Saw this topic on another Knick board today and I wanted to throw it out over here just to see what you guys think..
No idea whether or not NO would be willing to do this but first off, it would save them a boat-load of money over the next 3 seasons including this one (somewhere in the neighborhood of $40M)..Second, if they lose David West to FA and then it looks like Paul will be on his way out -- now you're in full blown rebuilding mode, no? So what would the point be in keeping Okafor around for the next 3 seasons at big money?? I suppose they could always amnesty him to wipe his contract off the cap BUT they'd still have to pay him his money..Most of it anyway (whatever's left on his current deal AFTER another team stepped up and offered him a new one).. If they sent him packing in a trade, at least they wouldn't have to be responsible for a big chunk of that salary anymore..Something the Hornets may consider.
A 2nd poster on the other board threw out this possible trade combination:
Paul & Okafor ($28,901,617) for
CB, TD, Fields, Turiaf, Walker, Rautins, Brown & Balkman ($24,933,777)
Now if we throw in $3-4M or whatever will be allowed for teams to include in trades under this new CBA, it'll match up salary-wise. And what I like is the fact that we could further tweak this deal to make it more appealing to New Orleans if need be: Shump, Jorts, Jordan, maybe even a future pick or 2.
The only thing is I'm not entirely sure how NO would view this...Would they be content to just dump Okafor's salary in a CP3 deal and not get back proper value for him? Would dumping his contract be enough?? I'm not sure. I mean the man's no Hakeem Olajuwon, that's for sure, but he's still a pretty steady, productive NBA big man. First off, he's a VERY STRONG rebounder, averaging over 10/game for his career...You figure he's good for 10/10 & 2 blks per night minimum. We could definitely use his rebounding and shot-blocking, that's for sure. To be honest, we have no idea what Jordan and Jorts are gonna give us IF ANYTHING --- Jordan could turn into the next Patrick O'Bryant; Jorts Harrellson may not even be good enough to play in the NBA and Turiaf has proved to me that he's barely an everyday player and defintely not a starting NBA 5..Well Emeka Okafor definitely is good enough, much better than anything we have on the roster right now at 5 -- he'd supply everything we're currently lacking in the middle. He's not a "great" player but he's pretty much a sure thing when you think about him and what he brings to the table, albeit overpayed somewhat. I mean think about what he does and what he makes (in the $12-14M range) compared to what Ty Chandler does and what he's asking for (rumor has it that Chandler's agent is asking for $20M a season!! I mean WTF is he smoking?!? Hey God bless him man, maybe he gets that from somebody..If he does, it'll make Okafor's contract look like a bargin in comparison all of a sudden, no? Just for the record, I think pound for pound Okafor's a better player than Ty Chandler btw...
We'd have to unload every last asset we have to get this type of deal done, but we'd have one hell of a starting unit, 4/5 of it anyway:
5 - Okafor
4 - STAT
3 - Melo
2 - ??
1 - Paul
Now suppose we went with the best league-minimum talent we can get our hands on to fill in the rest (looking overseas, in Europe, at the undrafted talent, at NBDL players, etc.). How would this look:
5 - Okafor
4 - STAT
3 - Melo
2 - Sylven Landesberg (I liked him a lot at Virginia -- I think he's playing in Israel now..Mike's familiar with this kid - he had him in for a draft workout 2 yrs ago)
1 - Paul
-----------------
Minimal-cost (league-minimum) C targets: Marcus Cousin (provided Houston cuts him--odds are they will), Dwayne Jones
PF: Sean Williams, Jeff Adrien
SF: Shawne Williams, Joe Alexander, DeShawn Sims, Jamelle Horne, Marqus Blakely (if Houston cuts him), Ryan Wittman
SG: Matt Bouldin, AD Vassallo (currently in France--smooth offensive game at VA Tech, reminds me of Allan Houston), Paul Harris, Othyus Jeffers (if healthy and Wash. cuts him loose)
PG: Ben Hansbrough, Curtis Jerrells, Curtis Stinson
There's A TON of solid young talent out there just waiting to be picked up provided we're looking in the right places..I'm talking rotation talent here...No question about it.
Wouldn't be the most experienced bench in the world but we could piece together very good talent to fill in around our core -- when you look at this pool of names, I see a group of players to pick from that would give us EVERYTHING we could possible want/need here to fill out the roster properly in every area: there are legits Cs here, bangers, rebounders (Dwayne Jones, Adrien), an additional shot-blocker (Sean Williams), offensive-minded hybrid forwards to play behind both STAT & Melo (Alexander, Sims), offensive-minded 2s (Landesberg, Vassallo), shut-down wing defenders (Blakely, Harris, Jeffers), legit 40%+ 3-pt shooters (Horne, Wittman, Hansbrough) and PGs with upside. Bottom line for me: I don't buy the argument that if we did something bold like this (trading for Paul AND Okafor), we wouldn't be able to then fill out the rest of the roster with solid talent. That's nonsense..Any of these guys could defintely help us off the bench. They're all talented enough in my book..Personally, I'd rather go with any of these guys than overpay for any of the vet talent we might be looking at right now (rumor has it we're interested in Anthony Parker & 5' nothin' JJ Barea)..But that's me..
Ahh, I digress...First thing's first: would you be willing to take on Okafor in order to get CP3? I tell ya what, I might man...His contract has always scared me, but at this point, if we could get Paul by taking him too, I say F it -- do it.. As one of the posters on this other board pointed out -- we'd still be able to amnesty Okafor and free up that cap room if it didn't work out for whatever reason..I think that's a good point..Give me your thoughts on this fellas.
