New trade possibility

They have Dorrell Wright, who can play the 2. Between the 11 and 15 they ought to get a guy like Chris Singleton who can step in at 3. We could offer Posey, Rush and teh #15 for Ellis and Biedrins and give them an immediate savings in the $10-$11 million range, plus all of Biedrins/Ellis’s remaining millions and years. I still don’t know if Ellis co-exists with Collison in the same backcourt and it probably forces George back to the bench, which I don’t like. But acquiring a scorer of Ellis’s caliber would make it easier to stomach trading Danny for a PF upgrade or for Kanter.

Let’s assume we could do my deal to bring in Ellis. Then there are two Danny deals I think make sense:

1. This is the “win now” model. Trade Danny for Al Jefferson straight up, or Danny for Millsap, Hayward and the #12. Either way, I doubt they’re getting better offers for Jefferson or Millsap and either way we get a post upgrade.

2. This is the “build for the future” model. Trade Danny for Okur, Hayward and the #3 OR Okur, Bell and both picks (#3 and #12). We could then take Kanter at the #3 and have a guy who has a chance of being as good as Al Jefferson for much cheaper. Or with the second deal we get another pick (a shot at Jimmer?) for the cost of taking on Bell’s crappy contract.

Can Ellis defend NBA 3s and 4s? No? Didn’t think so.

Granger allowed a 15.2 PER against SFs and an 18.3 PER against PFs. Ellis was eaten alive by his counterparts, allowing a 17.1 against PGs, an 18.4 against SGs and a 21.8 against SFs.

In fact, they’re very similar statistically, each sharing 9 “wins” in a statistical comparison, and three of Ellis’s “wins” were the ones that don’t matter (mpg, fouls pg and games played…he got Danny by 1 this year).

There doesn’t seem to be any evidence that these two players’ values on the open market shouldn’t be similar. They’re paid similarly. Their teams are similarly bad (though it can be argued that Indiana achieved more with less). They are statistically equal, though not identical. As far as your “getting to the rim,” you don’t even have a statistical leg to stand on for that claim. Danny shot 0.5 more FTs per game last year than Ellis.

Danny isn’t an elite defender by any means but he is a very solid one. Not to mention he is a pretty good rebounder at the three position. Ellis is a brutal defender and extremely undersized. No question he is a better scorer but he is not a better basketball player. I love him next to Granger and George, but not in place of one of them.

i don’t see ekpe udoh ever becoming a good starter. he’s good on D, but not much else. and i really really really don’t want to trade danny AND our first round pick for ellis. he’s overrated. he would not be putting up 25 a game for a championship contender.

I would like to respectfully say I wouldn’t…. Biedrins contract is aaaawwwwfuuuuulllllll.I would do James Posey, Brandon Rush, and the 15th pick

I’m sort of sick of everyone evaluating imaginary trades and things that won’t and probably shouldn’t happen by saying Player A has a “lack of thug-ness” or you can’t teach modesty or any other factor that has nothing to do with on court play. KG is probably the least modest player in the league (with the chest thumping, screaming, and trash talking) and I would have been pumped to get him a few years ago. If you recall, Reggie was sort of a dick, but that made him great. He would grab his crotch and throw up the choke sign and we ate it up. Why? Mostly because he was good. I realize that there is a difference between Artest charging into the crowd and Reggie pissing off everyone at MSG (a huge difference, mind you) but can we PLEASE stop analyzing fake trades by looking at someone’s supposed “thug-ness.”