Trade advice needed

Could use some advice on a potential deal for my Knicks dynasty...

...I trade Jerome Moiso (PF) to Washington for Brendan Haywood (C).

Here's my team:

PG: Jason Williams (starter) (71 rank, 4 yrs. left, $6.88M)
PG: Moochie Norris (54 rank, 2 yrs. left, $3.85M)
SG: Kobe Bryant (starter) (94 rank, 7 yrs. left, $14.18M)
SG: Allan Houston (65 rank, 3 yrs. left, $17.53M)
SG: Penny Hardaway (60 rank, 1 yr. left, $14.63M)
SF: Gerald Wallace (starter) (62 rank, 1 yr. left, $1.38M)
SF: Trevor Ariza (46 rank, 1 yr. left, $385K)
SF: Kyle Korver (50 rank, 1 yr. left, $620K)
PF: Emeka Okafor (starter) (70 rank, 4 yrs. left, $3.74M)
PF: Mike Sweetney (59 rank, 3 yrs. left, $1.98M)
PF: Jerome Moiso (57 rank, 6 yrs. left, $2.10M)
C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas (starter) (69 rank, 1 yr. left, $14.63M)
C: Chris Mihm (54 rank, 3 yrs. left, $3.38M)
C: Nazr Mohammed (53 rank, 2 yrs. left, $5.25M)

What I am working on is bringing my cap down while keeping a quality team...I am trying to lose my older players and expensive contracts for younger talent with long-term cheaper contracts. Okafor is a great example.

Anyway, my key targets are to get a young center who can replace Ilgauskas if I choose not to re-sign him, a young SG to replace Hardaway when I don't re-sign him (and replace Houston too if I can lose him), and a young PG to replace Norris.

Haywood is a good young center who can defend well. He and Mihm would form a nice pair for me. But while he is at $1.74M, he is in his last year of his contract and may demand a lot more next year, which would hurt my cap attempts. Moiso is locked in at $2.10M for 6 years and can still be developed.

Here's the key stats:

Moiso: 26 yrs. old, 6'10", 57 rank, 56 FG, 2 3P, 66 FT, 68 dunk, 54 Ins Scor., 72 O-Reb, 50 jump, 52 strength, 56 Quick, 51 Speed, 17 pass, 42 dribble, 61 O-Awar., 83 D-Reb, 54 steal, 84 block, 51 D-Awar., 33 Stam., 65 Hard.

Haywood: 25 yrs. old, 7'0", 59 rank, 46 FG, 0 3P, 59 FT, 59 dunk, 73 Ins Scor., 84 O-Reb, 53 Jump, 80 Strength, 41 Quick, 52 Speed, 14 pass, 33 dribble, 69 O-Awar., 71 D-Reb, 40 steal, 84 block, 58 D-Awar., 49 stam., 72 hard.

So Moiso has the long-term contract, is a better shooter, dunker, dribbler, defensive rebounder and is quicker and faster. But Haywood is slightly ranked higher, is much stronger, can score inside better, is a better offensive rebounder and is sturdier. Both block equally well. Haywood would give me youth at C, but Moiso helps give me PF depth.

Any thoughts?

There probably wouldn't be any disadvantage in keeping Moiso and trying to develop him and his contract isn't too bad. Moiso can probably fill in at centre as well if need be which is something else you have to consider. That said, I can't imagine Haywood would demand a huge contract at 59 overall so it's probably not that big a risk.

Thanks, Andrew. I am also tempted to keep Moiso now that I've thought about it. He's 6'10", which is the same size as Mohammed and many other centers (although 7"0"+ would be even better), and he's faster than most centers. That could work out well. I think that unless I am bowled over by opportunity, I may now stand pat until the offseason...I'll just add Bryce Drew to be my 3rd PG and to fill my last roster space.

If you're looking to get under the cap you're probably going to have to let Penny and Ilgauskas go, and try to trade Allan Houston for an expiring contract. How much cap space do the Bobcats have? If you're willing to cut Houston loose for expiring contracts you might be able to dump him on Charlotte and then let those players come off the books at the end of the season.

Already with you on those thoughts, Andrew.

I already plan on not re-signing Penny. That will save $14.63M.

