Thursday, July 29, 2010
Destroying the Lakers
The only thing that's more fun than making the Mavs a contender using the Trade Machine is using it to destroy the Lakers. Kobe has a no trade clause, but if this trade went through he'd be begging for a trade.
Four Team Trade that Makes Dallas Unstoppable
There's no way OKC, New Orleans, or the Nets accept this trade. But it would work according to the salary cap rules. It's just wishful thinking on the part of this Mavs fan.
The Mavericks send Butler to OKC, Marion and Stevenson to New Orleans, and Kidd back to the Nets. In return they receive Durant, Chris Paul, Brook Lopez, and Julian Wright.
The Mavericks send Butler to OKC, Marion and Stevenson to New Orleans, and Kidd back to the Nets. In return they receive Durant, Chris Paul, Brook Lopez, and Julian Wright.
Let’s Make a Contender That Fits Under the Salary Cap
The cap: $58.044 million
Miami is somehow managing to put together what looks like a contender while staying under the salary cap (well, almost, they’re technically over the cap because you can sign minimum salary guys and vets for the veteran minimum without counting against you). Using the salaries from espn.com’s trade machine (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine), let’s see what we can put together. Let’s not worry about how any team could swing the right trades, we’re just seeing what’s possible with the money. Since we’re having fun with it, let’s make it a hypothetical rival of the Heat – meaning I’m not putting any current Heat player on the roster.
1. PF - Dirk Nowitzki - $17.3 million
2. PG - Rajon Rondo - $9.1 million
3. C - Joakim Noah - $3.1 million
4. SG - O.J. Mayo $4.4 million
5. SF - Kevin Durant - $6 million (Note: poison pill provision - I’m not going to explain it, but let’s say that we’re putting our hypothetical team in OKC, because that will avoid the problem)
OK, so there’s our starting five, and we’re up to $39.9 million. Thank goodness for young players who don’t make what they’re actually worth. Now it’s time to fill out the team with some defensive specialists, undersized bigs, unproven young guys, and wily veterans.
6. SG/SF - Thabo Sefolosha - $3.2 million
7. SF/PF - Jeff Green - $4.4 million
8. PG - Darren Collison - $1.3 million
9. C - Brad Miller - $4.4 million
OK, so that’s our core of guys who are actually going to play as long as we don’t have any major injuries. We’re up to $53.2 million.
10. C/PF - Tony Battie - $0.85 million
11. C - Theo Ratliff - $0.85 million
No contender is ready until they have a couple of big old dinosaurs to bring off the bench to foul the opposing team’s big men. Ratliff actually might even get a couple of legitimate blocks if he’s ever asked to remove his warm-ups. We’re up to $54.9 million.
12. PF - Trevor Booker - $1.0 million
13. SF - Pape Sy - $0.49 million
Just for the heck of it, we’ll say we haven’t received any extra draft picks or traded our draft picks, that we had picks 23 and 53, and we actually signed both picks. That gives us Booker, signed to the amount of the rookie salary scale, and Pape Sy, making the league minimum. We now have a full active roster (12) plus one more player. That leaves us with just over $1.6 million left, which we can split on a couple of D-league players or former NBA players who are in Europe but looking to make a comeback. I’m not familiar enough with those guys to fill out the roster myself, but our hypothetical NBA team has talent scouts who would tell us who to pick up for those last two spots. It’s not like it matters, they’ll probably never be activated anyway.
Now while my starting five isn’t necessarily better than Miami’s likely starting unit, it is more balanced. The Heat will probably be starting Joel Anthony and Mario Chalmers. Just keep that in mind.
If they could work together, Dirk and Durant should combine for about 55 ppg. Noah is one of the best defensive centers in the game, and works hard on every possession, even if he is annoying. We’ve seen what Rondo can do. I honestly think Mayo is my weakest link, which says something for this starting five.
The bench is also solid. Sefolosha is a crack defensive player who can guard twos and threes, and the argument could be made to put him in the starting lineup over Mayo because of that defensive ability. Jeff Green makes for a super-backup for Dirk. Darren Collison should probably be a starting PG in his own right. Brad Miller isn’t the all-star center he once was, but he’s a solid second center.
I am missing a designated three point bomber, but Durant and Dirk can both hit from downtown, so I’m not really worried about it.
I know it would be impossible to actually assemble this team, but it was a fun exercise in seeing what could be possible under the cap. I put this together pretty quickly. I’m sure with a little more thought you could assemble an even better team while still staying under the cap. So if you think you can do better, feel free to put your own team together and post it as a comment.
Miami is somehow managing to put together what looks like a contender while staying under the salary cap (well, almost, they’re technically over the cap because you can sign minimum salary guys and vets for the veteran minimum without counting against you). Using the salaries from espn.com’s trade machine (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine), let’s see what we can put together. Let’s not worry about how any team could swing the right trades, we’re just seeing what’s possible with the money. Since we’re having fun with it, let’s make it a hypothetical rival of the Heat – meaning I’m not putting any current Heat player on the roster.
1. PF - Dirk Nowitzki - $17.3 million
2. PG - Rajon Rondo - $9.1 million
3. C - Joakim Noah - $3.1 million
4. SG - O.J. Mayo $4.4 million
5. SF - Kevin Durant - $6 million (Note: poison pill provision - I’m not going to explain it, but let’s say that we’re putting our hypothetical team in OKC, because that will avoid the problem)
OK, so there’s our starting five, and we’re up to $39.9 million. Thank goodness for young players who don’t make what they’re actually worth. Now it’s time to fill out the team with some defensive specialists, undersized bigs, unproven young guys, and wily veterans.
