The Lee situation will probably play out like Lowry's did. It will be a slow painful wait for someone else to make an offer and set market value. If we aren't willing to match, then we probably would have been out bid anyway. I wonder how our trading tendencies will affect our ability to sign Dragic and other free agents. Do you sign with a team knowing you could be moved at anytime? But isn't that the case anywhere? Getting traded probably never crossed Nene's mind when he went back to Denver. Maybe it affects us differently though. Are Lee and Dragic ok being here as backups because anyone can be moved? Just above the mid-level might land both players though. If you can lock up both for what you are paying Martin currently, then I think you have a very solid backcourt trio with Lowry. Martin just became a 14M expiring contract. He'll either be part of a deal for a superstar, or capspace in the next summer of Dwight. I just can't figure out who is going to throw huge money at either player. The Knicks were a good fit for Dragic before Lin broke out Maybe the Suns if Nash bolts? but where is Nash going to go and how well will he play in a different system? Who is going to make a push for Lee that has cap space? Or could be the summer of Ben Gorden and Charlie V all over again.
We'll match whatever CLee gets offerred and look to move Kmart again at draft time... Dragic has done a great job, but I dont think teams are gonna be lining up to throw crazy money at him... I didnt hear of any inquiries prior to trade deadline... Personally, I think we can sell him on a KLow scale contact... call it tandem point guards... If we resign him for the same price KLow has, then really we got 2 solid pgs for what some teams pay 1 really good pg... We got the cap space... jus a question of if that's where DM wants to spend it. I think DM will resign Dragic and then trade KLow...imo...
Dragic will be gone. No way will re-up to spend more of his high producing years in the shadows of another PG. He's already spend 5 years doing that. You're right he won't make crazy money strikig out on his own, but he will find a team that will pay him more than he makes now and will give him the chance to start the PG position which is the opportunity he has to have. If the rockets want to re-sign him they'll have to choose between him and Lowry.
Dada is nailing it in this thread. Props. When you holler "knee-jerk" every time a somebody posts facts like"bigger" and "more athletic", you just show that you have a small basketball knowledge base.
Oh boy... This thread was a disaster to read through... A few bad games from Dragic will have everyone begging to have our near all-star back...
I don't know the answer to this question, but I do want to thank Lowry for at least getting hurt around the same time that Rubio went out for the season. I have Rubio on my fantasy squad and luckily the Lowry injury around the same time created an opportunity for Dragic whom I picked up pronto
He's nailing it by calling Lowry a backup PG. DD will never get over it. Guess you can say he's consistent about Lowry, if nothing else.
Trade Kevin Martin............please. Hopefully free up some more cap space. Hopefully. If necessary, amnesty him. Re-sign Lee. The rest is up to Morey. Re-sign Dragic? Sign Llull? I like Lowry a lot, but who do you keep, who do you jettison? It will depend on who accepts what (money, role).
Why in the world did Morey not trade Dragic...If any player needed to get traded it's him...he's good as gone. He's gonna leave to start for a team elsewhere. I hate losing players for nothing...It seems like we could've at least gotten another 1st round pick for him. We need as many picks as possible...Makes zero sense.
If you trade Lowry it's because you're getting a star-level player in return. Not because of Llull or even Dragic (although the ability to sign Dragic to an extension could be somewhat important).
You're really trying to draw a parallel between the current PG situation and what happened last year, but I'm not seeing it. Lowry wasn't simply hot. He genuinely improved his outside shooting, and even though you are unwilling to acknowledge it his 3-point shooting has continued to be very good even this season (39%). Also, Lowry proved he was capable and deserving of more minutes the entire previous season when he was one of the best off-the-bench players in the league. Dragic, in comparison, has been a wildly inconsistent reserve player for us this season and throughout his career. Also, last year it didn't just take Lowry playing really well in Brooks' absence for him to get the starter's job. It was the combination of him playing really well and Brooks being a liability when he was on the floor. We'll see if Lowry sinks to that level on his return.
Probably had something to do with Lowry being out of action for the next few weeks, and also not being able to get enough in return in the trades under discussion.
To be fair, last year Lowry's improvement outside could easily have just been a hot streak. We had no way of knowing he was going to keep it up at the time. I don't think it's really fair to say of Dragic that he's been "wildly inconsistent". He hasn't been as good off the bench as starting, but his overall numbers are still starter-caliber: 14.2 and 6.4 with quality defense per 36 minutes. All of that said, I agree you can't draw a parallel between the Lowry/Brooks situation and the Lowry/Dragic situation. Here's why: Lowry is playing much better now on both ends than Brooks ever did, let alone the year Brooks was traded. Lowry is on a very reasonable contract, whereas Brooks was heading into RFA with high contract demands and likely to be paid close to $10M Dragic is the opposite of being on a reasonable long-term contract--he's not just a pending free agent, he's a pending UNRESTRICTED free agent, meaning we'll have to pay open market value to retain him--probably more than Kyle's current contract
Dragic has had moments when he's been good off the bench. Not saying he's a bad player. But his caliber of play as a reserve, to me, is not at all starter-caliber. Are you forgetting all the times throughout the season where McHale was forced to play Lowry nearly the entire second half because of Dragic's inability to run the offense? To his credit, he's looked much better of late as a starter, and his penetration capability has been helpful in 4th quarters throughout the year. All good points.
There's a pretty simple reason why both CLee and Dragic weren't traded: The Rockets like their chances of retaining the two, esp. since we cleared a boatload of salary, Kmart is an expiring contract after this year and we can waive Dalembert's contract and only pay 1.5M of his salary. Dragic and Lee are good players but I really don't see them getting more than 5M a year type of deal.
You're right. Playing alongside TWill and Hill, that unit was dysfunctional. I thought it was on Dragic myself. But these last two weeks have shown the dude is a holy terror on an opponent. He dogged the stuffing out of Westbrook so bad that Westbrook lost control of himself. And Dragic was just playing straight up, no funny games. He has the ability to dominate and what has been consistent is how well he has played alongside Lowry. He has done that all year. He's showing too much. We have to re-sign him.
