Fear, jealously, etc. certainly play a role, but when BOTH the Raptors AND the Cavs made a S&T deal with Miami when both these front offices are no doubt quite unhappy with Miami and their lost franchise player would seem to suggest that front office types tend to largely get over these emotions when there is a modestly decent amount of incentives to do so (for e.g., two late first round picks over the next few years). By the way, regarding the 25th pick-- I am thinking the Rockets might have been specifically after a early 2nd rounder rather than a late first because they are targeting an European guy who is getting a decent-sized salary in Europe. Being picked early 2nd avoids the "Splitter Problem" regarding being constrained to paying rookie scale for 3 years. But that's just my guess. I also am not sure why Memphis would fear/hate/be jealous of Morey/Rockets more than they would Cuban/Mavs. The Mavs have been just as good as (if not better than) the Rockets, both front offices are heavily stats oriented, both are within the division, and the Mavs also spent more money than the Rockets have historically spent. Not sure why Houston would scare them or be disliked by them. In fact, Morey and Memphis GM Chris Wallace seem to be friendly with each other since both worked for the Celtics at the same time. In fact, Memphis has been quite willing to deal with Houston. Remember that Kyle Lowry guy? Is there anything happening since then to scare Memphis?
Teams track other teams tendecies also, including the gm. I think teams know that morey wants 2nd rd picks vs low first considering the guarantees associated with the first rd pick. Houston had a chance last year to buy detroits mid first round pick, but didn't. I guess they didn't see any difference between what they got in the 2nd and pick 15, and thats cool. This past draft, they could have bought the same pick dallas did, but didn't. Like i said earlier, the price of 2nd rd picks went up because of the cap clearing teams were doing. 1st rd picks were going cheaper than 2nd rd picks because of this. With this in mind, ok city manipulated the desire of teams to give up those picks and such. I still maintain it would have been a small gamble to buy that late pick and take whiteside. Maybe he turns out to be a bum or he might turn out to be a very good defender in the mold of theo ratliff, i don't know, but i guess we will see soon enough.
Hasaan Whiteside = Hasheem Thabeet! Guys who are tall and have the ability to change/block shots defensively, but nothing more...
Why would it be stupid? DM already said "cash is not a problem". Buying picks even at an overpriced rate is ok if you don't mind blowing 3M, it has no salary cap implication so overpaying for picks has no downside. If paying more cash means you don't lose a pick, why isn't that worth it? The Rockets already shelled out 3M to get the services of Andersen on top of paying his salary. I don't see why DM wouldn't pounce on a 2nd round pick for cash even if its 3M. Nobody wanted sell to DM for cash straight up. Looks like I messed up in this, Thunder made so many trades I got mixed up. However they also paid cash straight up to the Hawks to get the first pick of the 2nd round (i.e. Tibor Pleis). Look what I'm just trying to point out is that the Thunder and the Mavs got picks for cash straight up. Yet why are we unable to do the very same thing? There must be a logical reason for it, and the only thing I can come up with is that DM got the "trading pick to this guy for cash is a bad idea" tag. Everyone made a fuss when the Rockets broke even in the west with a roster composed of late draft picks. You think other gms won't notice that? Walsh looks like a moron for falling for tmac, Chris Wallace looked like a fool for trading Kyle Lowry, and Dumars got exposed when he traded C-bud, who was arguably a top 10 rookie last year. I'd expect these guys would be hesitant to sell their picks again, given the chance. When the gm looks bad in a deal that usually means the franchise got ripped off, so I assume most GMs would say not dealing with DM is the best thing for their franchise as well. I mean, if I was selling a pick would I sell it to Presti who may or may not be a good drafter? Or would I sell it to DM whom I know has a high probability of getting a steal?
BEHOLD this masterful mixtape from the man himself. If you don't want that on your team, you're a fool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f3wgcQ7EEI
This thread are always funny in hindsight. It shows me I should never try to evaluate college talent because I don't watch a second of it even during March Madness.
Draft night Whiteside was on espn answering questions (for about 5 minutes). I got in a question about Hakeem that he answered. So, I'm still on his bandwagon. Don't desert it now, boys!
Actually, I started this thread and I questioned the hope from the beginning. Thanks for the effort though.
