Ok, I'll admit, I started imbibing at halftime of our no-show tonight against the Heat. But earlier today, ESPN's Chad Ford said the ideal situation for the Suns when dealing with Nash (as he will most likely leave next year) is to trade him to Indiana for Darren Collison. Now obviously, this would have to be a deal where Nash gets extended (or agrees to an extension) prior to the trade. I personally would love this deal. Although Nash is older, he's a clear upgrade over Collison (neither plays any D, but Nash is better shooter/passer/penetrator/winner of MVPs). Unless the Pacers are absolutely dead set on DC as PG of the future, they would have to consider it. Part I of this plan: Convince Nash to resign here for two more years and trade DC for him straight up. Nash resigning isn't totally far fetched. He's Canadian (I'll assume that cold doesn't bother him) and Phoenix isn't a large market either. Do this immediately.

Part II of the Plan: Because of NBA trade rules, the Hornets are over the cap and acquired Eric Gordon, so they can't trade him with additional players until mid-February. Thus, we wait until mid-February (possibly over All-Star weekend) and we propose the following: Danny Granger, Lou Amundson, and 2012 First Rounder for Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman. Why NOLA does it: They get hometown guy DG (and really, a top 30 player), Amundson is gone after this year, they get another first in a stacked draft, and most importantly, they don't lose Gordon for nothing after this season. Why IND does it: they get a coveted scorer in Gordon (and a hometown guy for IU/Indy ticket buyers) who is probably a top 5 SG in the league and upgrade our frontcourt depth in the short term (and he's expiring in the long term).

Now, I'll admit, this doesn't give us much time to gel as a team, especially with this schedule. But it seems like our offense right now is based on pointlessly driving to the basket, and I'd rather have Nash driving and kicking it out to Granger (until all-star break and who's real strength isn't creating, its catching and shooting), George (who's killing it from 3 this season) and West (who's one of the best spot up shooters at PF). Plus, we solve our crunchtime problem by calling pick-and-roll with Nash and West over and over again (at least until we get Gordon, who also can create on offense).

So we have this until the All-Star break:

Nash, George, Granger, West, Hibbert with Hill, Jones, Hansbrough, Lance, Lou, and Foster off the bench.

After the break: Nash, Gordon, George, West, Hibbert with Hill, Jones, Hans, Lance, Kaman, and Foster off the bench.

This lineup is scary good and scary deep. This only really makes us a little weaker on D, but we can score with anyone with this lineup. Nash is playing with a pretty terrible cast with the Suns, but he's still got it. And the addition of Kaman to back Hibbert up (and adding Foster) we have the front court depth to battle the Bulls.

Future: We extend Nash for two years before the trade for DC (lets assume at $11 M per year, which is what he's making now; we might even get a discount, again he's older). We have a decision to make next year on Hill, but the market will determine that. If he's reasonable, we match offers. If not we let him go. Some think Hill's not looking good at PG anyway. No matter who is here, we have Nash to tutor Lance/Hill so Point Guard spot is locked up. Next year West comes back (PF locked up for at least a year). George is locked in at SF. After these deals, in this season, we give up $16.3 M and get back $29.3 M. So, we'd still have roughly 7 million in cap room in this season. At the end of the year, we have two main guys to resign: Hibbert and Gordon. But here's the beautiful thing: Kaman and his $13.8M come off the books. That gives us almost $21 Million extra to resign Gordon, Hibbert, and Hill. We give $7M of that to Roy (now at $10M per), $10M to Gordon (to $14 M per), and $4M to Hill (to $5.5M per; if we think he's worth that). We replace Foster (who probably retires) and Kaman (who we don't resign) with cheap bigs.

So in 2012-13 we have this:
Nash (2 years), Gordon (4 years), George (2 years; use Nash's money after to resign him in 2014-15 then have Hill/Lance at PG but that's years away), West (1 year), Hibbert (4 years). That's a dangerous team with hope for the future. The only possible downside is resigning Hans, but we could (if we were so inclined) give West's money, or some of it, to him after 12-13.

Thoughts?

I posted a Fan Shot a couple weeks ago, so sorry for the duplication; I don't feel that the Fan Shots get as much attention.  Can anyone tell me what the season ticket holder party will be like on Monday?  I am trying to build an autograph collection that will become a home bar and was wondering how many/accessable the Pacer players are during this party.  Thanks for any input and sorry for clogging the Posts if no one has any info.

A special thanks to IndyPacers, whose three teamer in the other fanpost got we thinking of this possible four team trade.  This probably won't happen (too many moving parts) but I'm sick of waiting for the trade deadline and have decided to post my idea/insanity.

