The Holy Grail of Rube Goldberg Trade Ideas (CP3)

[nighthob]

OK, a thread on another board about the Washington WIzards coming fire sale got me working on a trade to land Chris Paul in Boston. Now, before the Rondo extension it would have been pretty straightforward, and frankly even possible for Boston to have made. But Rondo's poison pill provision combined with Paul's BYC status make any such trade daunting. But, with hard work and diligence I finally beat the numbers into submission. So, without further ado...

Boston Out
Ray Allen
Rajon Rondo
Brian Scalabrine
Tony Allen
JR Giddens
Total Salary: $29,332,859/$36,313,421 (The latter being the trade value including Rondo's poison pill provision)

Boston In
Chris Paul
Emeka Okafor
Corey Maggette
Kelenna Azubuike
Total Salary: $36,129,368

Washington Out
Antawn Jamison
Caron Butler
Mike Miller
Total Salary: $31,172,065

Washington In
Ray Allen
Tony Allen
Brian Scalabrine
JR Giddens
Total Salary: $26,709,533

Golden State Out
Corey Maggette
Monta Ellis
Anthony Randolph
Brandan Wright
Raja Bell
Kelenna Azubuike
Total Salary: $32,828,931

Golden State In
Antawn Jamison
Caron Butler
Rajon Rondo
Morris Peterson
Total Salary: $30,258,351/$37,238,913 (Latter number reflecting Rondo's split value)

New Orleans Out
Chris Paul
Emeka Okafor
Morris Peterson
Darius Songaila
Total Salary: $34,797,897/$28,037,897 (Latter number incorporating CP3's BYC value)

New Orleans In
Monta Ellis
Mike Miller
Raja Bell
Brandan Wright
Anthony Randolph
Total Salary: $30,509,000

Reasons that this is theoretically possible (besides the obvious). New Orleans gets under the luxury tax, which is worth real coin to them (approximately four million in payroll reduction, about two million in luxury tax saved, Raja Bell's insurance money, plus a share of the first disbursement of luxury tax revenues, so maybe 9-11 million overall). They also get a couple of locals (Ellis & Anthony Randolph) to act as crowd draws, a large expiring contract, the loss of Emeka Okafor's millstone, and carve $18 million in largely worthless payroll from next year's payroll. Alternatively, you could swap Miller to Golden State and Butler to New Orleans, they get less salary relief, but a whole lot more talent, and at a necessary spot.

Golden State gets rid of a contract that they desperately want to shed (Maggette), and another they're not wild about (Ellis). Nellie gets to try a two point guard attack with Rondo & Curry. They get a vet at the 4 and a pretty good SF to replace Maggette. The Wizards reduce their payroll by five million this year and $24 million next in preparation for the 2010 feeding frenzy (and if they can nix Arenas' deal they'd be the only team outside Miami that could afford both James & Wade). Emeka Okafor and Maggette are badly overpaid, but Boston desperately needs the depth at the 4/5 and they end up with the second best player in the NBA.

[Kiss My Arse]

Is there any way to do this deal by including Wanga Gut? As hesitant as I would be to get rid of Rondo (we have very different perspectives on him), we are talking about Chris Paul, after all. My concern, though, is that we are taking on an arseload of long-term commitment. Yes, first Pierce and then KG will expire but are we starting Maggette and Pierce on the wings? Is Okafor and Sheed your two primary bench bigs? Actually Sheed has just next on his contract, so I guess it isn't too bad. I do believe Paul is better than Rondo in a lot of ways but, that being said, I think there would be one heck of a possession crunch moving forward.

[nighthob]

Well, it would need to be Okafor because New Orleans is desperate to move that contract. The biggest problem, obviously, is Maggette. He is, in essence, the real price for CP3. You need to hope that Doc can get through to him like he managed to get through to Ricky Davis. I would prefer to line up Daniels with the starting 5 (for defensive purposes). My offhand hope would be that Maggette improved his profile enough that he can be moved to Atlanta this summer in a sign & trade for Josh Childress. I figure that once Joe Johnson bolts for New York the Hawks will get desperate. As for Davis, you can fit him, salarywise, in with the Wiz, but that removes their big benefit from the trade, the five million in savings. Frankly with Okafor & Wallace Davis wouldn't get a lot of playing time anyway. And as we've seen, we could probably use the depth.

[texachaun]

Very impressive. If this deal were done, it would break some sort of record.

To think that Corey Maggette could have come to Boston for the mid-level two years ago if his head had been in a brighter place.