Kinda. There are still plenty though who have not. Especially if you just lower the bar from HOF to all-star/franchise player. Now with players coming over from Europe and other countries, they have kinda filled the void of high risk players that came outta high-school that used to drop past 10. Then you have a long list of guys like Rondo, Nash, Malone, Stockton, Miller... I think too much is put into the whole "You can only draft a franchise player in the top 5" stuff. It really just depends on the draft, Lamb was considered the best SG prospect coming into the college season, highly recruited going into college. These guys tend to work out. I just rather keep Lamb, let them have White and Jones.
They already "gave," or let go to other teams Dragic, Lee, Lowry and Scola in order to get salary space for bad contracts or get assets for a Howard trade.
He did have a swag about him - a mojo per se. He did not look scrawny like I thought he might - Had more of an NBA body, had toughness and moxie. Very impressed !!
I'm hoping that the most we give up would be: Martin, Patterson, Morris, Jones, White, picks... I'd like to keep either White or Jones to back up Motiejunas, but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if they wanted both Also, I hope we only take back 2 bad contracts, JRich and Duhon.
Another one??? Another fan who actually knows what the heck he's talking about! Dang, there are some really smart people on this board. Great write up, man!
I m starting to think Morey is liking D-Mo more then Dwight Howard and will just stay with the young talent and let them grow together cause it looks like the Lakers are getting D12
What would the Lakers give the Magic besides Bynum or and would they be taking those contracts the Magic want to get rid of ....
Orlando is going to go young and rebuild so they want to start with Bogut? That makes no sense. How does Bogut help them lower the payroll? He might help them win a few more games, but that just hurts their draft pick. Bogut "isn't a bad contract if he could stay healthy"? Well, same could be said for Yao. Do you think that Orlando wants to trade for Yao. The selling point of the deal is Klay Thompson? Nice player but he doesn't get you Dwight Howard. That's great that Thompson is on the USA Select team. DeJuan Blair is also on the USA Select team and SA is getting ready to release him. Think Orlando is going to deal Howard to SA because they could get Blair? Sorry, but if Bogut, Barnes and Thompson gets you Dwight Howard without taking on any bad contracts then GS would have already done that deal 10 times over.
Wouldn't Bynum hurt their draft pick as well, moreso than Bogut who barely plays and is a two year contract. Warriors already dropped out of the Dwight race months ago thoug You should look at the numbers of rookie Klay Thompson, his accomplishments, and really not compare him as a prospect to Dejaun Blair. Thompson and Barnes both are better than any combo of prospects the Rockets could offer at this point simply because Thompson has proven that he can score efficiently and is already one of the best 3pt shooters in the NBA. and those other guys haven't proved a thing yet as much as we may like them. Warriors already dropped out of the Dwight race months ago though. That's the whole point, They don't want any part of him unless he promises to resign and they have said as much months ago and reiterated this during draft time.
Bynum is a franchise center. If Orlando could get Bynum and they believed that his knees would hold up then they trade Howard. The problem is that Orlando has concerns about his knees and the aren't guarenteed that he would resign. I didn't compare Thompson to Blair. Your post mentioned that Thompson had already been named to the USA Select team. The mention of Blair was to show that being on the Select team isn't neccesarily an indicator of future success. iI could just have easily mentioned Bobby Hurley from the 94 select team. Every player with NBA experience has proven more than any draft pick but we are all aware how much teams value potential. Morey mentioned last week how much more valuable lottery picks were than players. He said that it is likely that half the teams will not like your player and others won't need that position/skillset. The draft allows them to take what they want. Barnes is a great example, GS and Cleveland really liked him where as other teams view him as an under achiever who didn't play up to his abilities at NC. Barnes the player has less value than that #7 pick that was used to select him. It has been pretty well documented all last season that Houston and GS were the two teams that were willing to take Howard as a rental. The reason GS stopped pursuing Howard was because they didn't have the assets to provide what Orlando wanted...draft picks and the ability to take on bad contracts. If all it took was Thompson and Barnes and Bogut then GSwould still be trying to acquire Howard.
Thompson is a young player with potential though. Not just any NBA experienced player. Thompson is a 22 year old who has shown since starting that he's about as dead-eye as any one else in the NBA and is already one of the best 3 point shooters in the NBA. You are right that potential is valued highly in the NBA, but young players...like Thompson still has a ton of potential and guys like say Cousins still has a ton of potential and I think most teams would be willing to take those guys than a draft pick. Which is why these guys are usually untouchable. Well you are right about the draft pick being more valuable than Barnes, but the Warriors had that to offer. My whole entire point really is irrelevant if the Magic would like GSWs package. Because at the same time during the all-star period many thought Houston didn't have much to give either, in fact at that time you could argue that GSW had better players to offer in Curry and Thompson. The whole point is that they dropped out of the race months ago and confirmed that when they traded for Bogut. They did not make cap clearing moves like the Rockets did, or gut their team like the Rockets have because as someone who follows that team as well I think they started to dig their future and knew that taking on Howard would be expensive and risky. I'm sure they could have cleared more cap space if they wanted, they could have traded Ellis as a cap clearing move(there was certainly a lot of interest for him) instead of a team improvement move and taking on Bogut. The Warriors decided that the price for Howard would be too high and too risky. Yeah they entertained the idea of getting him but not for very long. Meanwhile the Rockets were denied at the deadline and reloaded, the Warriors did the opposite.
No, actually they didn't. GS owed a top 7 protected pick to Utah so they were not allowed to trade that pick. The only reason that they got the pick this season is that they ended up winning a coin flip to break the tie for 7th/8th place. Also because GS possibly wasn't going to have a pick in '12 then they were also not allowed to trade their '13 pick. They had no draft picks to trade and no cap space to take players. Houston didn't have much to give? There were better offers for Howard? When the trade deadline arrived Orlando and Houston had a deal for Howard. The only reason that they deal didn't get done is because Howard opted in. If there were better deals then why was Orlando going to trade him to Houston? GS dropped out because they had no chance to acquire Howard. You're trying to tell me they realistically could have had Howard and they went with Andrew Bogut instead? GS managment is bad but it isn't that bad. GS said all along that they would take Howard as a rental, so if they truely had a chance then why give up?
