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To recap players still under contract, but not included under the salary cap I have posted are: Kelenna Azubuike, Roddy Beaubois, Vince Carter, Brendan Haywood, Dominique Jones, Shawn Marion, Drew Neitzel, Lamar Odom, Jerome Randle, Andy Rautins, Delonte West, and Brandan Wright.
Players in the new salary cap are: Kendall Marshall, Daniel Orton, Deron Willams, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Ian Mahinmi, Brandon Bass (welcome back), DJ Augustin, Mickael Pietrus, J.R. Smith, and JaVale McGee. 21 players on the roster, and were not done yet. Its all about to make sense.
3. Now to trading. Despite a rocky year, Roddy Beaubois is still a hot commodity that teams would die to have. Hes fast, smart, and can be aggressive while slashing. With an addition of J.R. Smith, though, Roddy becomes trade bait. From where I sit, you have two choices (which goes back to my earlier point) 1. Trade Lamar Odom back to L.A., in exchange for Pau Gasol and fillers or 2. Trade with New York who is desperate to get Amare Stoudemire out. And here is how each one would play out:
a. L.A. traded Lamar because he was unhappy with being traded away. Bridges were burned, but I don???t think L.A. is desperate enough to get rid of Pau to appease Lamar once more, which might be the cramp in the Pau to D chain.
b. New York is much more desperate to rid themselves of the 18 million dollar headache. I could see you trying to squeeze a few productive years out of Amare. I would propose Odom, Azubuike, Carter, and Haywood for Amare Stoudemire and three other minimum players to be waived ASAP. This is a legitimate offer, that provides New York with some short-term success (which always interests the Knicks), highlights Mike Woodsons offense with proven scorers in Vince Carter and Lamar Odom, gives Carmelo room to move inside the paint, and Tyson exceeds his totals last year with an unclogged paint. This also addresses the loss of J.R. Smith, which would open up a spot for Landry Fields or Toney Douglas. Haywood would likely be a Chandler/Jared Jeffries backup, making him the 8-10th man. And what does Dallas get? A scorer to lighten the load for Dirk, a potential five man who can bring in 8-10 rebounds every night, and a mobile player who can get out and run in the moderately fast-paced Maverick offense. This move would also put Dallas roughly 18 million over the cap. So to recap by my count, Dallas now has Beaubois, Jones, Marion, Neitzel, Randle, Rautins, West, and Wright as possible moving pieces. Kendall Marshall, Daniel Orton, Deron Willams, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Ian Mahinmi, Brandon Bass (welcome back), DJ Augustin, Mickael Pietrus, J.R. Smith, JaVale McGee, and Amare Stoudemire would round out players on the roster.
At this point, youve pretty much exhausted all options you could, short of releasing individuals. Here is a rundown of the roster at hand (starters listed first):
C- Amare Stoudemire, JaVale McGee, Daniel Orton
PF - Dirk Nowitzki, Brandon Bass, Ian Mahinmi
SF - J.R. Smith, Mickael Pietrus, Shawn Marion
SG ??? DJ Augustin, Roddy Beaubois, Dominique Jones
PG - Deron Willams, Jason Kidd, Delonte West
**Release Jerome Randle and Drew Neitzel
Brandan Wright and Kendall Marshall to the D-League ...