I agree with you there, that's why I'm pretty sure the Rockets keep Asik this year unless some team gives us a crazy deal for him like LMA or Love.
Other: Asik and Lin. These two players are the most redundant on the team. Jones and DMo both have rawness in their games and I'd love to see how each of them pans out.
Trading Asik and Lin would be a pretty terrible idea unless you thought you could get back a better center and PG than them in the trade.....which you couldn't.
I like both DMO and Jones but if I had no choice but to pick one to be traded it would be Jones. Dmo seems to have more potential and a bigger threat on the Offense. I would hate to see Asik go, considering how valuable he was to the team last season and in my opinion it wasn't even close. He was the # 2 guy on this team! How quickly people forget, but I remember.
Well he mentioned the three he would trade in his scenario is Dmo, Jones and Smith. Asik was not mentioned, bro.
Ah that's right, I'm having two conversations at once and I got them mixed up. My objection is trading that much for Derrick Williams. Smith is a throwaway so he doesn't really matter but Williams isn't considerably better than DMo or Jones, why trade both of them?
I like Jones but would deal him and Smith together with a future first rounder for a decent person to put in our rotation.
Asik is very important for this team. Our defence goes to crap without him, in the preseason its been noteable enough. When Dwight sits we're actually quite small, I'd much rather have 48 minutes of elite rim protection/rebounding than hedging bets on jones/smith. Camby is older than dust atm, basically a non-factor
Williams is considerably better than DMo and Jones. We just have to take off our homer glasses and see it. He's has been playing behind Love for a year and he's in Adelman's doghouse. Now look at his game. He is the superior shooter from distance and will always be the superior shooter from distance over DMO/TJones. He's better at drawing contact, getting to the foul line. He's a superior defender to DMo and on par with TJones. Take off the homer glasses. TJones may "look" superior defensively but he's not. Williams is very athletic, very active on the interior. He's on par if not better than TJones defensively. Now look at basketball iq. Not even close. There's a reason why Derrick Williams was drafted #2 and DMo went like #20 in the same draft. There's a reason why TJones was drafted at #18 a year later. We gotta face facts. Now here's the next reason. With this team there is only room for AT MOST one of DMO/TJones/GSmith to get rotation minutes. At least two of them...and possibly even all 3 of them...will be out of the rotation and getting scrap minutes or no minutes at all ... and will be back on the dleague shuttle by Dec 1 if we don't trade them. Guess what happens if we go through another season with those guys horsing around at RGV??? That's right. Their trade value goes to zero..nil. You have to understand something about young basketball players on rookie contracts. There are 30 new guaranteed contracts rookies injected into this league every year. 30 more young guys with potential coming in every year. If these guys don't break out their rookie years or they don't break out quickly after their rookie season.....and they are low first round draftees.......the possibilities of them breaking out and becoming something significant in this league is very, very small. When you compound that fact with the fact that this team is loaded and AT MOST only 1 of those 3 guys is going to get playing time....it's a no-brainer to me. At least 2 of them need to go. They need to be moved somewhat quickly before their trade value deteriorates further. They need to be moved while there is still the possibility that they are rotation players. Because IF we go into the regular season and 2 of them are in suits....trade value is headed south on a jet plane. Now....look at Derrick Williams' situation. He's going nowhere in Minny. They're now going to play him at SF where he is going to be exposed defensively. Yeah, his game is looking up. Heck, it's preseason. TJones and DMo's games are looking up too!! But we should all know by now that the dynamic between him and Adelman is not going to work. Minny would have already moved Derrick if they could have gotten any sort of value for him. His value has been draining more slowly than TJones and DMo....only because he's a former #2 pick...not #18 and #20. Lastly, Derrick Williams' contract is more usable to us in future trade scenarios. Especially when you think about combining contracts with Asik and/or Lin. It has more value. IF we trade for him he'll be in the rotation knocking down 3-balls. His defensive shortcomings will be covered up by Dwight/Omer and his offensive skill set will become very efficient. We can make a player like him look a lot better a lot easier than we can make guys with obvious holes in their games (shooting) look good next to Dwight/Omer. Now on top of that, if you can work a deal with Philly and take away the pick protection from that second round pick they owe us in 2014...then that essentially turns into a pseudo first-round pick in a deep draft. IT will most likely be pick #31..first pick of the second round..we get our pick of guys that fall out of the first and can give them a piece of our MLE to lock them down for multiple years. That is the ideal position for a team like ours....where the lottery teams are gambling on youngsters...we get to pick a "seasoned" rookie...someone like Doug McDermott...if he doesn't play himself into the lottery. Better yet, we can combine our first and this second to move up and get a guy like McDermott if necessary. Take a look at McDermott's game and tell me he isn't already superior to any of DMo/TJones/GSmith. McDermott will be a 40+% 3-point shooting stretch 4 the minutes he steps foot on an NBA court. And he'll only get better. Now, understand that's looking down the road a little bit. But it's not the end of the world if we trade these guys away. And the odds are they are simply going to become more JAPS....just another player. The league is full of those guys. We just signed one who was waived last year (Casspi). And he's likely to have as much value to us on the court as any of DMo/TJones/GSmith.
I'm not quite as enamored with D.Mo as some on this board are, yes he has a lot of potential but I think Jones is more versatile with his reb/blocking/passing. D.Mo might have more of an offensive game but he's not as polished on the rest of his game. I would trade D.Mo first.... ....... ....... .......
Guys, it's over. Dwight Howard in today's interview said he, "DMo and the small bigs can hold the fort down" until Omer and Camby comes back. I sense TJ or Smith will get traded before DMo. Just kidding. (The "over" part, I mean).
I see this idea in bold quite a bit. Jones is 15+ months younger than Motiejunas. So why do so many people feel that Motiejunas' "ceiling" is higher?
A long, involved and thoughtful post. Thank you for the effort. But I am not convinced by your arguments. Last season Williams had free reign on the court because of Love's injury. I personally was not impressed by his performance. At this point I would roll the dice with Jones/D-Mo/Casspi. And maybe D-Mo has more "potential" than Williams? 7 feet, 260 pounds with a serious post game. If D-Mo comes out hitting 34% from beyond the arc and not being a large minus on the defensive side, he could be much more valuable than Williams. Jones is a longer shot at this point obviously, but he has a great chance to become a rotation player on a strong team, and perhaps a starter on a weaker team. Just my opinion.
