Several outlets have been saying over the last few days that the Wizards are finally prepared to blow up their “big 3″ core and trade at least one or two of those guys. It stands to reason that Gilbert Arenas would be their first choice to offload since he makes the most money and isn’t exactly giving them a great rate of return at this point. But Hoopsworld, via Washington Times beat writer Mike Jones, reports this morning, in the aftermath of the Arenas/Crittenton locker room gun incident, that the Wizards are convinced that Arenas is unmovable and are now focused on trading Caron Butler instead (I suspect Arenas was unmovable with that contract even before he waved his guns around in the locker room).
The report goes on to say that the Heat and Bulls are interested in Butler and that the Wizards could be looking to pair Butler with Mike James to get Kirk Hinrich and Jerome James back from the Bulls. I find that hard to believe, mainly because it’s an absolutely horrible trade for the Wizards. Swapping Butler for Hinrich extends their cap commitment by a year for the exact same dollars and Butler is a vastly better player than Hinrich is. James for James is a wash, at best, except for the fact that Mike can actually give you some minutes and works to earn his money. If that’s the best they can do, why bother?
I never write these sort of trade idea entries anymore because even though they’re interesting sometimes they never come to fruition. But I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and if Butler is indeed available, I think I’ve come up with a really nice three way trade. It would actually return the Wizards some talent in exchange for Caron and free up $9 million for the Knicks in the summer of 2010. So if anyone knows how to reach Donnie Walsh, please get in touch with him and run this one by him.
First I’ll present the trade and then I’ll break down why I think the teams would do it:
Wizards get: Al Harrington, Jared Jeffries, Wilson Chandler
Rockets get: Caron Butler, Cuttino Mobley’s insurance covered deal, and Mike James
Knicks get: Tracy McGrady (‘s expiring contract) and Joey Dorsey
You can see the trade in action here.
Why the Wizards do it: They get talent back for Caron Butler, both short term and long term, and replace his scoring with Harrington and Chandler. In addition, Washington is one of the few teams around the league to have indicated interest in Jared Jeffries. As we’ve all seen in recent weeks and the Wizards are already well aware, he’s a big time defensive presence and a good team-first, locker room guy. The Wizards could use both right now. Oh, and the deal saves the Wiz about $1.5 million in 2011.
Why the Rockets do it: From what I can gather, the Rockets are determined to get back a really good player in exchange for T-Mac (they have been asking the Sixers for Iguodala, which seems preposterous). Butler is legitimate talent and he would fit the Rockets personality while giving them much-needed scoring. The key to the deal for the Rockets, though, is Cuttino Mobley’s contract. The Rockets have a full roster and need to make an even swap of players in any trade for T-Mac. In addition to Mobley’s deal being paid by insurance, once his retirement becomes league-approved, he melts off the roster and frees up a spot. Mike James is an expiring deal that makes the dollars work.
Why the Knicks do it: Assuming a $53-55 million dollar cap, the Knicks would have a better than good chance of being far enough under this summer to slide two max deals across the table to Lebron and whoever he wants to bring along with him. There would certainly be collateral damage: trading Harrington, Jeffries and Chandler means the Knicks would almost certainly miss out on the playoffs (I don”t expect T-Mac to give them anything) but if it gets them a championship caliber core in 2010, I think it would be well worth it.
I like it and I think the Wizards are in a desperate enough position to do it. Although I think there has to be a draft pick involved for the Knicks to do it and make up for the “marbury” one.
But in the end, their is no way Donnie would do it to D’Antoni, after already putting him in a ***** position.
I’m starting to think that Lee + Gallo + Chandler + another max player in 2011 is enough to bring in a max player in 2010 (assuming we can fit Lee + a max contract for 2010).
IMHO, the entire equation has changed now that Chandler is playing above average ball. We always knew Chandler had talent, but his shot selection and refusal to use his athletic talent to go to the hoop, get higher percentage shots, and draws fouls was making him a below average player (actually IMO poor). Now that he’s playing properly and becoming more efficient using his current abilities, we can dream about what he might become if he adds a 3 pointer next year.
Gallo looks like a mortal lock to get better if his back continues to hold up. He’s getting better by the week.
Lee has finally added the mid range game.
This is now a very solid core and we still have guys like Douglas and Hill as possibilities to become starters or solid role players next year.
I want Lebron as much as anyone, but I no longer think we should mess with this core. This core plus one very good FA next year (even if it’s not Wade or James) will be a very good playoff team next year, develop further, and then we can add the final piece in 2011. I think I would want a guarantee that James is coming before I tore this apart to gamble on two max players for 2010.
The Knicks will be able to offer a second max contract in 2011 when Jefferies and Curry (18.150 million) come off the books. Sure it would be great to have an offer to LeBron; “who do you want to play with?”…but losing a young, still developing two way player like Chandler seems like a difficult trade off knowing you get relief in 2011 regardless. Some questions that might bear some thought (if NY keeps playing above .500) is who would play and who would come off the bench if NY signed a bit time FA like LeBron? Who sits; Gallo, Chandler, Lee? Gallo plays center? If LeBron isn’t an option isn’t Bosh, Gallo, Chandler a better fit? Is Bosh a max player at center? Is he 5+mm better than Lee? That is why Walsh gets the big bucks right?
@ Stallion: Funny, Dan and I were just talking about the same thing. In fact, I just went so far as to say I think it’d be unwise to trade Jeffries. You can count on one hand players in the NBA that can quarterback a whole defense like he does. The Knicks are a good defensive team with him and poor one without him.
I think I’d prefer Jeffries and Lee to Chris Bosh. But it also matters what LBJ thinks.
@ Stallion and GiantG: I agree that Chandler is becoming a great piece of the core. But if Lebron signs here I could see him turning into really enticing trade bait.
Assuming, for instance, that the Knicks added Lebron in 2010 while retaining Lee and their other core players, as of this moment the starting five would most likely include Lebron, Lee, Gallo and Jeffries. Chandler is a good player but he’s not a great fit in that scenario. A combo guard that can handle some of the ball-handling duties and shoot the lights out would be a much better fit as the fifth guy (Steph Curry…sigh). I might shop chandler or one of the other young players to see if I could add a player like that.
It would really depend on which max player the Knicks acquired, if it’s a wing like Lebron or Joe Johnson, Chandler looks like the odd man out. If it’s Chris Bosh or Amare, it seems unlikely the Knicks would bring back Lee.
I hope we focus on the wing options, because it’s becoming increasingly apparent that, in a practical sense, the current crop of Knicks big men are just as good or better than what’s available this summer.
I’m not willing to surrender on Chandler becoming versatile enough to play solid SG.
I was looking at all his detailed stats earlier today. I noticed that he started off last year shooting poorly from the outside too. Then he got better and better. In the last 3 months of the season he shot OVER 36% from beyond the arc.
Let’s just presume that he got off to a terrible start this year because he wasn’t recovered from the surgery?????
Now let’s say he keeps playing the current style but is hitting over 36% when he does take shots from outside the arc.
All of a sudden he looks like a potentially good wing.
We know D’Antoni likes the idea of playing all “forward types”. So maybe Chandler becomes the permanent SG.