Trade Speculation, Part 1

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Published: June 2, 2009

I love trade speculation as much as the next guy.  Usually, I don’t share my ideas  much, because I’ll admit I have an eye biased towards the Hornets, and that makes my trades a little lame.  Well, this year I’m going to share anyways.  Hope you enjoy them.

I’ve been working on a series of trades I’d like to see go down, but I put together one that I really, really like, and figured I’d share with you before I throw out the rest and see what you all think about it.

The Clippers trade

  • Zach Randolph, 16 Mil, 2 years remaining
  • Ricky Davis, 2.5 Mil, 1 Year
  • Eric Gordon, 2.8 Mil, 3 years remaining
  • Total: 21.3 Million in Salary

to the Hornets for

  • Peja Stojakovic, 14 Mil, 2 years remaining
  • Rasual Butler, 4 Mil, 1 year remaining
  • Antonio Daniels, 6.6mil, 1 year remaining
  • 2009 1st Round Pick
  • Total: 24.6 Mil in Salary

Now, I have said pretty unconditionally in the past that there is no way I’d want Zach Randolph on my team – and I’ve also said that Peja Stojakovic isn’t likely to be traded because of his contract, but I think this trade works out for both teams. I’ve listed the Pro’s and Cons for each team below, and would love to see if you feel I’ve missed any.

Clipper Pros

  • The Clippers rid themselves of Zach Randolph,
  • The Clippers eliminate playing time issues, as they can draft Blake Griffin and immediately slot him into a starting role.
  • The Clippers rid themselves of Ricky Davis, who is a disaster in every sense of the word
  • The Clippers were one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league.  Gordon was good, but Peja and Butler are proven shooters.
  • They get a 1st round pick
  • The Clippers had no back up point guard at all – Antonio Daniels can fill this role – and he’s expiring.
  • Rasual Butler is also expiring

Clipper Cons

  • They lose Gordon, who had a very promising rookie year
  • Zach Randolph, despite his problems, still produces some nice numbers
  • Peja and Thornton play the same position(though Thornton could slide to SG)

Hornets Pros

  • Zach Randolph would make a great backup behind Chandler and West, rebounding and scoring for the second unit.
  • Eric Gordon provides the Hornets with a true shooting guard.
  • The Hornets free up the major backlog of players on the wing.
  • The Hornets take a slice out of their salary cap problems by shedding 3 million

Hornets Cons

  • They get Zach Randolph – who may not want to come off the bench.
  • Posey or Julian Wright will need to fill in at the small forward.  Posey is more of a 20-24 minute guy, and Wright is crazily inconsistent and can’t spread the floor.
  • The Hornets still need to shed 8 million in contract space.
  • The Hornets will need to cut(should cut) Ricky Davis and eat 2.4 million for a player doing nothing.
  • The Hornets will have no backup point guard.

 

Personally – I think this trade would actually help both teams – and I’ll be prodding Kevin Arnovitz, Clipper Blogger extraordinare to get his take on the trade – and I’ll post it here.

Just to throw it out there – I’d try to follow this trade with another trade with Memphis – Tyson Chandler for Marc Gasol.  It would shed almost 8 million in salary, solving that problem, and give us a decent center in return.

M. Gasol/West/Posey/Gordon/Paul with Armstrong, Randolph, Wright, and Peterson off the bench? Find a serviceable ball handler, and that could be pretty solid.

[Update] From Kevin Arnovitz of Truehoop and the ClippersBlog

I think the proposal makes the assumption that the Clippers value ridding themselves of Randolph’s contract more than keeping Eric Gordon.  I don’t think that’s the case, and you can understand why. Even I — a certified Randolph critic — would be more than willing to tolerate Zach for another two years in order to hold onto Gordon. 
But, for argument’s sake, let’s say the Clippers have made a decision that they’re willing to pair Gordon with Randolph. Wouldn’t you think they could do better than Butler/Peja/Daniels? It would be one thing if Peja were expiring (then at least they’d pick up all the cap space next summer), but at that length and with his injury history, it isn’t very attractive. 
Also, I think there’s a commitment here to Mike Taylor as backup PG.

He’s probably right.  Gordon is a lot to ask.  I would probably open up that way, and then try to settle for Randolph-Stojakovic – while throwing in some other players to reduce the cap problem like Hilton + Peterson, etc.

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