RealGM

if there is a trade thread, feel free to merge or lock this......i didn't immediately see one....now that that is out of the way...

Hi Seattle fans....I'm a griz fan (duh!)....Today I came up with a half-drunk idea that I surprisingly got some favorable reaction to elsewhere. I want your opinion....first, some assumptions...

--We want Love or Mayo and our worst case scenario on draft day is:

1) Rose
2) Beasley
3) Love
4) Mayo

In that case, we might want to trade the 5th...b/c we don't want Lopez, Gordon or Bayless (for various reasons, I can elaborate if you want). The only real possibility beyond Love and Mayo is Gallinari.

--Ok, the other thing is free agency. We are going to sign Marc Gasol for 3 million a year, which will take our cap space down (assuming our draft picks) to 5-8 million depending on the cap level. But I personally would like to see us still go after a big name RFA in addition to Gasol (think Josh Smith, Monta Ellis or Iggy).

So, I came up with the idea of trading the 5th pick to Seattle...

Basic Trade Idea
2008 5th pick for Seattle's 2009 1st Rounder

Possible trade filler and stipulations
--the 2009 pick can be protected, but not too heavily. I'd prefer top 1 or 2 protected only.
--some memphis fans might want a low 1st rounder or a 2nd rounder included too.
--the trade could be expanded, as long as we don't increase our 2008-09 total salary too much.

thoughts? thanks...

Interesting scenario. I would be willing to trade next years first rounder with top 4 protection. I would also be willing to include #24 for a 2009 Memphis second rounder or #32 with no additional compensation.

thanks for the reply soniclecture...

including the 24 for a future 2nd is interesting and would allow Memphis to be a bunch of homers and draft CDR and Dorsey....haha

actually I think griz brass favor Lee over CDR, but they are afraid Lee won't make it to 28 (we have the Lakers pick from the Pau trade)....

This is interesting, because basically the question is, are we willing to trade our next years first for Kevin Love?

How I see it, Mayo will go third, and we have two choices... We can take Love, and then do this trade and take Bayless or Westbrook or Lopez.

Theoretically we could draft Love and Lopez, to go with Green and Durant, as Watson did a formidable job as the PG last year.

I would agree with that, only if we would be able to get Love at the 5th spot along with Bayless at the 4th spot. Locking up our 1 through 4 position for the next decade.

Personally I wouldn't do it. There's enough confusion about who Seattle needs with the #4 pick. It's obvious there's no one single player this year outside of the top two or three that seems like a natural fit. So why take on another question mark in return for possibly losing out on Rubio or Thabeet next year?

Unless it's a slam dunk I leave it alone and see what the 2009 draft brings when it arrives. It could end up being a great surprise. Just ask Chicago. Imagine after they did so well in the 2006/2007 season that they felt they could trade this years pick away because they would be picking lower? Don't try to forecast the ping pong balls.

I think the concept is fair to both sides. A little extra for waiting a year is about right. It certainly is negotiable. What I like about this trade is that it helps to have two picks in the lottery in the same year. You can either control the board or combine the picks and move up to number one. Seattle and Memphis could both help themselves and end up with the a top two pick in 2008 and 2009 or go for a couple top guys and build depth.

With #4 and #5 I would take either Bayless or Westbrook and Lopez. The team would certainly receive alot of offers from teams wanting to move up for one of those picks. A good GM could move one of the picks down and still do very well.

thanks for the discussion guys.....

I'm beginning to wonder if a good pointguard might fall in the draft. Hypothetically, if Seattle made a trade with the Nets could this scenario happen?

The Nets get Love. The Grizzlies pick Gordon. The Knicks pick Galinairi(since they get a pointguard in Luke Ridnour by way of a trade). The Clippers pick Bayless. The Bucks pick Alexander. The Bobcats take Lopez. That leaves Wetsbrook for the Sonics at #10.

I've gone on before about the Sonics/Nets, and I guess I'm a little biased because I like the way the guy plays, but I think Josh Boone would be a great fit at center for the Sonics. His stats are a bit misleading because he started out the season with very low minutes, but once he got into the Nets rotation he played great and put up plenty of double/doubles.

So if we could get both Westbrook AND Boone in return for Kevin Love, who would be a solid fit for New Jersey, then why not do it? Of course Seattle runs the risk of drafting Love and there's not another pointguard left when New Jersey selects and we're sitting there with Kevin Love wondering how he will fit in.

Petro could be swapped for Boone and we get the #20 for the #24 as well. Could the #20 yield a better player than the #24 might?

Just more random thoughts leading up to thursday.

Now let me tell you about my Ray Felton and #9 for Watson and #4 idea.........Ahh, forget it.

