The Parsons+Asik based package should be reserved for true 3rd superstar. Not Chris Bosh, LMA or even Love (I have some doubts about his durability). Maybe Deron Williams will want out of Brooklyn sometime soon. I don't see that going well. I would trade Parsons+Asik+Lin for Deron in a heartbeat.
Luol Deng hasn't been suggested in a while, and I suspect Chicago can't afford to re-sign him. This works: Luol Deng to Houston Jeremy Lin to Milwaukee Omer Asik to Portland C.J. McCullom, a Bucks second round pick, a Rockets second round pick, and expiring contracts (Robin Lopez, Caron Butler) to Chicago The Bucks get their starting PG for the next two years for next to nothing, although they will be paying quite a bit in salary (2 years, $20 mil). The Blazers get a huge upgrade at C, although they are surrending four relatively cheap years' worth of a G who I expect to be a good ballplayer. The Bulls get McCullom, who can start alongside Derrick Rose in the back court, and Jimmy Butler is a nice starting SF, so you're still in good shape at SF. This package beats the hell out of nothing, and nothing is what you'll get for Deng when he up and signs with somebody else next summer. The Rockets get their stretch four in Deng and they avoid having to shell out $30 mil total in 2014-15 to Lin and Asik. Patrick Beverly replaces Lin in the starting lineup and Aaron Brooks will compete in the preseason with Isaiah Canaan (who is going to be a good rotation guy sooner than you think) for the third guard role. Greg Smith stays put and backs up Dwight Howard. Deng renders either Donatas Motiejunas or Terrence Jones expendable, so Houston flips one for a lottery-protected first round pick. Note that Houston has improved their cap flexibility here. Also note that Deng has reached a point in his career where he may leave some money on the table in order to play for a true championship contender. So he might be willing to resign for something like three years, $24 mil.
You don't have Milwaukee sending out anything and they'd have to move out somebody to have the cap space for Lin. An easier deal to do if you could get a lottery protected pick for one of TJones/DMO would be to send Lin to Orlando, Afflalo to Chicago, and one of the two youngsters for a pick. That leaves Asik on the roster and puts in a position to move both he and Deng later if we can get a superstar.
The Bucks can and did put positive spin on that deal but it was obviously made for the sole purpose of getting their payroll up to the league minimum payroll level. Obviously they will trade his contract in a heartbeat for a big upgrade at their problem position (PG). A team does not cheerfully announce to its fan base, "Big news! We have made a deal for Player X for purely financial reasons! No need to get excited about Player X himself!" Although Butler will play for Milwaukee (most likely) so long as he's on the roster. He kind of sucks, though. His only real value is his expiring contract. The Bucks can easily convince themselves that Lin + Mayo > Jennings + Ellis. Obviously Jennings is a prick whereas Lin is maybe the nicest guy in the league. Character matters! They're in the mix for the #7/#8 seed with Lin. Probably not if they roll with Brandon Knight as the starter. I kind of like Knight as a third guard, though. Although I'm a UK grad, so I'm biased.
Yeah I agree. Pachulia would be nice, but the Bucks might be hesitant to move a guy they just signed so quick... plus Haywood is great value on the contract he's on. The starting point though is the belief that I have that Charlotte would ultimately move Kidd-Gilchrist for an established piece or pieces being the starting point for the Rockets getting involved to benefit.
rog, you are being totally logical. Reality is the league knows Butler wants to be home. He has no value. Kinda like Lamar in Dallas. Lamar didn't want to be there. Dude just laid down. Same thing with Butler. Nobody is going to trade for him unless they are sending out long-term salary they don't want because they know Butler is not going to play for them. He's gonna pull a Lamar. And MIL doesn't want long-term bad salary back in a trade for him.
Pachulia is a huge zero defensively. I always liked his bravado but honestly he's a huge hole on defense. I'd rather have an old Camby, much rather. Don't want Pachulia clogging the cap.
I do think that Butler could be traded, of course. But it wasn't a financial reasons only trade. They were slightly below league-minimum salary but there's nothing wrong with that. Being under the minimum only means that you'll have to pay that difference to your other players (as a sort of bonus). There's certainly no financial reason to make a trade that puts you significantly over that minimum. They got Butler because, clearly, they like him. They probably see him as a vet presence and hope he will help them win. Would they trade him for Lin? Maybe. I'm not sure what's Lin's trade value.
I don't like it for the Bobcats. What's the long term plan? Besides, I don't like Jefferson at PF. Off topic, is the East really super small?
The financial logic is tied to the possibility that ypu ultimately use his contract to trade for something useful. You have to pay x in total salary, no matter what. I agree that he'll be in the rotation if no such trade is made. But he won't help them as much as a Jeremy Lin would. I don't see any team besides Milwaukee that would really be motivated to trade for Lin. I think Houston either packages Lin with Asik in a multiteam deal where Milwaukee gets him in exchange for Butler and not much else or they just keep Lin. I will be surprised if we see a deal like this prior to late December. I think we'll see Greg Smith and/or Donatas Motiejunas traded for picks by the end of October, so as to de-clutter (un-clutter?) the roster.
They were ~2mil under the minimum and ~8 mil under the cap. They had a multitude of options: A) pay that 2 mil at the end of the season; B) sign someone for 2 mil, C) or even use that cap space in a trade at midseason where you can pick up an extra asset. Instead, they went significantly over the minimum, some 4 mil. So they are spending 4 mil that they could've kept in their bank account. They also lost a lot of cap space which is valuable in trades. There's no way we can look at this and think they made that trade for financial reasons.
