At ESPN LA, Ramona Shelburne reports:
The price for the top shooting guards being mentioned in trade talks this spring -- Boston's Ray Allen, Portland's Jamal Crawford and Washington's Nick Young -- has so far been too high for the Clippers.
Most teams have asked for some combination of young point guard Eric Bledsoe, a future first-round pick and the expiring contracts of Randy Foye or Brian Cook.
That certainly fits with Danny Ainge's supposed price tag of a pick and a young player for Ray Allen. More recently, Ken Berger of CBS Sports has said that the Blazers and Clips are working on a Crawford for Bledsoe and Ryan Gomes deal with no mention of a first round pick.
Teams seem to be waiting for that first trade to establish market value this season. I think they are inspired to hold out for more value by the ridiculous swag bag that Denver got for trading the over-rated Carmelo Anthony. The first team to trade for one of the shooting guards being mentioned may be the domino that sets off a bunch of other trades.
So, my question to you is, what is the value of Ray Allen, relative to Jamal Crawford and Nick Young? This is complicated by Ray Allen making $10m, Crawford $5m with a player option for next season, and Young $3.7m. so Allen may be the better player, but will get a lesser return because you may have to take back a bad contract to comply with salary cap rules.
If you're the Clippers, do you prefer Gomes and Bledsoe for Crawford, or Gomes, Bledsoe, Foye, and a future first round pick for Ray Allen? If Crawford for Gomes and Bledsoe with no draft picks involved becomes the standard-setting trade, does that decrease the value that you think the Celtics can realistically get for Ray Allen if you think he should be traded?