According to the Inquirer's Kate Fagan, Andre Iguodala is getting traded this summer. She's a little late to the party in deciphering his foggy post-season (not postseason) quotes - we actually got there first. But what she's saying is on point.
Iguodala never actually said he didn't want to return to the Sixers. He danced around igniting an aggressive offseason controversy, but he tossed in a cup of passive-aggressiveness for confusion.
It doesn't seem like he wants to be bothered by lingering questions of being the number one option or why he gets paid more money than people seem to think he's worth. I can't really blame him on that front -- I'm tired of just writing about it. But why he'd want to bounce after what, from the outside, seemed like a really fun team to be around, is strange to me. They're on the up-and-up and, though they won't win a championship with this core, neither will most teams. A young, fun, talented group of guys would seem like the perfect place for Dre to ride out the rest of his deal. Either way, he's clearly looking for an exit sign and hopes Rod Thorn can find him one in the next few months.
Fagan goes on to talk about possible destinations for Andre's life after Philly. One is Memphis, where the surprising Grizzlies lead the OKC Thunder 2-1 after already upsetting the stalwart Spurs in the first round. They're doing this without the services of Rudy Gay, their 2nd highest paid player behind Zach Randolph. Fagan suggests a salary-matching swap of Gay and Iguodala, which would give the Sixers an extra year of the versatile (but injured) swingman than they have with Andre. That deal tastes like feet. If we're trading Iguodala, it should be to free up minutes for Evan Turner, not to bog us down with offensive-minded, injury-prone, feet-tasting slashers and keep riding the minimal cap space train to Mediocreville.
The second guy she mentions has popped up on LB more than a few times: Clippers castoff Chris Kaman. Though he possesses a good chunk of basketball skillz, Chris has gotten the awkward boot from LAC with the electric and youthful rise of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin. He's got one year left at $12.2 million, so that would shed a good chunk of salary for the Sixers to make a very unlikely push at Dwight Howard (so unlikely) in 2013 (did I mention unlikely?). They could feasibly re-sign him, but that would make the front court a reunion of Clippers teammates Kaman and Elton Brand, which didn't exactly set the world on fire in their five years together in LA. And they'd be old, and most likely continuing to ride that train to M-Ville.
I'd vote for Kaman, simply because we could draft his replacement this year (Hello, Bismack - UNLIKELY) and go into 2013 with the youth movement of the century with Evan and Jrue Holiday leading the charge.
Options are slim, but it definitely appears like the ever-unsteady winds of change are blowing up skirts once again in trade talks for Iguodala.