RealGM

There's been a lot of talk recently about a three-way HOU/WAS trade, either with NYK or CLE .. something like this:

Rockets trades: Tracy McGrady, SG
Washington trades: Caron Butler, SF Antawn Jamison, PF
Cleveland trades: Zydrunas Ilgauskas, C

Rockets receives: Caron Butler, SF, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, C
Washington receives: Tracy McGrady, SG
Cleveland receives: Antawn Jamison, PF

it strikes me that in all these deals, all these teams are over the lux. This icould be an opportunity for MIN, if Mr. Taylor is willing to spend money now wholesale.

HOU is only $2.97 mil away, and with the suspensions of Arenas and Crittendon removing pro-rated salary from WAS, they may now only be about $3 mil away as well. With all this salary flying around expanding the deal, it really seems like MIN, with multiple expirings and flexibility under the 2009-10 luxury threshold, could WAS and HOU under for about $10 mil in savings for each team. MIN's $6 mil would save the others $20, so they could probably find young assets worth about $13 to be a good deal for all concerned.

Washington could but their young assets either suck (Young, Blatche) or the team wants to hang on to (McGee). Houston doesn't have many young players worth pursuing as while Budinger would be a really nice addition to the team he's not at the level of headlining a deal. Apart from that I can't see them trading Landry and Minnesota shouldn't have any interest in their PGs.

shrink, sometimes you think too much......

24.74 NYK IN McGrady+SashaPavlovic+ $3 mil
19.73 NYK OUT Mobely+Al Harrington

22.16 WAS IN Harrington+Wilkins+Cardinal+OPec
27.21 WAS OUT Butler+Haywood+Stevenson+MJames+McGuire + $3 mil

19.91 HOU IN Butler+Haywood+Stevenson
23.24 HOU OUT McGrady

16.79 MIN IN Mobely+MJames+McGuire
13.43 MIN OUT Wilkins +Cardinal+Sasha Pavlovic+OPec

This trade is an improvement on a rumored deal. MIN could be involved in any of these rumored trades with WAS-HOU-DAL-CLE-NYK because all five are under the lux, and could give out its 2009-10 space under the lux for profit.

WHY FOR NYK: NYK apparently wants to do a McGrady for Mobely + Harrington deal, and looks at T-Mac as more than just for this year. Adding Sasha and $3 mil covers his salary + lux payments.

WHY FOR WAS: Receiving Mobely's 80% insured deal, than having to pay lux tax on the full amount of a guy that can't play is wasteful. With Stern's ruling on Arenas and Crittendon, WAS is $4.78 mil over the lux. This deal saves $5 mil in payroll, and $14 mil overall, and moves Stevenson for next year. Wilkins and OPec can help with back-up minutes with Butler and Haywood gone.

WHY FOR HOU: Same deal as before. They don't mind eating Stevenson because the deal takes them under the lux this year, to save $10 mil.

Why for MIN: Simply financial. The deal costs them $3.3 mil, but Mobely's insurance saves them $7.6 mil.

shrink wrote:Words and numbers.

See above, shrink.