Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Not exactly what we had in mind...

The Boston Herald reports the C's might deal for Seattle's Ronald "Flip" Murray and his expiring contract. But the RealGM Tradechecker won't allow Murray to be traded due to his status as a one-year-contract-Larry-Bird exemption status (whatever that means). But regardless, even if the trade is possible, it's clear the Blount/Murray salaries don't exactly match up.

By the way, the Post's Peter Vecsey reported this morning that Sacramento is the likely landing place for Artest, with Peja being the key return man. (According to Vescey, the trade is on the table, and all Sacramento has to do is say yes, but unfortunately, most of the article is behind a registration page.) Seems to me like a pretty good trade for both teams. Peja combines with O'Neal for a good inside/outside threat for the Pacers, and Artest gives the Sacramento frontline some muscle that's been lacking since Webber was shipped out of town.

1 comment:

B said...

Seattle is an interesting trade partner.

Murray is a combo guard who only makes ~$900K this year but has fallen out of favor with his coaches. The other players that have been rumored to be on the way out of Seattle are Danny Fortson and Reggie Evans. Both are big men that are clearly not in the team's rebuilding plans. Evans will make $1.1M in this final year of his contract. Fortson has a year and a half left at $6.4M and $6.9M.

Of these, both a straight Fortson for Blount swap and/or a Banks for Flip or Evans swap work. Banks for Flip does little for both teams. I'm a little intrigued by Evans, who is a no-offense, all-hustle undersized PF. Sort of what Ainge might have hoped Brandon Hunter would turn into.

Little to either gain or lose here. Exchanging 4.5 more years of Blount for 1.5 more years of Fortson would be a step in the right direction, as far as it goes.