Houston is a tough contract to lose, being that it's so expensive. I would need to swap for an expiring contract that is at least $13.824M to make it happen. To match a team that wants Houston and has an expiring contract over $13.824M that is also not much higher ranked than Houston's 65 is not an easy task. Plus, I'd at least want to have a young SG to back up Kobe, as losing Houston and Hardaway would leave me with no backup (although I could use Korver at SG). Portland is the closest fit, with Van Exel being a 64 rank and a contract at $11.82M, but I'd need to add another player to get Portland's side up enough dollar-wise, and they reject me on that despite needing an SG. I've been rejected for Van Horn and Grant Hill (both at 68 rank). I could try Philly (G. Robinson), but they have Iverson at SG.

Ilgauskas is a tough one too. He's 29 and has a few more years of top C play...he's exactly the type of center I like to play the game with. I can likely re-sign him (I've read some in Live 2005 re-signing him to about $11-12M rather than his current $14.63M). My thought, though, is that if I could trade him to a team that has an expiring contract close to Ilgauskas' and get a young center with future promise, that would be worth it. That has not been easy...teams are zealously keeping their hands on their young centers. I've tried for longer contracted C's like Harrison (IND), Kaman (LAC), Gadzuric (MIL), and Swift (SEA) as well as for C's with 1 year contracts who would sign for less than Ilgauskas (Diop from CLEV, Dalembert from PHIL, Hunter from PHO, Haywood and Ramos from WASH). I can get Haywood for Moiso, but Moiso works just fine with similar stats. In the end, I hate to just dump Ilgauskas because he's so useful...but I have few other options right now.

As for Charlotte, I've already tapped them out. Charlotte started out with a ton of cap room and now only are $2.86M below the cap. In 2 separate trades, I've given them Kurt Thomas ($5.89M), Shandon Anderson ($7.30M) and Jerome Williams ($5.60M) in exchange for Gerald Wallace ($1.38M) and Emeka Okafor ($3.74M). So they've assumed $13.67M from me. Then they also picked up Mourning for $5.84M and maybe another free agent. So there's a little room to still deal with them, but not for Houston or Ilgauskas. What's interesting is that Atlanta actually has the most cacp room now ($3.60M under the cap) and 3 roster spots, but I cannot get a deal done with them.I am focusing on Childress and Josh Smith, of course, but financially, I cannot find a deal that they will accept.

I likely will not get under the cap this year, so in free agency at the end of the year, I will only be able to offer contracts to new free agents who come cheap and hope their current teams do not offer more...very unlikely. But some possibilities include: House (CHA-$825K), Brevin Knight (CHA-$932K), Kapono (CHA-$620K), Chalmers (LAC-$385K), Simmons (LAC-$720K), Barnes ($695K), N'Daiye (LAC-$745K), Pachulia (MIL-$620K), Gadzuric (MIL-$695K), Santiago (MIL-$720K), Z.Hamilton (MIL-$720K), McCoy (MIL-$870K), Vaughn (NJ-$932k), Haslem (now NJ-$620K), Stevenson (ORL-$1M), K.Clark (PHO-$870K), Hunter (PHO-$720K), Murray (SEA-$695K), Evans (SEA-$880K), Glover (TOR-$808K), Lopez (UTAH-$997K), Bell (UTAH-$825K), and Blake (WASH-$620K). Maybe I can nab one or two to enable me to part with Ilgauskas or Houston easier.

Thanks for the back and forth on this, by the way...this Dynasty section of Live 2005 has been real quiet lately. It's a good site, so it's nice to have the activity.

You're welcome, glad to offer advice wherever I can.

That's a shame about Charlotte, trading with them is a great shortcut when it comes to clearing cap space as I'm sure you've already found out. Houston's contract may be one that you'll have to let expire on its own, though I'd keep working to try and find a deal that will land you some expiring contracts before then.

Well, as the CPU is rejecting every trade right now, regardless of how good a deal it is, I am assuming the CPU feels I've done enough trades for this season. So you are right that I may have to play it out for a bit with what I have, including Houston. I may have been trying to accomplish too much too soon by trying to fix teh Knicks' cap issues in 1 year. I'll have to be a bit more patient.

