C's trade???

[Piotrowski, Mark A]

* thanks to Ellie for clearing up that there really weren't any "good bet" 
bigs available with the #7 pick 
-- we could have taken a chance on Saer Sene or Patrick O'Bryant but other 
than that there were a 
bunch of career 8th men IMO.  The only 2 guys I think we legitimately might 
rue not taking with the 7th 
are Brandon Roy and Rudy Gay.  But we're so stocked at those positions i think 
the trade was still a 
good one (esp. b/c we got Ratliff and lost a year of Raef's deal and a 2nd 
rounder).


* on the Jackson deal -- I agree that probably this is one of those "nothing 
to lose" deals.

On the other hand, I think that even before getting Jackson we have to do 
something to find mins for 
our 2/3's.  Assuming that Rondo and Telfair split the mins at the PG spot 
(maybe West gets 10 mpg 
there), Doc has 96 mins/gm for

Pierce
Szczerbiak
West
Allen
Green

I think a natural trading partner would be Denver --- they're (still) looking 
for scoring help at the 2 and 
have 8 bigs (Kenyon Martin, Camby, Nene, Joe Smith, Kleiza, Reggie Evans, 
Najera & Jamal Sampson).  
They have $35 million tied up in 3 of them: Martin, Nene and Camby.

A deal of Szczerbiak, Tony Allen and Scalabrine (or Grant's Salary) for Camby 
and Najera would be great 
IMO.

Denver gets an all-star outside shooter to open things up for Carmelo and the 
bigs and we get Camby, 
a terrific shotblocker and rebounder who tends to get banged up.

our lineup would be much more settled (or would in the hands of a coach who 
understood such things) 
and we'd have  a lot of depth:

Telfair / West / Pierce / Jefferson / Camby

Perkins
Gomes
Green
Rondo
Najera
Ratliff

(the other) mark
----------------------------
Probably a good risk considering the writing was on the wall with Jones.
Danny is cashing in a guy he was going to cut anyway for a former
lottery pick, hoping he can rediscover the form that made him a lottery
pick in the first place. Of course, he was atrocious with Cleveland.
Absolutely atrocious.

But if Danny makes this trade with the intention of keeping Jackson,
that complicates things. Jones was getting cut in favor of Olowokandi.
That was becoming clear. But now you add a guy at a position where
they're already overloaded. Who goes?

PGs: Telfair, Rondo, West
SG/SFs: Pierce, Wally, Allen, West, Green, Ray, Jackson
PFs: Jefferson, Gomes, Scalabrine
Cs: Ratliff, Perk, Kandi

That's 16. Someone has to go. Does it come down to a direct competition
between Ray and Jackson for that final spot? And this isn't considering
Powe or Pittsnoggle, who I'm assuming are history.

Could it be a precursor to another move that ships out some 2/3s to add
a big?

Mark