Being realistic, is this something we can and should do?

I think he's is exactly what we need. He's a fantastic post defender. He's big and athletic. He's still young (26), and we're obviously in a youth movement. He can provide helpside D and block shots/protect the rim. Plus he's still developing and improving his previously non-existent offensive game.

He's not going to give us a ton on offense, but he attacks the offensive glass and goes back up with it. If we've got guys like Gordon and Stuckey attacking the rim, we've got to have someone there to clean up if they miss. Plus, his offensive game is in the post, not floating around shooting midrange jumpers. We don't really need him to be an offensive force anyway. We just need him as an option to feed the ball into the paint. Enough of our shots will be going to Stuckey, Gordon, and Villanueva (which is why having a guy like Prince who always defers isn't bad either).

He's exactly what we need to pair with Villanueva for our starting frontcourt.

As for actually getting him, that's the hard part. I think we have the advantage of LB being the Bobcats coach and Rip being the piece we'd move for Okafor. We've got Jordan and Dumars who have a mutual respect for each other from their playing days. Plus, they've dealt with each other before, when we traded them Nazr for Herrmann and whatever else we got in that trade.

Joe needs to get MJ and LB on the phone and see what he can work out.

I'd trade RIP for him. But, they just drafted a SG. I'd still think they want to move a center with Diop and Nazr making solid money there.

He's the guy I'm holding out hope for.

As for Bosh, Amar'e, et al, they just don't seem likely or even possible to me.

Okafor's BYC status just expired yesterday, so he's good to go.

I'd even think about helping them out of Diop's deal if that helped seal the deal.

Rip for Okafor/Diop just about cleans up our cap room.

Tay could still be moved for a couple of players at 125% of his salary and we'd still be under the tax line.

Could we also move Max for a PF/C with a little more size (since Charlie is sortof a tweener there)?

RIP/Okafor would actually give us 1.1 mil in space. we'd have 5 mil. We could move Max for a 10 mil PF. What about adding some filler and getting Boozer?

Even better, Max and Daye for David West. We'd save them some taxes.

PG Stuckey/Bynum
SG Gordon/AA
SF Tay/Charlie
PF West/Charlie
C Okafor/Kwame

there was talk they would move Nazr/Radman for Dalembert, so they could replace Okafor with 2 eqaul bad contracts

i would trade both RIP and Tay for Okafor+Bell + trash...we can always add a SF in a year or 2

Dalembert/Diop
Diaw/GWallace
GWallace/Prince
RIP/Prince
Felton/Augustin

to me that looks better than their squad now, and i am sure Larry would love to coach RIP and Tay again

Okafor/Kwame
Villa/Max
?/rookies
Gordon/Afflalo
Stuckey/Bynum

Bell is expiring, we could even be a player in 2010, dunno

I think you need to keep Tay unless you replace him with another wing defender. especially with Gordon and Charlie not great defenders.

i am giving up Tay because i dont think RIP alone would get us Okafor...its easier to find a good SF defender than a starting C like Okafor...we can sign a minimum guy who can play some D to start for one season ( a guy like Udoka should do just fine) and go after a really nice starting SF who can play some D in 2010

The only reason they ship Okafor to us is to dump salary and save money.
Rip will NOT be shipped for Okafor. Not saying an Okafor deal is impossible... just that a Rip-for-Okafor deal is damn near impossible.

That extension really nosedived his trade value. I'll be happy and hungry for some crow though, but I don't see it happening.

hay guys did u kno Villaneuva, Gordon and Okafor were college teammates??!?11

Okafor/Kwame
Villa/Max
?/rookies
Gordon/Afflalo
Stuckey/Bynum

Wouldn't Bell be your starting SF after that trade? He didn't even make your lineup.

And LDB, I didn't realize that Okafor was teammates with them. That would be interesting to have 3 guys that were teammates in college all starting on the same team in the pros.

I don't think we'd get Okafor for Rip straight up, but if we could work in taking on a few million in salary from them, that wouldn't be a bad deal.

Pistons Get:
Okafor - 10.5
Nazr - 6.5
Ajinca - 1.4
-Total of 18.4

Bobcats Get:
Rip - 11.6
Kwame - 4
-Total of 15.6

That clears about 3 million in cap space for Charlotte. I don't know how high on Ajinca they are. He's a 7 footer but he's only 225 pounds. The guy has a huge wingspan but no strength whatsoever.

We'd be:

Stuckey/Bynum
Gordon/Stuckey/AA
Prince/Daye/Summers
Villa/Max/Jarebko
Okafor/Nazr/Ajinca


If they want to keep Ajinca, we'd have to do some work. I'm not sure how cash considerations work. How much can someone include? They sub Raja Bell (5.3) and cash and we add Afflalo (1.1) and Sharpe (0.7). We'd have 16.4 going out and 22.3 coming in, difference of 4.9 million. Since we only have about 4 million in cap space, we'd have to get around a million in cash or get another team involved. We could cut that down a bit by subbing Diop (6) for Nazr or Max (5) for Kwame.

Radman can be subbed for Nazr in all of this. The have the same salary.

i think $3 mil is the most you can include as 'cash considerations' in a trade. but that is separate from the salaries you're trading. so the money cannot go towards 'evening out' the cap numbers when making the deal.

i'd LOVE okafor. absolutely 100%. but i really have a hard time seeing them trading a young big like him. i hope i'm wrong, but i just don't see them doing it. salary dump or not. i think they would want to keep him first before other guys.

fingers crossed though.

He's the guy I'm holding out hope for.

As for Bosh, Amar'e, et al, they just don't seem likely or even possible to me.

Fuck thats good English and grammar and all that. I wish I could write like that. I'm serious too.

edit...I want to take English one day as a language and learn it. I want to use : ; et all and all those things.

I just kind of doubt that it'll ever happen.

I'm not at all convinced that Okafor's D is "great". Dwight makes it a point of decimating Okafor one-on-one in their matchups, in a way that he can't do against a motivated Sheed. Okafor's individual opponent PER hasn't been great since his ankle injuries. And I have to believe that if he had great D, LB would be going apeshit to keep him.

I still want him... don't get me wrong. The UConn superstars tour wouldn't be complete without him. Maybe we can trade Tay for Gay...

Okafor isn't a great one on one defender. He is a terrific team defender, though.

Okafor is an eraser. Given that Charlie V is our PF....we will need that.

i'd LOVE okafor. absolutely 100%. but i really have a hard time seeing them trading a young big like him. i hope i'm wrong, but i just don't see them doing it. salary dump or not. i think they would want to keep him first before other guys.

fingers crossed though.
I'm in this camp... That's too much talent just to trim 3M or so.

Maybe some threeway deal might work... gotta wonder if Joe explored this b4 shooting his wad on Villeno-D