JO is a defensive anchor and rebounding force that would fill a hole in Seattle's roster. Going to Seattle would also give him a reasonable chance of contending deep into the playoffs within a season or two.
Indy's main incentive for dealing with Seattle would be salary cap relief. However, the Sonics do have a nice pool of youth even excluding Durant and Green. Ridnour, West, Wilcox, and Collison are all players that should draw interest from Indiana.
I think a proposal from Seattle might look like this:
Luke Ridnour 6.5 m
Chris Wilcox 6.5 m
Kurt Thomas 8 m (1 yr left)
Robert Swift 2 m
3 m trade exception
for
Jermaine O'neal 19.7 m
Marquis Daniels 6.3 m
If Indy wants to get rid of Dunleavy or Troy Murphy instead of Marquis Daniels they're going to have to take on Wally Sczerbiak (2 yr 12 m) instead of Kurt Thomas (1 yr 8 m).
Any merit to a trade between these teams? What do you think?
Why would the Sonics want Jermaine O'Neal, they are not tryin' to win right now. They are in a rebuilding stage. They just got rid of veterans Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, why would they want to add veteran Jermaine O'Neal?
no. no merit to the trade.
Seattle is a team rebuilding around youth. the last thing they would want a $17m per year 29-yr-old.
Why would that 29-yr-old would want to play with a bunch of young pups instead of contending for a championship? They are not gonna contend for a number of years.
The Sonics already have the pieces in place they need to rebuild. All they have to do now is round out the roster and let em grow. Getting a veteran like O'Neal will make things easier for Durant and Green. O'Neal has only 3 years left so he would expire right around the time KD and JG would be looking to reup.
Thats a good team right there. If both of the rookies are as good as billed they should compete with NO, LA, Memphis for the bottom spots this year.
And that's your problem right there. Teams don't trade for big-time players like JO so that they can compete for the 6/7/8 seeds. It'd be a pointless trade. JO's prime and salary would expire, and they'd have a lot of cap space once he left, but simply having him around costs the team higher draft picks to use on players to build around Durant and Green in the future.
Everyone said what I was gonna say, so I wont go any further.
Also, can you see Jermaine "Trade Me To A Contender Because I'm Supposed To Be The Franchise Player In Indiana And I'm Paid As Such But I'd Rather Go Somewhere Else And Still Get Paid Like A Franchise Player But Play Second Fiddle To Someone Else" (<-- Long nickname) O'Neal okaying a trade to Seattle?
They have as good a shot as anyone at drafting some serious talent to build with in the lottery these next couple years, and like Ridonks pointed out, adding JO probably just puts them hovering in that worst of positions - just talented enough to sneak into the playoffs and be bounced in the first round, and not dismal enough to nab any can't-miss players in the draft.
Do the Sonics have a shot at Jermaine O'Neal?
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