The long term plan is to add players that add wins to the point where they can at least compete for a playoff spot. Very few teams truly dominate you with their size, and teams at the top like Miami, and New York rely on small ball quite a bit to function offensively. The teams that will be competing for the final playoff spots they are- Boston, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Washington, Detroit Even though all these teams have size, its not like they rely on that size to dominate teams on the glass. Even Detroit, i suspect probably will seldom roll out Drummond, Monroe lineups now with Josh Smith playing the PF position most likely. If Charlotte owners are giving Cho the signal to compete for the playoffs at all cost, I would assume adding Asik alone would add the most win shares of any available players that would be willing to play in Charlotte. There is no doubt in my mind that Asik makes them much better by being the anchor of their defense. Jefferson has played the PF position times before in the past, and has the offensive polish to play alongside another big man.
I doubt the Bobcats are aiming that low, and I doubt that Cho has orders to make the playoffs at all costs. I think the Jefferson signing was blown out of proportion a bit by the media. They haven't made any other moves that would say they are all-in, and they've been arguing for long-term planning (and for building more than just .500 team) for several years now. Al Jefferson signing only says that they don't want to be breaking NBA loss records anymore. As for Asik / Jefferson, I like big teams, but they have to fit well. Jefferson at PF exposes his flaws so much more. His defensive quickness is poor for a center, and now he's at PF. On the other end, offensively, they would pair Jefferson with someone who will hurt floor spacing and will make Jefferson's job harder. Better Asik than Biyombo, I guess, but it's a bit of a waste of talent.
Valid points. I think what sparked interest to me first off was the thought that if Kidd-Gilchrist could potentially get moved, it could open the door for Morey to peak his head in, and get a real player out of the deal. If you think any other deals involving him could work out better for all teams, I'd like to hear it.
Trading MKG doesn't make much sense to me. Why would they do it? Unless it's an OKC/Harden type situation where they rob the other team and get an established young star. They need MKG or someone like MKG -- a young talented prospect with serious upside. This comes down to the same issue -- the media perception that the Bobcats want to make the playoffs now at all costs. Which I don't know that it's true. If it is, it's stupid on their part. But considering that they haven't done much beyond signing Jefferson, it probably isn't true. They are probably looking to grow their youngsters, get another lottery pick, and then look at free agents next year, when they'll actually have a lot of flexibility. They don't want to stay synonymous with "losers", which is understandable, so they made some moves, but their moves don't scream "we are ready to sacrifice our youngsters for a few more wins."
If I'm Cho I want to avoid MKG becoming the next Derrick Williams or Evan Turner. The ol cures of the #2 pick in the draft. If Cho thinks that MKG isn't going to live up to all-star status, despite the fact that they might end up being a decent rotation player in a few years, they wont be an asset the amount they are getting paid, and you don't dare risk losing him for nothing by not pick up their team option to sign to a lower deal. If I am Cho, I would be very interested in seeing if there were established pieces I could get for MKG unless of course I really do see All-star + status in MKG. Right now, a team with less risk (like the Bucks now or The Rockets last year with Thomas Robinson) might be more willing to take a gamble on him at the cost of a higher salary player they don't see as a long term building block. Look... Rich Cho is the same GM who lost his job in Portland because he told Paul Allen that he wanted to make trades to get young, bad, and rebuild. I think you're right that they want to grow their young players.... Its just my opinion that MKG isn't the right kind of young player they need to be focused on grooming. I think he's going to be an excellent rotational player, but I just dont see superstar in his future. If it was me at the GM seat I would see what he could net them now before his value starts to decline with the contract he's on.
How about this one- http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=k5d4hl8 Rockets Out- Asik, Jones (or-D-Mo) Rockets In- Gallinari Pelicans Out- Gordon Pelicans Out- Asik, Jones Nuggets Out- Gallinari Nuggets In- Gordon .............................................................................................. Why Pelicans do this- Gordon has been rumored to be available before, and the Evans signing just signifies that he might be even more available. PG: Holiday SG: Evans, Rivers SF: Aminu, PF: Davis, Anderson, Jones C: Asik, Steimsma That's not a terrible core (even though I hate Evans). Defensively, with a frontline of Asik & Davis, this team has excellent potential on that end. I think they are upgraded very much with this move. ..................................................................................................... Why the Nuggets do this- They need a go-to offensive player. Gordon can be that guy. When healthy he puts up all-star numbers, and is a go-to option at the end of games. Gallinari is a very good player, and might even make an all-star team in the future, but he's not the go-to player that Gordon is. PG: Lawson, Miller SG: Gordon, Foye SF: Chandler PF: Faried, Hickson C: McGee, Mozgov Thats not really a bad team. Much more well rounded IMO. Losing Karl sure hurts, but this team (if healthy) can make some noise in the playoffs. .................................................................................................... Why Houston does this- Gallinari is the perfect fit for what this team wants to do. He can also provide offense on occasion that teams guard to stop Harden and Howard. Did I mention he is also a very, very good 3 point shooter as well?? PG: Lin, Bev, Canaan, Brooks SG: Harden, Brewer, Williams SF: Parsons, Garcia, Casspi/Or Covington PF: Gallinari, D-Mo, Smith C: Howard, Camby I for one would absolutely love Gallinari at the PF spot. Even if he's more of a SF, he really does seem to give great effort on the defensive end, and back in NY, was often responsible for guarding the other teams best offensive player.
But why is more attractive to those other teams? In my view, the Bobcats are exactly the team that should be taking risks as opposed to settling for slightly safer but low upside options. That's the road to mediocrity.
