Paint Cleveland Redd

The Michael Redd to Cleveland talk has once again heated up. For the second time in three years, it appears the Cav's want to add the veteran scorer to play beside LeBron James. At least their fans want it.

What started off as talk on blogs has blossomed into a city-wide movement in Cleveland. They've even come up with a clever "Paint the Town Redd" campaign.

I love it. In fact, I'm all for it. It's no secret I'm not the biggest Michael Redd fan. He's a tremendous shooter, a good scorer, and a great person. But he's not a leader. Matter of fact, he's a selfish player. His former coach even hinted at this in his exit interview.

Redd is too caught up in putting up his points and getting his shots. He only gets his teammates involved when he wants to make a point. That point being, he's the best player on the team and they need him to score points in order to be successful. I disagree with that, but that's another topic.

I think Redd would be willing to defer to LeBron James. He realizes James is a supreme talent, something he doesn't feel he's playing alongside in Milwaukee now. That shouldn't be a problem. Redd would be the perfect side-kick to LeBron, forming arguably the most deadly one-two punch in the league.

I don't have a problem trading Redd within the division either. As I said, he's a great talent, but he's not a superstar. The only problem I have with these proposed deals that are flying around is what the Bucks would bring back in return.

The most common proposal has the Bucks sending Redd to the Cavs for Boobie Gibson, Wally Szczerbiak and the 16th pick of this years draft.

I don't like this trade on many levels. First, I don't want Boobie Gibson. The Bucks already have Mo Williams, and seem poised to add Eric Gordon with their 8th pick. That's three undersized shooting guards if you're counting at home. Sorry, but no thanks. I don't want Wally Szczerbiak, but I realize we'll need to bring back a large contract in return. That being said though, Cleveland is going to have to take some of our bad contracts, just as they expect us to do in return. If I were dealing with the Cavs, this is the deal I'd offer them, keeping in mind that Milwaukee holds all the leverage here: This is the deal I'd push for

Charlie V is going to be a malcontent sitting behind Yi (make no mistake, he'll definitely be doing that a lot more in Yi's second year) so this offseason seems like the right time to get rid of him. This deal also allows us to get rid of Dan Gadzuric's horrendous deal. Cleveland just may be desperate enough to take him, knowing how badly they want Redd and that they're geting another talent back in return in Charlie V.

On the Bucks end, they add 3 expiring contracts. Varejo can fill the backup center position, Joe Smith is still a valuable role guy off the bench (both guys are perfect for Scott Skiles system), and Wally Szczerbiak gives us value in 12 million bucks disappearing at seasons end. I'm not so sure they wouldn't just waive Wally before the season began. Oh and keep in mind, this deal does include Cleveland's first round pick this year or next year (you can't include draft picks on the trade machine).

So there it is Cleveland, take it or leave it. You want Michael Redd? Well, that's our asking price.