All the Cleveland Cavaliers Need Now is Chris Paul

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ starting five includes two of the greatest NBA players of the last ten years, LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal.

But it’s never enough, no, it’s never enough.

Shaq is evolving into a role player after being one of the game’s most dominant centers ever, and LeBron has won everything but a championship. But what if we added another future Hall-of-Famer to the mix? What if Chris Paul donned the wine and gold?

It’s not too outrageous a thought, you know.

For the better part of this year Chris Paul trade rumors have been flying, whether they’re true or not, and with the exception of the Emeka Okafor-Tyson Chandler deal the New Orleans Hornets have been in serious cost-cutting mode.

Everyone knows they’d be crazy to let Paul go—he’s the heart and soul of that team, and a huge fan favorite—though crazier things have happened. Or at least comparably crazy things.

As we not-so-patiently wait for the NBA regular season to start, a few “what-ifs” never hurt anybody. But it’s no good throwing out wacky trade ideas if they won’t work technically. The NBA’s trade rules require a Harvard Ph.D to understand, and most fairy-tale trades can’t happen.

Enter the ESPN NBA Trade Machine. With some tinkering around, it turns out that bringing Chris Paul to Cleveland isn’t as difficult as it would at-first seem.

I’ve worked out a deal to send Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson to New Orleans, and bring Chris Paul and James Posey to Cleveland in return.

Think it through.

Shaq just replaced Ilgauskas as the starting center in Cleveland, so the Cavs lose a backup center there. Anderson Varejao can theoretically slide into the backup center spot, but that would make Leon Powe the starter at PF and leave the 4 position perilously thin.

They give up a backup point guard in Daniel Gibson, but don’t lose their starter—instead, Mo Williams now comes off the bench as point of the second unit, behind Chris Paul. That’s a huge benefit.

James Posey is a little bit redundant at the small forward position on a Cleveland roster that already has LeBron James and Jamario Moon, and he comes to Cleveland in the deal just to make the trade work. But many teams value his veteran leadership and playoff experience—if the Cavs don’t want him, they may be able to trade him straight across for a mid-level center to back up Shaq and shore up the frontcourt (maybe the Charlotte Bobcats’ DeSagana Diop, or the Indiana Pacers’ Jeff Foster? They’re both set to equal Posey’s $6 million salary this year).

On the Hornets’ side, the major bargaining chip is Ilgauskas. He’d probably replace Hilton Armstrong as the second-string center behind Okafor. But what New Orleans can really take to the bank is that Ilgauskas’s $11.5 million salary goes off the books after this year when his contract expires.

If they’re serious about cutting costs, this’ll do it. They’ll shed $19.5 million in salaries and then, after one year, end up with only Gibson’s $4 million paycheck. And just in time for the apocalyptic 2010 free agent summer.

In Gibson, the Hornets get a capable young point guard who has shown flashes of brilliance—he was an integral part of the Cavs’ NBA Finals run in 2007. He’s no Chris Paul, no one is, but he’s a serviceable PG who might flourish if put in charge of leading an offense.

Plus, who doesn’t want somebody nicknamed Boobie on their team?

It’s all fantasy, though. Paul had the third-highest PER in the league last year—LeBron was first, and Shaq was 13th—and John Hollinger’s algorithms project that Paul will top the league in PER this year.

Obviously Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry would jump on the opportunity to add another megastar to the roster, especially at such little cost, as it would all but guarantee a title in Cleveland. It would certainly offset the Lakers adding Ron Artest to a roster that already boasts Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum, etc.

It would also serve to make New Orleans the most hated team in the league, as they’d facilitate the forming of the Cavaliers into an all-star opponent-demolishing machine.

There’s very little chance that the Hornets would actually be dumb enough to pull the trigger on such a deal. Which is a shame.

Because boy, would it be fun to see.