First - question: can a team sign an unrestricted free agent from another team to trade to another team? That is - can Portland sign Odom and trade him to Dallas?
I'm not sure a deal could work out, but here's my idea:
If Utah matches the Millsap offer, Portland is sitting on about $8.5 million of cap space and has nothing to do with it. What's more, they probably won't be able to use any space next year, since they have to give extensions to Roy and Aldridge. With Przybilla, Webster and team options on Oden, Bayless, Fernandez and Batum, they're at $23.7 mil for next year. With cap holds/extensions for Roy and Aldridge, they'll only have a few mil available for free agency and would likely elect to use the MLE and LLE instead of their cap space.
Maybe they make an offer to David Lee or Marvin Williams. I think both would be solid choices, although do they want to play the waiting game again? And maybe their offers get matched, so they're back at square one.
Lamar Odom is the other big option. I'm not sure, though, that Portland is interested in bringing a guy like Odom into the fold because he has had so many attitude problems in the past. It's not about smoking bud (which will become relevant again later in the trade proposal), it's about Odom's career tendency of loafing it except in contract years. Dallas, on the other hand, has expressed a lot of interest in Odom.
What if Portland uses its cap space to sign Lamar Odom for 3-5 years at $9 million a year, starting at $8 million. Portland packages Odom with Przybilla and Travis Outlaw or Martell Webster to Dallas for Josh Howard, Erick Dampier, 2012 and 2014 first round picks and cash. Portland ends up basically using their cap space to change Przybilla to Damp and Outlaw to Howard while picking up more future picks (Dallas can't give a 2010 pick because it's already going to New Jersey). Dallas replaces Damp and Howard with Odom, Przybilla and Webster/Outlaw.
Now, at first glance Dampier seems like he might be a downgrade on Przybilla, but he serves the same role - plays solid post defense down low and provides insurance during Oden's painfully slow development. What's more, Dampier is actually an under the radar very valuable contract. He is fully guaranteed for $12 mil this year. But he has a $13 mil non-guaranteed contract for next season. In the summer of 2010 that may be an enormously valuable piece.
Part two is Howard v. Webster or Outlaw. Howard's a better player in my opinion (due in large part to Odom's consistent failure throughout his career to play anywhere close to his ability), but he's actually only two months younger than Odom (he'll be 30 in January while Odom turns 30 in December). And he's more expensive per year - $10.9 mil next year, $11.875 mil option for 2010-11 - than Odom would be. However, again, there are some contractual perks, particularly if they keep Outlaw and include Webster.
Part three is the draft picks - around 2012, 2014, Dallas may be bad. Portland could specify the 2012 pick has to be unprotected and the 2014 pick has limited protection. Portland is a good drafting team, so it doesn't hurt to have those chips.
Next offseason, Portland would have no guaranteed contracts. Howard has a team option, so the Blazers can, if they want, let him loose. Dampier's $13 mil would be on the books, but non-guaranteed. Roy and Aldridge would be RFAs, and they'd have about $11.5 mil in options for Oden, Bayless, Fernandez and Batum. So they'd have cap space to extend Roy and Aldridge AND add another max player if they renounce Dampier.
Alternatively, they can work a sign and trade for one of those big time free agents using Dampier's non-guaranteed contract (so the team doesn't have to take on any salary), one of their young guys, and a combination of their own and Dallas' future first round draft picks. With just Dampier's non-guaranteed deal and say, Bayless, they could take on $19 mil in salary (and they have one of the richest owners in the NBA, so they can take more than they give). If they take the option on Howard and include him, they can take back almost $35 million from another team in exchange for essentially just Howard's $12 million expiring deal.
Now, maybe it's just smarter for Portland to go after Odom for their own purposes - they add him to an already strong roster, he can do some facilitation making their point guard weakness less prominent. Maybe the smarter move is to go after Marvin Williams or David Lee, or even Andre Miller.
However, this would be another option. They get a decent upgrade at small forward by putting Howard in there for Outlaw (who they have apparently been shopping anyway), and don't lose much of anything at center by going from Przybilla to Dampier. They spend about $10 mil extra this year (after a $3 million payment from Dallas - which Dallas would probably be happy to give, since they'd clear about $4.5 mil in salary so they're saving more than $3 mil in luxury payments alone, plus they keep their MLE) to do it, but also have some very valuable contracts going into next summer. They strengthen the Mavs in the short term, but weaken the Lakers and weaken the Mavs long term since Dallas will have lost valuable trade chips and draft picks.
It's a complicated scenario, a somewhat risky one, and one that hinges upon two major questions: 1. Is it even possible to sign somebody else's free agent and immediately trade them? And 2. will they be able to get Odom or will LA match? But it's a very interesting way for Portland to improve their team a bit for next year, and put themselves in a stronger position to add a significant piece next summer while retaining their entire core of young players (Roy-Aldridge-Oden-Rudy-Bayless-Batum).
Topic: If Utah matches on Millsap, Portland - Dallas S&T (Idea) (Read 1345 times)