Teams involved: Pacers, Cavs, Nuggets, Warriors

Cavs get Troy Murphy (11 mil-2 years), Speedy Claxton (5.2 mil-1 year), Joey Graham (825K-1 year)

Warriors get Dunlevey (9.7 mil-2 years), J.J. Hickson (1.4 mil-2 yrs), Renaldo Balkman (2.1mil-4yrs), Anthony Carter (825K-1 yr)

Nuggets get Jeff Foster (6 mil-2yrs), A.J. Price (457K--3yrs)

Pacers get Big Z (11 Mil-1 yr), Ty Lawson (1.4 Mil-2 yrs), Anthony Randolph (1.8 Mil-2 yrs), Corey Maggette (8.9 mil-4 yrs)

Why it could possibly work:

Cavs get Murphy (who they covet to space the floor for LBJ) along with an additional 6 million in expiring deals for the cap next year (and these guys can be cut to make roster room for re-acquisition of Big Z).  They only give up Z, and Hickson, who was rumored to come to Indy with Z for Murphy anyway, and pick up more cap room for next offseason.  They would resign Z after the Pacers cut him.

Warriors are despirate to get rid of Maggette's contract, which is admittedly horrible, and Nelly doesn't like Randolph.  Also, Randolph's injury is probably going to knock him out for the rest of the season, which makes trading him much harder than it would have been last week.  They get Dunleavy, who can take Maggette's minutes, and his contract, while being just as big, is 2 yrs shorter.  They also pick up Hickson, who is a quality young big.  Balkman's contract isn't great but its manageable and Carter is just a salary equalizer who can be cut.  Admittedly, this doesn't look really appealing from the Warriors point of view and doesn't really make sense, but then again many moves by the Warriors haven't made much sense over the years.

Nuggets get Foster (who they covet), and A.J. Price, who can back up Billups and is very inexpensive for the next 3 yrs.  Also, they can resign Joey Graham after the Cavs cut him if they choose.  Giving up Lawson would be tough, but they want Foster and Price seems like he can play from the chances that we have been giving him.

Now the real team of interest: the Pacers.  We would get Big Z (and immediately cut him, to be re-acquired by Cavs), Ty Lawson, Anthony Randolph, and Corey Maggette.  We get the 11 mil in cap room next season and two good young players in Lawson and Randolph.  I understand that Randolph will be out for the year, most likely, but the guy is extremely athletic and really just needs a chance to get out of Nelly-ville.  I really think this guy can be a dominant, athletic big man, and gives us the athletic PF that Hibbert needs for defensive purposes.  We also get the PG of the future in Ty Lawson.  He's playing so well already that I can't see the Nuggets getting rid of him, but they want Foster and A.J. Price (while not as good as Lawson) does give them a young PG to work with.  It would suck to take back Maggette's terrible, horrible, awful, insert synonym for those words here contract, but when you look at it, Maggette's really not that bad.  The main thing about this deal is the constant truth that big name free agents don't come here.  So taking back this bad contract is worth it to get two quality building blocks, as cap space really doesn't matter a whole lot because we would end up spending too much for too little (see O'Neal, Jermaine).

The Pacers then go to war with this:
PG-Lawson/Watson; SG--Rush/D. Jones/Maggette; SF--Granger/Maggette; PF--Hansbrough/McBob (with Randolph coming next season); C--Hibbert/Solo Jones.  This team will be bad.  Top 5 pick bad.  But they will get a little playing time together and will develop together for the rest of the year.

Next season: Lawson, Granger, Randolph, Hibbert, Hansbrough, Top 5 Lottery Pick, and Rush.  That's a decent core going forward.  I know its crazy, especially for the Warriors, but its not really crazy.  Let the ripping commence! 

This is a funny story that I thought you guys (and gals) would enjoy.

I went on a job interview in Indianapolis this afternoon.  I just graduated from law school and passed the Bar exam so I have gotten kinda used to the interviewing process.  After answering many questions (the usual job interview questions), one of the two gentlemen interviewing me put his hands on the table and said "Ok, all of this is all well and good, but you grew up in West-Central Indiana, you attended college there and you went to Ohio for law school.  So, and this is the most important question of the whole interview,. . . Cubs or Cards?"  It took me all of 2 seconds to respond "Cubs!!!"  To which the man who asked the question said "Well, looks like we would work well together," and his partner said "Oh no, not another one."  To which I responded "You guys are lucky to be in 2nd, have fun finding a closer."

I'll let you know how it all turns out, I just thought it was a funny question at the tail end of a pretty serious interview.

Go Cubs!!