With the way Chris Kaman is playing in tonights pre season finale Vs the Grizzlies it would make sense why have 2 starting centers on your team when you really need a point guard the cap space wouln’t hurt also pul with Earl Barron was recently release it would make sense to sign him once you trade Okafor just a thought.
15 responses to “Could Okafor be traded before the regular season starts?”
I think they can trade him to a team like Charlotte, Portland, Atlanta, Minnesota, or Philly…all of them have depth(except Charlotte) and we can get 2 good players for Okafor. All the teams listed have Cs but none are true Cs like Okafor.
An maybe we can afford to lose Okafor esp. How Kaman played to night (18 pts 4 Rebs and 2 blks ) not to bad for his 1st game
Whoa whoa whoa NOT so fast. it was ONLY preseason! Yes I’m excited about Kaman’s performance but trading Okafor is a hasty move. Why not keep them BOTH. We could use that frontcourt deep in the playoffs if we get there! just slow down! let the season play a little bit first. Kaman/Okafor/Landry would be a pretty good front court at some point dont yall think?
And Jarrett Jack was underwhelming… but I think we have to just give things time to work themselves out. its possible these young guys can surprise us like Darren Collison and the other guy you people STILL love did. Give things TIME
For anyone doubting Caveman Kaman, please remember the guy was all-star status just two years ago… It’s not like he can only produce in the preseason… He also has the more prototypical as a center compared to Mek… While I am excited about this team, and I do believe we have a very solid front court… I do think it is in the teams best interest to trade mek if we find a taker willing to give up a solid point guard and maybe something else… Anything that helps the team become more well rounded, or gives us more flexibility is something the team should look into… I say if we can get a solid point and maybe a draft pick, then why not let him go… We get 40mil off of our books over the next three years and we can get a chance to see if this Ayon kid can play, because he won’t get any minutes at center playing behind both mek and kaman
I don’t understand why all these people are so eager to get rid of our best defensive player from a year ago….I just don’t get it. what are you going to get for trading Okafor???? The other team will look at it as a salary dump and we won’t get any value for him. Stop it. Kaman has had health problems, he’s probably better suited to come off the bench. I think you will see a lot of Okafor/Kaman frontcourt combinations this season. Just because Okafor is overpaid doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player. All NBA big men are overpaid anyway!
We never said he wasn’t a good player, I simply state that we have needs, and to fill our needs we have to give up something of substance. And the idea of trading mek, is that we trade him to a center needy team… That way it isn’t just a salary dump… and I’m fine with trading ariza because his jump shot is atrocious… And we have two young sfs behind him… And so what, even if we do use mek and ariza as salary dumps… It’s cleaning the slate for us to build thru the draft… It gives dell demps a shot at creating a roster his way… If anyone on this site thinks the hornets are contending for a title this year, they are sadly mistaken… It would be the biggest miracle in sports history… So if we can’t contend now… Why not position ourselves with a better chance to contend in the future?
Yeah, but you don’t have anything behind Okafor besides Kaman, who has proven to be brittle! I still contend that Okafor can be a starting center on a championship caliber team if you pair him with a stud PF. If we decide we need to dump his salary, we still have our amnesty in our back pocket as insurance, so we don’t NEED to dump him in a trade. Honestly, what would you get in return for Okafor and his contract? probably not a 1st round pick (unless it came from a contender, therefore being late), probably not a Point Guard better than Jarrett Jack. Think about it, what are you getting for Okafor from Houston (who just signed Dalembert, BTW)? Who on Toronto’s bench “intrigues” you? Who are these “center-needy” teams that you speak of? We salary dumped Baron Davis – and got Speedy Claxton. We salary dumped Jamal Mashburn – and got Glenn Robinson, who was immediately waived and never suited up. We tried to salary dump Ty Chandler for Chris Wilcox and Joe Friggin Smith. Do you see the trend here?? We trade Okafor, we will get nothing of value because his contract is too big for another team to justify giving up value for him. As for Ariza, we have a log-jam at that spot and I say we try to deal him. With his contract being a big more palatable, I think you can get some kind of value for him, maybe a 1st round pick from a contender or a team that is poorly run. Trading Okafor holds no value for us, IMO.
As for filling our needs, I honestly don’t think we have many needs this year. We are two deep at C, PF, and SG. We are 3 deep at SF. We have combo guards (Bellenelli) and combo forwards (Aminu, Pondexter). All we need is a back up point, and trading our starting center and best defensive player for a backup point guard aint getting value, IMO. We will have two lottery picks and enough cash to sign a big free agent next year, even keeping Okafor on the books. I think the biggest mistake in the trade with the Clips was not unloading Ariza, especially with Aminu coming back. That’s the contract we need to worry about unloading. If only Bower would get a GM job somewhere else so we could swindle him for once – sigh –
I was all for trading Mek, but I have to agree with David. Ariza is very inconsistent shooting the J. His contract and experience should be more easy to deal. Plus I believe that the signing of Ayon would create that possibillty. The highlights on him are minimal but from what I saw he has the athletic ability to play SF.
I liked the deal for Ariza at the time, and in the short run it worked because we made the playoffs and were more competitive with him (not to mention we thought we had a chance to re-sign CP), but man, if we had Darren Collison and didn’t have Ariza’s contract we would be a lot better along than we are now (Although I’m still not sold on DC being a starting PG)
Befpre anything with trading anyone……..Our first choice should be to get DJ Augustine from Charlotte and maybe Gerald Henderson too be trading Emeka Away or Trevor….
as a matter of fact scratch that last post…..Just trade Emeka Okafor to the bobcats for DJ Augustine and Doris Diop…… Then sign Manny Harris (He just got Waived)….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCCLwJRuuA
Lineup is Looking GOOOOODDDDDDDDD
PG: DJ Augustine, Jarrett Jack
SG: Eric Gordan, Manny Harris, Bellinelli
SF: Trevor Ariza, Quincy Pondexter, Aminu
PF: Carl Landry, Jason Smith, Ayon
C: Chris Kaman, Diop
Dangerous i Promise
And you guys still wanna trade ariza then hey have at it and it’ll get us a good quality backup Center
#1. Bobcats traded us Okafor. Apparently they don’t like him, so why would they trade back for him and his salary after cutting salaries (Wallace, jackson) all year
#2. I know DJ Augustine is a NOLA boy, and God bless him I hope he has a good career, but he IS NOT better than Jarrett Jack. Speculation is that his starting spot will be gone by mid-season – On the WORST team in basketball. As a backup? sure. Trading our starting center and best defensive player for a backup point guard and a stiff of a center (Diop) who can’t run and chew gum at the same time is a terrible idea.
#3. I like Manny Harris. However, truth be told, he just got cut by the 2nd worst team in basketball in Cleveland. Why would you think he would beat out a guy like Bellenelli, who shot 41% from the 3 point line, plays solid team D and started 60+ games for us last year? Bellenelli was a 1st round pick just a few years ago. In the same draft, manny harris was undrafted.
I’m sure glad Dell Demps is our GM and not you lol
Mo Williams might be cut so sign him or Arenas