NBA Talk: How the Okafor-Chandler Trade Benefits Both NBA Franchises

With the recent trade of Emeka Okafor going to the New Orleans Hornets to play with Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler going to the Charlotte Bobcats to play with Gerald Wallace, I think it was a pretty good trade for both of these NBA franchises. But there is always a winner of some trade, and I believe the Hornets are the ones who got the best deal. Not only did they get an NBA player with a great career ahead in his path, Okafor will also save the Hornets $1.1M in salary, and another $1.1M in luxury tax, says John Hollinger of ESPN.com. So that means, however, that the Hornets save more money while the Bobcats waste more. But both of these teams have good quality power forwards/centers, don't you agree? Although this trade isn't creating a lot of buzz, it makes a difference for both teams. I am going to break down of how plans change with both teams in this trade. You all know what this is, it is the world-famous NBA Talk! So you guys know the trade, right? Yeah, I thought so, or else I guess you haven't been reading the news lately. Oh well, now that I guess you know, let's start with Emeka Okafor with Nawlins. With Okafor there, the depth chart will most probably look like this: PG: Chris Paul SG: James Posey/Morris Peterson/Devin Brown SF: Peja Stojakovic/Rasual Butler PF: David West C: Emeka Okafor I think that is pretty reasonable. Comment below if you disagree. We all know how Chris Paul does. CP3 is unstoppable and everyone knows it. James Posey, who played a key role with the Boston Celtics in the 2007-08 season, will be playing this year after his surgery a couple of months ago on his cartilage tear. Morris Peterson, a good veteran player who'll be playing a role, and Devin Brown who will receive more playing time this year. Then there is Peja Stojakovic, who is a superior three-point shooter. Then there is Rasual Butler, who had many career-highs last year in the 2008-09 season. David West has been very impressive in his last five years of playing, averaging no lower than 15.4 points per game and seven rebounds. And here is Emeka. Okafor is a better player than Chandler, and it's great that the Hornets somehow picked them up as they traded a more bottom-out player. Okafor is a great post-scorer and he is a guy you can count on for making the shots, as he is very successful in banking them. Okafor is also improving more and more each season, as Hollinger says he averages five points more per game, every 40 minutes. Dang, that's gratifying. On the NBA Trade Machine game on ESPN.com, I tried out the Chandler-Okafor trade. It's actually very beneficial for New Orleans as they have a predicted five more wins. Don't believe me, try out for yourself. Nah, I know you won't, so why don't you click here and see for yourself? I think the Hornets are going to be real happy with this acquisition. Now let's move to Charlotte. With the Tyson Chandler trade, I think the Bobcats depth chart will most probably have a lineup like this: PG: Raymond Felton/D.J. Augustin SG: Raja Bell/Gerald Henderson SF: Gerald Wallace/Vladimir Randmanovic PF: Boris Diaw/Nazr Mohammed C: Tyson Chandler/DeSagana Diop With a good one-two punch of Raymond Felton and D.J. Augustin, I think the point guard spot is all covered. It is the same with the shooting guard spot. Actually, there are one-two punches in each category. Raja Bell, he is a good shooter from behind-the-arc, as far as I have observed. Watch out for Gerald Henderson, he'll be a surprise rookie coming into the 2009-10 season. Gerald Wallace, he's the face of the franchise. Vladimir Randmanovic continues to arouse me, and I like how he works. Boris Diaw just had his best year last year, and coming into this year, he looks to blow fans in Charlotte away. Although Nazr Mohammed is a center, I think it'd be smart to move him to power forward, which would make that spot at power forward more tough. DeSagana Diop is mostly known as a good backup center. And I know some of you may comment that he is a bust. Yes, I know, but let's make the most of him because he is good at being a backup center. At least he is no Kwame Brown or Darko. And also, you have to respect Diop's blocking ability, and a song that was a diss to Kris Kross. And now to Tyson Chandler. It is actually very questionable why the Bobcats would receive to get him. They were the 27th worst offensive team, according to Hollinger, and Chandler is now even good at offense as he isn't a dominate scorer, not even in the post despite his big size. The only thing Chandler is good at his getting dunks in on the pick-and-rolls, which won't fit well with the 'Cats. And according to NBA Trade Machine, the Bobcats are predicted to lose six more games with this addition. Hhm, not so smart now, Charlotte, aren' you? But now that Michael Jordan is going to be the owner, things might switch around a little. But Chandler will play a big role for Charlotte with the boards, and that's what Charlotte needs because they already have some pretty good scorers on the squad already. Conclusion: Why the Hornets win this trade Well, first of all, the Hornets are predicted to win five more games this season while Charlotte is predicted to lose six more games, as ESPN NBA Trade Machine analyzed with the data. Emeka Okafor is also a much better offensive scorer than Chandler as he has more ways to score like on banks shots, dunks, and pick-and-rolls. Chandler is one of the worst scorers offensively as his only scoring option is dunking off pick-and-rolls, like I said a few paragraphs ago. The only thing the Bobcats could be better in is that their rebounding team will improve much more as Chandler averages about ten-to-twelve rebounds per game. The Hornets are going to be a very strong team this year, the Bobcats are going to be questionable despite their scorers. It's going to be an interesting year, with so many tasks going on this off-season, I can't imagine what the 2010 off-season will be like with LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Yao Ming, and other big stars entering free agency. So many transactions have been made, more are here to come.