That New Orleans pick is starting to look good.... (FINAL: Will be 18th pick)

This is so inaccurate. There was never a doubt? Everyone and their mom thought Bosh was coming here if Lebron left. not locally. nationally. this was what all the reports were.

then Riley gave a full max and the rest is history

 

The problem is that if we had signed Lowry (and resigned Parsons) we would be practically hard capped. So our roster, past the starting 5 and possibly Jones/Dmo, would be composed young players on rookie deals (Johnson, Capela, Covington, Canaan) and vet min guys (Garcia). In other words, no Brewer, Terry, Pap, Dorsey. We might have been able to get Smith since he signed for the bi-annual.

There would be no "current" roster if we would have signed Lowry.

With Lowry signing:
Lowry / Bev / Canaan
Harden / Johnson
Parsons / Garcia
Jones / DMo / (maybe Smith)
Howard / Black / Capela

The second unit is pretty weak. Would much rather have this.

Bev / Prigs / Terry
Harden / McDaniels
Ariza / Brewer
DMo / Jones / Smith
Howard / Dorsey / Capela

Also if we signed Lowry, we would be locked into that team for the duration of Howard's contract. We would not be able to make moves to significantly improve our roster.

 

Adding a #14 pick to a Western home court team is valuable. For example, if we were able to grab the 2nd or 3rd best C in the draft, that would likely upgrade our backup C position.

There's other avenues as well - how much can we move up if we package Capela, Johnson and #14? We might be able to snatch the #8 or #9 pick if whichever team is there feels they can get who they want at #14.

The other use of the pick of course is if we were able to convince a good FA to sign with us, we could package the pick with a salary to a team under the cap to create additional cap space.

I don't know why the board seems obsessed with this pick magically becoming top 10. It was just never very likely with an MVP-ish player like Anthony Davis on their team.

It seems likely that if Anthony Davis continues to struggle with his health, they would shut him down for the rest of the season seeing as they have no chance of making the playoffs. If that happens, I can see them losing 10 in a row easily.

 

good post RocketsJumer

 

Back on topic, seems like there are a few teams in the East that could pass the Pelicans if Davis/Anderson injuries persist. Both guys have been injury prone over the past few years. I could see Miami, Brooklyn, and even Detroit pass them.




Only issue at this point is Eric Gordon is playing for a new contract, so he could keep them mediocre

 

Bosh himself said he was so close to signing with us. Cyberx was shocked and was under the impression the deal was sealed.

Really disingenuous to rewrite history as if it was a wild goose chase.

 

Number 1 problem on this website is a core group of posters with an agenda who are absolutely being intellectually dishonest on a daily basis

 

I said to gain value....meaning increase in value....meaning be a higher pick.

 

Hopefully if New Orleans falls out of the race rather early... but really doubt the pick is much higher than 12...Regardless, the Rockets really made this pick a huge asset. This combined with the very likelyhood that NYK will be the 1st pick in the 2nd round. The Rockets couldn't have asked for a better situation in terms of the 2015 draft. The Rockets will find a 4 year starter for their second round pick..

My wish list for 1st round pick (Devin Booker or Jerian Grant) would be very happy with either...

 

There is not much reason to be excited about a 13th or 14th overall pick. It's basically a role player that will probably take 3+ years to develop.

Maybe the Knicks pick + Dmo will allow the Rockets to move up a few spots and make the pick more interesting.

 

How high would the pick have to be to trade both the NOP and NYK picks to move up and try and get Towns?

If not possible the just go for Grant from ND.

 

I'm unable to access the article without registering. Did Bosh say that Miami wasn't his first choice? Did he say he would turn down an offer from the Heat to join the Rockets?

He was waiting for an offer from Miami, and the second he got it, he took it. Is that inaccurate?

The perception that he was close to signing with Houston exists because of the compressed time frame in which all of this happened. Yes, he was about to sign with the Rockets....if Miami didn't offer him a deal. That means Houston was his second choice. There is nothing disingenuous in inferring that.

 

Towns is project to go #2-#4. Grant is projected to go #14-#24.

I'd rather try to trade up and get Myles Turner. Rick Barnes has killed his draft stock. Hell he may just fall to us. I saw one mock draft that has him dropping to us.

 

I don't think it's Barnes, I think Turner is just not that good. He got owned by Towns and Cauley-Stein earlier this year. Turner has bust potential.

I'd rather get Grant with the NOP Pick and Dakari with the NYK Pick. Or combine picks and go for Cauley-Stein. Between those two options I'd say that's a pretty good draft.

 

In the words of Ricky Bobby: "Love that money!"

 

One position the upcoming draft is not short on is decent centers, at least within the lottery - hard to imagine that if we look to pick up a player in the draft that we don't package a few of our assets to move up and grab a Towns (highly unlikely) or Turner.

 

Cauley-Stein would be an awesome get. He's NBA ready, very similar profile to Tyson Chandler. Could step right in and be the backup to Dwight.

 

I agree that the pick will unlikely improve our roster in the short term. But draft picks are valued highest on draft day and can easily be flipped for good players, most recent example being George Hill.

Also, and this is heavily predicated on how far Morey's willing to setup for Durant, that rookie contract will be really valuable in 2016 for depth purposes what's Durant, Dwight, Harden, a few other key guys like Ariza and DMo will take up most of the capspace.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Pelicans?src=hash">#Pelicans</a> announce Anthony Davis will miss 1-2 weeks with a rt shoulder sprain after MRI. Ryan Anderson will miss 2-4 weeks w/sprained MCL</p>&mdash; gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) <a href="https://twitter.com/GwashburnGlobe/status/569592155645149185">February 22, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Pelicans are on national TV twice this week. Mon (NBATV) &amp; Fri (ESPN).

Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, &amp; Jrue Holiday all out.

</p>&mdash; The Bird Writes (@thebirdwrites) <a href="https://twitter.com/thebirdwrites/status/569715724278607872">February 23, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Morey is not sending a lottery pick for a salary dump. Not happening. He could have sent it for Dragic if he wanted to waste it. We don't have negative assets like Jeremy Lin that we have to attach a first round pick to and definitely not a lottery pick.