It seems to me that Seattle is in a period of transition. They are not going to make the playoffs in the stacked WC this year. If there are indeed planning on "taking a year off" and letting their young guys (Swift, Collison, and Ridnour) develop, perhhaps we could turn MoT and 2 expiring contracts into something of value for us. I know this trade would be highly in our favor, but I wonder if we could package MoT with Weatherspoon and JJ to Seattle for Lewis, Booth, and Daniels. I would also throw in a future 1st. I have read that Seattle has tried to move Lewis in the past due to buyers remorse over his rather large contract, and I personally would love to seem him in Rocket red (It just seems right) I KNOW that they DO NOT want Booth. If I am reading realgm.com right then CW and JJ come off the books after this season giving Seattle alot of cap room. If I remember correctly, they tried to obtain MoT the year we signed him, so they must have some interest in him, plus his contract only has 2 years left on it. MoT would give them an inside scorer and allow them to move VR to the 3 where he seems better suited to play. They could also send Allen to a contender for some younger players and picks. This is essentially what Denver did a few years ago. They packeged their assests with bad contracts creating cap space to sign Miller, Martin, and Camby. They had a bad season which gave them a high pick (Melo), and it all seems to have worked out very well for them. This would also seem to address our needs, and we would still have the TE and MLE to add any addititonal players. I would also gladly swap the TE for any of our players to make this deal work. Perhaps MoT and CW for RL and CB then trading for AD using the TE, or trading MoT for RL straight up then swaping the TE for Booth might work for them. I would also have no aversion to adding picks to any of the above to help facilitate a deal.
I think you are confusing the Seattle Supersonics with the Seattle Mariners. Seattle is not going to tear away Lewis and Ray Allen.
I am pretty sure that Lewis name was mentioned in trade talks last year (I wish I could remember for whom but I can't - sucks getting old), and I know Allens name has been mentioned several times this year. Allen is brittle, and they have Murray who has shown that he can definitely score. Mybe the Sonics could move Allen to Por for SAR, in fact I think is one of the rumors I have heard.
Alen is brittle and T-Mac has a bad back. You still don't trade away one of the best Guards in the game, especially for nothing in return. What's an expiring contract worth? The answer is nothing unless you have someone to spend it on that's worthwhile. So the real question is who would the Sonics be gunning after by clearing all this cap space? And would that person be a better player than Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis?
Well according to CD and co, an expiring contract is worth a negative first round pick. So good luck with all of that junk.
