RealGM

... probably no way for this to work, but I'm posting it anyway to highlight a question I have, namely if there's some way to use the players' desires to our advantage.

We know that Joe wants to play with a superstar; that Bosh wants to be paid the max to play on a really good team; that James wants a Tonto to his Lone Ranger...

...so, what if we sent Joe to CLE for Jamison, we then sent Jamison to TOR for Bosh/$5millionTPE, sent Bosh to POR for Oden/Miller/Fernandez/Bayless, then Miller/Fernandez/Bayless ALONG WITH Smoove/Zaza to NO for Paul/Okafor/Posey?

CLE gets the chance to entice James even more.
TOR gets a good PF and $5million TPE.
POR gets Bosh -- and Oden's the only player they'll miss.
NO loses Okafor and Posey's contracts and saves an immediate $5million.

I can make the trade work on ESPN's old version of the Trade Machine but its link's been taken down. That means I can't be sure of the post-July1st #s.

Everything works - even if the opposing teams' fans didn't concur - and we make out fairly well. They'd all scream for more and we could throw future picks at them.

And y'all at least had 30 seconds of fun reading this.

So, what advantages might we use concerning the players' designs?

You would have to wait until December 15th to do all this.

We couldn't just do a 5-way all at once? There's only one SNT.

Oh...it reads like each move is an individual trade.

I guess you couldn't say it's not impossible w/o a trade checker...but Toronto and NO would be getting raped in that scenario.

Timing is probably impossible to get the 5 teams to agree. I doubt New Orleans makes a decision in a time frame that suits Toronto.

Portland gives up 2 PGs, a SG, and a C for a PF which happens to be a position they have well manned already.

Nice attempt at a 5 way though.

I know a 5-way is nigh unto impossible but wouldn't it be nice to take the bull by the horns and be PROACTIVE?

And, evil, POR really, really likes Bosh and would only care about losing Oden in that deal.

Still, finding something to use to our advantage beats just sitting here, doesn't it? I just can't help but think that there's something in what the players are looking for that'd be useful to us.

parson wrote:I know a 5-way is nigh unto impossible but wouldn't it be nice to take the bull by the horns and be PROACTIVE?

And, evil, POR really, really likes Bosh and would only care about losing Oden in that deal.

Still, finding something to use to our advantage beats just sitting here, doesn't it? I just can't help but think that there's something in what the players are looking for that'd be useful to us.

It's just that they would have no PG after that gave me pause. I agree that coming up with some way to make this work out is about all we can do during this time. That's why I suggested the GSW and Houston deals in another thread.

I'd love to get Chris Paul, but I'm more focused on other ways to make the best of the situation because I just don't expect the New Orleans ownership issue and by extension Chris Paul's availability to be determined in a timely fashion.