NBA Rumors: New Orleans Shopping #10 Draft Pick

I saw that many of you already heard about this rumor and were discussing it in another thread. Sorry I'm late on this, but here's the scoop. Apparently, the New Orleans Hornets and their new owners are trying to shed some of their crappy contracts as they rebuild. They want to get rid of these contracts so badly that they are dangling the 10th pick in the draft in order to entice someone to take Emeka Okafor or Trevor Ariza off their hands. Well, at least that what Shaun Powell from NBA.com tweeted Wednesday evening.

If this is true, Chris Grant ought to be making some phone calls. With Dan Gilbert's willingness to spend, the Cavaliers are one of the few teams in the league that can absorb either one (or both) of those contracts fairly easily. Okafor is slated to make roughly $14 million for each of the next two seasons. Trevor Ariza is slated to make about $7.5 million for each of the next two seasons. I'm not exactly sure what the Hornets would want the Cavaliers to trade in order to make one of these swaps work, but grabbing the 10th pick in the draft would be huge. I doubt Cleveland wants to take both of those contracts, but taking one of them wouldn't be bad at all. Taking the Okafor contract would be essentially the same thing as when the Cavs traded for Baron Davis' contract and got a lottery pick (which turned into Kyrie Irving).

Again, this is just a rumor and we don't know any of the details or if the Cavs are even interested. But in my opinion, they should be. These contracts aren't THAT bad and the Cavs have the cap space and flexibility to take on some money in order to acquire more assets. Furthermore, Ariza and Okafor aren't exactly terrible players. Both of them would actually make some decent contributions to the Cavaliers and provide some much needed support on defense.

Talk about this one amongst yourselves in the comment section and fantasize about unlikely roster overhauls. If you have questions, comments, or just want to talk about basketball, feel free to email me at ConradFTS@gmail.com.