As I promised somebody on the frontpage, this is my attempt to come up with a trade idea for KG. I simply cannot believe that there´s no team who would like to add either him as the final piece for one last run, or his contract to shed salary.
I want to preface this proposal by saying that I think the logic of this trade largely depends on our approach to rebuild, but I also think there are good reasons to do it regardless. I´d also say that there will be a lot more options once last year´s free agents can be traded again, but I feel this idea provides a good basic concept for any KG trade. The ways to get value out of KG´s contract, as I see it, are to either take bad contracts in return, trade him to a team who desperately wants him, or use him to facilitate a trade for a third team. This idea attempts to accomplish all of this at once.
The beauty of this trade, in my opinion, is that it´s very flexible, and can work in a number of ways. I will provide several variations of this idea at the end of this post.
The basic idea:
Boston sendsKevin Garnett
Boston getsMarcus Camby
Josh Childress
Portland #1 2012
Phoenix #1 2014
Why we do it:
For Phoenix´s 2014 Draft Pick.
This pick will most likely be a lottery pick, as I can´t see a team constructed like the Suns after this trade stay competitive for two more years. We might not know anything about the quality of the 2014 draft class, but this pick will probably stay a valuable trade commodity regardless.
Marcus Camby´s contract expires after this season at $11.2 M, which means we could either significantly stay under the cap even without KG´s expiring, or, as one of the possible variations, involve a 4th team and take on another bad contract for a third pick.
Of course, Josh Childress´ contract is downright ugly, but that´s not necessarily a bad thing for a rebuilding team. It´s arguable that by saving $4 M in total this season, his contract stretched out over 4 seasons looks a little bit better, and that with a chance to showcase his abilities on a bad team, he might become tradable again. If nothing else, he´d make for a good expiring contract in his last year.
Phoenix sendsMarcin Gortat
Josh Childress
Hakim Warrick
Phoenix #1 2014
Phoenix getsKevin Garnett
Why Phoenix does it:
Robert Sarver.
The Suns have several extremely bad long-term contracts on their payroll (Childress, Warrick, Frye). If they see they can´t compete with this roster, Sarver will probably jump at the chance to offload them for Garnett´s huge expiring contract, and the Nash/Hill/Garnett trio might generate some interest in this team, and could make one last run in the playoffs, as long as Nash is still playing inspired ball.
Sarver´s Suns have done far worse trades to keep their payroll low, and giving up Gortat and a Draft Pick three years from now doesn´t seem unrealistic to me.
Portland sendsMarcus Camby
Portland #1 2012
Portland getsMarcin Gortat
Hakim Warrick
Why Portland does it:
Gortat is simply a better player than Camby.
Camby is still a strong role player for them, but Gortat could provide most of what Camby can and even more, is considerably younger and on a much better contract. If you´re in charge of this team, you´d have to ask yourself if you can bank on Camby to stay on this level for the next two years, and I think the answer should be "no". Gortat is a great mid-term solution for this team, and should help them to reach the playoffs this year and play a good role there. His contract is excellent if you want to go in another direction over the next two years.
Additionally, Portland has pretty much no bench PF at the moment, and Warrick could help them this season, too.
Trade machine:
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=8xfpzc6The variations:As I said, I see several variations of this trade idea. I´ve already mentioned the possibility of trading Camby to a fourth team, in exchange for another bad contract (Okafor?) and a Draft Pick, but I feel this would unnecessarily complicate things.
Other variations include the possibility to swap either Childress and Warrick, or either of them for Frye, depending on what each team wants out of this trade. If Phoenix insists, we could take a second bad contract in return. It´s also possible to swap the Portland Pick with a player like Nicolas Batum, or any other of their young, cheap prospects, if Portland likes this idea enough. All of these variations work on ESPN´s trade machine.
So, what do you think? Too many words?
Tell me what you like or hate about this idea.
Topic: BOS/PHX/POR trade idea (Read 2148 times)