Hey Hornets fans. In honor of the NFL starting what will be a wild (and brief) offseason. I thought for the rest of the week I would purpose offseason moves I would like the Hornets to make once the NBA 2011-12 offseason starts(if there is one). I will examine each trade from all the franchise perspectives and grade each move for each individual team and likelihood of said trade. Then I will suggest additional moves for the Hornets to improve after any purposed trades.
These trades will be conducted with the assumption that we have a new CBA. This hypothetical CBA will have a salary cap of 63mil, and cap floor of 53 (the minimal a team can spend each year) and a cap ceiling of 73mil (the maximum a team can spend), with a 3 to 1 luxury cap for every dollar over 63mil up to 73mil and no Bird rule or MLE’s.
If we’re going to talk trades you have to discuss Dwight Howard. He clearly is not happy with Orlando. Currently they have two contracts that will make it difficult to win a Larry O’Brien trophy any time soon. For the sake of the argument let’s assume Howard and Paul decided they want to play together (because this is probably the only way this works). New Orleans would be the prime place for them to play. Let’s face it we don’t have nearly enough assets to offer the Magic for Howard alone. This is why I purpose a four team trade. The additional two teams would be the Minnesota T’Wolves and the Houston Rockets.
Here goes!
T’Wolves
Acquire G. Arenas, Hornets 2nd rd pick, ORL 2nd rd pick 2013
Rockets
Acquire H. Turkoglu, D. Milicic, NOH 1st rd pick, ORL 2nd rd pick and NOH 1st rd pick 2013
Hornets
Acquire D. Howard, M. Webster, J. Flynn, J. Hill
Magic
Acquires E. Okafor, T. Ariza, M. Beasley, J. Jack, T. Williams
Minnesota would be at 51mil leaving them 12mil under the cap.
Pro’s- They move three guys (Beasley, Milicic, and Webster) who aren’t working for them. With Beasley gone Love can continue to grow. Also Beasley off the court issues plus drafting Derrick Williams makes him expandable. Arenas may not be “Agent 0” anymore, but he is healthy physically (getting healthier mentally) and can still fill it up. His ballhandling will help take some pressure off Rubio and/or Ridnour. Lastly they will get NOH and ORL second round picks in a very talented draft. This move puts them closer to the cap floor while taking on only one questionable contract (which may end up working for them).
Con’s- They’re left with Arenas horrible contract and still aren’t a playoff teams.
Starting line up Rubio or Ridnour/Arenas/D.Williams or Wesley/Love/Miller or Pekovic
Houston would be at 54.5mil leaving them 8.5mil under the cap
Pro’s- They get first and second round picks in next year draft and a first round pick in 2013 draft. If Hedo still has something in the tank he can really help Houston. With Yao retiring Darko gives the Rockets another talented center that’s reasonably priced. Between him and Thabeet they have to hope one of them pan out. If both player hit this is a playoff contending team. Moving Hill and Williams clear up mins at forward for there draft picks. They move J. Flynn who I don’t think their high on.
Con’s- Turkoglu and Darko fit needs, but at this point both are gambles. Houston isn’t left with a lot of cap space and the post-season isn’t guaranteed. Still left with question marks at center.
Starting line up Lowry/Martin/Turkoglu/Scola/Milicic
Hornets would be at 51mil putting us 12mil under the cap.
Pro’s- Obviously we get to pair Dwight with Chris. This essentially saves basketball in New Orleans. Getting a local ownership group (which I think will happen anyways) will most certainly happen. We’re left with 15mil to bring in a championship level team around the two.
Con’s- We blow up the whole team. We lose all draft picks next year maybe even the following year if necessary. We’re left with a bunch of holes and 15mil to feel them.
Starting line up Paul/Belinelli/Webster/Hill/Howard
Magic would be at 58mil putting them 5mil under the cap.
