I'm not so sure if Atlanta would want to give up the season, even if they did trade Josh Smith away. They're still in the playoff hunt. If they got Pekovic, that would move Horford to his natural position at the 4. Though the loss of Lou Williams does hurt their playoff chances a lot. They need a backup PG because Devin Harris is always out with various injuries. They could definitely use Ridnour, though his 2 year contract might interfere with their roster plans for this summer. The Lakers could send Duhon but he's going to get more playing time than he should since Harris is always injured. They'd be better off signing a D-League scrub.
I think something like this would be the cleanest trade possible: http://espn.go.com/n...tradeId=aym7zpx
Lakers receive:
Josh Smith
Brandon Roy
Hawks receive:
Pekovic
Williams
Timberwolves receive:
Pau Gasol
Brandon Roy's contract is partially guaranteed next year so they can just buy him out. Lakers also save ~$700k*2=$1.4 million in luxury tax because the combined salaries are less than Pau's. They can replace Roy with Barea so the Lakers have a backup PG but his contract is 3 years. Ridnour makes too little for the salaries to work. I'd still take Brandon Roy's contract if it meant getting rid of cancer Pau Charmin and getting Josh Smith.
Minnesota gets Pau without giving up their whole big man rotation or any of their guards so they have as many NBA caliber players as possible for a playoff push.
Atlanta saves money and gets 2 young pieces with upside.
Mid-season trades rarely involve multiple teams and multiple players because there's too many moving parts and teams have a harder time filling up holes during the season. I'd like to think the Lakers could fill several holes with one trade but at this point I'd be content with getting just Josh Smith. This was the cleanest trade possible that I could think of. What do you think?
Being as objective as i possibly can, i believe that's a good trade for all parties involved.
The Hawks have to make a choice. They can either keep Josh Smith and hope he can lure Dwight to sign in the offseason or they can trade him and get back assets. It's basically impossible to predict if their choice will be good or bad. If I was the GM of the Hawks i'd probably do this trade and then hope Dwight would sign in the off-season. If Dwight stays in LA (or Dallas, god forbid) i'd still have Horford, Lou Williams, John Jenkins, Jeff Teague, Peckovic, Williams and around 30 million in capspace, which isn't bad.
The Timberwolves have a similar choice to make. They are currently right at the cap, and they probably have to re-sign promising wing Chase Budinger to a long-ish deal (at least 5 million / year). Peckovic is a resticted Free Agent, which means Minny can match any offer. But, as we saw with Jeremy Lin, Peckovic could get a "poison pill"-offer, which would be too expensive for Minnesota. Getting out of Brandon Roys contract would be nice for Minny as well.
Edited by DanishLakerFan, January 20, 2013 - 01:55 AM.
