With Lemons, Make Lemonade

[hawks1]

Billy Knight needs to save this debacle with ownership and put Belkin's mouth where his money is!

Atlanta Trades:

Boris Diaw

Donta Smith

Laker's 1st Round Pick (Top 15 Protected) for 2006

2nd Round Pick for 2006

Trade Exception

Atlanta Receives:

Joe Johnson

Why? Gets Atlanta their dude, saves their 1st round pick that Belkin doesn't want to give up.

Phoenix Trades:

Joe Johnson

Phoenix Receives:

Shareef Abdul Raheem at mid level exception

Atlanta's 2006 2nd Round Pick

Boris Diaw

Why? They want to get something for JJ and Shareef is a good big man that provides great depth and strength to their lineup.

Portland Trades:

Shareef Abdul Raheem

Portland Receives:

Trade Exemption

Lakers 2006 1st Round Pick (Top 15 Protected)

Donta Smith

Why? This is exactly what they would have gotten from NJ, slightly better.

Thoughts?

[Spiral]

I think it's highly unlikely that Phoenix will accept any deal other than the one that is currently on the table.

[Final_quest]

This is terrible. Has it come to this? Making up fantasy trades to pretend everything will be alright.

[cly2tw]

For argument's sake, to save face, the best way to do is to have JJ agree to restructure his contract a bit that lessens the annual contract burden of the Hawks. Say, 6year/83mil starting with 11mil with 10.5% raise and 5mil instead of 10m signing bonus or not front loaded at all. The Suns, after everything published, can't take any lesser offer on their part now, or they'd become the new pushover laughing stock of the league.