Yeah, except PJ is not a role player to us. He as important to us as donkey to GS. And it is insulting not recognize that after last year playoffs
that's 33 year old 2 dimensional player, you really would hesitate Butler over Pj and EG? High-end talent is rare and depletable. If some team is desperate enough to break one superstar into two good players you do that 10/10. Period. You can always exchange superstar for multiple good players but other way around it's rather rare opportunity. Let's suppose we come up to Pelicans that we want AD for Capela+EG+Tucker+1st. They would laugh at us. Let's suppose it's the other way around... Morey would get a raise
PJ IS a role player - even he would admit that - even though he was extremely critical to last year's success. There are nobodies (about 150 of them in the NBA), role players (250+ in the NBA), stars (about 15 of them), and pillars (4-5 of these guys every year). PJ is certainly not a pillar or a star or a nobody. Throughout his NBA career he has been a role player. Last season, for the first time, he was an elite role player. He is almost as important to us as donkey to GS, though 99% of NBA fans would consider it an advantage to Houston if both went missing in a series, and I tend to agree with that. AND... (not OR).... AND Jimmy Butler could very well be more critical to us in the future than PJ Tucker was in the past. AND Jimmy Butler might not do that for us. Sometimes we talk about great things vs great things, and we are picking which would be slightly greater. PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon and Jimmy Butler are excellent players on contenders. We're discussing if the two lesser great players are worth the 1 greater player plus a minimum signing. If someone thinks Butler and minimum FA is worth more than Gordon and Tucker, that doesn't mean they are diminishing just how ****ing awesome PJ Tucker has been.
While this board gets divided over whether its worth getting rid of EG and PJ for Jimmy, another team will be putting together a more appealing package for Minnesota and acquiring Jimmy Butler.
The problem in this case is not only evaluating the talent of PJ itself, but who would replace him. This is different from people screaming of losing Ariza and Luc, where 3&D SF are somewhat easy to replace. Against GSW, with the need of constant switching, he is a perfect fit. He can switch against SF, PF and C, and most important able to man up to Donkey. Also, TICC played nearly 40 minutes a game in the playoffs while in beast mode. What other player can do it that we can realistically trade for? Of course they would laugh at this trade. AD is a star, and one of the few players that can be an upgrade to TICC role against GSW.
EG, Knight, Chriss plus 1st round for Butler and Dieng. Wolves get a backup PG, EG to replace Butler, and they get rid of Dieng's contract that's a year longer than Knight's. I would be happy to throw in a second, and/or one of Hartelstein/Zhou Qi.
So if the trade goes through..... Wolves - C - Towns/Dieng PF - Gibson/Tolliver/PJ SF - Wiggins/PJ/EG/Nunnally/Deng SG - EG/Crawford PG - Teague/D. Rose/T. Jones Rockets - C - Capela/Nene PF - Elmo/Chriss SF - Butler/Ennis/Caboclo/V. Edwards SG - Harden/Green PG - CP3/Knight/MCW I don't know......but that Houston bench doesn't look appealing to rest our starters.
I heard Houston really did reach out, but the Lakers are in the driver seat. Wolves would rather have someone young to grow with Towns.
