Is there even a link for this? I would love it if it happens but its doubtful.

This proposed deal actually does make more sense. McCants has established himself as a solid (15ppg in just 26mpg) and efficient (45% fg and 40% 3pt) scorer and would give the Hawks some much needed depth and instant scoring off the bench. Carney is young, athletic, exciting and still has a bit upside to him. The media has done a great job hyping up Marco Belinelli for us so maybe Atlanta sees something in him that’s simply not there. (38% fg in 08 Summer League, 38% fg in NBA last season, a modest 43% career fg in Europe)

Minnesota trades small for big. Telfair, Foye, Wright, Love, and Jefferson look like a promising young team.. on paper.

Maybe I’m speculating too much, but maybe this is why Biedrins’ signing isn’t done yet. Maybe the Warriors need to wait and see what kind of contract Josh Smith comes with so that we know exactly how much we can give to Biedrins without going into the luxury tax.

But maybe I’m just hoping and dreaming too much. Josh Smith would probably land us back in the playoffs and in the Nuggets’ vacated spot. A Josh Smith / Andris Biedrins / Ronny Turiaf frontcourt would probably give us the most nastiest, most athletic shotblocking team in the league, even without a true 7’ center. This trade needs to happen.

but Wright isn’t trash by any stretch. He’s gonna be pretty damn good someday. And apparently the rest of the NBA thinks so too because he’s the first name every team that wants to trade with us brings up.

brandan is probably one of my favorite players left on the warriors after monta. i don’t know why, but i liked him coming out of high school and at UNC. i guess it was the chris bosh comparison and the length and athleticism. i’m still a huge fan, but i’m more and more scared that he will be a bust.

he hasn’t dominated the summer league like all our other young players have (belinelli, randolph, azubuike, even cj watson). granted this doesn’t translate to NBA success at all, but if he can’t dominate on a lower level, how can he do it at the highest level. also he has claimed that he was trying to be a role player on the summer league team—but for some reason i don’t quite buy that.

another thing is his game. it is so incredibly unique that i can’t tell if he will become a good player or not. honestly i’ve never seen a player like him. he reminds me of a strange combination of chris bosh, josh smith and antawn jamison. hes got jamison’s finesse moves around the basket, but not his outside game yet. hes got josh smith’s defensive ability/potential but not as polish (as both defender and scorer). hes got bosh’s athletic ability and body type (though bosh is a bit thicker) with his potential, but doesn’t have his post game.

one thing that wright lacks is a FIRE that i’ve seen in almost all good NBA players that shows they want something—they want to get to the rim, they want to lock down someone on defense or they want to be a great player in general. bwright seems mellow all the time, which is cool, but even mellow players in the league have this intensity they have on the court that i dont see in wright. maybe its just that goofy look on his face all the time. i really think he has the potential to develop into a truly unique player, but the question is will he and how long will it take? (and will it be with the warriors?)

basically, this is a LONG way of saying, i like bwright and would be hesitant to include him in a trade. however, if we could get josh smith for him, i would have to strongly consider it. the problem is that even though wright and belinelli (though i am much more hesitant about belinellis potential in the NBA) have a huge range of how they will turn out (bust to superstar), we pretty know what kind of player josh smith will be. he is going to be a great NBA player—almost at the star level, but not quite. pretty much in a league with players like maggette, rashard lewis, luol deng, etc. players that are very good, but imo on the superstar or even the top-tier star level. we already have so many players like that in maggette, biedrins, sjax, and maybe even monta (depending on how he progresses he could be a top-tier star or superstar) and we don’t need to spend another 12mil+ on this type of player. we have wright and belinelli locked up for 3 more years at a very inexpensive price with unknown potential. they could potentially the star that we are looking for, which is why i’m hesitant to make this trade.

don’t get me wrong, josh smith is a very good player and i would love to have him here. the only problem is that i think we need that top-tier star or superstar in order to be successful in the western conference. we’ve had these kind of teams with jamison/hughes/arenas/jrich (not at the same time but in terms of star power) and even recently with sjax/harrington/baron (who is a top-tier star) with a not-as-developed-yet monta/biedrins and of all those teams, we have only gotten as far as the 2nd round of the playoffs. if we want more, we need to reach for higher than josh smith—whether that is in the 2009 & 2010 FA class or hoping that wright, randolph, azubuike, belinelli, etc. develop into those players.

honestly, this is a great trade on paper and at this moment with what we know about wright and belinelli, but i am still more hesitant than most about making this deal. it is the kind we could look back on in the future and wish we hadn’t of done it (because of the future cap situation of 4 10mil+ players for 5+ years and of what belinelli, and to a greater extent, wright could become)

and LOL if this trade was started by a current UNC player. this “friend” of bwright wants to send him to freezing minnesota to fight for minutes with other very young SF and PFs? still, its a pretty solid trade idea though. anyone know what the MINNY and ATL boards think of it?

doesn’t really matter, because they’re the Atlanta Hawks. Well I take that back, it does matter, in the sense that whatever it is that they should do they will likely end up doing the opposite.

See above. We need to send out more than that to make room for the (totally unwarranted and grossly out of balance with the level of performance he brings) max salary for Smith.

Where there’s a cap and a collective bargaining agreement, a will rarely has a fighting chance.