaw and do more with them? shrink?

Edit: Gerald Wallace is perfect!
Double Edit: I've got a trade idea worked out that I'll post in its own thread. Look for it there.
Last Edit: Trade Proposal posted. Let me know what you think. http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=947678

I'd like a wing with some height.

sacramento has a problem both play the same position. Take either one.

Kevin Martin 6' 7" 19.25 PER 26 yo.
Tyreke Evans 6' 6" rookie

Golden State has too many wings, I'd try to steal

Brendon Wright 6' 10" 18.77 PER or
Anthony Randolph 6' 10 16.94 PER

don't want Stephan jackson, Monta Ellis or any of the others.

Portland

Rudy Fernandez 6' 6" 15.50 PER - plays behind Roy.

Charlotte"

Gerald Wallace 6' 6" 18.64 PER a few years ago as high as 21.32 PER - Charlotte is always rumored to be trying to trade him.

Those would be the guys I think we have a realistic shot to get

As for Big Men, they are generally too expensive unless they are raw like Hollins.

The next draft - 2010 - is a great one for big men. We could have opportunities there.

We also have Pekovic who is the best center in Europe, though he is very much like Jefferson and Love, earth bound when we want someone athletic.

If we lose our lottery pick [not in the top 10 draft picks] We could package one of our first round picks from Charlotte or Utah with Pekovic to get a lottery pick.

The one big man I might pursue in free agency [depending on who we draft] is Tyrus Thomas, if I can get him cheap enough. He is restricted so Chicago could match, but they might not if they are trying to save money to get Wade.

As for wing types.

Don't think we have a realistic shot at lebron or Wade, but we could get in free agency:

Joe Johnson 18.26 PER
Josh Howard 17.06 PER

Renaldo Balkman - restricted - 16.85 PER

Rajon Rondo - restricted - 18.90 PER. Boston doesn't want to tie up too much money. Rondo almost aveaged a triple double in the playoffs.

He is a developed version of Flynn or Rubio. If we got him, I'd trade Flynn and Rubio for other assets. Rondo is what we hope Flynn or Rubio become.

Rudy Gay - restricted - {{ I don't want him}}. only 15.38 PER and no defense.

I really like Gerald Wallace, he probably one of my favorite current NBA players. He is sort of injury prone, but his "all out/risky/defensive" style dictates that.

Joe Johnson wouldn't be bad if his price is reasonable (I have a feeling NY ends up with Bosh and Johnson).

I think Rip Hamilton would be a nice vet to mesh with the young Wolves. I always hear about how he is the best conditioned man in the NBA, so I think he would really thrive in an uptempo offense.

Would Utah part with Ronnie Brewer? I think that if Corey Brewer cannot develop, Ronnie would be an excellent replacement.

For a cheap big, I like Hibbert. I look for blocks with big men, and since we haven't had a block speicalist since Eddie Griffin (r.i.p.), I think that's a stat we should persue.

Is the lanky tall kid who played for OKC who looked like a power dork until he got all the scary tattoos around? He still seems like an okay prospect for a really cheap get.

Breakdown777 wrote:Is the lanky tall kid who played for OKC who looked like a power dork until he got all the scary tattos around? He still seems like an okay prospect for a really cheap get.

This one?

I think he was playing for the Celtics in summer league.

klomp44 wrote:

Breakdown777 wrote:Is the lanky tall kid who played for OKC who looked like a power dork until he got all the scary tattos around? He still seems like an okay prospect for a really cheap get.

This one?

When did the lead singer from Def Leppard start playing basketball?

wow at those swift pics

Even more tragic, as there are some really awesome tattoo places in Seattle. I got one of my favorites at a place called Slave to the Needle, and they were amazing. Robert Swift, please try to be more discerning.