also, he didnt shoot that much better of a percentage than kobe in game 7, and if u watch many of the key plays down the stretch, pau benefited from kobe patiently drawing the defense and hitting pau in good open spots where he got fouled and went to the line (in which case, it doesn’t help kobe’s box score)

The only thing standing in the way is a skinflint owner and that’s one problem we don’t have.

A few things… his TS% this year was a career low. He’s been around 56 the past few years. 58-59 percent when he was a low usage player, like he’d be if we signed a FA stud or two.

Also, his TO rate was only 10.9 percent – not 14.9 percent.

He is also a great defender – as good as Paul Pierce or LeBron, IMO. Can defend 2 or 3 spots, depending on the matchup.

Put it all together and there’s really no comparison to Chandler (no offense, Wil). True, he’s not the best running mate for Chandler, but you can worry about that later.

fwiw, Dave Berri’s WP metric has had Iggy as a top-10 NBA player the past few years… slipped a bit this year, but I won’t hold that against him.

All that said… I would offer Curry & Chandler for Iggy.. probably hold off on Gallo, see how the summer plays out.

Hopefully Donnie is willing to break ranks if it’s good for the Knicks… but, he is pretty old school. Would be slightly different from the Millsap case, assuming the Knicks are not trying to “steal” another team’s restricted free agent (Gay or Childress perhaps). (Personally, I have no problem with Portland’s offer to Millsap, just used “steal” because I guess that’s what other GMs think.)

Z’s Millsap example is a good one, maybe you can do this. Any rational player would favor this, considering time value of money. So, if it’s legal (and Utah didn’t use some loophole) the Knicks might do this should they strike out with the Big 3.

I agree that Toronto isn’t taking back Curry. I misread #51 and took part of what you said out of context.

I don’t know the financial state or plans of any NBA teams, so I don’t know who will be desperate enough for cap relief or high enough on WC to maybe deal with the Knicks… but the deal probably does have a lot more value at the deadline.

@69
“why not just trade for these REAL expiring players who can PLAY?”

Their teams have to be willing to a. part with them and b. take back a long-term contract(s). Maybe they are, maybe they’re not. (If the Knicks or some other team pulls off a huge FA haul… watch… cap space will be all the rage among NBA GMs… the herd mentality in the NBA is ridiculous.)

@71

I’m not as high on Iggy as Caleb, but I don’t think Chandler has been nearly as good to date as Igoudala. .559 v. .519 is the difference between solidly below average and well above average. Double the ast% is a huge difference (Iggy’s ast% last season was just below Duhon’s… he can pretty much run an offense, while Chandler is a liability as a ball-handler and not much of a playmaker outside the drive-and-kick). Not only do TOs tend to increase the more you handle the ball, but Iggy is also hurt by two really bad TO seasons early in his career. These are some of the reasons aggregate stats like PER, WS/48, and WP48 favor Iggy by a wide margin over Chandler. That said, I’m not huge on Iggy’s contract (he was reportedly on the block this season and no one seemed to jump at the chance and overwhelm the Sixers with an offer… so Philly may not have much leverage in moving him) and Chandler is only as old as Iggy was his 2nd year in the league so could be as good or better in a couple of years. That’s the real key to it, as always: future expectations. How much better will Chandler get? Can Iggy get back to his best level after an off season? Can Iggy even put it all together and get better? Will WC flatline here and prove his .688 eFG% on inside shots while not drawing fouls unsustainable? Is Iggy washed up? There’s no sure answer to those questions, but the right answers ultimately determine who you want.

I also don’t think Caleb was necessarily advocating trading Gallo for Igoudala, just saying that to use Curry’s expiring contract at this point (this offseason) that might be the kind of deal another team is going to demand. Time will tell if that’s true. Teams seem pretty desperate for cap space and also place different values on young players. Maybe some team is dying for future cap space and/or loves one of the Knicks youngsters.

And to follow up on the Millsap front-loading: teams can give players signing bonuses up to 20% of the entire contract. So for a $50 million contract, a team can pay out $10 million up front (so the length of the contract would look like: $16, $6.48, $6.96, $7.44, $7.92, etc…)

And to answer your question: “You’d think more teams would employ this strategy, but they don’t. That makes me think it’s illegal.”

Apparently teams don’t do it because they are in collusion, and when Pritchard did it last summer it irked GMs around the league, breaking some unspoken business etiquette that exists among front offices.

Here’s an interesting piece I found while investigating: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/steve_aschburner/07/15/millsap/index.html

The summary being:

“The league’s collective bargaining agreement limits signing bonuses to 20 percent, 17.5 percent for restricted free agents. For salary-cap purposes, the bonus is allocated against the guaranteed years in the player’s contract, so it’s a cash-flow and timing mechanism rather than additional pay.

“Frankly, it’s something I don’t really want to know about because it usually only favors the player,” [a] GM said.

Can you please explain your “man crush” on Iguodala? You mention him in at least every other post you put up. I’m am a novice when it comes to advanced stats, but I looked up the numbers and he is pretty much the same player as Wilson Chandler.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&p1=iguodan01&y1=2010&p2=chandwi01&y2=2010

Chandler vs. AI Advanced Stats:
Usage: 20.2% vs. 19.9% (same base line)
TRB%: 8.9 vs. 9.0 (small delta)
TS%: .519 vs. .559 (small delta)
eFG%: .487 vs. .501 (small delta)
AST%: 9.6 vs. 19.7 (ok, you got a point here)
TOV%: 10.5 vs. 14.9 (but what about this?)
BLK%: 1.8 vs. 1.0 (edge Chandler)
STL%: 1.2 vs. 2.5 (edge AI)
PER: 13.1 vs. 17.0 (ok, point for you)

You see what I’m saying? Looks like the same guy, only one has a huge contract and the other doesn’t (AI made $12.2 M last year vs. Chandler, who made $1.3 M). And both are not very good from 3 point land (around 30%). Why would you ever want to trade Curry + Gallo for this guy, and then pair him up with Chandler, who has the same game as he does?

But the offers are going to be awful until the trade deadline… at that point, some teams will be more desperate, Curry will be less expensive (only 2 months to go) and there might be a worthwhile deal.

For instance, here are some other players that expire in 2011: Caron Butler 10.8 mil, Tyson Chandler (opt in) 13.2 mil, Kenyon Martin 16.5 mil, Tayshun Prince 11.1 mil, Troy Murphy 12 mil, Zach Randolph 17.3 mil, Michael Redd 18.3 mil, Richard Jefferson 15.2 mil, AK47 17.3 mil… why not just trade for these REAL expiring players who can PLAY?

Even duds like Dunleavy and Stojakovich are more desirable than Curry.

If we’re trading Curry it’s for a ’12 or ’13 expiring like Richard Hamilton or Okafor. And it would probably be straight up, maybe with a draft pick…

Ted, I agree that getting rid of Curry now would be good, but it’s a total fantasy. Most of the realistic trades are for someone like Elton Brand, where we use the cap space immediately on someone we’d rather not have.

But yes, in this fantasy-land, I would be glad to trade Eddy Curry to the Nets for their #3 pick, and use the extra $11 million to re-sign David Lee alongside LeBron and Dwyane Wade.

I guess I could be less of a smart-ass about it. I know you are making a theoretical point.