Are you kidding, Chicago would absolutely trade Deng. If they trade Deng, then they have only $11.5 million in committed salary next year - Rose, Noah, James Johnson and Taj Gibson. That probably gives them enough room to get two max level guys - Lebron or Wade and Bosh or Amare.
Guys will look at it as you've got an elite level young point guard and a young big man who gets the rebounds, plays defense and does the dirty work. Deng is a nice player, but he doesn't add a ton of value, in comparison with another max level guy. He plays defense on the wing, but he's a guy who's gonna have far less value for the money he makes with fewer shots, and bringing in a max level guy along with Rose's continued development, there are gonna be fewer shots available.
More importantly, if they still have Deng, they can only afford one max level guy. So Lebron, Wade, Bosh, etc. are thinking, "okay, can I win with Rose, Noah and Deng?" Yeah, probably, but is it worth the pay cut?
On the flip side, if Deng is gone, then Lebron and Bosh can look at it like, "I can definitely win a bunch of chips with Lebron/Bosh, Rose and Noah." If you're Bosh, would you rather have Deng as the fourth guy, with him and Rose 1-2 and Noah 3, or would you rather have Lebron as the guy, Bosh and Rose 2-3 and Noah 4? If you're Lebron, do you want Deng as the 4th guy or Bosh as the 2nd/3rd? Not even a question.
Also, Chicago wouldn't want Big Baby back in that deal, they'd want Scal, because he expires. Big Baby has been exposed as a not that good player - they can find somebody to do what Baby does for the minimum, not $3 million.
So from our perspective, I don't think it's worth the longterm money. Deng is owed $51 million over the next 4 years (after this one). Hinrich is owed $17 million over the next 2. Tyrus Thomas is probably gone after the season because somebody will give him more money than we can on potential. Is Rondo-Pierce-Deng-Garnett-Perk with Hinrich and Wallace as 6th and 7th man actually gonna win one of the next 2 titles? No. The disruption of a midseason trade alone is probably gonna set back the team fairly significantly, making it really difficult to win this year. And next year, our key guys will just be another year older and the guys we'd be trading for are overpaid, injury prone and just plain not good enough.
If we're gonna trade Ray away and take on money, the return package has to include a guy who at least might be the or a centerpiece for a future championship contending team. I'm not saying we can win this year with Ray, I'm just saying at this rate, unless we can improve our chances to win a title at some point, trading away a huge expiring contract attached to a pretty good player just isn't worth it.
Besides, this doesn't help our real biggest need - young athleticism inside. We have 6 big men - none of them are athletic now that Garnett's knee is permanently damaged goods. Rondo needs that athletic big man.
Topic: Another trade idea(hopefully not yet seen) (Read 1278 times)