MN UTAH MIA HOU (a.k.a Homework for shrink)

[the_bruce]

Utah in: Battier, Daniels, Blount, Atkins, Gomes

Miami in: Boozer, Ak47, Cards, Barry

MN in: Tmac, Harping, Cook

Hou in: korver, JO, Haslem

Shrink here you go. You can point your obsession with these HOU\Utah trades by adding MIA.

My general thinking.

MIA gets more win now pieces to show Wade. "Hey we are willing to bring in talent."

Utah saves cash. Battier is an upgrade.

MN I don't really care. Could possibly be removed, but is used as a chop shop for tmacs large expiring. I can't think of appropriate incentive at the moment.

Hou.... JO > broken Yao + broken tmac + battier? Hou part probably needs the most work.

[shrink]

I try to avoid four-teamers because so few are actually done in the NBA, but I really like the thinking here.

Starting with MIA, would they trade Jermaine O'Neal for Boozer (extended) and Kirilenko? I think that's possible. They believe that with their current 2010 cap space and MIA's warm locale, they can have any free agent, but would probably be happy if they could retain Wade. This deal might do that. Their front court is a little crowded with Boozer, Haslem, Beasley and Kirilenko, but I think the last two can play a little SF to get three of them on the court. Boozer + Kirilenko is about the max they can in financially with JO going out - in fact, they need to add a small contract -- so Cardinal can't land there.

I'll set HOU aside for the moment, I'm not sure if Jermaine O'Neal's 13 PPG, 6 RPG is worth more or less than McGrady, now that these encouraging reports are starting to come in. Let's send him to UTA to replace Boozer and Kirilenko on the court.

I think using Boozer to get out of Kirilenko's deal is a big win for UTA. I'm not sure what $1-$2 mil filler comes back from MIA, but if they save $5 mil, its doubled for the lux to $10, plus they are out of Kirilenko's $17 next season. They are only $11.8 over the lux as it is, so maybe there's a way that MIN can clear the next $6.8 for them?

[shrink]

OK, this is what I came up with to do it ugly

Two consecutive trades (non-simultaneous)

UTA GETS: Jermaine O'Neal + Joel Anthony
MIA GETS: Carlos Boozer + Andrei Kirilenko + future UTA 1st .. lottery protected

UTA GETS: Mark Blount + Antonio Daniels + Chucky Atkins + O Pecherov
MIN GETS: Jermaine O'Neal + protection on UTA pick removed

UTAH SAVINGS
5.27 Trade 1
4.68 Trade 2
2.72 Atkins
11.81 Lux Savings
3.00 lux share returned

$27.48 YEAR ONE SAVINGS
$17.82 YEAR TWO SAVINGS (Kirilenko becomes expirings)

$45.3 MILLION UTAH SAVINGS

UTA clears all its deadwood and saves a ton of cash, without touching the NYK pick. They can handle a 2-for-4, since they only have 13 guaranteed contracts.

MIA sacrifices 2010 cap space and some lux to ges a win-now team to try to keep Wade there.

MIN pays $7.4 mil, but locks in the UTA pick (perhaps lottery without Boozer or AK) and gets a more tradable player in Jermaine O'Neal to trade at the deadline.


Now, I'm in a bit of rush this morning, so I don't have the time to do this better. It seems like we should be getting Harpring somehow, and I haven't checked roster fit. Trading Jermaine twice allows us to double the amount of money we can knock off UTA's cap within the 125% + $100,000, and this might not be possible if we tried it with Harpring/Korver, because if we left JO in Utah, with four big contracts.

I'll give it some more thought later, but I wanted to get something up on the board.

[shrink]

Incidentally, this same deal works with HOU. Insert McGrady + Barry for JO + Anthony