You make the decision...

[BIG BEN'S FRO]

Did Joe D make the right move now in retrospect?

This is a team that would have had cap room anyway, and clearly had targeted Ben Gordon awhile back. Obviously this made Rip a tradeable player in their eyes and would try and use him to address our frontcourt needs.

My question is simply this. If we had just kept Chauncey and traded Rip for a big, couldn't we have signed BG anyway?

I think Joe D would have LOVED a rotation with Chauncey and Ben starting, and Stuckey off the bench. We could have still traded Rip for a Big, and we would be in largely the same position we are in now, except without Nova. Rather than a Chauncey for Ben Gordon deal, we really were looking more at a Chauncey for Nova IMO since I think we would have had enough cap room to get BG anyway.

Thoughts?

[Wilfredo Ledezma]

I just think it's not worth making a verdict until all the moves are done.

Nobody can convince me that there isn't another trade in the works for a center, so in essence, the final product is still incomplete.

[micknugget]

Chauncey wasn't really playing hard for us. I think that's a reason (Stuckey is another) why he got moved as opposed to Rip. I didn't have an issue with moving Chauncey otehr than I thought that we didn't get enough for him.

[BIG BEN'S FRO]

Mick, it definitely looks to me like he played much harder in Denver, but that may be subjective. Wil, we would have been looking to trade Rip now regardless of which scenario we did. That's my point.

[Kstat]

they didn't just deal Chauncey's contract, they traded Dice's too. It freed up $20 million in cap space. Guess what? We had just under $20 million to spend this summer.

You do the math. We would have had very little if not any cap space at all.

[BIG BEN'S FRO]

Good point about Dice. Forgot about that. So I guess it boils down to Chauncey and Dice for CV and BG. That's actually not bad considering both players off their rookie deals and high picks who actually played decent. Not to mention the fact that we weren't going anywhere with the current roster.

[WTFchris]

Yeah, we could have still signed Gordon, but not Charlie because we'd have Dice for 6 mil on the books still.

And Billups is starting to break down closing out seasons.

Joe can still do a deal with any of these Max/Kwame/AA/Bynum (4 mil in space too) for big man deal anywhere from 9-15 mil probably.

[Kstat]

no, we wouldn't. Chauncey's $12 million and Dice's $6 million would have capped us out.

We had to make moves last year to stay under the freaking luxury tax, which was $15 million OVER the salary cap.

Yes, we slashed $33 million in salary form last year. But we were also $14 million over the cap to begin with.

Again, do the math.

[Zekyl]

Joe can still do a deal with any of these Max/Kwame/AA/Bynum (4 mil in space too) for big man deal anywhere from 9-15 mil probably.

Don't forget Rip. Is AA expiring? If so, then 3 of those 4 are expiring deals. If we think that our 3-man guard rotation can be covered by Gordan, Stuckey, Bynum with Washington getting garbage time coming over from Europe, we could move Afflalo. Teams might actually want to take a shot on him because he's turning into a solid defender that just needs more time to develop.

[WTFchris]

no, we wouldn't. Chauncey's $12 million and Dice's $6 million would have capped us out.

We had to make moves last year to stay under the freaking luxury tax, which was $15 million OVER the salary cap.

Yes, we slashed $33 million in salary form last year. But we were also $14 million over the cap to begin with.

Again, do the math.

Yeah, we would have been about the 5 mil under the cap with Billups and Dice here (even with Sheed renounced).

We'd be screwed at this point basically.