I'll admit off of the top that this trade is kind of dumb (which is why I put it here). However, it is unique, and goes in a different direction than most of the trades we've been evaluating so far.
What if we find ourselves in a scenario where Ferry does not think there are any pieces available that will help us this year. Possibly those pieces don't exist, and possibly they require us to give up too much future talent for the marginal gains we would get this year.
Then we find ourselves in a situation where we would have to let Wally Szczerbiak expire, because he plays a small part on this team now, and we are not able to find any major pieces which could replace his minutes and improve our play. However, just letting Szczerbiak expire hurts our longterm outlook, as we have lost the ability to add a long term piece without trading away starting quality talent.
So what if we look to a deal which does nothing for us in the short term but acquires long term pieces. One thought has been to trade Szczerbiak for a long term (somewhat bad) contract, and then acquire young talent which could be used to string together a deal for a Bosh/Paul/Amare/Wade type next year.
But what if we used the contract to directly obtain a long term piece that could not help us this year? I'm focusing on currently injured superstar Al Jefferson. Jefferson's ACL injury is likely to be fully healed by next year (and in any trade situation, we would be able to have our own doctors closely examine the knee to ensure that it is a classic torn ACL and nothing more major). In today's day and age, ACL injuries are almost always healed without long term damage (much different than even 10 years ago). In fact, oftentimes the replaced ligament is stronger than the original.
The Timberwolves play in a very small market that is unable to attract top talent. While Jefferson is by far their best player, he also represents a large salary in bad economic times. The Timberwolves have several other bad contracts, most notably Brian Cardinal, who they would probably like to dish off too, if only for economic reasons.
One method of setting up a deal would be:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...s=130~2389~3440~831&teams=5~5~16~16&te=&cash=
Where they get Szczerbiak's expiring contract, and Darnell Jackson, plus 2 first round picks from the Cavs. The problem with this trade is that it hurts us a little this year, because we lose Szczerbiak and get nothing playable in return. Likely, Szczerbiak's minutes would be very limited during a playoff run, because, if the Cavs are healthy, and Lebron is playing 45 MPG, he will rarely be used. However, he provides important depth from the 2-4 positions. I don't believe that we can agree to have Szczerbiak bought out in order to reobtain him by this point, because he couldn't sign with us for 30 days, and by then he is past the deadline for all players on playoff rosters to be set (March 1st i believe?).
In order to get around that, we could set up a deal like this, where the Cavs again send two first round picks to Minnesota.
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...8~3440~796~831&teams=5~5~5~16~16~16&te=&cash=
In this trade we get Mike Miller back to fill Szczerbiak's spot. By playoff time, Miller should really be the superior player with his ankle fully healed, but even if not, he is very close. The major impetus for this trade from Minnesota's perspective is a cash dump, they get rid of $26.3 million in salary, and only taking back $21.5 million. On top of that, Snow's $7.3 million is covered by insurance, so they save even more money this season. Also, basically all the money they take back is expiring, so they save over $27 million next season. They also don't have to take a risk on their superstar coming back for the beginning of the year, or being unhappy at a team that will still be very poor next year. While it's not a good basketball move for Minnesota, it's a great business move, and they get picks to develop a lot of young talent in the near future.
For the Cavs, this brings another piece who, while not helping us win a championship this year, should be a major factor in ensuring LBJ stays in 2010. Assuming Al Jefferson is back to his old self by mid next season, we could have a starting lineup of Williams/West/LBJ/Jefferson/Ilgauskas, and a long term setup of Williams/West/LBJ/Hickson/Jefferson, who are all under the age of 28 and are all immense talents. Jefferson is exactly what we need as a low post presence, who both compliments Z for the next several years, and is a young talent at the only position we lack one thus far.
I know it's a little crazy, but what do you all think?
~Lyuokdea
