With so many great young PG's around now, I'm not sure what they could get. But obviously I'm thinking it should be alot. I think Collison is good enough to build around, and given that they are one of the teams struggling the most financially, I think they should close out the CP3/West era and rebuild around Collison and a ton of draft picks, OKC Thunder-style.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Any idea what teams might be interested or what it would take to get him?

I am not sold on Collison yet, but he has done well. If you couldn't win with Paul in the West, can you really expect to do it with Collison and another group?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Come on FF, no way in hell they trade Chris Paul.

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They might have to consider it. The fact is the team wasnt built properly to begin with. Unless they can get real high value for Collison, I think they will seriously consider trading Paul. The two of them are too small to play together, and considering they are one of the bottom teams in revenue and have been looking to shed salary the past couple years I think it makes sense.

I'm not sure which teams would be interested in him. Atlanta, Mavs, and Trailblazers come to mind.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Sure. The Lakers might be coming down in a few years. I can easily see them getting rid of West and Paul and getting a bunch of young players/1st round picks and building their team like OKC and to a lesser extent Memphis.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I could see Dallas being a nice fit. They have that Dampier contract that will be attractive to a team like NO looking to clear cap space. Does Kidd have another year on his deal?

_________________
"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

Trading the best player at any position is basketball dumb. No way you do something like that.

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I disagree.

_________________
You never miss your wealth, till your well went dry
Seem like only yesterday, you were here smiling
Now you gone away, but I know you in a better place
No traces of you, what can I do?
Alone and confused

I'm not saying its smart, but they've done a few dumb things already that may force them into another dumb thing.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

You build around him even if you have to rebuild. Players like CP don't come around often and he is still young.

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I agree, but I think that they may justify trading him by saying that they have a replacement that, with a small sample size, gives you 80% of the production at 20% of the cost.

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"Tubby? Oh yes, Tubby."

You trade him, if you like the sound of the Seattle Hornets...which I guess would revert back to the Seattle Supersonics.

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The Hawks could trade marvin williams for him

i hadn't thought about it before but your logic makes sense. lakers and spurs are on the downswing. with the suns nash is old and stoudemire will likely leave. i mean lakers probably have a few more great years but that's how long it would take them to rebuild. i think collison can lead the team. and i've never really liked west much either. i like this idea

I thought about that when saying the Hawks. Im glad not everyone thought this was crazy. I think it makes sense if you believe Collison is a franchise player. Paul would command a ton of assets in return.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It's not like the team is doing well and selling out with him. I'm not sure how much of a hit you'd take financially.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

no, i think bulldog scotts analysis says it best- w/ collison sure you're not going to get Paul...but you're getting a player who gives you almost as much as Paul at a greatly reduced rate, allowing you to plug up holes elsewhere should you trade Paul. i mean peja is on borrowed time. whether you like west or not, he's had serious injury issues, i don't think he's going to make it past another couple years. you've got a strange mix of old and young...i'm with you- purge the old, move paul and get a boatload of picks and young talent and start over w/ collison and thornton. i haven't heard thornton mentioned here either, i think he's going to be really solid if not great as well

Would this be a move the Nicks could be a part of? It makes tremendous sense for them, they'll have the cap space - I just don't think they'll have the ammo for a trade. I'm not even sure if they have any draft picks left.

But if you add Chris Paul - suddenly you eliminate the Come Play with Derrick Rose chip from the Bulls hand.

Trading Paul won't do anything for them because they got so many bad long term deals still on the books. The fact they took Okafor for Chandler was beyond stupid. Paying Posey all of that money was dumb too. They won't be able to get rid of these guys along with Paul so you would still have a problem next season. Peja and Mo Pete come off the books after next season and that will free up more than $20M. They would be better off packaging Okafor in a deal with Collison to free up more money after next season. That would free up another $13M along with the $22M coming off when Peja and Mo Pete deals expire. That puts them in great position in 2011-12.

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yeah but you could do the same thing w/ Paul- make whatever team is trading for him take back one of those bad deals.

That would be nearly impossible because they would be trading $25M+ in contracts and would have to take back the same. What teams would have enough to make that work? It's a hell of a lot easier to get that done with $13M in salary.

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doesn't McGrady make like 22 mil?
there ya go

Would have been nice to do it this year.

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I dont think Collison would command anywhere near what Paul would in a trade. Like you said, Okafor's contract sucks so a package of him/Collison is not very appealing to many. Posey isnt drastically overpaid for what he brings to a contender. He'd be easy to move most likely.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul