Educate yourself about the game of basketball outside of Houston Rockets games please. You seem to think that Terence Morris is a superstar in Europe. This is the typical nonsense that NBA only fans parrot. "So and so American NBA player is a superstar in Europe". Learn the facts please. Terence Morris is just a role player in Europe. The same as he was in the NBA. http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cntry=ESP&PlayerID=18619 It's hilarious how so many NBA only fans can pretend that minor role players in Euroleague are somehow "dominant superstars" simply because they are American and played in the NBA and because there is this huge myth that somehow every such player, "dominates the Euroleague" and averages "30-50 points a game". Terrence Morris sure "dominates" with his 7 points and 4 rebounds per game in Europe. 7 points and 4 rebounds in Barca. Amazing, absolutely amazing, that a former top 5 American high school star, a former American NCAA star at a big college and big conference, a former NBA draft pick, and a former NBA rotation player (with the Houston Rockets) can "dominate" those "scrub Euros" so much to the tune of 7 points and 4 rebounds per game. Especially when factoring in that his game has dramatically improved since the days when he played with the Rockets.
Ray Allen was basically 32 years old when he was traded and the first three players in that draft were Oden, Durant, Horford followed by Conley, Jr. and then Jeff Green. He was traded at age 32 for the #5 pick in the draft that was considered to be essentially 3 deep for star/superstar players. This draft is three deep (really 2 1/2 deep at best) for star/superstar players, Kyrie, Derrick, and possibly Enes. And Martin is only 28 years old. Martin, by himself, is worth a top 5 pick. And Scola is only 31. He may very well be worth a top 5 pick in a weak draft as well.
Terrence Morris was a role player in the NBA? No, Juan Carlos aka "****ty Runners" was a role player in the NBA. :grin:
I understand the fact that it is a weak draft, but am failing to make the connection of why that would make it easier to move up in this draft. In a weak draft I would think that it would become a lot harder, or at least equally difficult, to move into the top 3 picks because of the lack of talent. Having less supply of quality talent would create more demand for that quality talent. So is the reasoning that trading Martin or Scola for a top pick would be easier because they would be better than the talent at those picks than in a strong draft class?
That's a good point. And I agree. But we should also recignize what Kevin Martins true worth is. I wouldn't trade Martin if I couldn't get into the top 5 and there was a very good player there that fit a need for us. I wouldn't even trade Scola unless we could get up pretty high in the 4-7 range, and get either Biyombo/Kanter or possibly Vesely. There's two sides to a trade. Both have to agree. Morey won't agree to a trade that robs us of a very good player for a mediocre lottery pick. By the way, looking at the aftermath of the Ray Allen trade and the subsequent Kendrick Perkins trade, Boston turned the 27th pick in the 2003 draft into........Ray Allen. They did this by drafting smart late in the first round and developing Perkins.
It's not a matter of weak or strong draft. The issue is whether a team holding the high pick is motivated to move it for whatever you are offering. Typically, teams with high picks are losing teams trying to rebuild by adding and improving young talent. So, they usually don't want to trade their picks for older and more expensive vets. Boston was in a special position when the traded the 5th pick for Ray Allen: They won only 24 games mostly due injury (to Pierce) and is one of the rare 24-ish win teams that actually are trying to "win now." Ray Allen was part of the plan to make the team attractive to Garnett. I know Kahn mentioned the Wolves don't want to get too young, but I am not sure, overall, they are in a position to want to get rid of high pick and take on a Martin or Scola-type vet who make significant dollars. The Rockets who are most likely to be attractive to a "rebuilding" team with a high pick, I think, are Lowry and Patterson. They are both young players but with mature games and mature personality and are relatively inexpensive (Pat thanks to the rookie scale, Lowry thanks to his MLE contract). Not sure if the Wolves want either of them due to positional calculation (for example: Does having Lowry make Rubio worry about his minutes?) but they are the kind of guys who can immediately contribute to a young team and address many of the typical young team shortcomings.
Absolutely agree. I think Martin's value, on a whole, is a lot more than what he is given credit. He also showed some flashes this year of getting better defensively which would majorly improve his stock. Of course, his weight will always be his detriment defensively; but he more than makes up for this with overly efficient offense. If there were a way to keep Martin and grab Kanter, this team could be scary in a couple of years. And then there is always the dark horse who is Yao.
He's one of the most efficient offensive players in the league. We don't trade him unless it is really for a superstar gamechanger player. The guy we can afford to move is Scola. I'd trade Scola for either Kanter or Biyombo....and I think I'd actually prefer Biyombo at this point since Patterson is looking like a very good two-way PF. However, I would be open to a bigger deal with Minny if Minny really is looking to get some vets, I would trade Scola/Patterson and Martin for Kevin Love and the #2 pick. Then your new core is Lowry/Love/#2/#14,Lee,TWill, #23, #38. That gets us very young fast but we probably are still a very good team come playoff time. Throw in Yao/Chuck and a free agent and we could become very, very tough. Love is one of those very superefficient offensive players with the added opus of being a rebounding ball vacuum with the ability to stretch the floor. Not only that, with the #2 pick in our pocket, we may be able to turn that and the 14 pick into two very good players, say Biyombo and Vesely by trading 2 and 14 for say 3 and 12 (and Kirilenko S&T'd). Lowry/Dragic Lee/TWill Kirkilenko/Vesely Biyombo or Kanter/Hayes/Yao Love/Hayes/FA or second rounder That's an upgrade over what we have now.
I would think we are aiming to contend in the next 3-5 years. Martin would be 31 entering that window and most likely still a very good player. Keep Martin as the eventual third best player on your championship team. Scola for #7 seems about right. Then we pack #7 and whatever else and grab Derrick Williams or Kanter.
Terence Morris career NBA averages: 3.4 pts, 2.7 rebounds. That's not a role player. That's a member of the SF entourage.
He was a rotation player on the Rockets. And like I said, he is a better player now than he was then. Regardless, going from 3 points and 3 rebounds and improving a lot as a player and then being 7-4 in Europe is clearly proof that NBA only fans in this forum have an incredibly huge and enormous exaggeration of the differences in the levels of the players in NBA and Euroleague. It's absolutely comical reading some of the things said here about the level of the Euroleague by people that have obviously never even seen a single Euroleague game.
A garbage player marginally improving, and still being a garbage player isn't "proof" of anything. You should go take a logic class Mr. Eurotroll. Euroleague is trash, I lived in Moscow for 8 months when I went there for space program purposes back in '01 and I preferred the garbage ball that Steve and Cuttino played way more than any random CSKA game simply based on talent. Their main problem is that any Euro player worth a damn is in the NBA long before their prime, so they're left with the rejects like JC Navarro as their star players. Not their fault, as I've said before players go where the money is.
Jesus Christ, must OHMSS turn every discussion into a debate over the quality of European basketball? Jesus ****ing Christ.
No idea if this would work, but I like your creativity and it would certainly make for an interesting team.
You should be glad, over on Spurstalk he likes to lecture folks on the time he Uncle Iakovos and had a race to see who could make more stallions into geldings but got drunk and ended up in a polyandrous marriage to a stiff-legged mule. Funny sh-t.
