In the nice Voice of Aus thread comparing all SF active players statistically, I was surprised to see that Tayshaun was one of the absolute *worst* values in the league, in terms of team impact per $. But then, he was getting paid a lot.
I highly doubt it. We'd have to see a massive step forward from the other young guys; and at that point why even bother?
I agree that Ty Lawson makes a lot of sense for Houston, but Denver appears to be a team gunning to make the playoffs this season. So maybe he hits the market in February if/when Denver disappoints but he is not presently available. Rajon Rondo IS presently available. As for your other suggestions: Ricky Rubio cannot shoot the ball, at all. He is historically awful at shooting. Rondo is no Reggie Miller but Rubio struggles to hit shots from close range. Plus, Minnesota is a difficult team to do business with. Very unreasonable. Alert to all Rockets fans: Goran Dragic is an extremely good basketball player and the Suns are evolving into a team to be reckoned with. Dragic IS NOT on the market. Will not happen. Eric Bledsoe IS, however, on the market. Phoenix would be very intrigued by the offer Houston is going to be able to make (after using the TPE to obtain Wilson Chandler or Tayshaun Prince or Landry Fields). I am projecting one of the following three trades prior to the season opener: 1) Rajon Rondo directly to Houston for the sort of package I suggested earlier (scroll up); 2) Eric Bledsoe directly to Houston for the sort of package suggested earlier; or 3) A three-way deal involving Houston, Boston, and Phoenix. Rondo to Houston, Bledsoe to Boston, and Houston's package to Phoenix I like Rondo's leadership and playoff experience a lot but Bledsoe is awfully tempting. I think Daryl Morey is gunning for Bledsoe right now.
I don't believe Dragic is on the market. I cant understand why people think the Suns would trade their best player .... and then do it for peanuts.
Honestly, I think the best situation for now (assuming we can't land another star this offseason) would be to sign Marion and Jermaine O'Neal for depth and go to war with this current team... I think we could be very competitive with this roster: Beverley/Canaan/Smith Harden/Daniels/Johnson Ariza/Marion Jones/DMo/Adrien Howard/O'Neal/Dorsey/Capella Although Capella/Johnson would likely be in the d-league for quite a while this upcoming season, they should be ready to contribute in the playoffs IMO.
We might not even have the assets for one of those players. How the hell would we get both. Also, Milsap is NOT on the market anyways
I really like the idea of signing O'Neal. He gave Howard fits last season when defending him .... He wont play big minutes but he will give productive minutes. I could be talked into Marion .... he'd be a good option behind Ariza and spot minutes at the 4 spot depending upon the matchup. Still need to figure out who backs up Harden , maybe Daniels gets those minutes .... The backup PG really has me concerned. Canaan reminds me an awful lot of Brooks , if he isn't filling it up he's a liability otherwise. Ish Smith and his 4.3% shooting from deep not to mention piss poor FT percentage. Nick Johnson doesn't have NBA 3 point range yet , he's probably a D-Leaguer this season. Did I mention FT shooting ?! Holy hell ..... How does a stat geek like Morey end up with a roster that shoots this bad from the charity stripe ?! Howard , Dorsey , Ish Smith all below 60% while Jones & Motiejunas both shoot 61% for their careers. FT's will be an adventure for this roster.
We could also add in Nelson if he would want to come play with a more mature Howard. I completely forgot that he was available. We would definitely be better than last year and if these guys are on short term deals, they would not hurt our flexibility moving forward. We would have a much better defensive team and have major improvements to our bench with this roster. Bev/Nelson/Canaan/Smith Harden/Daniels/Johnson--> DLeague Ariza/Marion Jones/DMo/Adrien Howard/O' Neal/Dorsey/Capella--> DLeague
They are probably the best available players to fill the holes on this team (O'Neal , Marion , Nelson) , question is , what kind of deals would they require. I could see O'neal signing for the net min or a little more ... then again he may retire. No idea what Marion would cost. According to hoopshype there are ~12-15 teams interested in Nelson and he could get between 5-7m per. It might take a multi year deal to get him to commit ... I'd do it for one year and a team option for a second but nothing beyond that. Does he take a deal like that ?!? Or does he want a longer commitment ?! Would be a hell of an upgrade over the current hot mess of UDFA's and D-League scrubs ....