I'd be more than willing to give up our next years first rounder (Top 3 protected) and I'd even throw in our 2008 pick at #24 for the #5 pick in 2008. Getting ANOTHER pair of top 5 picks would be amazing.

pr0wler wrote:I'd be more than willing to give up our next years first rounder (Top 3 protected) and I'd even throw in our 2008 pick at #24 for the #5 pick in 2008. Getting ANOTHER pair of top 5 picks would be amazing.

Agreed.

Mayo+Bayless or trade one of them+Wilcox for Beasley or even Bayless+Westbrook all are great combinations IMO.

I would also like to thank OP for making a better trade half drunk than some sober people.

today chad ford said he heard the griz are dangling the 5 to cut salary (which I sortof implied here)...

chad ford mentions a trade with portland or the knicks...

however, those 2 deals involve the 5 and cardinal to get 2008-09 expiring contract(s), in order to free up money in 2009 offseason...

my proposal hinges on freeing up money for the 2008 offseason (and remember, we are probably already signing marc gasol for 3 million a year this summer)....

if love or mayo aren't available at 5, I still think this would be a good idea for the griz....but that probably means it has no chance since my griz only mess up things.....

Yeah, a trade like Marshall + 2009 (top 2 protected) first + 2nd rounder for #5 and Brian Cardinal

If Interested I think I'd be willing to add Chris Wilcox and change the 2nd rounder to #24 if we could get Lowry or Crittenton somehow added...

well, word around Memphis is that Lowry will be traded on draft day....

personally, that makes me sad, b/c I really like his toughness and prefer him over conley....but i'm in the minority...

in fact, most griz fans already think the sonics have kyle lowry....his name is Earl Watson...haha

See, I'd think we could do Wilcox + Griffin + 09 first + #32 for Lowry, Brian Cardinal + #5

at 4 we draft Love (necessary to do the trade), at 5 we draft Lopez at 24 we draft Batum.

Watson / Lowry
Durant / Wilkins
Green / Batum
Love / Collison / Cardinal
Lopez / Petro / Rose

Auction Ridnour off to the highest bidder, which hopefully means we could get Malik Rose for him.

I think I'd do this trade... if next year's pick was top four protected & we could arrange to make it a three team deal. And I'm sure we could. There's a lot of teams wanting to move up. I'd drop back to ensure I picked up Brandon Rush, trading the value between the 2008 #5, plus this year's #24 or next year's San Antonio pick, to get back into a likely lottery pick situation for next summer. Adding OJ Mayo & Brandon Rush to the Sonics, plus maybe DJ White at #32, would be an amazing draft setting the Sonics up for a lot of future success. Athletic, long, scoring, defensive focus. The only thing missing would be a proven center. And coach Thibodeau.

Mayo, Rush, Durant, Green, Petro (Swift?)
Watson, Collison, Wilkins, White

I was going under the impression that OJ was taken. Otherwise I'd go Oj and Lopez and then at #24 hope that I could get another big.

I guess I disagree with you about wanting Brandon Rush especially if we somehow got lucky enough to draft OJ. I think having 4 top 5 picks in two years would be remarkable.

I don't see how you pass on Lopez in this situation, our biggest holes are at PG and C, if we could get OJ and Lopez then we do it. If we can't get OJ, then we have to select Love (To do the trade) and then take one of the PG's or a C. Well I modified the trade to get Lowry in there, who's similar to Watson (but I like Lowry more).

Going into the following years draft we'd have the Spurs pick, an expiring Watson, an expiring Cardinal to trade, along with a bunch of 2nd rounders and future picks to maybe move back up. We also would have an expiring Marshall to hopefully dump during the regular season.

Also I don't like DJ white, but getting Thibodeau sounds good to me!

Also, instead of trading down for Rush, you'd still have your choice between Gordon, Westbrook, and Bayless.

Everyone says the knock on Bayless is that he's mainly a SG in a PG body, and that he'll have trouble guarding bigger guards. Well, we solve that problem by drafting OJ, running those two in the backcourt would be dynamic.

You can draft Westbrook and have one of the top defensive guard tandems in the league as rookies. The nice part about westbrook is that he played off the ball at UCLA when Collison was healthy. Given this, you could start Westbrook and OJ together at the 1 2 and let matchups decide who's going to have the PG duties.

Gordon, is a SG, but he also wants to play in Oklahoma. He's got the most range, but I see him disappearing in big games. I don't know, he's not even in my top 10.

But the last thing I'd want to do is trade back and take Rush. And I'm a huge Rush fan!

I would trade Wilcox and #4 to Miami for #2(Beasley) and Blout. Miami takes OJ at #4. At #5 we draft Westbrook and at #32 we take Kyle Weaver. Now we have two of the toughest perimeter defenders around. Swift and Sene recover from their injuries and we are set. Blout can hold down the center position until they are ready.