Let's make a deal? Not so fast

Let's make a deal, huh?

OK.

Grab a calculator, or better yet, a mathematician. Flirt with the salary cap, or better yet, someone nicknamed "capologist." And have some coffee, or better yet, pain medication.

Dreaming up trades in today's NBA is more difficult than teaching Tim Hardaway tolerance.

"To make a deal today — oh Lord — you'd have to have an act of Congress," said Orlando Magic senior vice president Pat Williams, formerly an acclaimed general manager.

During his career, Williams built the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers' championship team. He drafted great players such as Maurice Cheeks, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal. He traded away Pete Maravich. He traded for Julius Erving, Penny Hardaway and Moses Malone.

He did it all — and didn't have to worry about the base-year compensation or poison-pill provision. He didn't need a level to balance salaries on both sides of a deal. And he sure didn't think of a live player as an expiring contract.

"There's no question it's a different world," Williams said. "It's far more complicated. Far more issues."

And far less fun for the average fan. The NBA trade deadline is set for noon Seattle time today. It's easy to know what your team needs, but it's tiresome to figure out how it should trade for those needs.

The complexity of big business is robbing us of a cherished pastime. What fun is it when you need a Master's just to play Trade The Chump?

For example, let's think about dealing Sonics forward Rashard Lewis (who is not a chump, by the way). One crazy but consistent rumor has the New York Knicks dancing with Seattle. The latest variation of that deal, according to reports from the Big Apple: Lewis for Seattle native Nate Robinson, Channing Frye and some throw-ins.

OK, so never mind this deal makes little sense because the Knicks are a bad team trapped beneath the boulder of high-priced contracts. Never mind the quiet Lewis, who essentially can veto any trade by saying he'd opt out of his contract after this season, probably wouldn't want the pressure of New York and would prefer to go to a winning team. Never mind the Sonics could do better.

Suspend all disbelief and wade in the weirdness.

Let's do the math. Both the Sonics and Knicks are over the salary cap, so rules require the total salaries given and received must be within 25 percent of each other.

Lewis is making $9.35 million this season. To get him, the Knicks must give Seattle back at least $7.01 million worth of players but not more than about $11.7 million.

Robinson and Frye make a combined $3.51 million. If Knicks boss Isiah Thomas, known for irrational trades, threw in Jerome James ($5.4 million), the deal would work. But why would the Sonics want James back at a price tag they were unwilling to pay two years ago?

The Knicks have some contracts that expire after this season, but the Sonics don't seem interested in a salary dump. Not for a player the caliber of Lewis. And the rest of the Knicks roster is largely unattractive, except for center Eddy Curry (who has a heart condition), guard Jamal Crawford (another native, but the Sonics already have an All-Star shooting guard) and power forward David Lee (supposedly untouchable). And, besides, don't the Sonics already have enough power forwards?

Now, we could keep adding players on both sides and turn this into a monster deal, but let's say both teams really don't want to give up much else. In these situations, three-way trades are attempted.

The best three-way partners are teams with cap space. So throw the Atlanta Hawks ($7.5 million under the cap) into this scenario.

Say the Hawks' main motivation is to get rid of the insane contract they gave to Speedy Claxton. And say that because the Knicks are, well, the Knicks, they're willing to take on the three years and $17.2 million remaining on Claxton's contract just to get Lewis.

So now we have the Knicks and the Hawks trying to deal so this trade between the Knicks and Sonics can work. New York will be a little difficult. The Knicks won't just give up an expiring contract for Claxton, who's averaging 5 points and gets hurt as easily as he sweats. So the Knicks ask the Hawks to take forward Malik Rose, whose contract has two more years and $14.5 million on it.

Compassionate souls, the lowly Hawks have mercy on my fingers and agree. NBA math says it works for all three parties. The league approves the trade.

And so, in order to trade Lewis for Robinson and Frye, we needed three teams and five players. By today's NBA standards, that was a painless deal. Not to mention a bad one, for all three teams.

Imagine trying to decipher what your general manager is up to. You can't.

"You'd have 50 scribes, thousands of Internet folks and ESPN's Bill Simmons writing six-page columns to try to make an educated guess," Williams said. "It never ends. You have to make the basketball pieces and the cap pieces work, and then you have to worry about chemistry and future issues when taking on sizable contracts. And one mistake kills you.

"Mistakes today, with the economic hurt, it's just staggering."

Perhaps we should give those gun-shy GMs a break. In this era, the best deal truly can be the deal you don't make.

"But," Williams said, "one deal like that can make your career."

And if you're a fan practicing on your own, it could break your career. Spending all that office time pondering trades surely qualifies as grounds for firing.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com