Let's combine Washington, Detroit, and Milwaukee...
Detroit gets: Future 2nd
Detroit gives: Kwame Brown and #15
Minnesota gets: Kwame Brown, Luke Ridnour, DeShawn Stevenson, Etan Thomas, #5, #10, and #15
Minnesota gives: Mike Miller, Mark Madsen, Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Bobby Brown, #18, and $3mil
Washington gets: Mike Miller, Craig Smith, and Bobby Brown
Washington gives: Etan Thomas, DeShawn Stevenson, #5, and a future 2nd
Milwaukee gets: Mark Madsen, Sebastian Telfair, and #18
Milwaukee gives: Luke Ridnour, #10, and $3mil
Ok, that took a LONG time and got a little out of hand for a bit. The end result is a lot of players moving. 10 altogether, plus 5 picks. But I think everyone gets what they want in the end.
Why for the Pistons? Saves them $4mil in cap space, plus the cost of the pick, allowing them more room to target Boozer and another high level free agent.
Why for the Bucks? Saves them $1.16mil, plus the cost in pick difference, allowing them to re-sign Sessions easier. Telfair leaves them with a back-up point guard to replace Ridnour. $3mil allows them to buy-out Madsen and pocket a couple bucks on top of it.
Why for the Bullets? Gets rid of Stevenson's contract and attitude, while bringing in two players ready to win now. Miller is the perfect shooting guard to pair with Arenas. He improves rebounding, passing, and is a dangerous outside threat when he's given space. Great lockerroom guy, as well. Craig Smith is a banger to compliment Jamison who's not as much of a banger. Getting rid of Etan Thomas helps with the overall morale, as well. I believe nate33 said those are the two guys they'd like to get rid of most.
Why for the Wolves? They use their cap space, expirings, and a pick to create space for other teams, or enhance line-ups, enabling them to bring back a netgain of 2 lottery picks. They spend an extra 3.5mil this year and have to take on Stevensons 3.88mil next year, but it brings in a ton of young players to turn the franchise around with. Wolves are left with 6 guys from last year's roster, but still have Brian Cardinal's expiring along with Etan Thomas, Kwame Brown, and Luke Ridnour to move at the deadline for more talent, a total of $24.65mil in expirings.
Wolves also have plenty of 2nd rounders and Utah's 2010 1st if needed to spice things up.
Draft
#5 - James Harden
#6 - Tyreke Evans
#10 - Demar DeRozan/Earl Clark
#15 - BJ Mullens
#28 - Omri Casspi
#45 - Henk Norel
#47 - Milenko Tepic
Casspi, Norel, and Tepic are left over-seas for at least a year.
C - Jefferson/Mullens/Thomas
PF - Love/Gomes/Brown
SF - Brewer/DeRozan
SG - Harden/Foye/Stevenson
PG - Evans/Ridnour
Wolves are much more athletic and taller in the backcourt. We become very young, with Jefferson, Foye, and Gomes being the senior members of the regular long-term rotation. This also makes it so we don't have to break the bank on a Foye extension in 2010. With our expirings we're still able to add another big time player to the roster, preferably a center or power forward, moving Love to the bench. If we buy-out Gomes, we'll have around $10-12mil in Free Agency 2010, which considering the economy/market would bring in a very nice 2nd or 3rd tier player. We'd be an attractive location simply because of all the young talent. The draft ends up being kind of a monkey at the zoo approach. We just fling a bunch of crap at the wall and see what sticks. We can afford to do this because of the age of our team and Jefferson's injury. We also have Utah's 2010 1st still.
The best part is we get the three guys most talked about on the Wolves draft board. Evans, Harden, and DeRozan. Makes everyone happy.
2010 Core
C - Jefferson/Mullens
PF - Love/Gomes
SF - DeRozan/Brewer
SG - Harden/(Stevenson)
PG - Evans/Foye
Stevenson is just a contract we're stuck with for one more year, otherwise we have good young players two deep at every position. Add that to our own pick(if we keep it) and Utah's pick, and I'm sure we can fill any holes if any of our rookies don't pan out.
