If Philly is desperate to save money, who says no...

[slamtheking]

If we're trading Ray I want a better long term replacement for Ray than AI2. Otherwise, I'ld take my chances on letting Ray play out the string and trying to re-sign him over replacing him in a trade this year with Iguodala.

Now if Sactown gets desperate to dump a ton of salary and wants to send us Kevin Martin or New Orleans gets equally cheap and wants to send us Chris Paul, I'm all for trading Ray. Same would hold true of Mayo and Gay in Memphis, Granger and Dunleavy in Indiana, or Richardson, Dudley and Barbosa in Phoenix for Ray and Scal.

You would take Dunleavy despite the knee injury?

To get Granger? Are you kidding? Sure. I would take a flyer on Dunleavy's knee getting better for the chance to land Granger as a long term cornerstone to this franchise with Rondo and Perk.

OH! My bad, I thought you meant you'd take one or the other.

After i typed that I kinda thought that's the way it might be interpreted. remember, Ray has a huge contract so anyone trading for him as salary relief is going to need to give up, at a minimum, $16 million in salary to, at most, $24 million. Dunleavy and Granger combined fit in nicely at around $20 million in combined salary.

Of course, the only way that I see Indiana doing this is if it is known before the deadline that Larry isn't returning and the Pacers decide to give their next GM some financial freedom by selling their longer term contracts for expirings.

I can't see Indy making that move in this reality.  Trading Granger would kill that fanbase no matter how much that state loves B-Ball.  However, should insanity prevail in Indy, I'd make that move in a heartbeat.  A new "big 3" of Rondo, Perk and Granger in 3-4 years would be a helluva base to build on going forward.

[jdub1660]

So who says no (and why) to a swap of

Ray and Giddens

for

Dalembert and Iguodala


Philly is in bad financial trouble; they immediately save 5 million and up to 24 million next year. The C's don't have to worry about what to do at shooting guard this offseason, and in the short term they get a super athletic offensive player and decent shooter (a very good offensive 2-4 option, which is what Ray has become) and elite defender, someone who can and will guard Kobe/Wade/Lebron each night. Instantly improving an already top notch defense would more than make up for any offensive gap between Ray and Iggy (if one exists anymore). Dalembert becomes an emergency athletic shot blocker, and next year becomes our expiring contract in case any deals are to be had.

This offseason, Dalembert would be a 12 million dollar expiring deal to use in trades.

The main point of this trade is b/c Philly has finally gave up on the Dalembert project. Like most semi talented bigs, Dalembert showed great potential, got a big man contract, then disappeared. Brand too is a Philly project that they seem done with but it's b/c he doesn't fit into the system. Iggy isn't trade-able. He's their franchise piece right now.