[FJ_of _Rockaway]

Guy is a free agent next summer and currently makes $7M per .

He will 30 , early 30's when he is up .

What does he do - go long with the quong for comfort ?

Or does he go short , send Samaki packing and sign up for $2m per and go collect his ring

I bet London to a brick that is the latter which is why it would be foolish giving anything away or any real value to get him to town.

It is questionable we have enough powder in the keg to trade for him - dollar wise which is why we give up quantity of young talent .

Would Fizer, Hassell and a resigned Travis Best at $3.5M per do it for the Hornets ?

We face the prospect of losing Travis for nought anyway so is it worth risking a PJ rental for one year in sending Marcus and Trenton packing ??

How do we sell PJ to stay . Do we give him assurances to tenure and money next season and beyond on a 6 year deal - and hope he sees the prospect of competing for a ring in this timeframe as being on a genuine young up and comer Eastern Conference contender ??

Or does he figure a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush - and flip us that bird - to go and take less quong with the Lakeshow and pick up a couple of rings at the same time??

The Hornets need real help at Guard with zero depth.

Best and Hassell give them very classy backups.

Fizer gives an offensive flavour to their frontline with Magliore complementing him with a defensive focus.

Campbell will likely go in free agency as well.

For me I would give up Fizer and Hassell to take a chance

 

[FJ_of _Rockaway]

Sicky

You are right in that there is no real necessity to sign and trade Best in the deal to make it match as we have room to absorb PJ's salary by just doing Marcus straight up or Marcus and Trent .

I was aware of this non necessity with regard to Travis and was of the belief ( and still am ) that he and the Hornets would be an ideal fit - however knowing the Hornets thrifty ways there would likely be a greater attraction to clearing salary out - even though they have no real salary concerns by only being committed at $42M .

If they were to net a saving of around $3M by subtracting the cost of Fizzer and Hustle ( $4M ) from PJ , then they could slate this money for Lee Nailon and still not exceed the salary cap by any meaninful amount.

It makes sense for he Hornets to deal now as they run the real risk of losing PJ and Elden for nothing next summer .

The Magic, the Heat , Clippers , Jazz , Spurs and Nuggets will all have healthy amounts of money to throw around

And also take into account , that someone like PJ could very well shun the money - take Samaki's roster spot and salary and go collect his rings , which , if he does - does not require a sign and trade option leaving the Hornets with no compensation

So yes, I can see the imperative for them to deal and deal now and acquire someone that can complement Magliore and play there at low cost for medium term ( that player being Fizzer )

But they do not address their urgent need at guard which is why the low cost and talented Trent Hassell could be the key to a deal and with their 2nd round draft pick - they pick up the best point left on the board - whether it be Maddox or Bremer etc. The fact is they need a front court replacement if they deal PJ but they desperately need help at guard .

Their first round pick at #17 - I would expect themto go with another big in anticipating Elden's loss - someone like Ely or Haislip if they are still on the board .

OK it would suck losing Trent for sure - but there has to be give and take . Maybe we could wrangle a future protected first round pick from the Hornets to balance it up a bit

Dealing Trent perhaps solves some logjam issues and maybe balances us up a bit - it frees Jamal up to be getting his minutes in the backcourt and it also allows us to pursue a pure shooter like Casey Jacobsen with our #31 pick as a backup and as an eventual replacement for the Mayor who is on the last year of his contract .

Casey was not as dominant this year - but he did not have Jarron and Jason attracting a crowd that enabled him to nail em from downtown as frequently as last year. Makes you wonder just how effective Casey could be in a reserve role and as designated bomber ( in an AJ Guyton greenlighted role ) with a dominating Curry and Chandler upfront.

It also enables us to either resign Travis Best as Jay's back up - thus committing Jamal primarily to the 2 - and this may not be a bad thing as I like Travis running and checking the smaller speedier guards - or , if we let Travis go and decide the Jay is quick enough to at least compete with all comers , we could go for a more physical vet back up at point / 2 guard - and Erick Strickland's name comes to mind as a shrewd buy this summer

It then becomes an issue of what happens if PJ ups and leaves with no compensation ??

The reality is is that in this scenario we are without Marcus and Trent -BUT ( and a very big BUT ) we have around $5M -6M in cap space next summer and for that money we will have our choice out of :

Antonio McDyess
PJ Brown
Elden Campbell
Jermaine O'Neal
Juwan Howard ( reunites with Jalen and potentially an excellent candidate for a 3 man rotation with Tyson and Eddy )
Brad Miller
Alonzo Mourning

That's not a bad short list for starters

So for next season we would look like

Centers : Eddy Curry , Dalibor Bagaric,Corsley Edwards
Power Forwards : Tyson Chandler , PJ Brown ,
Small Forwards : Jalen Rose , Eduardo Najera , Fred Hoiberg
Shooting Guards: Eddie Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Casey Jake
Point Guards : Jay Williams, Travis Best

Short term contracts to Ruff and maybe Dan Langhi could be offered to balance it up

Thinking ahead , if PJ did the runner, my preference would be to target Juwan who could be in our price range on the assumption we have $5M -$6M to spend ( He should command somewhere between $5M to $7M on the open market ).

He would be an ideal replacement vet at the 4 and his history with Rose and the chemistry / unity that brings is something that is just not readily available .

 

[fear7]

PJ is without doubt the final piece of the playoff puzzle for us.

The cap flexibility issue is a deal clincher for me. 2003 has some pretty good prospects and we could always sign and trade one of them with our cap space if we like someone else better.

Since with PJ and the #2 we would be off to the playoffs it works out beautifully for the 2003 FA season. We get all the good press from a team turning around and show the league we are committed to winning without comprimising any of our top quality young talent.

P.J stays then fine and perfect, if P.J goes then because we had him we should have a pretty good win loss record thus allowing us to sign a good replacement pretty easily.

Fizer and Hassell for PJ gets my vote.