Diesel's Chad Ford Trade of the Day.

[Diesel]

To spark conversation.

Seattle send Lewis to Dallas.

Dallas sends Atlanta Finley

Atlanta sends Seattle JT/Nazr.

Atlanta then lines up with:

DD/Finley/Big Dog/SAR/Theo.

Seattle does it because JT beats Nothing.

The Mavs get to answer the question of how badly do they want Lewis...

Cuban can also make up for his loss by sending NVE to Washington for Halmilton/Filler.

[RLHawk]

I am not sure everyone would do it, but I actually like it.

The line-up of DD, MF, BD, SAR, Theo would have to be considered one of the best in the EC. We could go out and pick up a FA like Best to spell DD and to teach him the ropes. He could even take over if DD comes along too slowly.

There are a couple of problems.

1) Not enough balls -- you can tell JT to give up some shots becasue he is the PG now and needs to feed the other guys. It is hard to tell MF to give up shots because he is the "shooting" guard!!!! Can he, BD, SAR all get there shots. Look at what happened in Milwalkee when 3 guys all wanted the shots.

2) Defense -- We are counting on JT to be a good defensive PG and DJ to be a good defensive SG. Thus we should be able to cover most teams perimeter. We have Theo in there for the help inside defense and that should make the mid-range from the SF and PF the only spots that are vulnerable. With DD at the PG and MF at the 2 we loose our perimeter defense. No 1st year PG is worth a damn defending veteran PGs. Finley is a great player, but is not going to focus on defense. He is a good defender, but DJ has the ability to be better. (This by the way could be the reason that Dallas would do such a deal. They may want to go after a defensive minded 2 Guard. Then there team would be built like ours is now.)

3) Lack of depth behind Theo -- enough said probably but we need a back-up C at least as good as Theo.

All that said...I think I would do it. It is a risk, but could pay off. I woudl say I am 60/40 for it.

[RLHawk]

How about a variation to make the reality (loosely termed since I think Pete is happy with his lineup) make since. Feeding off of the comment about Finley.

Lewis/DJ to Dallas

DG/Nazr to Seattle

Finley to Atlanta

Seattle is loosing a Small forward and getting a combo SG/SF back that can score. DG would not be as necessary on defense since Payton is such a good perimeter defender. They also get some more help at PF/C.

Payton/Kenny Anderson

Barry/Dion

Mason/Dion

Nazr/Radmanovic

James/Nazr/Potanpenko

That is a pretty deep line-up

Dallas would get Lewis (a scoring/defending SF) and a defending/shooter SG. They can still score in droves, but can possibly stop others this year.

Nash/NVE

DJ/Griffin/TAW

Lewis/Najera

Dirk/

Lafrentz/Bradley

That is a very good line-up. Lewis could score 20 to replace Finley and DJ/Lewis would be solid defense on the perimeter and mid-range guys.

Atlanta would loose some youth for proven star, but would keep our most promising young guy

JT/DD/EMail

MF/Ira(?)

Dog/Ira(?)/CC

SAR/Hendu/Haslim(?)

Theo/Willis(?)

We would have an all-star or potential all-star at every position. We would be very thin though, but could do some shifting around if required.

That line-up would win the east and maybe even the west.

[Traceman]

Finley is a LOT better than Lewis plus he plays SG. If Dallas makes that trade, who is their SG? If Lewis signs with Dallas, he will likely start at SF with Nowitzki moving to PF. That would be great. Lewis in place of Finley would be dumb as hell. Besides, Cuban won't even trade LaFrentz for Lewis, you know he is not going to trade Finley for him.

[Traceman]

think they would do it. Adding DJ to the mix certainly would have to make it more apealing to them though. As for Seattle, there is a big difference between Nazr/JT and Nazr/Dion but if they thought they were going to lose Lewis for nothing, who knows what they might do?

Of course if they would take Nazr/Dion for Lewis, I wonder if we could work him into the rotation here? I don't know about starting him at SG but he can play some minutes there as well as at SF and PF. I'll bet we could find 30 mpg for him off the bench.

[RLHawk]

The problem is Lewis. He is a free agent and wants to go to Dallas. He would probably not have his agent work out a deal with Atlanta.

As for Nazr/JT versus Nazr/Dion. I agree with you there is a big difference in those two combinations for most of us, but for Seattle they don't need conflict. They have 2 veteran PGs (payton and Anderson) both of which are probably better respected than JT. They dont need him. If you argue for JT to playt he 2 guard, then he has to compete with Barry, who once again is better respected than JT. Dion gives them exactly what they need. A 2/3 combo guard who can work 20ish minutes in relief and bring offense off the bench. He would get most of his minutes at the 3, but would also spell Barry at the 2.

