How much for the point guard?

Here on CC.net there's lots of talk about deals like the Clippers giving up Odom + Maggette + #8 + #12 for the #1 pick AND bad contracts. Then if I go to other boards and read what Clipper fans post, they seem to think they should be giving up Maggette and #8 in exchange for the #1 or at worst Odom for #1 and filler. That's a pretty big difference of opinion, so I was trying to look back at NBA history to see what teams were really willing to give up for a point guard that they covet.

To this point, I'm having trouble coming up with an example of a team paying a king's ransom to acquire a point guard. So far, all the deals I can think of are fairly even trades, with alot of point guard for point guard exchanges,at the core of the deals. I'm sure there has to be an example that I'm not thinking of, but when has a team given up an outrageous amount for a point guard?

I'm not just talking about the draft rights to an unproven college point guard, I can't even come up with a case of an overwhelming deal for a proven all-star point guard.


The best I can come up with so far is Phoenix acquiring Jason Kidd for Cassell, Finley and AC Green. Since at the time of that deal Finley was a 15ppg 2nd year man and Cassell was still a backup, even that deal was pretty even and probably even favoring Phoenix.

Can anybody think of a better case of a team overpaying to acquire a point guard?

I don't believe that Jay Williams is the most sought after point guard in the history of the NBA, so if teams are willing to pay a huge price for him, then it seems that there should be some historical precidence of teams being willing to such a thing.

There's lots of examples of teams overpaying for big men, but I need some help on the point guards.

 

Yeah, but Wallace was a bench player at the time. While it turned out to be a very good deal for Portland in the long term, it wasn't really outrageous at the time of the deal.

 

<I>Terrell Brandon (though he was coupled with Tyrone Hill) was roughly equivalent to Shawn Kemp and Vin Baker (both at the time considered top, young big men) in the three-way Seattle-Cleveland-Milwaukee deal in 1997.
</i>

Clutch, that's my point. Back in '97 Brandon was an All-star PG and Hill was a good 2nd tier PF. It took both of those guys to get
an all-star big man. What I'm looking for is some historical instance of somebody overpaying for a PG to the extent that is being rumored with Williams. There were some prominent players exchanged in that deal, but it was far from Odom, Magge
tte, #8 and #12 for Williams.


<i>
I think teams see a prime floor general prospect in Williams, and they could give up a lot to get him. There may not be a better one coming for a while.
</i>

Unless you believe Lebron James is the next Magic Johnson, then he'll be here in about 12 months. Matter of fact, in the well publicized Cavs scrimmage, Lucas had James play the point in the second half.


<i>
In the case of Clippers fans wanting to give up Maggette and #8 (that's insane) or just Odom .... just remember it took Brand to get the #2 last year and it took Shareef Abdur-Rahim to get the #3. Both of those players have less question marks than a player like Odom ... and last year's draft didn't have two definite top pick candidates in Williams or Ming, who would make any team that's nuts for him, it's not purely for basketball talent reasons). Neither of those two Clipper deals would satisfy the Rockets nor their fans.
</i>

Yes, it took former rookie of the year Elton Brand to get the draft rights to a big man with potential (Chandler). It also took SAR to get the draft rights to seven footer Pau Gasol. There's plenty of historical cases of teams overpaying for big guys, I still don't see any cases where they overpayed for point guards.