Finding that Missing Piece: Pacific Division

Each team has needs that it needs to get filled, of course, when the free agency is looking thin, which it usually is, then teams need to look on the trade market, trusting that the move will make them better both immediately and in the forseeable future.  Let's look at immediate impact for teams that are in consideration here.  Of course, no team is going to make a trade that doesn't make sense for them, so there are a couple of considerations that go into effect here; player chemistry, salary dumping, expiring contracts, etc...  Thus, whenver you consider a team need, you also need to figure out what that team has to offer.

Pacific Division

Los Angeles Lakers

Needs: frontcourt depth

The Lakers are playing so well right now that it doesn't seem like they have a whole lot to offer.  Everyone is playing at a higher level and Lamar Odom looks like he can really be effective off the bench, the team is a team, and while fantasy owners hate it, since the everyone's numbers (especially Odom's) are down across the board, Lakers fans love it because that means they have a 14-1 starting record.  Honestly though, frontcourt depth can be an issue, as I see it.  Normally I would've said perimeter defense, but Ariza has really stepped it up, and while he's not the shooter that I'm sure Phil Jackson would like on the wings, the Trevor Ariza/Vladamir Radmanovic/Luke Walton platoon for all extensive purposes works.  Now, granted the Lakers are a really deep team, the frontcourt is the place that could use the most bolstering.  Granted it could be a lot worse, it's not ideal to have your starting PF be your backup center.  If you look at the depth charts the frontcourt would probably look like:

PF- Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom

C- Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol

Which means that the three of them probably platoon the time equally.  Fortunately, no major injuries have occurred as of yet, and given how well their playing, Jackson has the opportunity to really rest his guys.  Of course, Radmanovic might see some playing time at the PF slot, but these three are really the crux of the big men.  Behind them you then have Chris Mihm and DJ Mbenga, who are just incidental names that happen to have contracts sitting at the end of the Lakers' bench, basically your 14th and 15th men on the squad.  So there are minutes to go around, and honestly, it could be better distributed, take some pressure off Gasol.

Available for Trade: Lamar Odom, Luke Walton

Odom, is the most obvious player that is tradeable.  In the current Lakers' system Odom has become little more than an overpaid bench player, honestly, I don't think he's adding a whole lot to the offense, and it really is because the Lakers are playing well enough for it not to make a difference.  Odom currently makes around $14 million, a hefty price tag, but is an expiring contract, so teams might be less leery about trading for him.  Likely teams that are looking for a missing piece might be a little leery about trading for Odom since they have no guarantees that they could hold onto him.  There probably aren't a lot of teams that would be willing to do a sort of 2-for-1 for Odom, especially 2 big men, and Luke Walton's $20 million over the next 5 years is definitely not a contract that anyone would want to take.  A solution might be trying some sort of three way or something trying to nab a couple of serviceable big men like Nick Collison, Chris Wilcox, and/or Nazr Mohammed.  Otherwise, the Lakers could just try their luck this year, and if it doesn't work out, let Odom walk and try to nab someone else from free agency.  Honestly, the Lakers don't really need a whole lot, they just need a couple of hustle guys that can bang it and tide over the lead while Bynum and Gasol get breathers.

Phoenix Suns

Needs: backup point guard

While Shaq isn't the best fit for the skills of Steve Nash, the Suns are actually a pretty good team.  They made some smart moves to make the offense work around Shaq, and thus have been holding their own in a competitive Western Conference.  The biggest problem would really be the age of the team.  Matt Barnes has already replaced Grant Hill in the starting lineup, and thus Hill has an easier schedule, Robin Lopez is doing a serviceable job allowing Shaq to rest on back-to-backs, Amare is still young, and he has the serviceable Boris Diaw backing him up anyways.  Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa are both fairly reliable health wise (as Barbosa is moving on from the passing of his mother) which leaves the biggest question mark the backup to Nash.  So far, Goran Dragic, the Slovenian point guard who says he's trying to model his game after Tony Parker, hasn't looked too sharp.  That means, Steve Nash, at age 34, is still getting a lot of minutes. 

