The Massive Melo Speculation Post: Part 3

Okay, so this isn't dead.  I stopped posting when I thought Melo was for sure going to New Jersey, but he's not, or not yet.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, onwards to my pointless (but fun) trade mongering...

Golden State Warriors send Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins, with the expiring contracts of Vladamir Radmonovic and Dan Gadzuric to Denver for Melo and K-Mart

Okay, so I don't know that Denver wants to save money more than it wants a different super star, I'm also fairly confident that they probably won't consider Monta Ellis that super star.  Another option would've been swapping Vlad Rad and Gadzuric for Brandon Wright and K-Mart for J.R. Smith otherwise waiting until December and using Dorrell Wright.  Either way, it's an interesting concept, but frankly it does leave the Ws a little thin in the frontcourt, forced to once again play David Lee as a center (which he really isn't).  With Louis Amundson injured and missing time, I'm not positive that GSW is willing to pull the trigger in parting with one of its key bigs (Biedrins) even if it means getting a star in return, and frankly, I don't see Melo signing an extension with GSW so they'd be essentially giving away Monta and Biedrins for nothing.  A lot of fans would love to see this though.

New York seems to think it can trade Danilo Gallinari and/or Anthony Randolph for a star of tradeable caliber to Denver.  I'm not entirely convinced that's the case, but speculation puts me with either a Gilbert Arenas trade or a recreation of the 2004 Detroit Pistons.  I'm pretty sure neither Gilbert nor Rip Hamilton are answers.  Additionally, I don't think Gallinari and/or Randolph are super appealing to the Wiz who have Blatche, Thornton, Yi, and Howard nor the Pistons who are sitting on T-Mac, Jerebko, Austin Daye, Jason Maxiell, and Charlie Villanueva.  Not a fan of either, but I'm just throwing it out there for thought.

Now I don't know that they're looking, but a trade that makes sense to me is this:


Charlotte Bobcats send Boris Diaw, Gerald Wallace, and Nazr Mohammed to Denver for Melo and J.R. Smith

Why? Bobcats need a scorer and Melo can score (so can J.R. Smith when he's on).  This trade also makes sense too.  In fact I like it better.  Essentially Bobcats still get Melo and Denver still gets Wallace and Mohammed, but we loop in Toronto, getting Boris Diaw from Charlotte and Kenyon Martin from Denver and sending Reggie Evans to Denver and Jose Calderon with Chris Bosh's trade exception to Charlotte.  Why does this work?  Jerry Colangelo loves those saavy European vets like Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa, they had originally wanted essentially Diaw for Calderon, but were balked by Jordan for wanting Tyson Chandler too (who he later gave away for Erick Dampier who he waived so nothing?), and Calderon is precisely the type of point guard that works well with Larry Brown (runs sets, doesn't push the game, takes carefully selected shots) and therefore precisely the kind of PG that the Bobcats want.  The main question is whether or not Gerald Wallace is a sufficient star in what Denver wants in return.  Certainly Wallace has shown his prowess on the defensive end, and adding eligible big men in Mohammed and Evans while jettisoning K-Mart's contract is on the agenda, will adding Wallace keep the Nuggets competitive?  I'd like to say yes, via also more opportunities for Nene, but I honestly can't say I know their games well enough to say for sure.

I'll keep thinking of these and we'll keep going until Melo is actually traded.