Are you kidding? I’d make that trade everyday of the week. Too bad Larry Bird isn’t stupid enough to do it. Or is he? Hell, I’d have somebody take him out for few drinks then have Ernie make the call. So far, this is the best one you’ve come up with.

You do realize that by taking on Murphy’s huge contract for 2010-11, we are essentially saying goodbye to either Brendan Haywood, or both Mike Miller and Randy Foye. After this trade, you will have approximately $61 million in 2010-11 salary committed to players excluding Brendan Haywood (figure about $8.5 million first year salary to keep), Randy Foye (figure about $5.5 million), Mike Miller (figure about $5.5 million), and Dominic McGuire ($1 million qualifying offer should do it). And should I assume that you want to resign Diener? The luxury tax threshold is likely to go down this season from $71 million, and might go down again next season, depending on the economy.

Unless you think Abe is going into the luxury tax again that season, I don’t see how this trade helps us down the road.

In which Taser got traded to the Suns. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen…

Anyway, Bird does this trade if Indiana doesn’t think it’s going to contend in the next couple years and thus wants to shed Troy’s crappy contract. It would definitely mean less minutes for Blatche, but hey, that might not be a bad thing. I guess the question is if WE want to take on Troy’s contract…

the trade for this year. I don’t know about going forward. Murphy is definitely big-bodied rebounder. But he isn’t exactly a paint-troller. I wonder what AJ would think of this. Isn’t Murphy the reason Golden State found him expendable? Ha!

Does anyone have the skinny on Chris Mihm in Memphis? I wonder if he’d be available?

I’m going to put up a quick list of pros and cons for each move to help guide discussion. Here’s what I’d do for this proposal.

PROS for us:
-Murphy is an outstanding rebounder and his offensive game still fits in with Flip Saunders
-Getting rid of Stevenson and James solves the logjam in the backcourt and gets rid of deadweight
-Murphy would be the best third big in the Eastern Conference

CONS for us:
-Murphy’s contract sucks
-His numbers are a bit inflated due to Indiana’s fast pace
-He isn’t a good defender and will steal minutes from Blatche/McGee

PROS for Indiana
-It saves them money going forward
-They free minutes for Hibbert and Hansbrough

CONS for Indiana
-They don’t get anyone who can help them much this year
-Murphy is their best frontcourt player

And, based on the moves done so far (saving money, selling picks, etc…) I don’t think this trade has a chance…

I like Troy Murphy as a player, but not at that price.

Plus, I think MIke James’ expiring contract will be worth much more at the Trade Deadline; as teams fall out of the Playoff race, and look to re-tool quickly by obtaining expiring contracts so they can go after 2010 Free Agents.

However – I did like your Mike James and Javaris Crittenton to Indiana for Jeff Foster and Travis Diener trade idea.
Foster is a very good defender and a tremendous rebounder. Plus he costs much less than Murphy, doesn’t require the ball to score, is a much better defender (especially good defending the PnR), and he can play Center or PF (Murphy is pretty much just a PF). We wouldn’t have to give up much…. AND he has a lower salary than Murphy.

Indiana has Hansborough and Hibbert, their two big men of the future; so I could see them parting ways with Foster. . . Hibbert was their starting Center by the middle of last year, so if they lose Rasho Nesterovic to Free Agency, they’d have to pick up someone to backup Hibbert.

would a trade of james for turiaf work? turiaf’s contract runs thru 2011/12, with the last year a player option. the amount payed to him isn’t bad either. it’s about 4 mil per year. it probably wouldn’t affect the signing of haywood and/or foye/miller. turiaf defends ok and is energetic. combine this with a signing of rasho for one year and our frontcourt could be set for next season.

Is the Bosh trade. We are losing more then we are gaining just by getting rid of McGee. I think it is a terrible idea to get rid of him before we even gave him a chance to fully develop. That would leave us with Bosh, Jameson, Blatche, Haywood? We still only would have 4 true big men, and sitting in the same position we are in now with 8 gaurds and 4 big men with lack of depth at PF and C.

The guy obviously can play and maybe he’ll never be nearly as good as Bosh, but I’d rather live and die on that potential.

but I don’t see Houston giving up Landry AND Hayes, particularly since they just lost Artest and may not have Yao for a full season, if ever again.

I think the Indiana trade is a decent one, though Travis Diener does nothing for me. Murphy could be interesting in Flip Saunders’ system.

The Philadelphia trade also intrigues me, as they would get a guy who already knows EJ’s system, a developing “true” point guard (which they currently don’t have), and I think Mike Miller could handle being a guard in EJ’s offense, particularly since he picked up his passing last year. They seem to be committed to Speights, though, at least for another year or two, and I’m afraid Dalembert might end up taking too many minutes away from McGee, but otherwise I think it’s a solid idea.

Lots of Haywood talk creeping in. I’ve asserted his underratedness too much to make the effort again, so I won’t go into that yet. Suffice to say, long-time readers can make the case for me (nate33, where are you?).

As far as his free agent status: For those who are suggesting letting him walk if he asks for too much, you have to remember that the NBA is not a true marketplace. You can’t just take the 10 million or whatever that you would have given to Haywood and give it to a different free agent center. You’re constrained by the cap, and the Wizards won’t be far enough underneath it to offer $10 million annually to anyone else. You’re going to have replace Haywood’s salary slot with someone making MLE money or less. Looking at the available options (which I listed either here or in another thread), there isn’t really anyone who can give us equal contributions to Haywood that will take the MLE. The only guy who may come close is Joel Pryzbilla, and that’s only if he doesn’t exercise his early termination clause in his contract.

As far as McGee being ready to be the starting center: I doubt it. He’s only 21 now and bigs take a while to develop into true all-around guys. Even if you sign Haywood to a four- or five-year deal, McGee will only be 26 when Haywood’s contract expires. If McGee improves enough to steal Haywood’s job, he will, and Haywood can transition into a backup. You can afford to tie up a lot of money to your center position better than any other position. I also don’t think Haywood is “aging” by any means. He may be 30, but he doesn’t have a lot of wear and tear on him due to limited minutes, and his game is predicated on smarts over athleticism anyway.

That doesn’t mean bet against yourself to keep him, but I’d rather overpay him a little than lose him for nothing.

too much talk about NEXT year. Let’s get through THIS year first. But as far as the notion that we shouldn’t trade Haywood, or let him walk, that’s ridiculous. Like I said before, NO ONE on this team should be considered untouchable.

both right. It just seemed like we were moving on to next year already. Yes, you always need to plan ahead. But we won’t know what we’re going to do for sure until the storyline for this year plays out.

Also, I don’t know how else to put this out there, but whoever is sending me the ‘Friendly Reminders’ to use “rec” instead of saying +1 ……I Can’t Do It. My computer will not allow me to. But I will stop saying +1 to keep from annoying the masses.