What's the going price for Dragic by the trade deadline?

IMO that works out better for Rockets, Bledsoe is a better fit for this team. And Morey has proven that he knows how to find PGs. Shved could be the next Dragic/Lowry. What Houston really needs right now is another big like Wright and/or Kirilenko.

 

At the beginning of the season, I also thought the priority should be on the front court. But with DMo's emergence, the favorable contract of DMO and Jones, and the strong probability that they will continue to improve, I guess Morey can resist blowing his assets on anyone who he isn't sure is an upgrade over DMO or Jones.

At the beginning of the season I thought guys like Millsap and Gibson might be available, but it is looking more and more unlikely. I can still see guys in the caliber of Bass or Ilyasova being traded here if the price isn't big enough (eg. 2nd round from NYK + minor asset) as a temporary patch for the playoff.

 

Kevin Durant

My hope is that KD signs with us and the first thing he says is "I may have called Dwight Howard a (lady part), but I love playing with (lady parts).

 

1. Denver is apparently thinking this way:


http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/c...ake-or-break-denver-nuggets-season?source=rss

Gonna decide whether to keep competing or become sellers in the next few weeks, depending on where they stand vs. the playoff race.

2. Regarding Houston's cap flexibility, or the lack there of, I am thinking that while it matters, it may not matter that much.

First, it seems nowadays that it is often possible to create cap room when you need it. With the shorter contracts, half of the league has the ability to take on a substantial contract in a trade.

Second, even if your team doesn't have cap room to sign the free agent that you want straight up. A desirable free agent can threaten to go to one of a number of teams that do have cap room unless his own team decides to send him to the destination that he really wants to go to.

The important part is to be the most attractive destination to the free agent that you want. The other stuff can often work itself out.

This past summer, for example, the Rockets didn't have any cap room going into free agency, but was able to put themselves in position to sign a max contract guy in Chris Bosh should Bosh chose to go to Houston. Even last summer, when Houston signed Dwight Howard, they were like $5M short of a max offer to Dwight. But they found takers for Thomas Robinson and Royce White's contracts quickly enough. Golden State, in the same summe, dumped something like $24 worth of 2013-14 contract (Biedrins, Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush...) to allow themselves to not only sign Iguodala but also to chase Dwight Howard (would have required another trade or S&T for Howard).

Come summer, if a star that Morey really wants would choose to come to Houston, I am sure Morey would not hesitate to pay the necessary price to clear the space, or use the threat of cap space and the threat of the player leaving for a team that does have cap space to force a S&T.

 

lol

Right now Dmo is playing well enough that Morey can afford to wait to see if Dmo continues to play at a high level. Not long ago Dmo was stinking it up. Now in the next couple of months before the trading deadline Dmo has a chance to show we don't need to worry about the front court (I am hoping we don't) and can use our assets for that great playmaking guard. Morey has a few precious assets he can use and salary he can pay before the cap is locked for good for years. In that time we will be playing a lot of those 2 big front court west conference teams we will be meeting in the playoffs. The ball is in Dmo court in showing us we don't need anyone else. If he starts slipping he is gone.

 

I think the NY and LA GMs value Dragic more because Dragic is a more complete player. I am not sure if Dragic is really as good defensively as people here think he is, but he runs the floor, creates, facilitates, and shoots almost 50% from the floor! If your second best player is Nick Young, you would really want Dragic on your team.

That said, I can understand why specific teams like the Dallas values Rondo a lot. Rondo does two things really really well: get scorers the ball and play great defense.

In terms of picks, I think a fair price for Dragic is a mid first and 2 early seconds. Phoenix might want young players that are an equivalent of these picks to speed up their rebuild process - since they already got established players like Bledsoe, Thomas, Markieff Morris that are worth keeping.

NOP+KPap+Capela/2nd round NYK pick might get it done

I think KPap can be sold for as an equivalent to an early 2nd. (the Suns might not value him as much as fans here -while talented, this guy only shoots like 35%!!)

Capela is like an early second, although he was drafted as a late 1st. After all, he is unusable at this point and is unproven.


(If TJones is healthy, I think NOP pick +TJones would completely entice the Suns. I would prefer not to trade TJones either, because IF he can somehow take a big step on his defense to about the league average, he would be very valuable to this team with his efficiency and hussling.)