Now I agree with you about Dallas. DJ/Lewis for Finley seems like a loosing trade. A annual all-star SG for a young, unproven SG and a very good (not about to be all-star) SF. I don't know though. If they need defense to win the title, they could add more at both the 2 and 3 spot with this deal and probably get as many PPG out of this line-up as there last year line-up.

This year -- SN/DJ/RL/DM/RL

Last year -- SN/MF/DN/EN/RL

It is a question of what it takes to win it all. The team this year could score as many points as last year (Najera(6) + Finely(20) = 26PPG, DJ(10) + RL(16) = 26PPG) and would bring much more defense.

[Teeareess]

1st, I don't think Seattle will give in and sign & trade him. They're gambling that Lewis won't take a MCE contract with their offer of 60-70 mill on the table. They want him back, and would rather loose him and have cap space when KA is off the books, then get stuck with some other teams bad contracts. Nazr's contract may not be terrible, but he'd be their fourth center/power forward raking in 4-5 million.

Which leads me to my 2nd problem, we aren't sending them enough money. JT & Nazr don't add up to anywhere near Lewis's demands, or Finley's contract. It would have to be more like JT/Hendu, which would be even worse for them cap wise.

For Dallas, I don't see how Lewis is any better for them than Finley.

I don't even like it for Atlanta, because I don't like having to trust Theo as our oly center, I don't like having Dickau take over the team in his first year, and I think Finley will cause a lot of chemistry and spacing problems for our offense.

[Diesel]

Nazr = 5.0 million.

JT = 2.15 million.

For extra bonus, we can send Email for 1.0 more.

If I contract that starts off at 4.5 million can get him 40 million over 5 yrs, then what can one that starts off at 8.5 million do??

I agree with you about Seattle. They may not SNT him. However, what's one yr at 4.5 million? Seattle has to be weary that any team can fork over 1 yr 4.5 million then Next yr resign him for the max.

[Guest]

Teearess is right, I'd rather not gamble on DD being able to come in and start at the pg...Terry's a lot better there at this point in the game and this is a team that's ready ready to win. Adding that much of a variable is simply too much and as discussed in other posts, we really need to Nazr in case Theo gets hurt or can't perform up to his previous abilities or minutes...

[Traceman]

I agree with most of your post but I disagree about a few of things.

First of all, I don't think any team in the NBA would take Kenny Anderson over JT NOW, let alone in a year or two. Seattle brought in Kenny because he has an ending contract, they don't see him as a significant part of their future. If they traded for JT, they wouldn't have to resign GP and they could create a TON of caproom to go after a couple of big name FAs. They have some good young talent to rebuild with if they decide not to resign GP.

Second, I don't think Brent Barry is more respected than JT either. I think you are selling JT WAY short by saying that Barry has more respect than he does. Don't get me wrong, Barry is solid but he has NEVER put up numbers like JT has over the past 2 seasons and he will be starting his 9th NBA season. Last season was his best season by far and JT was still better.

Finally, I don't think any of Seattle's big men are any better than Nazr. Jerome James is a better defender and a bigger body but he isn't nearly as effective as Nazr on offense and Nazr rebounds better as well. Who knows what Booth will do but he has never had a season as productive as Nazr's season last year. Drobnjak (sp?) looked pretty good a PF but he has a ways to go and Radmanovic looked even better but again, he has a long way to go and may end up at SF anyway. Nazr would have a legitimate chance to start in Seattle.

[RLHawk]

I could see where you are coming from about JT. I love him and don't want to see him go. I think he not only brings game, but brings heart (and that is not near as common), leadership and team building. The only problem with him is that he gets disrespected outside of Atlanta. Since he plays on a 35 win team, they see his stats as an aboration to the real stars of the league.

I think it is the same problem people like Rip Hamilton has. To score under 20PPG on a team as a 2nd (and only) option is seen as given for a decent player. Sure, they think he is decent, but ask yourself if he would have scored 19PPG if he was on a team with Rashard Lewis and Gary Payton. Given that, I would never trade JT for Brent Barry straight up. I would not even trade JT for Gary Payton straight up (I know I can take some arguments on that one).

As for Nazr, I agree with you. I had him starting as a PF for the Sonics. I think with a big brusier like James starting at Center, he would do wonderfully as a scoring PF. The only problem is that he needs someone to take the big PFs out of his way becasue he doesn't play strong on offense/defense. He shots more 6 fters than 1 fters.