Available for Trade: N/A

The unfortunate thing is that unless some guy gets cut and can be picked up for cheap in free agency (eyes turn to Stephon Marbury) there really isn't anyone that the Suns can offer.  Alando Tucker and Sean Singletary maybe, but that's like less than $1.5 million, hard to find a decent point for that much...  Since Alando Tucker makes the brunt of that, he's going to be the key to this trade... Here's maybe an option...

Golden State Warriors

Needs: ball-handling, rebounding

The Warriors lost a very close one yesterday, and I blame it on rebounding, they don't have players that box out.  It's somewhat understandable, especially since when Don Nelson wants to play a legitimate PG with his best players he's playing a center and 3 6-6 shooting guards next to him.  While Ronny Turiaf is averaging a nice 2.3 blocks per game, and Andris Biedrins is having a career year, playing Stephen Jackson at power forward while having CJ Watson, Jamal Crawford, and Corey Maggette man the 3 "smaller" positions isn't really going to cut it, not at all.  I put ball-handling down, because while a Crawford/Jackson tandem of sharing the ball-handling responsibilities neither one is a point guard or should be classified as such.  While both can handle the ball, neither one is really proficient at finding teammates, nor is their game designed to do so.  Both can find the open man, but Crawford especially, is just much better taking his man one-on-one.  They're still waiting out on Monta Ellis, but I have two reservations about that; firstly, the rehab schedule doesn't sound pretty for Monta, he might try to rush back and then pull a Gilbert Arenas and aggravate his injury, secondly, Monta Ellis is not a point guard, just a really small shooting guard.  However, given that Ellis is the point guard of the future (provided he makes his comeback), it's unlikely that the Warriors will trade for a point guard.

Available for Trade: Marcus Williams, Marco Belinelli

It seems strange that the Warriors would want to trade Williams after trading a conditional pick for him, but, Nelson just doesn't see him fitting into the rotation, at best he's a serviceable point guard that can score a bit.  However, with CJ Watson already understanding the system and the starting of Jamal Crawford at the point, Marcus Williams just hasn't been able to crack the rotation.  Even undrafted rookies Anthony Morrow and DeMarcus Nelson are in front of him on the rotation.  I can definitely see some teams using his abilities, worse case scenario he's like another Smush Parker... ok that's pretty bad.  Belinelli just hasn't found consistent playing time and there are murmurs out there that Nelson doesn't really like him, fellow draft-classmate Brandan Wright has cracked the regular rotation and is getting an opportunity to develop, but behind a glut of wing players in Crawford, Maggette, Jackson, Kelenna Azubuike, and the emergence of Anthony Morrow, the opportunities just aren't there for Belinelli.  Worst case scenario he becomes a shooting specialist, something akin to the Italian Jason Kapono.  Honestly, I can't think of anything that would look pretty...

Sacramento Kings

Needs: backcourt depth

If you actually stop to take a look at the roster that the Kings can put on the floor it actually doesn't look half bad, really, I'm serious.  If we assume all things equal and all players healthy you'd probably have a starting five that looks something like; Beno Udrih, Kevin Martin, Francisco Garcia, Jason Thompson, Brad Miller with Spencer Hawes and John Salmons as the first off the bench.  There's something of a platoon of big men as Reggie Theus tries to get the emerging 2nd year big man Spencer Hawes and the standout rookie Jason Thompson minutes.  When Brad Miller was suspended for a violation of the NBA drug clause or something, Thompson and Hawes really were outstanding.  Currently, Theus is starting Hawes as a PF next to Miller, and with the return of Francisco Garcia, Thompson is going to lose the minutes he could've logged at SF as well.  For fantasy owners the Francisco Garcia/John Salmons tandem is one of the most frustrating things in the world because you're never sure who gets to play on any given day, however, they're both solid players and man the 2 and the 3 slots very well.  Whoever doesn't start becomes the first reserve behind both Kevin Martin and the other guy that does start.  However, should injury occur, there isn't a whole lot behind them.  Behind Udrih is the serviceable Bobby Jackson, but they could maybe use a third point (for you Skeets: Julius Hodge!).  So let's say for all extensive purposes they start Martin and Garcia at the wings, then the ideal situation would be to bring in Salmons off the bench behind Garcia, then should Martin come off and Garcia stay off, they can put in the developing Donte Greene at SF and slide Salmons to the SG slot.  The biggest problem, Greene is still green.  They could use a little more assurance than Donte Greene's lone 41 point Summer League game and Quincy Douby.