It will be interesting to see if Charlotte's cap room expands once again after the season. Mourning is on Charlotte's payroll only for this year right now, so if they don't re-sign him, that will free up space. But on the flip side, they have so many expiring contracts that I imagine they will have to pay up a bit to keep enough players to field a team.

the CPU is rejecting every trade right now

I hate that. I don;t know if it's just Live 05 but the computer is incredibly stupid when it comes to trades. Sure, the computer will take most trades, but as soon as it involves a draft pick they will amost always reject it. I remember trying to trade Gasol and a few other good players on the Memphis roster for some overpaid slouches and filler + a first round pick, and the computer rejected it. The team I tried trading to (can't remember who) was only looking a mid-late first round pick anyway, considering they had a pretty good record.

Something for EA to work on in 08.

The logic of trades involving draft picks does leave something to be desired. It's a little better in NBA Live 07, if you offer a deal too good to refuse the CPU seems to accept it a little more than in NBA Live 2004-06 but it's still more difficult than it should be, particularly if you're dealing what should be late first round picks or second round picks. After all, how many times do we see a random scrub or even a decent player who's fallen out of the rotation get traded for a second round pick?

Unlike in NBA 2K5 where you could get Garnett for a first-rounder and a role player

Actually changed my mind regarding Moiso vs. Haywood...I am leaning towards doing the deal now. I finally started getting around to trying more realistic sliders and, with the reduced game speed, it seems like stronger big men are more important than faster ones...and despite what women like us to believe, size does matter too (height, that is...LOL).

Moiso is a good shooter, is a decent dunker, has better speed and quickness, is a better defensive rebounder, and has the same blocks rating as Haywood. But Haywood is taller (7'0" vs. 6'10" for Moiso), stronger (80 vs. 52 for Moiso), a better inside scorer (73 vs. 54 for Moiso), a better offensive rebounder (84 vs. 72 for Moiso), and has better stamina (49 vs. 32 for Moiso) and hardiness (72 vs. 65 for Moiso). I think Haywood's strength, height, hardiness and other stats lend him to be a better big man for realistic sliders than Moiso can be. I know I was playing vs. Charlotte with realistic sliders and Mourning was going to school on Moiso because Moiso didn't have the strength or size to stop Mourning in the post.

Hopefully, when Haywood's contract expires at year-end, he will not ask for too much more than he currently makes.

May 30th edit: So the Moiso for Haywood trade went through. Hopefully I can re-sign Haywood after the season for not much more than Moiso currently goes for. This does set me up nicely to reduce my cap, as now I am free to not only let Hardaway walk after his contract expires this season, but I can do the same for Ilgauskas. That would save me over $29M on the cap...and I would still have a center group of Haywood, Mihm and Mohammed. Haywood and Mihm are a nice pair of young 7-footers with some strength in the post.

The tough part is that I like playing Ilgauskas. He's only 29, so he has a few more good years left, and he's equally forceful on offense as he is on defense. He's one of the better all-around centers in the game. Frankly, I'd keep him, except that he's too expensive for cap purposes. So I could re-sign him for another year or so and forget about my cap issues, or I can stick with my newfound center pair and let Ilgauskas go to save on the cap. I think I'll go with the cap save in the end (especially as that is what I am setting my lineup up for), but I hate losing Ilgauskas.

Hey, are you trying to make realistic trades?

If not, seeing that you are a bit short on the SF side, you can do these things:
1. Trade for Igoudala
2. Trade for a young, cheap, low 50s shooting guard (maybe Nachbar from Houston?)
3. Sign free agent C. Alexander
4. Then flip them all for a 3 for 1 trade to Denver for Melo!

Works for me every time...

Last edited by JT_55 on Thu May 31, 2007 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

The tough part is that I like playing Ilgauskas. He's only 29, so he has a few more good years left, and he's equally forceful on offense as he is on defense. He's one of the better all-around centers in the game. Frankly, I'd keep him, except that he's too expensive for cap purposes. So I could re-sign him for another year or so and forget about my cap issues, or I can stick with my newfound center pair and let Ilgauskas go to save on the cap. I think I'll go with the cap save in the end (especially as that is what I am setting my lineup up for), but I hate losing Ilgauskas.

I'd wait and see what he's asking for in the offseason. If it's reasonable then you might be able to keep him while saving a little bit of cap space.

Andrew, I'll likely see if there are any good trade opportunities for Ilgauskas where I get a young talent with a good contract. But with 1 week remaining to the trade deadline, I'll likely end up doing exactly what you say. But I still have around $45M+ to cut off the cap to break even, so maybe losing his contract will be worth it. We'll see. It won't be the worst thing to have him signed to another short-term deal and then see what trade opportunities arise in the offseason or next year after all other teams make their moves.

