Ugh. It comes down to names like this and Darko, but that comes with the trade rumor territory. Today this showed up on ESPN:
The Charlotte Bobcats won't make a trade that helps them in the short-term, but hurts in the long-term. The team doesn't have a lot assets, however the hope is at least one team likes Boris Diaw enough to take him off Charlotte's roster.
Richard Walker of the Gaston Gazette writes: "It wouldn't be a surprise if Diaw, who will be a free agent this summer, is traded. His relationship continues to sour with Paul Silas, including Sunday night's effort in which Diaw took four shots. Silas has clashed with Diaw much of the year about shooting more -- Diaw's is one of the team's better shooter -- but Diaw has shot 10 or more times in 13 games this season."
Diaw is a likely candidate to have his contract bought out if he's not traded by March 15.
He's not a great defender, but he's a versatile big who can shoot and is a great passer for his size. He wouldn't be my first option but if he's bought out, I'd imagine he would be in decent demand and he's certainly worth looking into.
I've been boosting for a Diaw acquisition for what feels like ages.
If we want to hold on to our 1st round picks and young guys, I don't think we can do any better than JO/Dooling/2nd rounder for Diaw.
He's suffering through a bad offensive year, no question (41% from the field, 27% from 3), but everyone is on that busted Charlotte team (check out the stats on Corey Maggette and Tyrus Thomas: unbelievable!). Put him on a functional squad like the C's and I think he'd have little problem approximating last year's %s (49% from the field, 34.5% from 3, 55.8TS%).
While he doesn't do anything to address our primary team weakness - rebounding - he would be an enormous upgrade on Dooling as the missing rotation piece.
Right now Doc is using Dooling as a scorer/ball-handler to provide that 2nd unit with speed, floor-spacing, scoring punch and a little supplementary play-making to make up for Bradley's deficiency in that area. He's doing so at the expense of rebounding (Dooling is one of the very worst rebounders in the league at the point, much less the wing) and defense (Dooling is painfully undersized at the wing), and he's gaining very little advantages in return: Dooling's shooting poorly and faring even worse than Bradley as a playmaker.
Consider that Diaw has historically been a more efficient scorer on similar volume and a vastly superior playmaker/facilitator (2nd in the league in assists per minute behind LeBron among forwards) than Dooling. He's also a liability on the boards (as a PF/C, better as a swing forward), but considerably less so than Dooling. He'd make us a much better team.
Assuming a JO/Dooling for Diaw trade, I'd propose the following rotation:
Rondo (37)/Avery (11)
Pietrus (24)/Ray (24)
Pierce (34)/ Ray (10)/ Diaw (4)
Bass (32)/Diaw (12)/Wilcox (4)
KG (30)/Wilcox (18)
