What if we trade Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Joe Smith and Vitkor Khraypa for Jermaine O'neal?

PG-Chris Duhon 6'1
SG-Kirk Hinrich 6'3
SF-Luol Deng 6'9
PF-Jermaine O'neal 6'11
C-Ben Wallace 6'7

-Andres Nocioni 6'7
-Joakim Noah 6'11
-Thabo Sefolosha 6'7
-Adrian Griffin 6'5

It is obvious Skiles doesnt like either one. I love both Gordon and Thomas on the team but when Hinrich and Gordon play teams SG's kill us. Since Thomas never plays why keep him?

With this trade we still get a solid core of Deng, Hinrich, O'neal, and Nocioni. Our only true point guard is starting (Duhon) while since Hinrich is struggling with his shots make him more focus on defending teams bigger guards unless O'neal kicks it out to him from the post if he is open instead while Luol Deng, Jermaine O'neal, and Nocioni do the scoring. Our team all-around is better defensively with this trade and is bigger. Ben Wallace has a guy similiar to Rasheed Wallace at the PF spot that will bring defense and offense.

This move makes us worse as-is.

Can you be more specific?

Oneal is overrated now, he wouldn't solve anything if we had to give up that for him. He isn't even the best player on his own team anymore and his numbers are way down from years previous. He's a big guy that is a career 44% shooter. No thank you.

1. It gives us no option but to play Mr. Hinrich even more because it thins our backcourt dramatically. Mr. Hinrich can no longer be benched if he has a bad game, because Thabo, who becomes the first guard backup, is having an even worse season.

2. Jermaine O'Neal is having a terrible season so far for him. His shooting percentage is down to .415, which means he would in fact fit in perfectly on this team. The last 2 years now he has averaged 14 points a game, down from the 20 he put up the few years before that. His numbers are trending down rapidly. And Indiana from a lot of accounts seems better when he's not on the floor.

3. Joe Smith and Tyrus Thomas right now are putting up 12 points and 10 rebounds between them, on average, in 36 minutes of game time. O'Neal right now is putting up 14 points and 7.5 rebounds/game in 31 minutes.

Thats a lot to give up i think we can get him cheap for the way he is playing now.

we would hae no bench with that trade it makes no sence.

Besides what Balta said, O'Neal is due $18 mil a year for another 2 years after this one. That's a big contract to swallow for a guy that is falling off fairly rapidly.