With Shaq And Suns, Ferry Is Talking With The Right Team, But For The Wrong Player

You can't blame the Cleveland Cavaliers for not hogging the NBA headlines even while being out of the NBA Finals. They're doing just as good of a job as anybody at staying in the headlines despite their season being over. First, the news was about the transfer of 15 percent of the team's ownership to an overseas Chinese investment group last month. Next, erroneous reporting by SLAM Magazine incorrectly had them talking with Rasheed Wallace about a two-year deal worth $10 million per year, an impossibility given the Cavs' current cap situation. Then, Mike Brown's job came under fire with Pat Riley being thrown in the mix as the replacement. Now, on the day that the Los Angeles Lakers won their 15th championship and Kobe Bryant won his first NBA Finals MVP, the news throughout Sunday was about the possibility of Shaquille O'Neal teaming up with LeBron James in Cleveland in 2009-10.The thing that should strike you as the most intriguing with this recent news is that Ferry is already all over it this early in the offseason. The NBA Finals weren't even over as of Sunday morning, and talks were already about the Cavs being aggressive in the wake of their devastating loss to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals.And the fact that he was talking to the Phoenix Suns and GM Steve Kerr, a good friend of his, should be even more encouraging if you're a Cavs fan. So while it was good to see Ferry being aggressive and talking to Kerr, he struck out on his third at-bat:He was talking about Shaq.Because if the Suns are looking to do a salary dump and get rid of a player with a big contract -- a player that could fill a need for the Cavs, at that -- then Ferry should be talking to Kerr about one Jason Richardson.Oh, Ferry is no stranger to Richardson. Rumors linked the Cavs to Richardson even at the trade deadline in '07, when the former Michigan State Spartan was in the midst of an injury-riddled season. Ferry was said to have tried again for J-Rich last summer when the latter was with the Charlotte Bobcats, but an early-season trade sent the two-time Slam Dunk Champion from North Carolina to the desert in Arizona to play with the Suns.And in 58 games with the Suns this past season, the 28-year old Richardson averaged 16.4 points while shooting 38.3 percent (102-for-266) from 3-point range and a stunning (for a perimeter player) 48.8 percent from the floor. The 6'6", 225-pounder is a big two-guard who played all 82 games for the Bobcats in '07-08 (automatically dismissing any impending comparisons to Larry Hughes), during which he put up 21.8 points and shot 40.6 percent (243-for-599) from downtown.In fact, outside of that '06-07 season, Richardson has been durable and injury-free for the most part. With that one season as the outlier, the least games that Richardson has played in a season is 72 in 2004-05. Starting with his rookie year in 2001-02, he has played in 80, 82, 78, 72, 75, 51, 82, and 72 games, respectively. That's pretty impressive and speaks a lot for Richardson's durability.As far as his contract goes, Richardson is due $13.3 million next season and $14.4 million in 2010-11. If the Suns took back a package of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic, it wouldn't save them any money for this season, so Ferry would have to get creative while still including Pavlovic's non-guaranteed contract in the deal. That would be the difficult part, as a package of Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson would total only $9.2 million and not work under the league's trade provisions. Including J.J. Hickson in the mix makes the deal work, but then the question becomes about whether or not a young big man with a lot of promise is too much to surrender for acquiring a potential 20-points-per-game shooting guard. The answer from here, by the way, is "yes it is."The other options would include either trading Ben Wallace, with him and the Suns agreeing to a contract buyout (in the case Wallace retires), or getting a third team involved (like Ferry did in the Mo Williams trade). Trading Wallace for Richardson straight up actually increases the Suns' payroll for next year and gives them absolutely no incentive in getting a deal done.But with Richardson, the Cavs have a big two-guard in the prime of his career who can really shoot the lights out and attack the rim. Yeah, he was humiliated by LeBron earlier this season when he tried to go for a 360 dunk on a fast break in a game against the Cavs in Phoenix, but I'm sure that bygones can be bygones in this case.Pairing Richardson with All-Star Mo Williams in the backcourt would give James his most dynamic backcourt to work with since he's been in the NBA, and sliding Delonte West to the bench would add a punch to a unit that was pathetic at best against Orlando. West has proven that he can play both guard positions, and that trait would be valuable in having him be the team's sixth man backing up either Richardson or Williams.It doesn't address the team's problems in the frontcourt, but you can't argue that adding a 28-year old shooting guard who has averaged 18.6 points per game and shot 36.6 percent from beyond the arc during his eight-year career doesn't make this team substantially better. It may not help much with the matchup problems posed by the Magic, but it also makes the Cavs harder for Orlando to match up against on their own end.So Ferry and Kerr are talking. That much is for sure. Ferry's friendship with Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti helped tremendously in getting a deal done for Mo back in August. And he's going to have to rely on his friendship with Kerr to help him get a deal done this summer.Now, if only he can talk about the real player that will make the Cavaliers a nightmare to defend for years to come. Then we're really talking.