Now that it looks like we will have CP on the hornet’s train for a little longer the challange has been set to make him happy with a team that will contend. I’ll take up Michael McNamara’s offer and post my own strategy I would take if I were Dell Demps.

There are four main trades in this journal that would definately improve the roster. All of them are probably long shots but draft picks can be added, although they are only included as a last resort. We need to keep options available for the future and not find ourselves in the same situation as Cleveland trying to impress a superstar that might leave anyway.

Furthermore I will state that yes, these trades ruin the flexibility of the future which is again like Cleveland. My argument is that while cap space was the reason for Miami’s success there isn’t anywhere near the kind of big free agents as this year. I find it hard to imagine Gerald Wallace and Chris Paul joining forces on the same team with enough cap space.

Okay to start it off, Nazr Mohammed for Juju and Darius Songaila. I think Charlotte are to happy with Nazr and with Diop and Dampier they may want to hold on to him. But they might be interested in a 3rd/2nd SF and a more generally healthy and consistant 2nd/3rd PF.

Bonus for Nola is Nazr’s Health and rebounding numbers as well as his defense, He is pretty much the same as Emeka. All players involved are expirings so no real advantage either way considering financial standpoints, we do shave about 0.8mil to further position ourselves away from the luxury tax.

Timeline: ASAP

The 2nd trade is maybe a bit ridiculous, Andrew Bogut and L.R. Mbah a Moute for Peja Stojakovic and picks. Peja is the best I can offer them after the rest of my trades. They have Jennings so Collison isn’t really valuable to them, they also lack a back-up Center so giving up there first isn’t really an option.

The only reason I see this being even mentionable is because he is a little injury prone and hasn’t advanced his game into an All-Star, The long years might be better replaced with an expiring so with the Michael Redd expiring they already have they can go after some of the younger C’s in the next free agency. 

What we get is a 7 footer whose an Aussie (bit biased) whose one of the best defensive and rebounding C’s in the league, not to mention he is consistant offensively. Mbah a Moute is thrown in for salary matching but is young and very defensive minded. Maybe to make the trade more reasonable in the first place is to go after a salary matcher that doesn’t have such up-side with a longer contract. It also puts us 2.4mil further away from the luxury. 

Timeline: As soon as when Andrew Bogut and Peja are tested to be injury free.

Trade three is the one that everyone seems to have in common. Aquiring Danny Granger but this method is a bit different. Three way trade between us, Indy and Sacramento. My first offer includes Emeka(Sac), Granger(NO), TJ Ford(Sac), Jason Thompson(NO), Samuel Dalembert(Ind), Beno Udrih(Ind).

We get D Granger And the young but solid center Jason Thopson. IND get there big expiring but one that can be year round healthy, something they lack a little at C behind Roy Hibbert. They Get rid of TJ Ford with an upgrade in Udrih although he has a pretty large contract for what he does.

SAC gets Emeka but with their youth and lack of all-star talent his contract isn’t a bad one to them for 2-3 years. He provides professionalism, maturity and would teach guys like Cousins and Whiteside the right kind of attitude to have when your in the NBA. This is something I don’t believe they would get in Samuel Dalembert. SAC also recieves the expiring TJ Ford that might be able to provide solid bench minutes and give Tyreke Evans the starting PG spot, I’m still not sure if thats a good thing or not.

According to Indy they get everything they want, we do and to me Mento would like the pieces in this also. My second version would be more sellable but as a last option if the first version doesn’t work just let Udrih stay in SAC and D Jones in IND. Give Indy DC2 while the cap space Sacramento has absorbs the leftovers.   

I do think Danny Granger is attainable because he didn’t have All-Star stats last year, his in his prime now and by the time that team is in a position to win he could be easily in his 30’s and not the same threat. If they were to get the most value back for him they would do it. I also think he would be open to a trade if they don’t start winning soon. (haha heard that before) A future Chauncey Billups type and a perfect compliment to Roy Hibbert who’s an expiring seems very tempting. 

On our team Danny would get his 3pt shooting back up to 40% and his general FG% would improve because he wouldn’t be on a team that pushes tempo to a point that they have no halfcourt plan. Jason Thompson is our young 6-11 guy whose isn’t great at anything but not terriable at anything either. If we could get Dahntay Jones with one of the trade exception we have, then thats a bonus. I can live without him because at the end of these trades we would have 3 good SF’s so the one with the same height and skills as D Jones can be our defensive 2, Q-Pon. 

Both trades add about 2-3mil to our teams salary. Which evens out the first 2 trades. Also the salaries might not quite work in version 2 because Indy send out to much and don’t recieve enough back in terms of salary. ESPN trade machine only stops it because of Samuel Dalembert so i’m not sure. My personnal calculations say that Indy need about an extra million in salary so someone from SAC like Omri Casspi should be added.             

Timeline: August 17th at the earliest, S.Dalembert cannot be traded with more than himself until then. 

Trade four is dependent on if version 1 or 2 plays out. If version 2 is the go then we will need a back-up PG. So we need a team with 3 acceptable PG’s on their roster. Toronto has Jose Calderon, Evan Banks and Jarret Jack, all of which have about the same stats with bad contracts. My favorite is Jarret Jack because of his 3pt shooting but his contact sits at around the MDL for the next 3 years. Evan Banks is an expiring with good FG% but hasn’t got range and health on his side. Both options i’d be happy with. Just use the Morris Peterson trade exception on either one of them. 

Timeline: ASAP after trade 3.2, this trade would put us over the luxury just a little, So cheaper options may be required. I just can’t think of a team that has 2 suitable back-up PG. Maybe Dell’s D-League experience can help here. 

And thats it, sorry for the long read. I just couldn’t thin down the point and reasoning. But yea, I think this gives CP his team of a Title Contender while leaving him the franchise guy.                                                              

Simplified out it would something like this:  

Chris Paul/DC or Jarrett Jack?

Marcus Thornton/Q-Pon/Dhantay Jones?

Danny Granger/L.R. Mbah a Moute

David West/Craig Brackins/Nazr Mohammed

Andrew Bogut/Jason Thompson/Nazr                                                      

With D Jones you would have your 12 to take to a game with Posey and Gray available. In the end with those 12 you have both defensive and offensive versions for each position. Youngsters and veterans with the oppotunity to keep DC just in case. The only problem with it is that if the superstar leaves you still have a good team but not a contending one. It is also a salary burning team but hopefully someone like Gary Chouest will be willing to spend the money for a team like this. Done!                 

(Just if your commenting, I’d rather not hear anything about how unlikely you think these trades are ok. You never know with some teams)