since lowry was a key cog in us trading for harden... how lowry could possibly be part of THIS team? you are going to get one or the other not both
Sacramento must feel even stupider than usual for passing on Morey's handsome offer of Lowry and pretty much every Houston first round pick, so that the Rockets could draft Lillard. Not only did Sacramento fail to draft Lillard themselves, with him being quickly snatched up the very next pick, but here they are, getting absolutely torched by the very player they passed on. I'm sure this one win will be like their NBA finals to the most pathetic and heinously operated franchise in the league.
We often see this statement on this forum, but the two players are not mutually exclusive like this. It's not unreasonable to believe another young player or other future picks would have been furnished instead of the protected Raptors pick. Especially when it came to light that Presti and Morey had been in negotiations, off and on, for what amounted to weeks before the actual trade was consummated.
The Rockets were not going to draft Lillard. They were going to draft Drummond from all the unverified reports. Morey was going to trade Lowry for the highest pick he can get regardless. He has said this numerous times regarding the ease at which a draft pick can be packaged instead of a player. It's a more liquid asset, so to speak. If he could've gotten Harden without Toronto's 1st, he'd still trade Lowry for that pick so he can package it in another deal. So yes, Lowry was out of here no matter what happened, even if it is debatable whether or not he was necessary for Harden. That's something only the Rockets and the Thunder front office know.
I heard it was either depending on who was still available as the fifth pick. Would you have been somehow displeased with Drummond, given how utterly dominant he has shown himself to be when given run? See if you can dig up some highlights in this young season. This guy is poised to wreck the league in the coming years. Perhaps I should have been clearer. The point is that the Lowry *PICK* was not some critical aspect of the trade, and could have conceivably been substituted with other young talent or picks. In other words, we're not even considering some alternate universe where Harden and Lowry are playing side by side in a Rockets backcourt. Posters who think that was ever going to happen may be kidding themselves. What we're saying is that Harden might have been playing alongside a top 5 pick, as a Houston Rocket. The Lowry trade and Harden trades were far more severable than some may think.
Not discrediting the pick. I was content with the Drummond pick back during the draft, since I thought we needed that high ceiling player which Drummond is. I've honestly never heard of any Lillard rumors. But perhaps there were some. I don't think you can definitively that the pick was not necessary, because there's no support for it. Yes, perhaps instead of the Toronto pick, the Rockets could've piled on enough value elsewhere, it would equal to the Toronto #1. But whatever such a package may be, Morey deemed them more valuable than Toronto's #1. In hindsight, would you have give, say, Parsons and Motiejunas instead? Because that's probably what it would've taken in place of Toronto's pick.
Presti and Morey were discussing a trade for Harden months before the pick even existed, per the Woj article posted on this very forum: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--inside-look-at-james-harden-s-trade-to-rockets-28301609.html Why would you believe the pick was all that critical if discussions to obtain Harden were ongoing even while Kyle Lowry was still a Houston Rocket? Almost certainly. I realize you're just using those two as an example, but that sounds like overpaying to me. History may indeed prove out that Parsons and Donuts are worth far more than, say, the 10th overall pick in the 2013 draft. There was almost certainly a midpoint to be reached that didn't include Parsons, whom Presti was very eager to get as a throw-in in the Harden deal as talks intensified.
And just to clarify things even further, you're right when you say there are some aspects of those negotiations that we may never know about, and it's not like Woj's dramatic license in his article clears things up for us. For instance, why did talks intensify in advance of Harden's contract negotiations? In other words, why was Presti's answer "yes" when it had been "no" before? Was it that the Thunder knew Harden wasn't going to bite on their lowball deals, was it that the Rockets finally had some assets that were appealing to the Thunder, or was it a little bit of both? It seems unrealistic that it would have been exclusively one circumstance or the other, though.
Oh hell no, at this rate he will be asking for near max money at the end of his contract with Toronto. Especially with Toronto not having a consistent second option, Lowry will have the freedom to explode his stats in his contract year.