Available for Trade: Brad Miller, Kenny Thomas

I'm tempted to put Mikki Moore up there, but they could always use a reserve big man, and that's what Mikki Moore is, a high energy, reserve big man.  Getting rid of Brad Miller may be a little tricky with $22 million and 2 years left on his contract, but hey, he can shoot and is considered one of the best passing big men on the high post, and possibly one of the best undrafted players in the league.  However, an interesting problem to have, but a problem nonetheless would be who to get for Brad Miller, arguably you could get a player that fits in right away, but then you don't get the opportunity to develop some of your younger players.  One of the reasons for getting rid of Miller in the first place is to get playing time for both Thompson and Hawes.  Ideally, the Kings go back to the starting frontcourt of Hawes and Thompson and bring Mikki Moore in off the bench.  While Kenny Thomas is available for trade, no one wants to touch the $16 million and 2 years left on his contract, well maybe no one except Donnie Walsh, but then I doubt the Kings want Eddy Curry in return.   A solution for who to get for Brad Miller could be a simple 2 for 1, where you trade Miller for 2 smaller contracts in return, maybe a backup point and a backup center behind Spencer Hawes.  Since the Kings threw a full MLE at Beno Udrih, a hefty extension at Francisco Garcia, and pretty much made Kevin Martin the future of the franchise, there's no real reason to upgrade at any of those positions, at least no justifiable reason.  Trading Brad Miller for a worse center doesn't make a lot of sense, but if you get a decent back up point in the mix then it might be worthwhile.  Maybe?

Los Angeles Clippers

Needs: wing players

Well, to be more precise, they need consistency at the wings.  Say what you will about Cuttino Mobley, at least he was consistent, that's what really drives people crazy about Ricky Davis, can't he just get his averages consistently?  Sure you love him when he gets you 25 points with 3 treys on 45% shooting, but then, there are always those Ricky Davis nights when he gets you 5 points on 2-14 shooting or something, you only need one streaky shooter (Baron Davis) in the starting 5.  Eric Gordon is still rookie, so I can't really be too hard on him.  Therefore, they need to strengthen their wing play.  I'm actually still rather puzzled at the Zach Randolph trade, because it kind of strengthened a position that they're already strong at...  However, say what you will, Randolph is a bigger offensive threat over Kaman and Camby.  

Available for Trade: Chris Kaman

I've kind of explained this in my previous post, but I'll say it here again: Chris Kaman = Eddy Curry + FT% + defense.  Kaman is kind of your fairly traditional kind of banger/low post player.  He's good, he really is.  The problem is, he and Zach Randolph can't coexist.  So the ultimate question of who you trade for comes down to who the Clippers want to give more playing time/develop more: Eric Gordon or Al Thornton.  I'd actually go with Gordon, because you can relegate him to a 3 pt specialist, kind of a catch and shoot guy, and this mitigates the amount of time that Thorton and Randolph share the floor, because both are renown black holes on offense.  Additionally, for all it's worth, Thornton's upside isn't as high as Gordon's, as Thornton is already older than someone like Travis Outlaw who's been in the league twice as long.  A lot of teams can use a solid interior presence and big rebounder.  I see three players that they can go for: Gerald Wallace, Jason Richardson, or Josh Howard.