Around December 8th, 2011, the Rockets were close to finalizing a team that would have sent Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Kevin Martin, Luis Scola, and Goran Dragic (two out of the three are no longer on the team). (Gasol sure does look nice in ketchup and mus.. I mean red and yellow) After Gasol's scoring run in the third quarter against USA in the Gold medal match, I couldn't help but imagine how different things would be had the trade gone down: First, Chris Paul would have been on the Lakers, meaning Nash might have ended up choosing a different team to run the following summer. Second, it seemed almost inevitable that Nene would have signed with the Rockets had Gasol been here. (source: http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/03/nuggets-nene-shares-his-fondness-for-houston/) Third*, with Dragic gone and no need for a free roster spot for Dalembert, Lin would have stayed on the team. I put an asterisk on this one because he may not have developed as much as he did in New York. The coaches constantly did rave on his work ethic though. Now, let's look back on why this trade didn't go down: the league quickly blocked this trade and didn't let it happen because of "basketball reasons." Right after the league came out of a lockout that started as the result of small market teams not having success in the recent years, this trade would have been a slap in the face to the whole cause of it and the lockout ending. Not even a year after, Dwight Howard is traded to the Lakers in a four-way deal that puts the Magic at a far worse position than they were in before, shakes up the Nuggets and Sixers, and benefits the Lakers the most. Where are the "basketball reasons" now? There's a gem in all of this: a couple of the "assets" (as many believe) that were acquired this off-season in an attempt to acquire Dwight have the potential to be very great and take this team places in time. After seeing what they could end up being like in the Summer League, things don't seem so bad. Although the Summer League is not at the same level of the NBA, our rookies have a whole season to develop and show us what they are made of, especially after gutting the whole roster to give them opportunity. After all, the Thunder didn't become the team they were in one season, and we know how quickly things can change in that amount of time, good or bad. This is our best case scenario. Whether these guys can take us there... only time will tell. I can't wait to see what these Rockets will make the team become, as long as they give it their all (which they always do). Personally, I'd be much more attached to a contending team made of players that we watched develop into stars over players received via trade. Either way, I can't wait for the season to start and will support our rookies as long as they work hard and do their best to improve.
I was thinking of it, but these guys have more potential. Doesn't mean Asik doesn't have the possibility of doing great things for us, though.
from new orleans pov, even ignoring the conspiracy theories about the draft and anthony davis, that proposed trade was complete garbage for them.
This. Hennigan's getting a lot of criticism for taking on all that salary for Dwight. Well... sure, the main players the Hornets were getting (Scola, Martin and Odom) were certainly better than the ones the Magic got, but they were three aging players on (at the time) multi-year deals. Sure, they would've been a better team last season, but they would've just been mediocre. Instead, they chose to take a young rising star in Gordon, a large expiring (Kaman) and an UNPROTECTED first round draft pick. I don't really see how the Hornets didn't make the right decision by trading Paul to the Clippers instead of the Lakers...
Where's the basketball reasons? Simple. The NBA doesn't own Orlando. The NBA owned New Orleans. Doesn't make the Orlando trade defensible, but in retrospect NO got a better deal out of the Clips. And let's be fair here, Chris Paul for Odom and Gasol was just as big a steal for LA as Howard for Bynum.
These two have potential. Morris is not making a name on this team unless every player with the ability to play SF ahead of him gets hurt. He is a tweener and not a versatile player like TJones.
Not sure why I'm still trying to help people who don't want to get it, but.... Stern stepped in and nixed that deal in his alleged function as a proxy for an owner of the New Orleans Hornets, not as the commissioner of the League. It was total bs that he assumed the power to do it, but that trade was terrible for the Hornets and Stern stepped in and did the best thing for the Hornets. The 'basketball reasons' were that it hurt the Hornets long-term competitiveness. He ended up getting a better deal out of the Clippers. He did not nix that trade just to keep Chris Paul out of a big market, nor would he have nixed any other legal trade that did not involve a team under League stewardship. Even though his authority to nix that trade was bs, he has even less pretense of authority to go around nullifying other trades, like this Howard trade.
Stern still sucks.. just can't wait till he's gone. I wonder if he gave $$$ back to JVG after he was fined one of the largest fines ever handed out in the NBA for inplying the fix was in. Which ended up being true.
I'll go on record in saying that one of our rookies this year will end up being a coveted superstar. If I'm wrong, then I'm speaking off the record.
