Draft Express has this to say on the subject:
At first I was thinking.."Awesome, a chance to get a couple expiring contracts and get rid of the massive contract."
The Indiana Pacers are trying to dangle the #11 pick in hopes of being able to package it with one of their ugly contracts (preferably Jermaine O’Neal). There is talk out of O’Neal’s camp that he anticipates being trade to Cleveland at some point this summer, possibly in a deal involving expiring contracts such as Wally Szczerbiak and Eric Snow.
The Pacers don’t want to give O’Neal away for nothing, but the temptation of shedding his 23 million dollar contract from their cap figure (giving them substantial cap space to work with in July of 2009) may be too great to pass up. On Cleveland’s end, it makes sense for their ownership to spend the money it will take to try and appease LeBron James and show them they are making the efforts to put together a championship caliber team. We’ve heard rumblings about this Cleveland/Indiana trade from a number of well-informed sources, so there appears to be at least some truth to it.
And then I re-read the first line. The Pacers are trying to dangle the #11 pick... There is no need to use the pick in this trade. That would be entirely defeating the purpose of trading JO. You can't get rid of him AND the pick. You get rid of him and ACQUIRE a pick. I think that JO for Wally, Snow, and the Cavs pick at #19 is quite fair.
Indiana could then take Augustin at 11 and take one of the several big men available at that point. OR, they could package them both and trade up, OR trade 19 and Jamal Tinsley for more picks. OR take the best available player at that pick and grab a big body with pick #41.
I'm also not too thrilled with JO being traded to a divisional opponent. Trade him out west!
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Comments
I disagree with JO not being worthy of a first round pick.
Kyle Korver and Kurt Thomas were both traded for first rounders!
Anthony Johnson has been traded for multiple second round picks.
I suppose your examples are valid.
All I know is that 41-42 million dollars over 2 years is a lot of money to pay for a guy who has missed time 4 years running.
That's a valid point and concern of any team that might be looking to acquire JO.
SI.com on truth and rumors reported that the Bulls may be looking to JO for Tyrus and a guard Hinrich or Gordon
I wouldn't mind that because we get younger in the paint and Hinrich is an upgrade at the PG
True. I just hope we wouldn't have to part with our first rounder in any trade that sends JO out of town.
This may be different now that Walsh is out of town but don't the Pacers have a history of trading their players as far away as possible so that they don't come back to haunt them?
Normally they do Wish. I was trying to think about some recent trades and the only ones that I can think of staying in the Eastern Conference are the the Al Harrington trade with the Hawks and the Ron Artest/Brad Miller trade with Chicago. Indiana gave up a first round pick for him and then turned around and traded him with Stephen Jackson to Golden State for Murphy, Dunleavy, and Diogu. So, our first round pick was gone and the team was crippled with bad contracts. Dunleavy has actually played very well in my opinion and Murphy has done OK. Diogu has been hurt a lot and when he is healthy, hasn't been in the rotation much.
I believe the Chicago trade involved Jalen Rose going to Chicago and Ron Artest and Brad Miller coming to Indiana. I'd have to look up who else was involved in that one.
JO shouldn't bring back a pick. I think you are looking too much at the player and not enough at the injuries and salary. Just my thoughts.
Maybe the Pacers could just try to attempt to get the Cavs to take on multiple horrible contracts for 08 or 09 expiring contracts...
I mean it really is possible for the Cavs to take on some horrible contracts like Murphy, Tinsley in the deal.