Poll: How much would you give for Carmelo?

If not for the rush to lock up Brian Cook.

LAC – Anthony
DEN – Dampier, Aminu, 2012 Minny
CHA – Kaman

Prefer not to give up Minny pick, but Denver might not do the trade without. Maybe the Clips get a 2nd round pick from CHA.
I doubt Denver wants Kaman. If they’re trading Melo then the rebuild is on. Billups, JR Smith, and KMart will be the next to go. They’ll only want young assests and cap space.

I would not do a trade for Carmelo. As a player, he is quite good, but he has a huge albatross around his neck in the form of Worldwide Wess. What is to stop Carmelo from asking W. Wess to demand a trade after two years?! Obviously having a contract means nothing to those represented by that nefarious group (W. Wess), since Carmelo is still under contract. Say we trade Kamman plus someone else for Carmelo, we are then left without a quality center (another need). After 2 years, W. Wess is going to demand that we trade Carmelo. At that point we will be without another good player. Sure we could get a quality player for Carmelo, but why loose a player that we already have and seems to want to play for the Clippers (Kamman) for someone who could leave shortly afterwards. Denver was not able to change his mind, would we? “A bird in the hand…”

Only 7% of us would be willing to include EJ and/or Griffin in a trade. 33% would be willing to include an additional major asset besides Kaman (EJ, Griffin, or the Minni pick). 13%, meanwhile, don’t want to trade for Melo in the first place.

In ESPN Insider, they give the following breakdown of Melo’s suitors:

    * New York. His reported preferred destination. Packages around Danilo Gallinari, Eddy Curry and Anthony Randolph/Wilson Chandler and a draft pick have been rumored.
    * Chicago. The Bulls could return Luol Deng to the Nuggets, perhaps the best talent they could get to replace Melo at small forward.
    * New Orleans. They could make a play in an effort to keep Chris Paul around.
    * Orlando. It’s reportedly another preferred destination of Anthony’s.
    * Houston. The Rockets can offer money relief and draft picks.
    * Los Angeles Clippers. L.A. offers Melo a bigger stage, and they have young talent to return.
    * Charlotte. Erick Dampier’s $13 million non-guaranteed contract could be a nice trade chip.
    * New Jersey. A move to Brooklyn in a few years could suit Melo and his wife.
    * Golden State. Anthony, David Lee and Stephen Curry would be a solid nucleus.
    * Minnesota. They could offer draft picks, and maybe even Ricky Rubio’s rights.
    * Sacramento. It’s possible they may have to part with one of their young small forwards in Donte Greene or Omri Casspi to get Melo.

I voted that I’d be willing to give up Gordon. I’d probably be pissed off at first and argue that the FO is stupid for giving up on him, but I think all would be forgiven the second I saw melo don a new Clips jersey and step on the court for the first time.

I’m probably as high on gordon as they get, and think he’ll definitely show to be one of the better SG’s in the league, but I don’t think he’ll ever have that killer instinct to be a go to scorer that can carry a team. Fact is that SG’s are decently plentiful and you can probably find someone that can do 80-90% of what gordon can. Meaning, I don’t think Gordon is a best of his generation type of guy that is absolutely untouchable. I’m hoping Griffin will be one of those guys, but for now if there’s an opportunity to get melo if it means giving up gordon, It would be EXTREMELY hard but I’m not sure I’d pass on that offer.

I was using RealGM to try and get salaries to match…but didn’t want to spend too much more time. Seems like some version of:

Carmelo & Bibby to Clips
Jamal Crawford, Aminu to Den.
Baron, DJ to Atl (plus something from Clips, pick? can’t put picks in trade checker)
for salary and for Atl to agree would help everyone

Carmelo & Crawford would probably have to sign extensions first.

Knowing the recent signees aren’t available. Denver is a little light, but Crawford & Aminu is pretty good vs. getting nothing in a year. Also, my premise is that Kaman doesn’t have much value with Nene there.

No Griffin. No Kaman.

NBA is a big man’s game. Gotta have bigs to win.

Only the Chicago Bulls were able to win championships without dominant bigs, but they had the best player, wing man, and rebounder in the game.

The only way to beat the Lakers is with big bodies, just like the Celtics almost did. The possible exception may be the Miami Heat with their two super-duper stars.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2fgupr3

Pistons have been after Kaman, and he wouldn’t mind a return to Michigan. Prince would be a stop gap and expiring contract. Depends on how the Pistons and Nuggets feel about Gordon, or he could be replaced by Rip, but I doubt the Nuggs want to take on Rip’s contract. Seems like JR has overstayed his welcome in Denver, but that’s just a rumor. You could also replace Jerebrko with maybe Daye or (if they’re willing) Monroe and throw around some draft picks, but hopefully not the Minni pick.