Yao is a friggin mumbler... and it's not even a language barrier deal... he mumbles when talking in Chinese, too.
I believe Morey traded for the Landry pick. Cash + future 2nd rounder for the Landry pick, I think. Contract fillers can always be involved as well.
Completely different set of circumstances Landry was a 2nd rounder with NO guaranteed contract and a future 2nd was traded out. Plus, IIRC SEA had multiple 2nd round picks. Trading into the 1st round would be entirely different. I'm not saying you can't "buy" your way in...I'm saying it's highley unlikely to TRADE your way in.
So you are saying draft day (or pre-draft day) trades of a player for a 1st round picks are difficult to pull off? Luol Deng (7th Pick) was traded by PHX on draft day for a 2nd rounder (31st pick) and a future first rounder. Portland acquired a 7th pick in exchange for Sebastian Telfair (and accepting Raef Lafrtenz' contract while trading away a shorter one), later they got Rudy Fernandez (22nd pick, I think) was traded by PHX, along with James Jones' contract basically for a trade exception and cash. Leandro Barbosa (28th pick) was traded by Spurs to PHX for a future 1st rounder. Brandan Wright (8th pick) was traded to GSW in exchange for Jason Richardson. Rudy Gay (8th pick) was traded by Houston, along with Stromile Swift for Shane Battier.
If Tmac comes back and contributes, I can see the Rockets just going with their version of BIG 3 to the playoffs and let Tmac's contract come off the books at the end of the season. I really don't think any teams would be willing to trade for Tmac in the offseason when there's no gurantee that he'll play until mid season. Most teams will probably wait until trade deadline to start thinking about cap space.
Not sure where you're going with this. As Carl Herrera shows, it's done all the time -- both with players duct taped and just pure pick for future pick+cash swaps. It's worth noting, the Rockets have a 2.6 million dollar trade exception from the Francis trade this year. Given it can't be combined with a player, it's a bit hard to use since it's not so big (almost has to be a guy on a rookie contract). However, if wer're talking to a team trying to slash payroll and is over the luxury tax, it could actually be pretty big. One team to watch might be the New Orleans Hornets. They could swap their #21 overall pick + Hilton Armstrong ($2m 08/09 salary) for our trade exception + cash or future considerations (a swap of 2nd round picks). With Armstrong's salary bumping up to 2.8m in 09/10 along with ~1.3m for the rookie, this simple trade would save New Orleans over $4m in salary, and over $8m assuming they're at the luxury tax line!
I completely agree. I think both DM and Les want to give this team with Ron, once signed, with Mac and Yao one more/last go. If they think, Mac just isn't himself, he'll be traded around the deadline. The only way it could be sooner is we get a deal that just can't be passed upon.
but the thing is Minnesota ended up getting a much worse deal... they only received CASH CONSIDERATIONS for the roy for foye trade...I'm pretty sure they were forced by Portland to hand over Roy for nothing more than Foye AND CASH. whereas we had Luther Head who was a promising young player at the time in the deal. Pretty sure they didn't blabber it out for the purpose of seeing if anyone can top it. That'd only ruin their already-planned deals. How did DraftExpress.com and other sites get hold of the rumored deals that were actually planned by us and Minnesota/Atlanta I don't know. But I do know it cost us Brandon Roy and a championship
Using that move as an example...that would get us a serviceable 7" to play some backup minutes + a 1st round pick. 2 birds with one stone.
Exactly what I had in mind. Filling the backup 7-footer role without using a real asset or dipping into MLE would be ideal A couple of other possibilities to float: Memphis (#27) + Hamed Hadadi -- though he's been pretty worthless so far and they're not anywhere near the luxury tux Minnesota (#18, #28) + Mark Madsen -- Minnesota also is not in the luxury tax zone, but they may not want to carry a ton of rookies on an already young roster (they also have the #6 overall and 2 2nd rounders). Madsen wouldn't help us, but this move would save Minnesota ~4-5m Sacramento (#23) + Cedric Simmons(?) -- I can't find if Simmons' option was picked up or not. Utah (#19) + Kosta Koufos -- Screw the Jazz. But this is a team that could be in big trouble if Boozer, Okur, and Korver all stay (considering the economy those guys would opt out into, possible) -- they'd have 72m committed before probably needing to spend big money on Milsap. Koufos was just their first round pick, but they have another young big in Fesenko. We'd probably need to trade a future first to make this happen, but it's essentially 2 ~top 20 picks for 1 future 20-30 pick.