Pro’s- You would think there’s nothing positive about losing your franchise player and best big man in the game (but under this scenario he’s leaving anyways), but this would be the very next best thing. ORL gets a roster that’s just as good if not better than they were last year, and they cut almost 20mil in player salaries in the process. This gives Otis Smith a reset button for all the bad deals that’s been done in the past 5-7 years. Beasley will have a team around him that will allow him to be a star. If he can keep himself out of trouble.
Con’s- Losing Howard clearly will hurt, but looking at the depth of the roster I would be surprise if they don’t win more games over the next few years. They get Okafor bad contract.
Starting line up Nelson/Redick/Ariza/Beasley/Okafor
ORL back ups Jack/Richardson/Williams/Bass/Anderson or Orton
Minnesota – B- This move would set them up nice for the future.
Houston – C+ This move is hard to grade. Big gamble on court, but the draft picks alone makes it worth it for the Rockets
New Orleans – A+ From a personnel standpoint this is more of a B+, but the hype alone makes it an A+ for us. This will ensure hoops stay in the Big Easy so my grade is inflated.
Magic – B+ Any trade that allow you to get a reset set button on all the bad moves as the GM is good. A trade that gives you a reset button and a playoff team is one you can’t pass up on. Of course this is if you know your franchise player is leaving.
While IMO this trade make sense to all parties involved, 4 team trades are so difficult and this is all based around D12 wanting to play with CP3. On a scale from 1-10 of probabilty I would say this is a 3. 🙁 Still fun to think about, and I hope once a CBA is done Mr. Demps is on the phone trying to make this happen.
The Hornets will have holes that would need to be addressed via FA. The good thing is the salary cap would reduce the market value. There will be enough FA vets looking for a ring who would sign for a discount. This deal would even make it possible to bring back West if the price is right (which I think it would) and maybe a SG like J.R. Smith or Nick Young. Then we would need to sign a veteran back- up PF and C and we would have a team ready to bring home a Larry O’Brien trophy.
16 responses to “2011-12 Off-season moves. (pt. 1) “Save us Superman””
Multi team trade is the only way we could get Howard. I love the trade but I dont see the T-wovles giving up talent like Flynn and beasely for a shit contract and a couple of second picks. Houston seem to been in no mans land right now as a franchise i think they would really like a few 1st rnd picks in the future. Given their bad contracts this is probably be one of the better deals the Magic could get for Howard, they are not going to get a good deal for him in a straight up deal with one other team unless he agrees to resign with Golden State. (I dont count LA because Bynum will become injury prone in future yrs).
1st Minnesota traded Flynn to the Rockets already. So the Rockets would be trading Flynn away not the Wolves.
As far as Beasley I think Minnesota will look to trade him anyways. They have him Williams, Wesley, and Webster all at SF right now. I think the question is less about Micheal and more about whether or not they want to give up on Darko.
Sorry man, I just don’t see this trade as realistic at all. The obsession of Dwight Howard-to-the-Hornets just isn’t going to happen given our cap numbers. Nobody wants what we’re sellin’
Once again this would require Howard to come out and say he wants to be traded here, or at the very least put us on his list. I already said I would rank the likelihood of this trade taking place as a 3 out of 10 (and that’s rounding up from 2.5 out of 10 LOL).
You never know what’s going through Superman’s mind. If we do get a cap with a solid ceiling that will limit the places Dwight could go. The Lakers would have to move too much and they’d be left with old ass Kobe and Dwight not a clear title contender. The only other place that’s a solid option would be OKC, Chicago(they have salary issues) and New Jersey(Brooklyn or whoever).
In my mind, cap space attracts free agent superstars. The Heat are the latest example. The Knicks are trying their little Hearts out to get cap space.
We don’t have the cap space Miami had (all but $0.5m free in practice), so I don’t see us pulling in 3 feature players this year without significant moves . . . Ariza and Okafor. Trade them for horrible short term deals somehow… Then maybe, and only maybe.
That’s assuming we get a rich, inspiring owner AND get a nice lease.
Stability first.