6. SG/SF - Thabo Sefolosha - $3.2 million
7. SF/PF - Jeff Green - $4.4 million
8. PG - Darren Collison - $1.3 million
9. C - Brad Miller - $4.4 million
OK, so that’s our core of guys who are actually going to play as long as we don’t have any major injuries. We’re up to $53.2 million.
10. C/PF - Tony Battie - $0.85 million
11. C - Theo Ratliff - $0.85 million
No contender is ready until they have a couple of big old dinosaurs to bring off the bench to foul the opposing team’s big men. Ratliff actually might even get a couple of legitimate blocks if he’s ever asked to remove his warm-ups. We’re up to $54.9 million.
12. PF - Trevor Booker - $1.0 million
13. SF - Pape Sy - $0.49 million
Just for the heck of it, we’ll say we haven’t received any extra draft picks or traded our draft picks, that we had picks 23 and 53, and we actually signed both picks. That gives us Booker, signed to the amount of the rookie salary scale, and Pape Sy, making the league minimum. We now have a full active roster (12) plus one more player. That leaves us with just over $1.6 million left, which we can split on a couple of D-league players or former NBA players who are in Europe but looking to make a comeback. I’m not familiar enough with those guys to fill out the roster myself, but our hypothetical NBA team has talent scouts who would tell us who to pick up for those last two spots. It’s not like it matters, they’ll probably never be activated anyway.
Now while my starting five isn’t necessarily better than Miami’s likely starting unit, it is more balanced. The Heat will probably be starting Joel Anthony and Mario Chalmers. Just keep that in mind.
If they could work together, Dirk and Durant should combine for about 55 ppg. Noah is one of the best defensive centers in the game, and works hard on every possession, even if he is annoying. We’ve seen what Rondo can do. I honestly think Mayo is my weakest link, which says something for this starting five.
The bench is also solid. Sefolosha is a crack defensive player who can guard twos and threes, and the argument could be made to put him in the starting lineup over Mayo because of that defensive ability. Jeff Green makes for a super-backup for Dirk. Darren Collison should probably be a starting PG in his own right. Brad Miller isn’t the all-star center he once was, but he’s a solid second center.
I am missing a designated three point bomber, but Durant and Dirk can both hit from downtown, so I’m not really worried about it.
I know it would be impossible to actually assemble this team, but it was a fun exercise in seeing what could be possible under the cap. I put this together pretty quickly. I’m sure with a little more thought you could assemble an even better team while still staying under the cap. So if you think you can do better, feel free to put your own team together and post it as a comment.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
It's New York. What's the Big Deal?
After all of their shameless self promotion, the Knicks landed.....Amare Stoudemire. That's it. And the supposedly soon to be residents of Brooklyn, the current New Jersey Nets acquired...., well OK, they didn't really land any big name players. They did manage to hire one of the worst available general managers in Billy King though. If you're not familiar with King, talk to a Sixer's fan and ask them how he destroyed basketball in Philadelphia for the foreseeable future.
I'm sorry to tell you this New York area basketball fans, but when it comes to the NBA, New York's past basketball glory doesn't mean anything to current players. Willis Reed may have been great, but that was years ago. The current Knicks are a floundering team that is still trying to recover from the ineptitude of Isiah Thomas. To put it bluntly, the Knicks suck, and you're not going to win a title there.
The Nets are a somewhat unknown commodity. They were the worst team in the league last year, but they are now under new ownership. You just don't know what will happen in a situation like that. While the promise is that they will be moving to Brooklyn, it hasn't happened yet. They could be in Jersey for years to come. As far as I'm concerned, New York and New Jersey are the same thing, but most would disagree. Big name free agents aren't heading to New Jersey.
Miami, on the other hand, has the legendary Pat Riley making the important decisions and Wade was already there. Also don't underestimate the effect of New York winters versus the beach.
So if you were LeBron James or Chirs Bosh, would you go to New York?
My Stuff at RateItAll
I've written a lot of reviews and created a large number of lists on a consumer rating site called RateItAll. Here's a link to my page there.
Welcome to my new NBA blog
Welcome to my blog! I plan to use this space to talk about NBA basketball, although occasionally I may talk about other things. In the next few days I'll probably write a little about my thoughts on this summer's free agent frenzy, including "The Decision", the inability for the New York area teams to pick up any of the big names, and why I think the Bulls could be a contender even though they didn't get Wade or LeBron.
My entries here will probably be sporadic. I may write something every day for a week, and then there might not be anything new for a few weeks.
I am a Dallas Mavericks fan, and I am a Lakers hater. There will be times when my writing is incredibly biased because of this. Deal with it.
As I said above, from time to time I may write about other topics.
I like country music, so from time to time there may be music related posts. This might just be the only NBA blog in existence where you might find content about country music.
As much as I love the NBA, I'm not a big NCAA basketball fan. Any mention of college hoops here will likely be in a form that directly relates to the NBA, such as NBA age requirements and such.
I hate baseball. If I'm talking about baseball here, it's because I'm bashing it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)