JT, while some have focused on realistic vs. unrealistic trades, I am just focused on making deals that the CPU accepts that gets me young talent hopefully with long-term cheap contracts. Some end up realistic and others less so. You had a good trade concept there, but unfortunately, it won't work for me. As I am doing a Knicks dynasty, my players have tended to be too low ranked and expensive to be able to maneuver a deal for a favorable contract like Iguadala's (4 yrs., $1.91M). Plus I already had brought Alexander on board and then subsequently used him in a deal for Mihm. Anyway, did you notice that Live '05 has given Iguadala worse abilities than he has in the real NBA? Not sure why.

You are right about my wanting to focus a bit on SF's. I have some talent there, but they're all on 1 year deals, expiring this offseason. Gerald Wallace is a keeper, so I hope to sign him to a reasonable long-term contract. I have developed Ariza nicely, so he has some value...but I have had him on IR since I switched to more realistic sliders, so I don't know if he will be as useful with tougher sliders. Korver is a great 3-point threat who I can use at either SF or SG...hopefully, he won't ask for too much more than his current $620k contract. I've tried to target some young SF's with cheap long-term contracts, but trading with my players has been tough. Josh Smith, Deng, Nocioni and Marquis Daniels are the best choices, as most other SF's in Live '05 are operating under 1 yr. contracts or have pricier long-term contracts. But I've had no luck getting those SF's. I may have a better shot after teams re-sign their SF's to new deals in the offseason.

Edit (1 hour later): Could use your advice. The only deal that seems to be doable if I was to consider moving Ilgauskas now is with Portland. I could get Van Exel's expiring contract plus another player for Ilgauskas and Bryce Drew. The best options for the extra player seem to be either Pryzbilla (C) or Travis Outlaw (SF). Pryzbilla is also on an expiring contract, but at $745k presently, he likely will not go for that much more if I re-sign him. He's a bit fragile, but his rebounding and blocks are key and he is 7'1". Outlaw is on a 3 year contract at $843k, has great dunk and jumping ability and is relatively fast. My semi-strong leaning is that these deals are not worth it...I should keep Ilgauskas for now and either re-sign him to a favorable deal or see about better trades later. Do you all agree this is the best strategy? Thanks.

There's some merit to doing those deals, they'd definitely help in cutting costs but from a personnel standpoint you'd be better off keeping Z. I suppose it comes down to whether you want to take advantage of the cap relief and would be comfortable with letting him walk for nothing if it comes to that, or if you'd like to get something for him now that will prove to be a cheaper option should you choose to keep those players.

Yup...I think we are of similar mindset. I lean more towards keeping Z for now. If I could get more than Outlaw or Pryzbilla for my "keeper" portion of what I get in the deal, it would be worth considering. But neither Outlaw or Pryzbilla is worth parting with Z right now.

June 1 edit: Just snuck one more deal in prior to trading deadline...a real sweet one, at least for me. Atlanta is under the cap and had 3 roster spots open. With the 34 year old Kenny Anderson in his last year of his contract and with the 31 year old Delk as the only other PG on the roster, I took the shot that Atlanta would like to add PG's. I traded Trevor Ariza (who I trained nicely, but who I was unsure would be able to perform well enough with tougher sliders) and Bryce Drew (who was doing real well for me with the tougher sliders and who was getting PT with Jason Williams hurting) for Josh Smith. This gave me the perfect SF...19 years old, with a 4 year, $1.27M contract, who is fast and who can seriously take the ball to the hoop. With Kobe at SG and Gerald Wallace at SF, I can now keep using Korver as an SG/SF (letting Hardaway go at the end of this year) and have Josh Smith as my backup SF who will only improve as I train him. I then picked up Tierre Brown (25 year old PG) to be my 3rd PG...I am hoping he will perform as well as Drew did, as J-Will is still hurting.

My team now looks like this at the trade deadline:

PG: Jason Williams (starter), Moochie Norris, Tierre Brown
SG: Kobe (starter), Houston, Penny Hardaway
SF: Gerald Wallace (starter), Korver, Josh Smith
PF: Okafor (starter), Sweetney
C: Ilgauskas (starter), Mihm, Haywood, Mohammed

I am pretty happy with this.

