In the East, Miami, Chicago, Indiana, Atlanta, and Boston are playoff teams for sure. I know Boston has had a rough start but they'll be there by the end of the season. Cleveland, Charlotte, New Jersey, Detroit, Toronto, and Washington are obviously lottery teams. That leaves NY, Orlando, Philly, and Milwaukee competing for 3 playoff spots. I think there is a legit chance NY misses the playoffs without picking up substantial backcourt help. Don't know if BDiddy is going to work there or not. If he does then obviously they get in. But if he blows like he has the last few seasons and if Melo or Amare goes down, they are in a world of hurt. The other unknown is Orlando. Are they gonna trade Dwight and tank or are they going to compete for the playoffs. The rumors is the owner wants to remain competitive even if they trade Dwight. If that is true, then you can hand them a playoff spot, even if they trade Dwight because they will be playing with 2-3 vets (like Martin/Scola/Dally) that can push them into the playoffs after the trade. I think this is the most likely scenario. And if so, that leaves NY competing with Philly and Milwaukee for 2 playoff spots. Go Philly. Go Milwaukee.
No it was definitely the pick acquired from the Phoenix in th AB trade. Since the Suns were in the lottery they sent us a pick they had previously acquired from Orlando.
The Rockets traded BOTH the 2011 ORL pick (#23 overall) acquired from Phoenix in the Brooks trade AND the 2013 MEM pick acquired from the Battier trade in order to move up to #20 to select Motiejunas. In the trade, the Rockets also received Minnesota's 2012 second round pick, which should be a pretty good pick in a deep draft. As for the Knicks' pick, I've been saying for a while now that I expect it to be in the #19 to #23 range. If the Knicks' backcourt depth issues continue to cost them wins, though, I may be willing to revise that estimate to the #17 to #20 range. Barring injury, New York will still make the playoffs with that great starting front line.
Well IMHO the only downside if we lose out on the pick top 5 protected, considering how deep the draft is a mid 1st rounder would be equal to the 11-14th pick of a shallow draft. Are there 5 teams almost guaranteed to lose more than the Knicks this year? Even if 1 of Melo/Chandler/Amare go down I still see these team finishing worse: 1. Utah 2. Toronto 3. Detroit 4. Charlotte 5. Cleveland I think the pick's safe.
The construction of this makes absolutely no sense. If the Rockets are forced to wait and wait and wait, why is there no premium placed rather than a devaluation (two #2s vs a #1)?
You were wrong. As I said it was the pick acquired from Phoenix in the AB trade. You said we got nothing from Phoenix since they were a lottery team. Phoenix owned the Orlando pick and moved it to the Rockets in the AB trade.
Those second rounders just increase our odds of finding a stud player. The more second rounders we get playing overseas the higher the likelihood that one of them actually turns in to another Luis Scola.
Unfortunately, a Melo led team- Amar'e or no Amar'e- can snag the 8th seed in the East, unless there's a major trade that doesn't involve Dwight Howard. However, in a deep draft such as this, a 17th pick wouldn't be too bad.
This type of pick protection (eventually becoming one or two second rounders) is becoming the new norm in the NBA as far as protected pick trades are concerned. Because trade rules prohibit teams from trading future picks more than seven years into the future, trades need to allow for a definitive conveyance of a pick (or even the extinguishing of the obligation entirely in some cases) within that seven-year time frame. It used to be that pick protection would gradually burn off over time (as you are hoping for) and then eventually a pick would become unprotected. However, this came back to bite several teams whose GMs never imagined that their protections would actually PROTECT the pick for that long. Some recent examples: --Back in the late 1990s, the Vancouver Grizzlies traded a future protected first round pick to Detroit for Otis Thorpe, with the pick's protections gradually wearing down to only top-1 protection in 2003. Because the Grizzlies continually were in the cellar, their pick was protected every year. Then, at the 2003 NBA Draft Lottery, the #1 pick (and the chance to draft Lebron James) came down to Memphis and Cleveland. Instead of getting Lebron, Cleveland won the lottery and Memphis had to convey the #2 overall pick to Detroit. While Detroit botched the pick on Darko, Memphis most likely would have taken Carmelo Anthony with that pick. Sucked to be the Grizzlies there. --During the horrible Isiah Thomas era in New York, the Knicks traded a heavily-protected future first rounder (something like top-22 protected for several years and then unprotected in 2010!) to Phoenix in the Stephon Marbury trade. Phoenix later traded the pick to Utah in a salary dump of Tom Gugliotta's contract. With the Knicks sucking so badly every year, they never got to convey the pick. Instead, it turned into the #9 pick of the 2010 draft, which Utah used to select Gordon Hayward. --Several years ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves (under the guidance of GM Kevin McHale!) threw in a future first round pick along with Sam Cassell to the L.A. Clippers in a trade where the "prize" was Marko Jaric. Again, the pick had lottery protection, slowly burning down to top-10 protection until 2012, when it would become unprotected. Minnesota proceeded to be horrible every year. For the last two years or so, with every team in the league KNOWING that Minnesota wasn't going to be able to avoid giving that unprotected pick in 2012, this pick has become one of the most coveted trade assets in the NBA. The Clippers finally cashed in that chip to acquire Chris Paul. With a great coach in Rick Adelman at the helm in Minnesota, who knows how great that pick will be? But it will most likely be in the top 7 or 8 picks, at worst. So, to sum up. The reason why these protected first rounders eventually turn into second rounders is because NBA GMs want to avoid the pitfalls that befell the teams above. Now, GMs need to be smart with what types of protections they place on their own picks in trade (for instance, in the Terrence Williams trade, Morey put lottery protection on the Rockets' pick through 2016, with the pick converting to a 2017 second rounder and cash if the Rockets never make it out of the lottery by 2016), AND those same GMs need to carefully calculate whether the protections placed by opposing GMs on picks being received will result in an actual future first rounder or just some far-off second rounder. Hope this explanation helps.
I knew we got Orlando's pick but yes I didn't mention that. But where did you get that we was getting Phoenix's 2013 pick out of left field?
Maybe you missed part of the of the response. The original question was, "did we use the pick acquired from the Grizzlies (the Shane Battier trade) to acquire Motiejunas?". My response was, " we used the pick acquired from Phoenix in the AB trade. " We still have the Memphis pick. I'm not sure where you thought I said we were getting the 2013 Pheonix pick. I never typed that.
Amare's knees are time bombs. A mediocre, Melo led squad will lead to a disinterested, fat, distracted Baron Davis I'm just saying, there's a chance the knicks could be absolutely awful. But it needs to start soon.
Many posts here, including mine earlier, have already explained how this is not the case. We acquired pick 23 from Orlando via Pheonix. We then traded pick 23 above, the future lottery-protected 1st rounder from Memphis, and Brad Miller for pick 20(which Minnesota had taken Motiejunas with), Minnesota's 2nd round pick, and Johnny Flynn.
