There would be a cap hold for Dragic so it would be impossible to sign Smith unless he's willing to take pennies on the dollar to stay here.
During the 12 game stretch that he was regularly getting the ball he scored 193 points on 146 FGA. That's better than everybody on the team except Harden and Dwight. Dwight is a much better finisher than D-mo on lobs and putbacks (that's why he's the all-star), but I still maintain that D-mo is our best half court option aside from Harden.
Just to be clear I'm not in anyway advocating trading Dmo. You keep him unless you get a quality big in return. I'm just saying that trading for Dragic doesn't mean you can't keep smith. Smith just has to decide between taking MLE money with a contender or a larger contract with a non contender with cap space.
To be honest someone like D-Mo wouldn't be as attractive a piece to the the Suns because they have Len, a promising 7 footer in his own right. Morey is a shrewd GM. All his trades tend to be based on whose production and skill set are most easily replaceable. Other than that for sure it comes down to who is redundant. Once again, the best case scenario is jones becomes healthy because Smith is Jones' entire upside. As I said. Bev can get carried by Harden. But I don't think Morey is counting on that. Our most attractive package at February without hurting our team this season or going forward would be: Jones, Beverley, pelicans pick, one of either Johnson/Canaan/Capela, and likely one of: Terry/Papa for salary matching purposes.
I agree if he does well here then fit, personel and a winning situation might be worth more. But who knows. Bobby after completely ranting about the utter waste that is Josh smith surely you don't think another team (that's in contention) will offer him more than MLE money do you?
If the NOP pick and NYK pick aren't attractive pieces for the Suns and they want an impact player to push into the playoffs we can certainly find a 3rd team to parlay our picks into a player they covet.
What value does he get with an additional contact? Someone here said the Detroit contract is reduced by .50 on the dollar up to the value of the new contract
If only there was a team that had a talented yet disgruntled big man that could be used to facilitate Dragic to Houston. Oh wait, there's Greg Monroe. I don't think we should give our NOP pick to Detroit, but if that was the case then we'd get Dragic, Phoenix would get Monroe and the NYK 2nd, Detroit would get the NOP 1st pick. All teams get something they desire, who says no?
I would do that deal sans bev... Besides harden/Howard I think he's our most important team leader. Seems like a guy that will get in Josh smith's face if he starts taking hero ball shots.
It does not matter who is on the Suns' roster or how many picks they have, the Suns just want the most incoming assets they can get for their outgoing asset. The Suns' GM come from Boston just like Morey did and they treat everyone like assets.
Yeah that's it really I think (50% of all money for the duration of his DET contract). But an MLE offer this summer or any contract for that matter could extend out beyond 2017 when his DET contract expires. Anything he makes on that next contract beyond 2017 is 100% his I believe.
PHX says no....DET has NO leverage with Monroe. There's virtually no advantage in trading for Monroe. You don't get bird rights and if you want to keep him beyond this year you need cap space. If you have cap space you can just wait till summer to sign him without giving anything up. I agree with this. Suns are all about collecting assets that can be flipped for their own "harden" hidden gem type player. I'm just saying if they have someone in mind already we can certainly help facilitate that transaction with our picks in exchange for Dragic.
That's interesting. I would guess he'll get offered more than the mle. But if it's not much more, adding the fact that it's reduced by 50% may induce him to stay through 2017. But then he'll be on the wrong side of 30. He might want to get the most money he can now.
Don't worry, Kevin McHale knows how to handle just this kind of situation: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/01/nba-joe-smith-illegal-contract-timberwolves
Seriously. I don't remember anywhere near this level of pre-outrage over a move we may or may not even make when we were trying to flip Scola. And Scola played really hard for us and was consistently good for a much longer period of time than D-Mo.
I wouldn't include PBev in the deal... Giving up Pelicans pick and some pieces for Dragic - no problem! Giving up a first and pieces to upgrade from PBev to Dragic - not worth it... Starters, DMo, Brewer, maybe KPap... anybody else, Phx can take what they want along with the Pelicans pick... even throw in a 2nd....
