niremetal

I keep hoping you make a post saying "Just kidding!" after your trade proposals...

Yeah. We've got all of those big-money expiring contracts lying around. So simple.

That being said, Smoove for Bosh is the only semi-feasible move for an elite player that I would consider. I'd have to be 150% sure Bosh and JJ would both re-up here before I'd REALLY consider it, though.

He really does. He's priority number 234 for Arn Tellem and his colleagues. Remember what led Jerry Maguire to write his Mission Statement...

You sure? I think there's still an angry mob waiting for him every time he returns to LA...

I agree, except replace "Collins" with JoeS.

Even if we trade Marvin for an expiring, renounce Chill, AND trade/renounce JJ, we wouldn't have the cap room to make a run at one of the big-name free agents this summer. Doing all that would give us a ~$43M cap figure once you factor in the mandatory holds. That will not give us enough cap room to offer a max contract to another team's free agent. For the love of Pete, people, get over it. We're not getting LeBron/Wade/Bosh unless we trade for them. And I doubt we could trade for them unless we gave up Smoove or Horford. And I doubt even that would be enough to get anyone but (maybe) Bosh. Oh, and I'm still shaking my head at your CP3 trade proposal. Wow would that be a poorly constructed team...

I definitely don't see any veteran FAs out there who could help us counter the moves the Celts and Cavs are reportedly considering. Even on the trade front, we don't have the pieces to pull off a trade that would allow us to keep pace with the Celts, Magic, or Cavs on paper. We can't tinker to get to the Finals, and we don't have the pieces to do much more than tinker, unless someone is willing to trade Smoove (I'm not, unless we're getting Bosh in return...and even then I'm not sure). We don't have an Ilgauskas or Ray Allen on our roster - a good player with an expiring 8-digit cap figure who we can spare. That makes it tough to deal. It's the same reason you don't see any blockbuster rumors involving Orlando right now. Unlike the Celtics, we don't have 4 All-Stars and a 12-deep roster. Unlike the Cavs, we don't have a player so dominant that building a contender is just a matter of finding the right role players. The Magic are the least daunting challenge on paper, but they are also the worst matchup for us (I actually don't think they're unbeatable for us, but they are as long as Woody keeps using his current defensive strategy of doubling down on Howard on every damned possession...but that's a story for another day), and they have the most dominant big man in the league since Shaq was in his prime. Thus, we're not one good move away from a potential title. For us, as depressing as it is, our biggest advantage is the on-court chemistry our team has developed and that it now displays on most nights. Our best hope right now is to hope that we can harness that chemistry as effectively as the Larry Brown led Pistons did, and there isn't a move we could make that would so improve the team that it would outweigh that "advantage," as depressingly slight as that advantage may be, and as depressingly remote as the chances it could lead to a Finals run are.

Chris Kaman is quite possibly the dumbest player in the NBA. No, seriously. That's not directly pertinent, but I felt it needed to be said.

Of course he's better now. He was on an upward trend ever since his rookie year, and age 27-30 is the peak for most NBA players. I said that. You ignored it. And of course Crawford's TOs are down. He is passing less. His assist-to-turnover ratio, however, is the worst of his career. His TS% is higher because he is drawing less defensive attention than he ever has since his days in Chicago, because for the first time he's playing alongside a consistently healthy player who is consistently a more dangerous offensive weapon than him - which is not Woody's doing.

No. JJ plays a larger and different role with the Hawks than he did with the Suns. You don't think JJ could have averaged 22ppg if Mike D'Antoni had coached this roster instead of one with Nash, Amare, and Marion? Also, if you look at his year-by-year stats, his "improvement" with the Hawks merely followed a steady trend of improvement that he had shown ever since his rookie year. JJ averages 22ppg under Woody because Woody's "offense" has JJ, a shooting guard, play the role of a PG by initiating the offense on a third or more of the team's possessions, and lets him go 1-on-1 to his heart's content. I honestly think that under a coach who gave a sh!t about the offense, JJ would score the same number of points on a lower number of shots because JJ's touches would come more within the flow of the offense. Oh, and Crawford's assist total is the lowest per game since his rookie year, and the lowest per-minute and per-possession of his entire career. Another symptom of Woody's "offense."

