Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

Why would Stone not get some of the Knicks assets if he knew this deal was on the table? He could have held up the Knicks without giving the Nets their picks back.

 

I'd be very surprised if we traded for either of them this off-season but you could easily match the salaries to the required amount with just FVV straight up or Brooks + Jeff Green + Londale (or equivalent contracts to Jeff and Jock)

 

ESPN gave us an A for the trade:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/40433333/nba-trade-grades-bridges-knicks-cooking-houston

 

Whether this trade is contingent to the Knicks trade, I tend to agree there's no reason for the Nets to tank if they don't get their picks back. If you look at the standings, with Mikal, the Nets is more likely to stay the same (with Chicago drops and assume one surprise team improves). Let's assume we are slotted in the 9th pick again (with some chances moving up and some chances moving down), will the 9th pick of next year better than our core 6 right out of the gate? If yes, this is a pretty dumb trade. If not, the 9th overall won't get much playing time. Assume we are using the Nets pick to trade for a star, who are we going to get? There are no names that come into my mind that can put us over the top, but who knows NBA stars ask for a trade all the time. That's a big question mark as well. This trade has a lot of variables and I don't either like it or hate it. I like it because this will allow us to have more assets down the road; when other western teams are in decline, we can make a deep run. I don't like it because one of the 2025 and 2026 could turn out to be better if the ping-pong drops like this year. THe only thing for sure is that Ime probably is happy about this trade because he is enough coaching young players, especially rookies.

 

Because this isn't NBA 2K and you can't just turn on the "other teams have to accept the trade". You can only strong arm so much out of them, we got 2 picks and 2 swaps for 1 pick and 1 swap

 

You are correct. Its two bad pick swaps and two future picks for one good/great pick swap and one good/great pick.

 

Three teams were going after Bridges (Including us). Nets were going to get something good for him because of that bidding war.

We got something out of it, that we otherwise wouldn't have gotten. Nets have shown willingness to tread water a few years in a row. Calling their bluff would mean that we'd be in a worse situation than we are in now.

 

Why?

 

Precisely - we are extending our window of opportunity.

As with the Nets picks, we just needed things to line up once and for them to be really bad. It didn't really happen, but the pick lucked into a top 3 pick, so we'll take it.
Chances lightning strikes twice are slim, so let's move on?

 

Why do you keep quoting this idiot? The Suns won seventeen more games than the Nets.

“The Nets were four games from the 10th seed!”

Lmao idiot.

 

Those 4 picks in 2025 apart from their own look like ass. NYC obv just added Bridges. Mil still a contender with Giannis. and then OKC lol.

 

Your making it sound like all those things are equal value. The Brooklyn swap and pick are good. The future swaps are trash and the future picks are unknown.

 

You do realize that being in the lottery is contingent on making the playoffs or not, not your win total, right?

 

It's times like these when i understand how the general public out there pounds their keyboards trying to argue how Donald Trump, H Clinton, and Joe Biden are good quality candidates for the Presidency. There's just not a lot going for some people upstairs.

 

I agree with you for the most part, but it's not just trading away Cooper Flagg, it's trading away a shot at Cooper Flagg. Our pick this year was supposed to be low lottery, but luck went our way and we ended up 3rd. The difference is that next year, it's not just Cooper Flagg - the top 4 or 5 picks are all potentially damn good players. But, in general, I'm happy it's time we started fighting for a playoff spot rather than lottery spot.

 

You do realize the greatest determining factor in making the playoffs is being good, right?

 

Stone kept the 27 swap.

Their timeline to be bad is short.

 

Those future picks are absolutely big assets, the Suns sold their future to win now and are not set-up to be good in 2027 and 2029. And there's no reason to call the second swap "bad" if you're calling the future picks "unknown". We have no idea how good the Mavs will be in 2029, with the new luxury tax rules competitive windows are going to be shorter and stars ask out all the time in the current NBA. I think there is equal value here.

Also we strengthened the 2027 BKN Swap (less likely to be good then now) and even the OKC to Phoenix swap we'll have will likely be jumping from 28-30 to 18-24, which is a nice jump. We traded Eric Gordon to get a swap like that and ended up with Cam Whitmore because of it. That isn't 'trash".