Rockets acquire Suns picks, return Nets picks to Brooklyn

Lets go Hawks. Calling on former Rockets Legend Clint Capela.

 

ATL got the W over PHX

 

Nice win, Hawks! Especially impressive since they didn’t have Johnson.

I actually like the Hawks. Franchise player in Trae, good wings around him, a solid #2 in Johnson, their future center in Okongwu. Really fun young team.

In retrospect, it’s funny how everyone trashed the Hawks for the Murray trade when they absolutely ended up winning that one.

 

Garry Bird saved us.

 

GARRRRRRI BIRRRRRRRRD

 

The Suns also have the toughest remaining schedule as per tankathon lol.

 

The Spurs easily won the Murray trade.

 

KD played 39 minutes in a loss to the Hawks, not sure what the Suns are thinking here, but that just feels like desperation. KD at 36 years old and significant injury history is now 5th in minutes per game in the NBA, but Devin Booker is 2nd in minutes played. They are running these two into the ground to be .500 team.

https://www.espn.com/nba/stats/player/_/stat/minutes/table/general/sort/avgMinutes/dir/desc

 

The differential between strongest and weakest Schedule is 0.062.........it is not nothing.

 

We did not get a FRP for Wood, we got about 6 random cuttable roster filler contracts (5+Boban?) and some sort of trade exception...woo hoo.

Regardless...this is not important and this is not what is being talked about here

 

Matt Maloney did what?

 

It's so much worse when you understand HOW they lost. Durant and Booker 25 for 43 66 points with the rest of the team outside of Dunn doing a whole lot of nothing. They shot MUCH better percentage wise but made the same number of shots. HOW did they lose? Hawks made 4 more 3s because they had an extra 14 shots because they killed the Suns on the glass by 17.

Even when Durant and Booker play FANTASTIC they cannot win. Beal, Plumlee, O'Neale complete duds.

 

https://www.nba.com/news/rockets-mavericks-trade-christian-wood-26-pick-boban-marjanovic

they got the 26th FRP which turned into Wendelle Moore.

 

Brooklyn could insert themselves into the MIA/PHX equation. Brooklyn could send Simmons’ expiring to Miami, Miami sends Butler to the Suns, Suns send Beal to Brooklyn. Beal might be willing to waive the no-trade to go to NY. Brooklyn still gets to collect assets while trying to compete.

The big issue here is where do the picks come from to make this happen? Brooklyn should get picks for taking Beal, and Miami should get something for Butler. But where do those picks come from? This is a good illustration of the corner Phoenix has backed themselves into and why I think they are ultimately going to have to tear it down. It’s hard to see any path forward.

 

Which Murray trade? The original trade was the one that they got ridiculed for. The second trade was deemed a Hawks win at the time.

 

Brooklyn has reason to tank next season though. Atlanta has no reason to tank until 27-28 at the earliest. With Detroit getting respectable, I think it won't be easy for Brooklyn to crack the Play-in in 27 with only one offseason for them to build a team from the ashes. Also, the West is getting old besides OKC and Houston.

I like the top of this draft coming up, but if the Nets don't win a Top 4 pick...the guys left will be in the Reed Sheppard, Donovan Clingan tier (might get a good player, might not help much soon though). Nets really need to nail their picks.

 

The second one, and I don’t remember that at all. I remember most thought the Hawks didn’t get enough and did not value Dyson whatsoever.

 

I didn't value Dyson much, but Murray is maybe worth his salary (based on previous play). Atlanta got 2 FRPs or in other words two more FRPs than Murray was worth minus Dyson. 2nd Murray trade heavily favored Atlanta.

Edit: I don't watch ESPN except games. My knowledge of what Bill Simmons says is what is posted here. The people I listen to either thought deal favored Atlanta or was a meh deal both ways.

 

Nobody is going to want to help PHX and your analysis is right that they have no assets to dump him. In about a week, I think the noise between them and us will pick up because they only have one savior and its not Yimmy. If they want a future they have to call us. When the losing 50+ games projections start coming through they are going to want that pick back. A large part of me almost wants to play the Brooklyn game again and luck out and get the #1 pick to rub it in.