No idea whether or not NO would be willing to do this but first off, it would save them a boat-load of money over the next 3 seasons including this one (somewhere in the neighborhood of $40M)..Second, if they lose David West to FA and then it looks like Paul will be on his way out -- now you're in full blown rebuilding mode, no? So what would the point be in keeping Okafor around for the next 3 seasons at big money?? I suppose they could always amnesty him to wipe his contract off the cap BUT they'd still have to pay him his money..Most of it anyway (whatever's left on his current deal AFTER another team stepped up and offered him a new one).. If they sent him packing in a trade, at least they wouldn't have to be responsible for a big chunk of that salary anymore..Something the Hornets may consider.
A 2nd poster on the other board threw out this possible trade combination:
Paul & Okafor ($28,901,617) for
CB, TD, Fields, Turiaf, Walker, Rautins, Brown & Balkman ($24,933,777)
Now if we throw in $3-4M or whatever will be allowed for teams to include in trades under this new CBA, it'll match up salary-wise. And what I like is the fact that we could further tweak this deal to make it more appealing to New Orleans if need be: Shump, Jorts, Jordan, maybe even a future pick or 2.
The only thing is I'm not entirely sure how NO would view this...Would they be content to just dump Okafor's salary in a CP3 deal and not get back proper value for him? Would dumping his contract be enough?? I'm not sure. I mean the man's no Hakeem Olajuwon, that's for sure, but he's still a pretty steady, productive NBA big man. First off, he's a VERY STRONG rebounder, averaging over 10/game for his career...You figure he's good for 10/10 & 2 blks per night minimum. We could definitely use his rebounding and shot-blocking, that's for sure. To be honest, we have no idea what Jordan and Jorts are gonna give us IF ANYTHING --- Jordan could turn into the next Patrick O'Bryant; Jorts Harrellson may not even be good enough to play in the NBA and Turiaf has proved to me that he's barely an everyday player and defintely not a starting NBA 5..Well Emeka Okafor definitely is good enough, much better than anything we have on the roster right now at 5 -- he'd supply everything we're currently lacking in the middle. He's not a "great" player but he's pretty much a sure thing when you think about him and what he brings to the table, albeit overpayed somewhat. I mean think about what he does and what he makes (in the $12-14M range) compared to what Ty Chandler does and what he's asking for (rumor has it that Chandler's agent is asking for $20M a season!! I mean WTF is he smoking?!? Hey God bless him man, maybe he gets that from somebody..If he does, it'll make Okafor's contract look like a bargin in comparison all of a sudden, no? Just for the record, I think pound for pound Okafor's a better player than Ty Chandler btw...
We'd have to unload every last asset we have to get this type of deal done, but we'd have one hell of a starting unit, 4/5 of it anyway:
5 - Okafor
4 - STAT
3 - Melo
2 - ??
1 - Paul
Now suppose we went with the best league-minimum talent we can get our hands on to fill in the rest (looking overseas, in Europe, at the undrafted talent, at NBDL players, etc.). How would this look:
5 - Okafor
4 - STAT
3 - Melo
2 - Sylven Landesberg (I liked him a lot at Virginia -- I think he's playing in Israel now..Mike's familiar with this kid - he had him in for a draft workout 2 yrs ago)
1 - Paul
-----------------
Minimal-cost (league-minimum) C targets: Marcus Cousin (provided Houston cuts him--odds are they will), Dwayne Jones
PF: Sean Williams, Jeff Adrien
SF: Shawne Williams, Joe Alexander, DeShawn Sims, Jamelle Horne, Marqus Blakely (if Houston cuts him), Ryan Wittman
SG: Matt Bouldin, AD Vassallo (currently in France--smooth offensive game at VA Tech, reminds me of Allan Houston), Paul Harris, Othyus Jeffers (if healthy and Wash. cuts him loose)
PG: Ben Hansbrough, Curtis Jerrells, Curtis Stinson
There's A TON of solid young talent out there just waiting to be picked up provided we're looking in the right places..I'm talking rotation talent here...No question about it.
Wouldn't be the most experienced bench in the world but we could piece together very good talent to fill in around our core -- when you look at this pool of names, I see a group of players to pick from that would give us EVERYTHING we could possible want/need here to fill out the roster properly in every area: there are legits Cs here, bangers, rebounders (Dwayne Jones, Adrien), an additional shot-blocker (Sean Williams), offensive-minded hybrid forwards to play behind both STAT & Melo (Alexander, Sims), offensive-minded 2s (Landesberg, Vassallo), shut-down wing defenders (Blakely, Harris, Jeffers), legit 40%+ 3-pt shooters (Horne, Wittman, Hansbrough) and PGs with upside. Bottom line for me: I don't buy the argument that if we did something bold like this (trading for Paul AND Okafor), we wouldn't be able to then fill out the rest of the roster with solid talent. That's nonsense..Any of these guys could defintely help us off the bench. They're all talented enough in my book..Personally, I'd rather go with any of these guys than overpay for any of the vet talent we might be looking at right now (rumor has it we're interested in Anthony Parker & 5' nothin' JJ Barea)..But that's me..
Ahh, I digress...First thing's first: would you be willing to take on Okafor in order to get CP3? I tell ya what, I might man...His contract has always scared me, but at this point, if we could get Paul by taking him too, I say F it -- do it.. As one of the posters on this other board pointed out -- we'd still be able to amnesty Okafor and free up that cap room if it didn't work out for whatever reason..I think that's a good point..Give me your thoughts on this fellas.
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