what does the league want? We know that LAL would take Paul for Odom and Gasol and late picks. Odom's gone, but if they could get CP3 straight up for Gasol and late picks, I'm sure they'd pull the trigger.
So what do we have that would make that happen?
League wants expiring contracts (or, if you prefer, not to take on long-term debt for non-superstars). We have Felton, Batum, Wallace (kinda), Camby. You can have up to 31.4M in expiring contracts, which means NOH could send out somewhere around 45M and save some short- AND long-term $$
League wants young players with upside to build around. Felton and Batum qualify. Wallace is a Scola-plus player, in terms of talent...yeah, he's a little old and shouldn't be the centerpiece of something like this, but great complimentary piece if you're getting cap relief AND young players and picks.
League doesn't want to look like it got hosed. With POR involved, it's 2 "little" teams getting helped by trading with the big team, so it looks a bit less lopsided. If it was
something like CP3/Ariza to the L*kers, Blake/Gasol/Okafor to us, Felton/Batum/Crash/L*kers' picks/Camby to NOH
We're left with:
Blanky/Smith/Johnson
Crawford/Wes/Elliot
Wes/Ariza
LMA/Okafor/Thomas
Gasol/Okafor/CJ/(Oden)
That's awfully light in the backcourt, but a monster frontline rotation.
NOH now has 6.7M (16.2M if Wallace picks up his option) tied up in summer 2012 contracts...Jarrett Jack, Quincy Pondexter and maybe Crash. That's between 40-50M in cap space...you could buy the team, move it to Vegas and get 3 almost-max players.
LAL gets CP3 and Ariza for Blake and Gasol.