The Bulls should take that trade in a heartbeat. Duhon is easily replaced. Nocioni is good but not essential. Noah is not needed until we get rid of Ben Wallace.

I have a feeling nothing will come from this either.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I don't think Memphis would want Ben Gordon back because they would have a smaller backcourt when paired with Mike Conley. If there is anything to this at all, and I don't think so, I think it would have to be both Noah and Thomas along with Duhon and Nocioni so that Memphis can have it's future PF/C combo in Noah/Thomas to go with Rudy G, Nocioni, Conley, Miller and Warrick.

Now, I don't think anything is going to happen - if Memphis, which has cap room, wants Nocioni that badly, they can offer him $8 million a year over 4 or 5 seasons, and dare the Bulls to match that, which I don't think they would. Secondly, if they do want Nocioni, I think they would want him to complement their best player in Gasol, not to move him because of signing Nocioni.

In addition, Memphis is also interested in Anderson Varejo from Cleveland. Signing him would probably elminate the Nocionoi signing also.

So, I'm not very optimistic that a Nocioni S/T to Memphis for Gasol is the in the works.

Come on Spinnin', let a man dream!!
I'm willing to throw in a future 1st rounder or two!!
Bucket - where'd your post go that I just responded to??
Spinnin' Bucket
Hit Man = MATCH

Deleted my post since I didn't want to get sucked back into the Gasol stuff, but since you've responded to a ghost post, here's my take on this:

1) Don't take seriously anything that says "Duhon plus filler". Duhon is filler, unless you're talking about a team desperate for PG help (which is not the case in Memphis), or a scenario where Duhon is used (as an expiring) to take back a less desirable contract. Also, the only other "filler" we have is Viktor's expiring of just under $2 mil. People seem to abuse the word "filler" as if there were some infinite amount of it. Pax seems unwilling to move 80% of the guys on this team. Doesn't leave much room left for "filler".

2) Even if Memphis wanted to do this, it's a long way off. I don't believe we can trade Noah until 30 days after he signs, unless of course you just want to trade his rights (which have no $ value in a trade). But in this instance, we'd need as much salary as we can get.

3) We had a much better package to offer last year. Same players, plus bigtime cap relief.

4) We are no longer in a position to outbid competing suitors that have expiring contracts to offer (ie: Boston, Lakers, etc)

I think that the number 9 pick had a lot more value before it became Noah.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

KS,

Keep digging. Memphis has no use for Duhon (already have 2 quality young PG's in Conley & Lowry, plus they have Damon Stoudamire on the books for this year and next). They may move Lowry, and would gladly swap Damon for Duhon, but as of this moment, Duhon is just filler to match salaries.

As for your alternate proposal, while I don't think it's garbage necessarily, it doesn't work under the cap. This is going to be a problem with just about any bigtime trade proposal. We don't have the firepower anymore. No large expiring contract(s) + conservative GM unwilling to move his boys = no big trades on the horizon.

You are correct about Noah, however. They were most definitely interested in him and likely still are to some degree. Pau Gasol degree? I doubt it.

Basically, it comes down to getting Gasol for Nocioni & Noah (plus "filler" ), which I don't think is going to happen. If they were going to move him that cheaply, it would've happened in February, when they could have actually benefitted financially from it.

And while late first rounders certainly have value, I don't think a pick between 24-28 in the '08 draft plus something similar in the '10 draft is going to tip the scales and get Memphis to accept.

Sweetney has very little value at all. You'd get more for PJ if he decides to play another year.

The qualifying offer is determined by your draft slot (as are the salaries for the first 4 seasons). This won't be an issue in Sweetney's case, since another team would have to be dumb enough to make him an offer, and the Bulls would have to be even dumber to match it.

He'll be on the market this summer. Someone will offer him a garbage contract and a second lease on life in the NBA. What he does with that, who knows. Probably nothing.