Why b**ch about it? What did you expect to get at the deadline for a WAY OVERPAID PF not getting any time on a team needing decent PF play? Get real, dude. We save money in the long run and rid ourselves of the situation. A good deal in my books.
What's a real trip is that these moves dovetail exactly with what Van Gundy said earlier on 610. I'm shocked that he was that much on the level. Pretty amazing.
noize, et al: I have always like Moochie more than most on the board, but that's not saying he's a great player by any means. As has been said he's a super nice guy, great for morale. Just think of Moochie as Clutch the Bear with a better shot The first round pick seems harsh though
If you heard JVG this morning on 610, he mentioned a couple of thisng leading to this. First, he said that flexibility for future needs was a priority. Also, that it's easier to dump 2 small contracts than 1 large one. If MO couldn't stay in our rotation, I really doubt Baker will see any playing time either. Mooch may be a long shot as desperation insurance in case Sura never fully comes back this season.
That was the best we could get for MO? How did Spers get Nazr Mohammed for M. Rose? They just upgraded their frontcourt again and dumped an undersized PF. Unbelievable. Second, I say Ward and AB will be cut.
Hoopshype reports that there's team option on Moochie for the 2006-2007 season. Patricia's site doesn't have that team option, but I'm hoping that's a typo on her part.
This off-season, we will have 4 expiring contracts to use as trade bait. Expiring contracts are not as important this year because there is no luxury tax next year, but after this season, they will have much more value. The season after next is sure to see the luxury tax back again. It's tough giving up a first rounder, but I think in all, it's a good deal. We could actually be players in free agency this off-season or next.
I don't like this trade at all - while it will get us some cap room at the end of next year, will it be enough to make a difference to offset the max contracts of Yao and T-Mac and the high contract of Juwan Howard? Furthermore, we just got 2 players who are nothing but dead weight. It's one thing when you get one player like that, but 2??? Maybe we'll be lucky and that bat that divebombed Moochie during a game a few years ago will come back and finish him off. At least then we'd get a medical exception.
Hmmm. Hope so...I don't imagine CD would have made the trade otherwise. All together, then, it's not just the cap space for the following summer, but moving up the expiring contracts a year earlier. Which means that there are 2 options: (1) let contracts expire and hopefully have some space to tinker, or (2) use contracts as trade bait this summer or next year at the trade deadline.
Then this is a steal you know why? We can package any of our expring contracts this summer for another future 1st round pick in return ala the glen Rice deal. There will be plenty on teams willing to take our expiring contracts this summer of next year's trade deadline for first or/and second round picks especially teams in need of cap relief assuming the CBA remains in most part status quo. Good deal.
Until Sura's back, we probably look like this: James, Norris, Barrett Wesley, Barry McGrady, Bowen Howard, Padgett, Weatherspoon Yao, Mutombo Depending on how Moochie does in JVG's practices, either him or Barrett to IR when Sura's back as the starter. Depending on how Vin does in practice, he might supplant Clarence as a five minute guy at the end of the bench.
Our Team Now: (For the Stretch Run when Sura Returns) Sura James Moochie Barrett Wesley McGrady Barry McGrady Barry Howard Padgett Weatherspoon Baker Yao Mutombo Baker I think the James acquisition adds to our backcourt depth and can help Sura to not play heavy minutes so we can have him for the playoffs at full speed. Mo wasn't playing anyway and we got out of a bad contract. Vin nor Moochie will play many (if any) minutes. In 05'-'06 Spoon/Vin/Moochie come off the payroll, though I don't think it will matter if we sign Yao to a max contract. Oh well, we'd better not let the CBA give up those Middle Class Exceptions otherwise we'll be McGrady and Yao and nothing...
Good trade....Baker may be a waste of space too....but he's less of a waste than Mo was. Mooch will be fine...better him than Strickland IMO. I love both deals we did.
Do I have this right then in saying that NY paid us $10M for our '06 or '07 1st round draft pick: Taking $18M and giving us back $8M... P.S. Why can't Baker get some PT on this team?!?
Just remembering back to the Moochie-negotiations summer, I'm pretty sure the last year of the deal is a team-option. I have to be a little critical of JVG here for how bad his relationship with MoT got. That Mo's contributions had sunk, and then the flu-benching really hurt his stock a lot. I think this trade would have been rosier if JVG hadn't completely alienated Mo before the trade (of course, we'd have expected even more since Mo's perceived value among us would be higher as a result).
Are you serious? NY has been trying to trade these two chumps all year. Nobody wanted them and every time they tried to include Mooch in a trade (crawford, etc..), the other team said HELL NO. Taylor is still fairly young and outside of Jamison, was one of the top 6th man of the year last year. He is useless to us, since he is to similar to Howard. So Isiah has to pay for one player, what he was playing for two scrubs not playing. All it cost him was paying one extra year, and he picks up a 1st round pick. Taylor is not a scrub, he is just in JVG dog house. His talent is no different then Howard. If you noticed it was a chemistry thing with JVG. First he benched Howard, then he benched Taylor to see where the chemistry was. Bottom line, the first round was STUPID. In my opinion, they should of given us a 1st round pick. At least they got somebody that has some game. Portland would of jumped on Taylor and a first round pick for Anderson. Hell, give me Nazr any day of the week before these two chumps.
