Well, we're just over a fourth of the way through the NBA season, and we've seen enough to get a pretty good look at which areas contenders need to strengthen in order to improve. We are also past the Dec. 15th date that allows free agents signed over the summer to be traded. With all that in mind, I turn to one of ESPN's greatest ideas, the Trade Machine, to come up with some logical deals that probably won't happen, but should. Some will be based around big-name players, and some will simply be role player swaps.

So, lets get this started with everybody's favorite trade rumor, Jason Kidd. Now, everything coming out of the Nets organization indicates that he isn't on the trading block, but that's no fun, so lets assume he is. It would be a logical move for a team that is on the decline and not playing well at all this year. Kidd is making $40 mil over the next two years for a team going nowhere, so if you can shave salary and bring in some young pieces with him, you've done a pretty good job. However, Kidd's $20 mil salary makes him very difficult to trade, and there are really only 3-4 teams that have the combination of young players and contracts to bring him in. I outlined a longshot Denver deal in this blog a few posts ago, but these are all probably more realistic trades.

---

Dallas: receives Jason Kidd
New Jersey: receives Devin Harris, Erick Dampier, Trenton Hassell and an '08 first rounder

That would be the bare minimum of the deal, with Dallas maybe throwing in another first rounder. The problem for this deal is that Dallas doesn't have any large, expiring contracts to match Kidd's salary, so New Jersey would have to be willing to take back Dampier's terrible deal. Harris is a tempting target, but I think we can do better than this.

---

Miami: receives Jason Kidd
New Jersey: receives Dorell Wright, Jason Williams, Daequan Cook, Smush Parker, Alonzo Mourning, and an '08 first rounder

That's more like it. The Nets would be bringing in 2 solid young players and 3 expiring contracts that would end up saving them a bunch of money and freeing up cap space. The Heat, who seem hell-bent on trying to remain contenders, would immediately have one of the league's top backcourts and could take one last shot at making noise in the playoffs. Of course, Miami would be completely mortgaging their future by trading away all their young assets, but with Shaq getting $60 mil over the next 3 years, it's pretty well mortgaged anyway, might as well take the shot while you've got it. We're not quite done though, there's one more team that desperately needs a veteran point guard, and has plenty of young assets to offer.

---

Atlanta: receives Jason Kidd
New Jersey: receives Shelden Williams, Marvin Williams, Tyronn Lue, Salim Stoudamire, and Zaza Pachulia

The Hawks would be dealing from positions of strength in order to shore up their one big weakness. A starting lineup of Kidd, Johnson, Childress, Smith and Horford would be good enough to play with anyone in the East, and bring some much-needed excitement to a near-dead Atlanta franchise. The Nets would pick up a good young big and a SF oozing with untapped potential, along with some contract relief. They could probably get an '09 draft pick out of it too.

---

Trying to put deals together, you realize why the Nets seem so reluctant to trade Kidd. The market for him is really small, and they most likely won't be getting very good value on the trade for him. Of all of these, I like the Miami trade best for the Nets, but who knows which way the Heat organization is moving right now. Anyway, since we just talked about an Atlanta trade for a point guard, lets move on to another, more feasible deal.

---

Atlanta: receives Andre Miller
Philadelphia: receives Marvin Williams and Tyronn Lue.

The Sixers are in full-rebuild mode, and the first order of business should be to move the one veteran on their team who has real trade value. The obvious destination for Miller would seem to be the somewhat-surprising Atlanta Hawks, who desperately need an experienced point guard if they want to keep up their success and make a playoff run. Williams is a good player, but the Hawks have a huge excess at the SF position, and can afford to trade him to address their weakest position. As for the Sixers, they get a tremendous talent who would combine with Andre Iguadola to give them one of the most athletic young wing tandems in the league.

---

After reading this article a while back, I've started thinking about possible trade scenarios for Ron Artest. I know that Artest is certifiably crazy, but don't you have to take a look at him if you're a contender trying to add toughness? I mean, his contract is one of the best values in the league, he's super-intense (to a fault), wants desperately to win, and is one of the game's best defenders (and he's strong enough to defend almost anyone at any position). You need a team with a strong coach and a definite alpha dog, but he can definitely be a great acquisition. That leads me to this next trade.

---

Lakers: receive Ron Artest and Shareef Abdur-Rahim
Kings: receive Kwame Brown, Ronny Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic and an '08 first rounder

Honestly, I love the idea of this trade. The Lakers seem like the perfect destination for Artest. They desperately need defensive intensity, and between Artest and Bryant, they'd definitely have that. He's also a versatile scoring option who is a matchup nightmare for most opponents. He would certainly respect Phil Jackson, and there would be no doubt who was the alpha dog on that team. It just seems like a fantastic match to me. In return, the Lakers agree to take on Reef's dead-weight contract, and the Kings get tons of cap relief, a first rounder, and a solid young player in Turiaf.

---

These last two trades don't have the big names, but I think they're interesting in that they plug holes on contending teams.

---

Utah: receives Kurt Thomas and Bostjan Nachbar
Seattle: receives Paul Millsap, Gordan Giricek, Ronnie Price, Jarron Collins
New Jersey: receives Kyrylo Fesenko and Mouhamed Sene

The thinking behind this was that Utah is a fantastic offensive team and very close to being a contender, but they've had two main problems this year. The first problem has been their interior defense, which just isn't very good. Okur and Boozer are both pretty poor defenders, and you're not going to win the West without post defense, there are just too many good interior scorers. The answer to this is Thomas, who defended Tim Duncan as well as anyone in last year's playoffs, and brings a veteran presence to that frontline. The second thing that has killed the Jazz so far is their lack of shooters. Portland has absolutely suffocated them twice by going into a zone and daring them to shoot, and you can bet that they'll see more of that in the future. Enter Nachbar, a deadeye perimeter shooter who has struggled a bit this year, but has great range and a quick release. For Seattle, they give up Thomas' expiring contract and the disappointing Sene, but they gain Millsap, who has been a force off the bench for the Jazz, and promises to have a very strong career. The Nets, instead of watching Nachbar leave over the summer or overpaying for him, get the promising young big Fesenko, and the athletic but rawer than raw Sene.

---

Boston: receives Sergio Rodriguez
Portland: receives an '08 second rounder

As we witnessed during the fourth quarter of the Pistons game, the Celtics have a severe lack of ball-handling behind Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen. With the two of them out of the game, Detroit went into a halfcourt trap and immediately ran off 6-8 points as they completely disrupted Boston's offense. Rodriguez would give them another guy who can handle the ball who at least has been around the league for a few years. For Portland, it's obvious that Rodriguez isn't cracking into their point guard rotation, so they would be getting back the second rounder that they traded to Boston, and they'd be saving about $1.6 mil (they're over the luxury tax, so his salary counts double).

---

Well, there you go. Some exciting trades, some not so exciting. We probably won't see any of them because, as Bill Simmons so aptly puts it, this is the No Balls Association, and most GMs have no backbone. Anyway, feel free to chime in with any trade ideas you've got  in the comments.