We have plenty of cap space. We have five players and only 1 bad contract that we would move in a trade.
We do not have enough for Chris and 2 other max deals as currently constructed. If the goal is 3 max players, we don’t have enough, not by a sight, even if they take what the Heat took, which is making less than a trio in NYC would make as contructed by about $8m total, assuming a max player.
If we had guys take Heat money and we dropped Okafor, the cap would need to be like $63m.
Check me, it’s been a long day and I could have screwed something up.
Who said anything about a third star? The point would be to build around Paul and Howard.
Once again these trades I’m purposing is assuming we get a more solid cap that will make it extremely difficult for 3 stars to get together and win.
Explicitly? Chris Paul.
We come out better than all of the other teams combined on a talent basis, and you think all three will make this trade? We get the only players in the trade I want more than our guys and they take on bad contracts!
We get to dump our three worst contracts (out of five), older players, and two future draft choices (only one is a 1st rounder, which have even less value once we get Howard) to get Howard, some great talent including two more starters, younger, and still have a LOW cap figure?! That’s almost as amazing as my dream that N.O. has the best economy in the country in 10 years.
This looks like pure fantasy to me.
Once again this is predicated on a CBA with a cap floor. These teams would have a certain amount they would need to spend each year. Also Howard would have to tell ORL he either wants to come here and play with play or have NOH on a short list of teams.
The Hornets would be giving up 2 first round pick(not 1). Minnesota can dump 3 players they don’t want (for different reasons) for the price of one terrible contract (that’s an upgrade at the position). Houston gets a starting center for the price of one bad contract (that’s an ungrade at the position). Lastly Orlando gets a team that will be competitive in the improving East, but maybe most importantly they dump one horrible contract and a bad one they don’t want.
Nothing you said, including two likely bottom 1/3 of the draft 1st round picks, changes anything I said or the fantasy nature of this trade I see from the Hornets perspective.
Look at what you just wrote: Two teams take on a bad contract and the other losses one of the top five players in the league. What happens bad to the Hornets? NOTHING, and they pick up great talent: they lose two starters and a back up, but gain three better starters and a better back-up! Fantasy, I say!
@504ever
Is it likely no I said that in the journal. It has a ton of factors and some teams have to make some gambles. That said this is far from fantasy and by no means just a steal for the Hornets. We would have to take on two players neither team wants and give up next years draft and the 1st rd pick and the following draft. On top of being left with a roster full of holes. Paul and Howard are a great championship foundation, but this trade would give us just that a foundation.
This trade gives Minn. a chance to ship the players they don’t want. ORL ship their bad contract while getting a playoff team in return. And Houston collect a bunch of draft picks in a talented draft while shipping a guy they don’t want.
If Howard is considering leaving the Magic and coming here to play with Paul this is a viable trade for all parties involved.
i’ve heard that howard wants to be w/ KOBE, aND not PAUL. i clearly don’t see us getting howard unless we resigned D.west and trade him, okafor, and maybe ariza, but that would hurt us in the end. Yeah we get howard but at the same what’s da point if we have a big gap and not enough cap space to sign anyone around them! unless you sign J.r.Smith and thaddeus young at the right price for hornets, and get cheap but yet highly potential players on the team from FAs and the D-league but what the chances of that!!!
This is what I was telling 504ever. This isn’t a slam dunk for us and a missed lay-up for the other teams. We are left with holes in a FA pool that’s not deep. It’s great for us PR wise (selling tickets and getting tv deals) but personnel wise Demps would have a lot of work to do.
As for Howard wanting to play with Kobe I’m not surprised and if we don’t have some solid cap on spending this will most likely happen. That’s why I hope my “made-up” CBA is close to what we get moving forward.
At that point we would have to fill the roster with Vets who will take less to try and chase a ring. Maybe D. West doesn’t command the money he thought he would and see’s his current team as a contender now. So he gives us a big hometown discount. Once again far from a slam dunk personnel wise.