Nice work, quite a bargain there. I'd expect Josh Smith will develop nicely, in the default NBA Live 2005 rosters his DESTINY attribute is set to 2 which is the second highest value in that field.

Thanks Andrew. The only crazy thing about Josh Smith in Live '05 is that he has a 5 rating for blocks, which is so far askew from what he does in real life block-wise. I believe there is a patch for that though.

Where does one find destiny attributes in Live '05, and what is the meaning of that attribute?

Great trade you made there against Atlanta. Getting Josh Smith certainly made your team better.

Anyway, I'm curious about your record. How is the team doing right now?

Edit: I just realized that in my last post, I forgot to tell you HOW to get Iguodala. Now I feel like a complete idiot. I know a way to pull off the Carmelo Anthony trade using your personnel but its too late anyway and it requires sacrificing Haywood and Mike Sweeney.

Oh well...

Last edited by JT_55 on Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks Andrew. The only crazy thing about Josh Smith in Live '05 is that he has a 5 rating for blocks, which is so far askew from what he does in real life block-wise. I believe there is a patch for that though.

Where does one find destiny attributes in Live '05, and what is the meaning of that attribute?

That shows how long it's been since I worked on the NBA Live 2005 rosters, I'd forgotten his block rating was that low out of the box.

The Destiny attribute is a hidden value inside players.dbf which basically controls a player's development potential and the likelihood of him becoming a star player. In earlier Live titles the field was called CAREERPKG (Career Package) though its function was the same.

Thanks, Andrew. I appreciate the info.

No worries, JT. I don't know that the CPU would allow me to get Iguadala after the deals I pulled off. Thanks for the compliment regarding the Smith deal, by the way...I was happy with that one. I've played 2 games with him and Haywood so far. Smith has been everything I hoped he'd be. Haywood has been decent defensively and hit or miss offensively. I think I need to work on his and Mihm's FG accuracy.

As for my record, I'd prefer to focus on my games after my recent switch to more realistic drivers, as the earlier part of the season was way to askew with default drivers...way to easy for me, being able to score 130+ points each game and have my PG's steal like bandits. The early part of the season did help me get used to playing the game, though, as it is my first go-round with NBA Live.

After changing my sliders, I had the All-Star Game weekend, then 2 games....at Detroit and home vs. Philly. The Detroit game was a close one and went back and forth with large point swings throughout the game. I ended up with 2 late steals to win 110-108 in the end. Great game! My big men were nimble enough to be able to draw fouls early on Ben Wallace, so I nullified his defense relatively early. But with Coleman and Campbell (both pretty strong), it was a game won by my SF's and SG's. Gerald Wallace, Josh Smith and Kobe had big games. Hamilton was too quick, though, for Houston, and he and Prince double teamed Houston every time he tried a 3, so Houston was blocked way too often and ended up missing all but 1 3-pointer. As Jason Williams was still hurt, I put him on IR this game and went with Norris as my starting PG with Tierre Brown as backup. They ran up the fouls relatively quick, so Hardaway was huge as my fill-in PG for spurts of time. He did real well. In the end, I was thrilled to come away with a victory on the road vs. a tough team while missing my starting PG and having my backup PG's on the bench for much of the game with fouls.

My home game against Philly was back and forth for the first half, then I ran away with it for a 129-100 win. My problem was Iverson. Bryant ran up a bunch of fouls early and had to hit the bench. With Iverson's height, I thought Houston could fill in nicely, but Houston's offense was iffy this game and he was not fast enough to keep up with Iverson...Iverson scored 45 this game. Jason Williams came back this game, so his defense (5 steals...I may need to adjust the steals slider again to make it tougher) helped a ton. But the game was won by my PF's. Dalembert kept my centers at modest scores, but Okafor and Sweetney both ran roughshod ober the Philly D. Some quick footwork by Wallace and Josh Smith against the relatively slow Glenn Robinson also helped.

So after 2 games with tougher sliders, I am 2-0, with a close match against a top Detroit team and an easier win against a much weaker Philly team. I have 2 more games in february, so we'll see how they go.

Guess you found the absurd amount of blocks on Houston frustating too, huh?

I was playing a game in a third year Dynasty today and I was using a game-generated rookie SG that shoots tons of 3s but he's just 6' 2". When playing against Kobe and Devean George, he got blocked more times than he got the ball off. I almost went crazy by halftime and subbed him out. But I got a fair amount of blocks my way too. If Yao didn't get into foul trouble, he'd have about 15-20 blocks. Maybe I should change my sliders...

