For Lee, I'd insist on Rudy Fernandez + either Jerryd Bayless or their 2010 1st rounder -- along with whatever else they'd have to include to make it work salary-wise. If Kevin Pritchard thinks he could get him for anything less, just hang up the damn phone on him. We're not giving you Lee for nothing Pritch. You're the one whose starting center just went down for the year...Bottom line, I could work with that package. Is Lee worth more face value? Yeah he probably is -- dude's putting up almost 20 & 10, but for a player that may bolt at the end of the year FOR NOTHING, that's ample value considering. No way I could accept losing Lee for nothing and I agree with some of the recent speculation that he may be playing himself right out of our price range..To me, Bayless is a bigtime young talent that's just buried out there (he's been buried right from the start and they even went out of their way to draft Paddy Mills late when they really didn't have to - there seems to be no plan at all to develop this guy into a PG right now) and I feel Rudy's a damn good 2-guard with size & good skills. Rudy plays more than Bayless but he's behind other players on that team as well when they're healthy, starting with Brandon Roy. You give Rudy a starting role and 30-35+ mins. a night and I think he'd flourish. He'd handle the ball and he'd score you points, esp. from the perimeter (guy's a dynamite shooter with one of the quickest releases I've ever seen). Pretty damn good athlete as well...I guarantee you LeBron or Bosh would LOVE to play with a Rudy Fernandez...
If Oden really is done for the year, they really wouldn't lose too much if they added Lee as a replacement right now and went with Aldridge at the 5 and Lee at the 4. Along with some of the other solid components they already have, they'd still be a dangerous team. With their current situation Lee's a perfect fit for them...Right now that team's 13-8 and still right in the thick of the playoff hunt out west. Getting Lee (a player they've always coveted anyway even when Oden was healthy) would keep them on that level. But they're kidding themselves if they think they can maintain that level of play with Prizbilla taking over Oden's role fulltime. So what's it gonna be Kevin Pritchard? You wanna pony up a fair amount to make this deal work or you still wanna tell us Bayless and Fernandez are untouchable?? Donnie would do this deal if he got Rudy Fernandez, we know that from all the off-season rumors...Just have to get Lee to agree to the deal. I think he might but who knows? Like I said the other day, if I'm Donnie, I'd sit Lee and Nate down man to man and explain to them how I might have to start remodeling this team a little earlier than first expected, and ask them for their thoughts on possibly being traded. If they said they didn't have a problem with it, I'd ask them both to supply a list of teams they would approve a trade to go play for. Hopefully Portland would be one of those teams. I think Portland's a nice opportunity for Lee. Pretty successful team with a dynamite 2nd all-NBA player in Brandon Roy. Lee gets his wish for a starting role right away and on a winning team with a superstar -- much different situation than what he's dealing with over here. Plus, it's gotta be flattering to know that a specific team has wanted you for a long time now..With Lee in for Oden, I still think they'd be a lock for the playoffs. Playoff/winning basketball should be something that's on Lee's mind now. As part of a larger deal, I'd also be willing to give Portland anything else they wanted to make it work for them except Gallo, Hill and Douglas. They want Nate, Chandler, Harrington, Darko, Jeffries, Curry, maybe 1 of our 2nd rounders, whatever...as long as it's within reason, I'm open to it. As someone else already mentioned, Nate's from the area and is good friends with Roy. Not sure how tight he is with Martell Webster (I've heard conflicting stuff) but they're all young Seattle guys that grew up together. Getting Nate may even make it easier for Portland to part with Fernandez possibly..With the way MDA's treating Nate right now, I think he'd approve a trade to go home and play for Portland in a heartbeat. Maybe that's part of Mike's strategy here -- piss Nate off so much that he'll agree to a trade. Not a very professional way to go about moving the little fella if you ask me but who the hell knows what's going on in coach's mind right now..
12/6/2009 12:47 PM
