RealGM

I become aware of my environment, which is: NBA owners are tired of biggest market teams constantly getting best players in the league. NBA commissioner is VETOING trades for that very reason.

I understand who I am, which is: GM of a small-market team. A team that could never be criticized for signing the biggest free agent, because it has never happened.

Here's what I do:

1) I offer Devin Harris, CJ Miles, and a future 1st to New Orleans for Chris Paul. If they reject, I give them their pick of Paul Millsap OR Burks to sweeten the deal.

2) I offer Al Jefferson and Enes Kanter to the Magic for Dwight Howard. They will not reject this offer.

Here's what I tell Chris Paul and Dwight Howard when they get here: if you walk as a free agent to New York and New Jersey, you get locked into a contract where you forfeigh $24 million of guaranteed money to play for a team that does not have a significant winning tradition for many years. You will have pressure to deliver greatness, with no reasonable expectation of doing so given the inept history of those teams. Your fewer contract dollars also get chewed away more quickly with higher cost of living.

Or you can sign with the Utah Jazz together, a team that has been a contender for the better part of the last two and a half decades. You can win the franchise its first ring and go down in history where you will be remembered for all time by all basketball fans everywhere. Everyone remembers the first guy to do something. Also, you can buy an 8 bedroom mansion in the most remote and beautiful area of Salt Lake for the same cost of a 2 bedroom co-op in the Upper East side. In Utah, you are also the only professional show in town. You will be rock stars here, and in the media...because the media will not be able to understand why you chose Utah and will be intrigued by your choice. You will have formed a "super team" in a location that nobody expected. You will become "America's team" because people are sick of the same big markets always getting the best players.

PG: Paul
SG: Burks
SF: Hatward
PF: Favors
C: Howard

ahh...what a dream

BarneyGumble wrote:1) I offer Devin Harris, CJ Miles, and a future 1st to New Orleans for Chris Paul. If they reject, I give them their pick of Paul Millsap OR Burks to sweeten the deal.

To sweeten the deal? lol that deal wasn't sweet to begin with, New Orleans would laugh in O'Connor's face.

Efernand wrote:

BarneyGumble wrote:1) I offer Devin Harris, CJ Miles, and a future 1st to New Orleans for Chris Paul. If they reject, I give them their pick of Paul Millsap OR Burks to sweeten the deal.

To sweeten the deal? lol that deal wasn't sweet to begin with, New Orleans would laugh in O'Connor's face.

Have to agree. Was receiving CJ Miles supposed to he a good thing for them?

good luck w/ that.

Put down the Duff Barney, Orlando and NO both laugh at those offers. However, I do believe the Jazz have the assets to get both Paul and Howard, but those offers won't do it. It would take Kanter, Favors, Hayward, and Burks along with Al, Sap, Harris and Okur to get them both. It would not be worth it IMO.

BarneyGumble wrote:I(2) I offer Al Jefferson and Enes Kanter to the Magic for Dwight Howard. They will not reject this offer.

Explain.

I just said what I would offer. You never offer the house on the first phone call.

As for Jefferson and Kanter not being a good offer for Orlando...can someone explain to me how that is? Jefferson is a legitimate 18/10 guy right now. Enes Kanter was drafted #3 overall because he is expected to be an 18/10 guy in this league. He is also 19 years old.

What does Orlando think they are going to get for Dwight? The offer I just gave is a better offer than Brook Lopez and two future 1sts....

We'd basically have to trade what we got for Deron to get either of those guys and there's no way we could get both of them. Given that there's virtually no chance Dwight or CP3 would sign an extension here if we gave up the pieces we'd have to give up to get one of them here (even if we had a great squad, I'm not sure either of those guys would want to sign long term in Utah), I think we should probably just run with what we have or look at other options. We do have some great pieces to offer a team looking to trade a superstar and rebuild (given that we just traded a superstar and are rebuilding), but, without a guarantee that the superstar we traded for would be here long term (which we wouldn't get), neither Dwight nor CP3 is worth giving up our bright future.

We have the assets to get both, but it would take a lot more than what is being offered above. If we could get those two and retain Hayward, Memo and take back, say, Ariza and Ryan Anderson, we could build something like CP/Hayward/Ariza/Memo/Dwight with Anderson coming off the bench as our 3rd big, CJ backing up the wing and Earl/Tinsley backing the point.

That's a 55 win team at least, that only needs to add a little more shooting and athleticism on the wings before its contender worthy.

Unfortunately, this is still a pipe dream. Nice to think about, though.

To build on that, we'd have to do something like Favors/Jefferson/Burks/future 1st to Magic and Kanter/Millsap/GS 1st/Harris to New Orleans.

Of course, the trick is in making the salaries work. But those are the packages we'd look at.

im going to try to dream about this tonight!

Keep the young pieces we have and forget about CP3 or Dwight.

You could be right. We might have the pieces to trade for both. Unless we knew for sure we could get both, though, I don't think it'd be worth it to get either one of them. The only way either would sign long term here is if we got the other. That could happen, but it sure isn't likely.

BarneyGumble wrote:I just said what I would offer. You never offer the house on the first phone call.

Yeah, but your offer has to be at least palatable enough to keep you in the discussion without the other GM falling off his chair laughing at your lunacy or being pissed off at your lowball offer. Utah does not have ANY leverage against either New Orleans or Orlando (or Chris Paul and Dwight Howard for that matter) in this one.

The veto was about future financial obligations affecting the value of the franchise.

I think David Stern would die from a heart attack looking at the deal for Paul. He wanted a kings ransom for Paul, not a mediocre Miles and Harris. And it seems like the Magic are looking for something similar for Howard. Fun to dream about though.

Number one looks pretty silly now. Number two wont look as silly until the deadline.