 

Agree - I really like your evaluation. It's good for the Rockets to take the time here. Morey once commented that it takes about 3 years for a big man to develop and show what he can do. I think this is a critical season for both DMo and TJones. As for TJones, he might be given slightly more time because of his injury.
- I think Morey thinks both TJones and DMo are talented enough to be given this amount of time. On the other hand, I think Morey reached the conclusion with PPat,Morris, (and White) quicker because their ceiling are just not worth the extra time.

 

lol

Thank you. You are kind to say that.

I agree with you that Morey evaluated the named and got rid of them to keep looking at other possible gems. His patience has rewarded us with TJ and Dmo. Before TJ was injured I was excited to see that he had improved his defense and was looking forward to his play against other teams and matchups. Now with Dmo's emergence it is looking like we can actually go for that Dragic or similar playmaking guard.

 

Phoenix Insider:

 

I have voiced my agreement with this statement multiple times. Gotta have a championship big man rotation which is a minimum of 3 quality bigs (guys with elite size and good skill sets) to man the greater majority of the 4/5 minutes in order to win a championship in today's NBA.

Memphis is Pau/Zach/Koufas/Leuer.
Spurs have Timmy/Splitter/Diaw.
Clips have Blake/DeAndre/Hawes.
GS has Bogut/Speights/Ezeli/Lee.
OKC has Adams/Ibaka/Collison/McGary/Perkins.
Pels have Davis/Asik/Anderson plus 2 other 7 footers in Ajinca/Withey.
And Portland w/ LA/Lopez/TRob/Kamaan/Freeland.


These are are WC playoff opponents with the exception of Dallas who traded away their third big (Wright) for Rondo and are coming up significantly short in their big man rotation.


We have Dwight and DMo. That is really our legit big man rotation guys. Black and Dorsey are both under 6'9". Seriously not championship contending big men. We need at least one more guy with legit length and defensive rim/paint protecting ability.

That's why I'm hoping Boston puts Wright on the block and I hope we go get him. He may be the best backup big man in the NBA and I could make the arguemnt that he's better than some of the starting centers in this league. And there's not a more perfect fit for his game than us. We need to trade for him if he is on the block and I suspect Morey will go after him hard if he becomes available.

So....if that happens I won't mind so much paying a guy like Dragic in free agency....if we traded for him too.

Also......as long as we have options I'm okay with paying a point guard. Those options being....the ability to trade that point guard because he's on a decent value contract or trade your other players because they are on good value contracts...and enough quality draft picks to grease the skids to move out salary if necessary.


Having the ability to clear cap is just as good as having cap space. As long as we maintain a stash of second rounders and we don't go all in with our own first round draft picks...then we should be able to create cap space pretty much any time we need it.

 

Interesting. Denver might have a player in Affalo who could help with that 3 team action to get us Dragic.

 

Not surprising re: IT. If they can get a quality wing or center for him, and have enough money to re-sign Dragic, it's win win, and may make them a playoff team depending on the return.

However, I don't expect the market for IT to be great - they will get more for Dragic. I'd happily part with 1 of Ariza, Brewer, Pap, DMo, TJ along with a younger player (NJ, maybe?), and the Pellies pick. Need to give to get, and Dragic on this team would be huge. I'd like to reserve the Knicks pick to try to pry away Brendan Wright.

 

I'd like Thomas and I'm sure he'd be less than Dragic but I would suspect it would cost us the NOP and expirings at the very least. Though I can't see him or Beverley happy coming off the bench.

 

whats going price for waiters now with cle ? he can handle the ball and score a lot of potential.

 

Not surprise that teams are not very interested in Thomas. Nobody offered him a contract better than PHX did this summer and nothing he did since then really changes the existing opinion on his abilities.

He is a nice scorer, fast, can to the basket and shoots pretty well. But he is 5'9", will always be at a defensive disadvantage vs. normal sized PGs, also a ball hog and we don't know if he really moves the needle. Kings didn't get worse without him and the Suns didn't get better with him.

Plenty of miniature sized scorers out there (Aaron Brooks, for one) that do 80-85% of what Thomas does. Doubt that he fetches much value in the trade market.

 

The Knicks can't trade their 1st round pick until 2018, so the most they could do is agree to swap 1sts. Still probably better than our NOP pick, but also not much reason for the Knicks because they could just sign him as a FA without any issue or additional moves.

 

They have it, but they have to use it because they have committed their 2016 pick and are bound by the Stepian rule.

 

After that swap with Denver they owe the rights to Toronto.