Quasi-Quasar

RD, I totally agree with you, the Clipps should save up their money for next year. I'd love to take a shot at AK47, but Utah will match anything...and I mean anything. RJ, JRich and Ray Allen are all a cut above Q IMO, and I'd love to have any of the 3; although I think JRich could step up to a new level with a new team (and he's definitely gone, Pietrus and Dunleavy are their future 2/3).

BTW SoCalBlazerFan, fill me in here, how the hell do the Blazers have Bird-rights on DMiles? A player must be on a team 3 full years for the team to retain Bird-rights, and Miles hasn't played even one full year for the Blazers. They can match any offer, as he is a RFA, but I don't see how they could have Bird-rights on him. In any case anything more than 6/38 (that's 5 mil with 10% increases) for DMiles is too much.

I think this year signing Rodney White to a cheap 1 year deal could work. He's a good defender, and a good enough shooter, and he can guard SG/SF/PF so he would give the Clipps flexibility.

So what if the Clipps were to hold on to Wilcox for another year, but trade Q, and sign Rodney White and a vet PG. That would move Jaric to SG and give Livingston about 20 minutes per game to develop with. Unless the Clipps get Kobe, they aren't going to be contenders, and in the stacked WC, the playoffs would be tough to make if the team was nominally improved. Next year should be the year for the Clipps to give Livingston, Jaric, Kaman, and Wilcox time to really develop on the court.

So what can the Clipps really get for Q? There are several teams that would be interested in him: Denver, Portland, Chicago, Sacramento, Charlotte, and Indiana are some of those interested. Chicago might give up the rights to Deng, a second rounder and a filler; that would be a very nice trade, and would add another Dukie to the team. Portland could give up the rights to Monya, their 2005 1st and someone like Dale Davis; this isn't much considering that their pick could be in the 20's next year, but Monya is a nice prospect. Charlotte could only offer picks. Denver could offer the Clipps pick back with a couple picks (one of their own and the one from Orlando perhaps).

The Denver trade is definitely most beneficial, if the Clipps decide that next year is not a year to go after the #8 seed. The Clipps keep their pick (late to mid-lotto) and get a condition pick from Orlando and Denver's 2006 1st (most likely in the 20's). Deng is nice, but a few of next year's possible SF's are more appealing to me. Headlining the class, there is Nemanja Aleksandrov, Illyasova, Marvin Williams, Rudy Gay, Martynas Andriuskevicius (if you think he'll play SF like Dirk), Malik Hairston (SG/SF), Damir Omerhodzic, Mizra Telotovic, Tahirou Sani, Antoine Wright (SG/SF), Mike Williams, and a few others. It's going to be the strongest draft for SF's in a long time, unless an age limit is implemented. I would take any of the first 5 over Deng, and I specifically like Williams, Andriuskevicius and Illyasova for where the Clipps might be drafting. Rudy Gay is a good player, but I see a lot of Stephen Jackson in him, and Aleksandrov is the #1 pick (at the moment), but if the Clipps have the #1 pick, he's great.

So if the Clipps want to position themselves for a nice 2005 offseason, they could prepare to get JRich, RJ, or Ray Allen (I also like Joe Johnson, but he's terrible over-rated by Phoenix's management and he'll be overpayed accordingly). If this is the Clipps' direction (which is also the cheapest one), here's a few moves they could/should make:
1. Trade Q to Denver for the pick owed to them, their 1st from Orlando (Nelson trade), and their 2006 1st pick.
2. Sign Rodney White to a 1 year 2 mil deal.
3. Renounce Keyon Dooling.
4. Trade Melvin Ely to Milwaukee for Dan Gadzuric and a conditional first pick (15-10-5-3-1-0 protection starting in 2005). This gets the Clipps a decent backup C, and creates an opening for Sofo if Wilcox is traded next year.
5. Sign Mark Jackson (the PG) to a one year deal (vet min preferably). Jackson's presence could be highly valuable to Livingston. Livingston needs to learn how to post up (as does Jaric), since he can exploit his height, and Jackson was half of the reason the 5-second back-to-the-basket rule was invented (Barkley was the other half).
6. Sign Sofo to a 6 year 4.4 mil deal. They get a skilled rebounder at least, for a cheap price...and who knows, Sofo could really take off with a good coach.
7. Sign a vet SG, a player like Pike, who can come off the bench and hit a couple of 3's in a couple of minutes and warm the bench the rest of the time.
8. Sign Barnes to a 3 year 2 mil deal with a team option after the first year. And sign Simmons to a one year contract.
So the rotation would look like:
PG: Jaric/Livingston
SG: White/Jaric/Simmons
SF: Maggette/White/Simmons
PF: Brand/Wilcox
C: Kaman/Wilcox.Gadzuric
with a roster of:
PG: Jaric, Livingston, Jackson, Chalmers
SG: White, House
SF: Maggette, Simmons, Barnes
PF: Brand, Wilcox, Sofo
C: Kaman, Gazuric

At the end of next year, House, Simmons, Gadzuric, and Jaric would be FAs with Gadzuric and Jaric being RFAs, and Barnes would have a team option. IMO Jaric and Gadzuric should be resigned at this point and Barnes should be retained, but Jaric and Gadzuric could be signed towards the end of the FA period so the Clipps have free capspace (the Clipps also will have Bird-rights on Jaric). And their cap summary would look like:
Brand: $12.88 mil, Maggette: 6.8 mil, Kaman: $2.8 mil, Wilcox 2.5 mil (to be traded though), Sofo: .6 mil, Barnes: .6 mil, Livingston: 2.8 mil, which adds up to $29 mil. Assume that Wilcox is traded and the Clipps' 1st pick takes up about the same amount of capspace, and before Jaric and Gadzuric are re-signed, the Clipps are looking at $15-18 mil in capspace. This year's cap is expected to be $46 mil, so next year's could be between $44 and 47 mil. And that's enough to sign any player to a max deal. I'd love to spend it on AK47, but unless something drastic happens next year, Utah will match any offer, even if it is 6 years, $86 mil.

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