The business side of this offseason's trades and the potential for the Cs...

[vwoodruff]

With the current economic climate and the business side of basketball moving even more to the forefront, I've got to think that shrewd GMs will be looking at teams in need of dumping cash.

I did some research and as far as I can tell, twelve teams took the NBA loan. I'm fairly certain the following teams are among the twelve:

Grizzlies
Kings
Hornets
Magic
Suns
Bucks

Celtics
Bulls
Spurs

Anyone know the other three? I set the last three aside because they are teams that are financially stable and are believed to have taken advantage of the loan purely from a place of leverage (vs. need or desperation).

To me, the top group (plus the three unknown teams - potentially) offers the best value in a trade scenario for the Celtics.

Players from those teams who might be of interest to the Cs  (based on positional need, salary relief for potential trade partner, and players who might contribute to championship aspirations) include:

- Tyson Chandler
- Andres Nocioni
- Amare Stoudamire
- Leandrinho Barbosa
- Mike Conley
- Michael Redd
- Richard Jefferson
- Andrew Bogut

I'm interested in seeing what the other three teams might offer, but based on this list the only name that sticks out as a good fit based on the Cs salary structure is Barbosa.

I wonder if the Cs could leverage Barbosa for Tony Allen, Brian Scalabrine, cash, and future considerations (picks, etc.). A $15.4M savings for Phoenix might make them consider it.

Any others that stick out to folks?

[vwoodruff]

Does anyone know any of the other three teams that took the money?

[JBcat]

You may remember Bill Simmons wrote an article back in February called "The No Bejamins Association".   He pinpointed several teams including Indiana, Memphis, Milwaukee, Sacramento, New Jersey, New Orleans, Miami, Orlando, Minnesota, Charlotte, Philly, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Cleveland which is almost half the league.  In his own words these teams has a dwindling fan base and/or bailing sponsors and suite/courtside seats, teams trapped in an aging stadium that can't drum up local money for a new one, or an owner who purchased his team because he was worth a ton of money on paper and is now worth significantly less.  These teams could be looking to dump salary and quite possibly potential stars.

We have a boatload of expiring contracts from our supersized contract with Ray to all our mini contracts Scal, TA, Pruitt, House, or low cost contracts Walker and Giddens. 

Maybe we should concentrate our trade ideas on the teams listed above and I'd like to see what you can come up with and any potential steals.   Nickagneta came up with an interesting Ray trade with the Kings under the fanposts which got me thinking about all the teams in financial trouble.