So assuming we used a portion of the MLE to sign Johnson to a 3 year deal, we should have around $4.7 to $4.8 million left. If we're signing Capela to the rookie scale and Llull, Gentile, and Papanikolaou are all staying overseas, then IF we are going to sign someone, they must currently be in the NBA. According to Feigen, we talked to Mo Williams, but it's likely not going to go anywhere. Also doesn't think Nelson or Turner will end up here. That leaves Shawn Marion and Ray Allen as the only other vets we would spend MLE money on. Ray is likely going to Cleveland or retiring. Marion makes some sense, though I would rather have just given Papanikolaou a little bit more. Marion and Pap would have a similar roles on this team, but Pap is 13 years younger.
Given the Johnson and Capela news, looks like our current roster is: Beverley / Canaan / Ish Harden / Daniels / Johnson / Hopson Ariza / Gee / Covington TJones / DMo / Adrien / Capela / Powell Howard / Dorsey Lots of work left to do. Beverley and TJones are guys that should be coming off the bench. Daniels is the only guy i really like on our 2nd unit. Our needs are: 1) Upgrade at PF 2) Upgrade at PG 3) Quality backup center 4) Quality backup wing I think we should be able to fix #2 in a trade for Rondo, Dragic, Rubio, Bledsoe or Lawson. #4 can be fixed by using the MLE to sign Marion. No idea how to fix the PF spot. Dorsey may be the answer at #3, but we would still have the BAE to go after Okafor or O'Neal. Come playoff time, I think we could see a rotation of: Dragic / Beverley Harden / Daniels Ariza / Marion ? / Marion Howard / Dorsey That's a better roster than what we had last year, but I have no idea how to solve the PF problem.
I mean this in the best possible way. You are one of the best posters on this site. So why do you think we can get Goran Dragic for basically nothing? He is Phoenix's best player, why would they trade him? 0% chance Houston trades for Goran Dragic.
The trade would likely be TJones (who fits their system perfectly), 2015 NOP 1st, and the rights to one of our euros. That is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you consider that Dragic is only signed for one more year and is 4 years older than Bledsoe. The Rockets may very well offer Dragic a 4 year $80 million contract next summer. If PHX is unwilling to pay Bledsoe $14.7 per, would you expect them to cough up that more than that for an older Dragic when they still aren't close to competing? The issue with point guards/combo guards is that there's currently so many of them in the league that their tradable value is significantly lower than a wing or center. Lastly, by signing Isaiah Thomas and drafting Tyler Ennis, PHX is signaling that someone is gone. No matter how much people say "but they could all play PG or SG", it seems fairly ridiculous to that a team would invest that much into 1 (or 2) positions and leave the other spots neglected. It could be that they are more open to dealing Bledsoe vs. Dragic, but that would seem odd to me. Bledsoe has huge upside.....and by huge I mean a less ball dominant Russell Westbrook. Dragic is a very good player just like Paul Millsap is a very good player.....likely to make an all-star appearance at some point, but he won't become a top 20 player. I'll be happy with any of these PGs: Bledsoe, Dragic, Rondo, Rubio, or Lawson. Dragic is the best fit for us, and Rondo should be the cheapest to obtain. Gun to my head, who are we getting? Probably Rondo. Boston doesn't have much leverage, and we have stuff they would want.
Memo to Shawn Marion: Two-year deal for Room Exception w/another team: ~$5.6M. Taking $4.8M of Rockets' MLE + vet min in 15-16: ~$6.3M.
They were under cap pressure and they had to pick keeping either Harden or Ibaka. They thought keeping a skilled big man was more valuable than keeping an offense only guard that plays a position already occupied. In hindsight that was dumb because the beard is awesome, but the Suns don't have the same cap pressure. They have room to have both Dragic and Bledsoe. They don't have to choose either or. No way they trade Dragic when he has such an amazing contract and was the focal point of their success last year.
