Now that the draft order has been established, we can start speculating over which teams we can reasonably target as trade partners. We all know that our best trading chips are expiring contracts, which means we need to identify a team that is so desperate to unload bloated contracts that they'd be willing to significantly compromise their draft position to do so. Two teams in the lottery come to mind: New York and Milwaukee.
Here's an interesting tidbit I came across:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix0521,0,1485783.story
It may be a stretch, but are the Knicks desperate enough to unload Randolph's contract that they'd move 13 spots down in the draft? Something along the lines of Wally + #19 for Zach + #6 perhaps? Or a package of Andy + Snow + Damon + #19 for Zach + #6 seems to pass through the trade checker. I can't speak for the Knicks, so I don't know how ridiculous that may seem in their eyes, but I think it's fathomable enough to merit some discussion. If they don't bite, then perhaps we can offer to take on one more crappy contract to get the deal done. Either of these deals would leave us with enough expirings remaining to still swing a deal with Memphis to land Mike Miller.
As for Milwaukee, it seems as if they're interested in reducing their payroll as well, though probably not as desperately as the Knicks. I'm not sure exactly which contracts they'd like to dump, though I'd imagine Gadzuric and Bobby Simmons are up there. To an extent they may also want to be rid of Redd's contract, although by taking Redd of their books, the Cavs wouldn't exactly be going out of their way to do the Bucks a favor. Thoughts?
Here's an interesting tidbit I came across:
There was no frozen envelope, no conspiracy. But now, after the Knicks wound up with the sixth pick from the NBA draft lottery Tuesday night, there are many options for Donnie Walsh in what he calls the "second stage" of the Knicks' rebuilding process.
"Now," Walsh said, "our work starts."
It starts with shopping the pick with the intention of packaging it with one of those hefty contracts on the team's bloated payroll in an effort to get some desperately needed salary-cap relief, which, for Walsh, is always Job 1. "I think we'll look at everything," Walsh said.
Zach Randolph is the most likely candidate to join the sixth overall pick on the trading block, but there is also a chance the Knicks might be convinced to use the pick.
http://www.newsday.com/sports/basketball/knicks/ny-spknix0521,0,1485783.story
It may be a stretch, but are the Knicks desperate enough to unload Randolph's contract that they'd move 13 spots down in the draft? Something along the lines of Wally + #19 for Zach + #6 perhaps? Or a package of Andy + Snow + Damon + #19 for Zach + #6 seems to pass through the trade checker. I can't speak for the Knicks, so I don't know how ridiculous that may seem in their eyes, but I think it's fathomable enough to merit some discussion. If they don't bite, then perhaps we can offer to take on one more crappy contract to get the deal done. Either of these deals would leave us with enough expirings remaining to still swing a deal with Memphis to land Mike Miller.
As for Milwaukee, it seems as if they're interested in reducing their payroll as well, though probably not as desperately as the Knicks. I'm not sure exactly which contracts they'd like to dump, though I'd imagine Gadzuric and Bobby Simmons are up there. To an extent they may also want to be rid of Redd's contract, although by taking Redd of their books, the Cavs wouldn't exactly be going out of their way to do the Bucks a favor. Thoughts?