It's really not that complicated. In college, the players are shorter and slower. Therefore you sometimes can get away with having a slow-release jumper with a low release point in college, even if you're 6'1. In the NBA, forget it. It's tough to change the mechanics on his jumper at this stage in his life, but he either needs to learn to jump higher when he shoots (a la Salim) or get a higher release point (a la most players his height). Otherwise, it's hard to imagine him ever being more than a borderline rotation player.

Sit down, you're rocking the boat.

So you basically are asking us to decide in a complete hypothetical vacuum? That makes no sense. Every free agent's price is affected by the market in which he becomes a free agent. That's like asking someone how much something would weigh without gravity.

That's all well and good, but playoff teams generally don't play their rookies more than spot duty barring injuries (or a coach named Doc). I'm absolutely not a defender of Woody, but I don't sympathize with rookies who don't make the most of the PT they get. The competition for PT in the NBA - and especially on playoff teams - is just too intense. You gotta separate the wheat from the chaff somehow.

So was the pricetag for the Celts to get and keep each member of their big 3, and what the Magic had to pay for Rashard. If you want to get or keep All-Star players, you have to be willing to pay the piper, even if the asking price is steep. If you don't, you end up being in a constant rebuilding mode.

On the other hand, hometown papers frequently do write-ups where they go out and find a source that says what their fans want to hear. Remember how there were a spate of articles in the mid-90's talking about how Griffey wanted to play in Atlanta? All of which turned out to be bogus? Chicago sportswriters were also SURE they'd get Tim Duncan or Tracy McGrady back in 2000. Oops. I don't doubt that there are some people in JJ's camp that want JJ to leave, and people on the Hawks that want JJ to leave. I also think that Chicago would be a very enticing destination for Joe given their roster setup. That being said, we're gonna see a billion articles citing "sources close to X" between now and this crazy free agent summer. Most of them will turn out to be pointing in the wrong direction.

Apparently, coaches who have devoted 30+ years playing, teaching, and coaching basketball disagree with you. Guess they all must be dumber than "any fool."

Basic rule: The less you say, the more people pay attention to you when you do talk. It's the same reason smart trial attorneys only object sparingly, and the same reason everyone knows the story of the boy who cried wolf.

Uh...that's just not true. At all. Do the math for next year, and even re-signing JJ at the max would put us safely below the tax threshold.

You're right. I'm sure everything would have worked out exactly like that. Because in the NBA, life always goes according to your plan.

And the fact that coaches have picked JJ to the All-Star team 3 straight years and not Josh doesn't settle anything? That being said, it's a toss-up. And you can't leave Horford out of the discussion either.

I really wouldn't have seen the point of trading down unless it netted us Paul or Deron. I honestly don't think we'd have been as good a team if we hadn't had those extra bad years that ultimately netted us Horford and the pieces for Bibby. If the piece Denver was moving to get the #2 was Miller, we'd have a small upgrade over Bibby but not an All-Star at center. If we had Nene but not Miller, who would be our PG today? Speedy Claxton? Or maybe Jarrett Jack using the #20 pick? And who would be the SF? Does Andre Miller mean no JJ (probably, since we wouldn't have had the cap room)? I doubt all would have been roses if we'd dealt with Denver.

If they trade both players AND renounce the rights to all of their own free agents (including RFA Tyrus Thomas) AND renounce their right to use the mid-level exception, then yes - their cap figure will be ~$27M ($23M + the mandatory roster cap holds). But if any one of those things doesn't happen, their cap figure will be at least $33M (in the case of not renouncing the mid-level/Tyrus or not trading Salmons). JJ will cost them at least $14M starting, and that would bring them to ~$47M. The cap right now is $57.7M, and it would be a major shock if that doesn't drop to $55M or lower this offseason since ticket prices and ticket sales are both down, and luxury suite revenues are WAY down across the league. So unless there's a sudden surge in NBA income in the next couple months, the Bulls won't have the cap space to sign a David Lee type along with JJ this offseason, unless they think JJ can be had for $11M or less. And of course, if they managed to clear all cap space and sign both JJ and Lee, they wouldn't have the cap space to sign any other players except for at the minimum salary. They would have the NBA's thinnest roster and no tradeable assets, and no GM in his right mind would subject himself to that.