Definitely frustrating. Houston is listed as 6'6" in the game. I think Hamilton is 6'7" and Prince is 6'9"...but with Prince's arms, he plays a lot taller than 6'9". So in theory, Hamilton and Prince should get a few blocks on Houston, but not on almost every shot. There were several wide open looks for Houston where all of the sudden, Prince and Hamilton swooped in like Superman and blocked the shot out of nowhere.

The interesting thing, as many have noted on this site, is that even with block sliders set to 0, you and the CPU will still get a ton of blocks. And you can't do anything more than set the sliders to 0.

In this case with Detroit, I ended up using Houston long enough to get a basket or two from him (so I could get my 250 dynasty points for having everyone score in the game) and then benched him as much as possible...I relied on Kobe and my SF's as much as I could to take the ball to the hoop or to take advantage of weaker Detroit defenders. I won the game, so it worked. But definitely frustrating to essentially have to IR an active player because he is completely nullified....and that's what effectively happened with Alan Houston against Detroit.

You know, a good way to remedy this situation is to try not only to target the young and cheap players but also the tallest players. Every time I start a Dynasty, I try to get the tallest guys in each position (Dwayne Wade, T-Mac, Kirilenko, Prince, Dirk, and Yao) and avoid smaller guys (Bosh, Speedy Claxton, TJ Ford, Haslem, etc.). Of course, some of the taller guys are star players so its harder to get them.

Its a shame about Houston, though. An uneffective player taking up 17+ million or so in cap space.

Other than the Detroit game, Houston usually comes through. But whether he performs or not, his $17.53M contract (for 3 more years) is too rich for this Knicks dynasty. I wasn't able to get any team to take him in a trade before the deadline, so I'll see what I can get during the offseason, especially if I can sign a good free agent SG like Kapono, Raja Bell, Ronald Murray, Glover or the like.

I agree with you about height...it is important. I've tried to focus on that as well as on youth and cheap contracts. It was one of the key reasons I wanted to move Haslem rather than develop him. Josh Smith was a good pickup along those lines...young, cheap and 6'9" (my other 2 SF's are 6'7", so 6'9" is nice). Getting Mihm and Haywood (both 7'0") to replace Baker (6'11") and hopefully Mohammed (6'10") was another attempt to get younger, cheaper and taller. My PF's are a bit small (6'8" for Sweetney and 6'10" for Okafor, but they both play much bigger, perhaps due to Okafor's strength, rebounds and blocks and Sweetney's rebounds and strength.

I'll try to address height as well in the offseason. I'm going to let Tierre Brown and Hardaway walk in the offseason and either let Ilgauskas walk or preferably re-sign him cheap and look to trade him. I will then have 3 spots to add free agents, focusing on PG, SG and C. There's a bunch of 7'+ centers available (Boumtje, N'Diaye, Hunter, Przybilla, Mbenga), and a few 6'8" SG's (Kapono, Slay). The PG's are all in the low 6' range, so no real tall PG's. If I want to add size at PF, I can try to sign Mikki Moore (7'0") or even Pachulia or Keon Clark (both 6'11")...but as I have Okafor and Sweetney signed for several years, I don't feel pressed to add another PF.

I had tried to nab some other taller players, but had no luck...maybe I can get them next year. Jaric (6'5") could be a good add at PG. I looked at Childress (6'8"), Welsch (6'7"), Kapono (6'8"), Nachbar (6'9"), Stephen Jackson (6'8"), Battier (6'8") and Mike Miller (6'8") at SG. I looked at McCarty (6'10"), Deng (6'8"), R.White (6'9"), Dunleavy (6'9"), Turkoglu (6'10") and Jeffries (6'11") at SF. I looked at Chandler (7'0"), Milicic (7'0") and Gasol (7'0") at PF...I had Krstic (7'0"), but he played too small and he was better as trade bait. And I looked at Diop (7'0"), Boumtje (7'0"), Elson (7'0"), Harrison (7'0"), Kaman (7'0"), N'Daiye (7'0"), Hunter (7'0"), Przybilla (7'1"), Swift (7'0"), Podkolzin (7'5"), and Ramos (7'3") at center. Some of these guys will be good targets in the offseason and next year prior to the trading deadline.