Weasel

http://www.probasketballnews.com/pbn_arenas031708.html

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leidout

Woo! About freakin' time! We should have been blowing up the wizards S&T phone the moment Gilbert mentioned opting out. Still great news, now the question is what do we offer in S&T?

I'd really like to hang onto our 1st (especially if its high enough for Mayo), but Minnesota's pick, next year's pick (which could be mostly garbage with our new roster), however many 2nd rounders they want are definitely available.

I'd also love to get rid of Mobley's deal, Orlando might be willing to bite if paired with a pick.

Letting go of Knight & Livingston would be a given as well.

joser

would anyone here trade Kaman for Arenas?

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leidout

If it was an Arenas or Nothing situation, sure i'd trade Kaman for Arenas, but we've got the ability to keep both, so why not try to do that first? But we'd be in a tough spot afterwards though with Brand as our only capable "center"

Another trade or lucky draft would have to soon follow, but it's really just too complicated to work out perfectly for us. No matter what though, i'd trade just about any single player on our roster for Arenas. He's practically a top 5 guy when healthy & motivated as well as a bigtime playoff performer.

But i think ideally Washington would want expiring contracts and draft picks, because without Arenas they pretty much have no choice but to enter rebuilding mode.

Weasel

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NOFX22

Do we have any money to sign him? Would we have to let Maggette go?

ElMarroAfamado

id trade anyone for Arenas, if he stays healthy he is the type of player to carry a team to a win by himself with just mediocre help
i say the only untouchables are .....Thornton and Kaman.....
everyone else should be on the table, including picks

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leidout

Not necessarily, we could let go of Livingston/Williams/Knight for a good 8 million roughly. Plus Cassell's contract comes off, giving us about 14 million to work with. I'm not too clear about CBA rules, but i think those numbers should be fairly accurate.

Of course it all depends on how much Maggette & Brand want next year, if we can keep 'em for roughly the same amount as they've been getting paid, we'd be able to keep Kaman, Brand, Thornton, Maggette, Arenas and most of our low-cost players without going over the cap.

A sign & trade makes the most sense for us though, as Arenas would pretty much cap us out and we'd have a thin roster. Mobley or Thomas are my favorite candidates to S&T, giving us another 9 or 6 million to fill out the roster. But we've gotta hang on to that 1st round pick, it's crucial to our long term future, imagine our lineup as:

PG: Arenas
SG: Maggette
SF: Thornton
PF: Brand
C: Kaman

Bench: #6 pick (OJ Mayo), Ross, Thomas, Sofoklis

That's definitely a team that can contend for a couple of years.

hutcht02

This is good news, but let's also not go overboard. There's a few things to keep in mind in order to make a smart trade for Arenas. First of all, Jerryd Bayless is a carbon copy of Arenas. If we're going to give up our first round pick, then that should be about it. Also, Kaman for Arenas, in my opinion, is a bad trade for us. Can anybody name me the last team to win an N.B.A. Championship without a strong frontcourt? The answer is the Bulls, and we don't have M.J., therefore we need frontcourt strength to build on, and Brand and Kaman are both essential in the success of those plans. Arenas could be had, probably, for our 1st round pick, maybe Maggette thrown in (he's going to walk anyway) and a few salary match fillers.

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qross1fan

I'm not surprised and glad this article came out because now Gil knows that we do want him and Washington knows they already have competition. But, I'm not going to hype it up and push for us to get him because after this season, I'm in a damn pessimistic mood about the franchise. I know it was injuries, but we won't bring in a star like Gil. If we do, I can see something built around a combination of: Kaman/First Rounder/Maggette/Thornton. I say anything but Elton and we have to pull the trigger unless we are greatly overpaying.

Well, assuming that Elton picks up his player option, Corey opts out, we pick up Powell's 900k option and Livingston takes the qualifying offer, we would have $51,575,345 committed in salaries. Assuming the salary cap goes to 57.5 mil, we'd barely be 6 mil under the cap, which obviously isn't enough to sign Arenas, but gives us somewhat more flexibility. Assuming they'd take a Kaman/08 #1/09 #2 for Arenas/08 #2 swap, Areans can sign a contract starting at up to 15 mil and we would not need to add any fillers.

So in short, can we sign Gil straight out? Not at all, but if we are under the cap, it gives us more flexibility about who we have to deal to satisfy the CBA.

Generally, I'd say no to any big for small trade when both are among the top in the league, but in this case, I would. We can deal to get ourselves a C later on or sign one in free agency[DIOP!!!].

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