Best Trade Ever

Carmelo and Steve Nash are garnering the bulk of the trade talk, but teams are having trouble matching value, making it hard to justify pulling the trigger. I've got a nice fake trade that'll bring harmony to both teams involved, however.

The Pacers are 29th in attendance, are supposedly bludgeoning money, and are in constant threat of relocation. The Pacers have been stuck in a mode where they aren't bad enough to get a top 3 pick, but aren't good enough to be relevant.

The Jazz are vastly underwhelming, and look pretty dead in the water, destined to be the 5th seed whipping boys. You know, like the past four years. Their frontcourt experiment as been pretty mediocre.

The trade is simple: Danny Granger for Al Jefferson. It works financially, straight-up.

The key to this whole deal is rookie Paul George. From what I've seen of George, he's really smooth and shows every flash of being a star. At the very least, he seems like a replication of Granger. George shoots 3s and attacks the rim, which is what you want out of a scorer. He's very good at the rim, but is struggling from the 3 point line at 28.4%. George's 3 point struggles are pretty common for rookies, however. His knock coming into the draft was that he wasn't good at creating for himself, but George is getting just 48.8% of his baskets assisted, a lower number than Kevin Durant or even Granger. He's 2nd in rookie PER, and has a good TS% of 55.9% already. He's a solid rebounder and already does a good job with TO%. Just like Granger did when he was coming up, George needs to increase his solid Usage Rate to star levels, which is sitting at 17.8%. His ability to attack the rim off the dribble suggest future success in increased UR. I'm a fan of Paul George!

The problem with this emergence is that Granger and George probably won't be able to play together as 35 MPG stars, because they don't complement each other at all. With Wade and LeBron, at least LeBron can create, not to mention they are elite players. Jordan and Pippen, as well, could complement each other with passing and defense. Grange and George aren't on that level, and it stands to reason that one has to go. Granger seems like the likely choice, given George is cheaper and younger, and Granger is at his apex. For other teams, I don't know how teams aren't drooling over the prospects of acquiring Granger, who has proven himself to be a 20-21 PER guy, and can score in bunches. Enter the Jazz.

The Jazz have a franchise guy in Deron Williams, but haven't had a perimeter scorer since Adrian Dantley. Al Jefferson isn't close to being the player he was in Minnesota a couple of years ago and creates defensive problems for the Jazz. The Deron/Jefferson/Millsap trio isn't winning anybody any championships. For the Jazz, Granger gives them a perimeter threat with Deron, as well someone who's cheaper than Andrei Kirilenko, when he finally expires at the end of the year. That money could allow them to restructure the team around a more complementary core of Deron/Granger/Millsap/Okur. I don't think Gordon Hayward is getting anyone excited.

The Pacers could get a semi-franchise PF, who would take care of the problem of relying on the Hansbrough/McRoberts combo to carry you into the playoffs. I love those guys off of the bench, but come on, they aren't starters. Wing/Post scoring complements each other, unlike Wing/Wing scoring, which seems to be the route the Pacers are heading down. As George emerges, Jefferson is an ideal partner. Jefferson could go to his natural PF position and play beside a true, decent defensive center in Roy Hibbert. The Pacers tried making Hibbert a go-to guy, but he just doesn't have it in him. Hibbert's ceiling is a 3rd guy who settles into the 14 points 11 rebound territory. Darren Collison gives them a solid PG who can run the show as long as the Pacers keep his company. He's a good defensive guard with a 16.1 PER. Hibbert has a 16.4 PER despite being miscast as a go-to player. The Pacers would have tons of money going into the summer, and add some more quality players, to go along with their slew of solid-but-unimpressive guys like Hansbrough/Dunleavy/McRoberts/Foster/Dahntay.

You could ask "does this move make either team a contender?" For the Jazz, I don't know but I'd rather roll the dice with Granger than Jefferson, because Millsap seems to be the logical choice to stay intact. It'd be a smart way of rectifying the mistake of thinking Jefferson was going to mesh with Millsap, and help them find a real defensive big man, because the Jazz are never going to defend their way through the playoffs with this group.

For the Pacers, I'd argue that as long as the Heat and Bulls are doing their thing, can you really envision a scenario where there Pacers are a serious title contender? And with George, you aren't sure where his ceiling is, anyway, but you imagine it's pretty high. There's also a longshot chance that Lance Stephenson is a good SG for them. He's talented but doesn't have his head on straight. The Pacers' franchise is at a standstill and if George/Jefferson/Hibbert lock them into 53 wins and 3rd-4th seed and maybe a Conference Finals, isn't that better than sub .500, bleeding money? Surely the basketball junkies of Indianapolis would come out to see a competitive team like that one. It might not bring a title, like the Reggie Miller Pacers, but at least they were a really tough team. To me, that seems worth it. It'd take a stroke of brilliant luck to give the Pacers a team that could take down the Heat, Bulls, Celtics, and Magic, but instead of sitting around waiting, why not do something about it now?

I love this trade, and I love the prospects of Paul George. I'd love to see him develop into someone you have to go watch play, and embrace being a star. Granger is missionary-style boring. He's not franchise-face material. I say roll with George and try to save a dying franchise.