I have mostly stayed out of the trade prognostication business because it is so frustrating and difficult to put together something both realistic and useful. It certainly gives me a greater appreciation of what Larry is going through. But with the yesterday's news the Luke Ridnour had signed a 4-yr. deal with Minnesota and the Charlotte-Toronto trade falling through then re-manifesting with Dallas, a kernel of an idea started to emerge.

The addition of Ridnour would seem to make one of Minnesota's other point guards expendable. I am assuming it would be Sessions, since Flynn was such a high draft pick, but who knows. (The nice thing is that their salaries are so similar that this trade would work with either Flynn or Sessions plugged in.) Charlotte had a deal in place to acquire Jose Calderon from Toronto, a deal which fell through and was later replaced with a deal sending Tyson Chandler to Dallas for Erick Dampier. The key here from Charlotte's perspective is that Dampier's contract is not guaranteed, therefore he can be cut immediately, freeing them from the cap hit for this season. So with Minnesota looking to deal and Charlotte still needing help at point guard and upfront, here is my idea.

Indiana Receives:

Ramon Sessions
Erick Dampier

Minnesota Receives:

Solomon Jones
Gerald Henderson
A Future 2nd Rounder from Indiana

Charlotte Receives:

T.J. Ford
Jeff Foster

Indiana gets a starting point guard in Sessions. They can also cut Dampier right away saving themselves 13 mil. Moving Foster would be tough, but him an Jones leaving frees up a lot more frontcourt minutes for Hansbrough/McRoberts/Rolle. In addition the team would pick up two empty roster spots which could be used on some of our promising summer league players like Hendrix, Heurtel or Marcus Williams.

Charlotte gets a point guard to either start in front of or back up D.J. Augustin. I am not sure how much they really like Ford but there were rumors of him moving their close to the trade deadline. In addition they get another tough, defensive big in Foster who can soak up some of the departed Tyson Chandler's minutes. Foster also played for Larry Brownin Indiana, and seems like his type of player. I think Charlotte was really looking to save money by getting Dampier and then cutting him. This would require them to pay out that money for this season, but both Foster and Ford expire at the end of this season.

Minnesota is the hardest part of this trade to project. There is not a whole lot here to get them excited, but not many of their recent moves have made more sense than this. They pick up an extra draft pick. They get a raw young big who can play some minutes at center behind Darko. They also get another young athletic wing in Henderson. Wesley Johnson, Corey Brewerand Martell Websterare all natural small forwards who will try to squeeze in at shooting guard. Henderson would give them a legit 2-guard on the roster. In addition both Jones and Henderson's contracts expire at the end of this season meaning Minnesota gets to unload Sessions' salary without being stuck with anything long term.

I know this isn't as sexy as some of the other trade proposals on here, but it seems a lot more reasonable to me than a lot of the other scenarios.