Is Jason Next?

But it's not possible to give up practically nothing. Don't dream, construct the trade.

Plus, if we get Boozer (or any other expiring), and his 12 million comes off the books next year, we get $5 million in cap space because the cap is expected to fall $7 million.

We couldn't even manage to re-sign him, without taking ourselves out of free agency all together and putting our nose to the tax level.

That means we only have the MLE to shop with, and have no advantage in free agency whatsoever. We would have no more buying power than anyone else. It would be like being capped out.

That is why Chandler and Boozer are both terrible, unless we intended to re-sign them. And why would we do that? They are both overpaid in today's market, and of the two, Boozer is the last guy you can trust with a long term contract.

Right, which is daydreaming.

No one in the new NBA is going to pay a defensive player $12 million dollars a season. I think his option year he makes $13.5 million. When the MLE could fall to $4.5 that would make him paid 3 times the average salary. He's simply not worth it, and it means 2 of your top 12 guys on the team have to make almost nothing to offset it, so you have no veteran depth and good luck if you want to carry 15 players.

You would have to give up just as much for Chandler.

Joe is not going to trade Rip or Tay for cap space next offseason. The space will be eaten up by the falling cap, and he will have dumped them for nothing. Even if he does it for Boozer, and wants to re-sign him, he will then take his team out of free agency for as long as Prince is under contract or longer if it is Rip that stays. That means you have a permanent starting lineup of Stuckey, Rip or Tay, Bengo CV and Boozer.

Is that your championship lineup?

How can you offer any criticism if you don't know the answer to this?

That is the entire point of my posts to you this morning. You're making critiques, but you can't construct the trade you are upset Joe is not making. Sorta like accusing the new coach of not having any experience when he wears a Detroit Pistons championship ring.

Joe is clearing cap space to make a move NOW. I think it may be Bosh. I hope it is. He's a legitimate franchise player, neither Boozer nor Chandler are. Worst case, I hope we get Amare. Joe is looking to do something big.

I don't even think Chandler is a very good defender. He gets rebounds and that's about it.

If it was a 1 year deal but he is on the books for 2 more years at a very high price and there is no guarantee that he will even be healthy next year. Maybe he would even flunk the trade physical again.

Roscoe seems to be the voice of reason here past couple of days. People, you should actually pay attention to what he's saying.

Thanks M.

I might not have been holding hands and singing Kumbayah, or being coolly aloof to the discussion, because I am actually pumped up right now, but back in the day, we did the knowledge. We would all rush around to Patricia Bender's site or DougStats to get salary and performance info, to try and figure out the CBA when fan reporting and analysis was in it's infancy. There is a solid tradition among many on this board of being fairly tuned in, and that's a great thing to spread to everyone on the board, because the more people that are tuned in, the more meaningful and creative everyone's contributions become.

So if I have been over the top, I apologize. But it is possible to remove most of these goofy rumours just by a thoughtful analysis of the cap situation. We can't get players for almost nothing. Other teams are not going to give us players for our junk. The money has to make sense, this year, AND NEXT YEAR.

Bosh is a possibility. It can work. Will it? Who knows. I kinda hoped Big Baby would already be re-signed so Joe would have limited options. He's going to have a helluva time selling tickets to see this squad as is. Particularly if they don't win.

In my opinion, now is the time to strike. If the cap falls again next season, the famous class of 2010 will be the biggest non-event in NBA history since the drafting of Darko.

But less teams that can take salary on. Everyone will be terrified to trade for big extended salaries with the cap falling. We are in the unique position of being able to do so, because we actually have cap room and our young players are locked up for several seasons to come with the exception of Stuckey, whom we have the rights to pay regardless of the cap.

He's a classic case of playing beyond his rookie contract, which is not hard to do because rookie deals are so low. But paying him 3 or 3.5 times as much, is he such a roster value now? Can he exceed his current play by 1.5 or 2 times? Those are definitely the pertinent questions.

And the fact he excelled in a low pressure role surrounded by a lot of talent.

He's overpaid when the cap drops $10 million over two seasons. We can pick up 80% of that kind of player, for 50% of the price. That is how this team will be rebuilt. Joe is not going to get anyone at peak value, unless they are a franchise player, and Chandler is not a franchise player.

I'm not proposing solutions. I'm analyzing options.

I spent the better part of the day answering this IN DETAIL yesterday.

I don't know what he is doing, I know what he can do. Obviously, he is clearing space to improve the team, because next offseason, he will have no cap space and cannot make the moves he can make right now. Which I believe, is why he is trying to wring blood from a stone, because Oberto is exactly the kind of contract he would keep in the past, but now he's willing to eat 50% on the dollar, to have a few more pennies to shop with, obviously because he believes every penny of purchasing power counts.

I know. We all know. You've been stating how unhappy you are for almost two years. It's like when we get a young guy on the team who has any size and speed, we know Lee is going to adopt him. Likewise, whatever personnel changes Joe makes, you are going to almost universally dislike. It doesn't even matter if he addresses something you dislike, you are going to dislike the solution more than the disease.

You claimed Q was a coach getting us further from our roots (whatever those are) because he has a background as an offensive [sic] coach.

Which was shown to be wrong.

He was the most qualified candidate, with the most familiarity with our front office and "problem" personnel (aka Rip) and the perfect price tag.