So I've been thinking this trade through for the last few days, and I can't for the life of me work it out. Don't get me wrong - adding Artest to last years squad rings through loud and clear, that makes perfect sense! It's the total deal that makes me wonder what magic the wizard is working. Here's the deal (as I understand it - please correct me if wrong!): Houston sends: Bobby Jackson ($6.09million); Donte Green ($971 160); our 2009 first round draft pick ($0 trade value) and cash considerations ($0 trade value). Houston receives: Ron Artest ($8.45million); Sean Singletary ($442 114); Patrick Ewing Junior ($442 114). As I understand it, both Singletary and Ewing Jr are on non-guaranteed contracts that will increase in 'stability' based on making it to training camp and then playing an NBA game. So here is what I don't get: We are sending pretty much $7million in salary and receiving pretty much $9.4million. That works fine (within 125% +/- 100k --> but only just) But why? Why on earth are we taking Singletary and Ewing Jr? And why on earth are Sacramento sending them? Presumably we'll just waive them at no cost - but Sacto could have done exactly the same thing! Surely we're not hoping to throw a roster spot at Ewing Jr (whose only valuable attribute is his 42inch vertical) - and Singletary is a poor mans Brooks (a real poor man). So having puzzled this question through, here are my thoughts: 1) Morey/ Adelman want to have a look at Singletary/ Ewing in training camp. To be frank, this is an odd, and unlikely option. 2) There is another player involved from the Rockets side that we haven't yet heard about. Unlikely - with the way the loose lipped NBA 'sources' have spread news of the deal... 3) Morey demanded the 2 2nd round picks in exchange for the first again unlikely considering we have no roster spot, they are both signed, and we can't send them overseas... 4) Sacramento wanted to create a trade exception for themselves to use with BJax contract certainly possible - if I understand the system correctly, they would end up with a $2.4mill exception? (entirely possible I have no idea...) 5) Morey has designs on using these 2 non-guaranteed contracts for a further move to me this seems the most likely manouvre. Think about it for a moment, we just received 900k in unguaranteed deals - that's almost like a TE in and of itself! Plus we have Mike Harris, who should be on about 711k --> combined that is equal to $1.6million in players who we can ship out, and the other team can simply waive at no cost. Are we in the market to deal with a club who is looking to clear some salary room? The club most likely to be in the market for some salary dumping is the Knicks: but honestly $1.6million isn't going to make much difference there... (in the same boat are the Cavs, Mavs, Blazers and Celtics, Lakers) Let me know what your thoughts are on why we've taken on these 2nd round picks! And (if you think deals might be afoot) who me might be dealing with! My first 2 thoughts were: 1) Atlanta - who could happily put that $1.6 mill towards Josh Smiths salary 2) Chicago - who might find a package of Alston/ Head/ non-guaranteeds (total of $8.4m, of which only $6.8 is guaranteed) appealing in a trade for Hinrich. It saves them $3.2million (to pay Deng), brings in Head as leverage in re-signing Gordon, and they still have a vet PG to tutor Rose - but Alstons deal is only 2 season long instead of 4. One might think they'd be hoping Rose had sole point duties in a year or 2 - thus removing Hinrich might be neccessary? Maybe I'm just dreaming, but I'm thinking option#2 is a pretty good one for us! It puts a dampner on the 2010 sweepstakes (which we would still be in with about $15million instead of $24) - but perhaps, if things go well, we might be thinking that Artest IS the 2010 sweepstakes? We could offer him 3 more years, and be in the 2011 sweepstakes - we'd have Hinrich/ Battier and Ming all under contract into that year, giving us a core to work with (particularly if Artest signed on) - and McGrady may just hang around for a couple more years for less money! Anyway - what other deals might be on the cards? Or what other explanation can you give for those 2 second rounders? [sorry this was long - well read if you made it through!]
I think you're looking too much into this - Both Ewing and Singletary won't make an NBA squad, Sacramento just wanted to get rid of them. If Sac-town, a lower tier, young NBA squad doesn't want them, then they aren't worth a pile of beans
I thought I remembered hearing that both of those guys had some partial guarantees to their deals. Im sure SAC wanted them included to save whatever amount that was. I would think Morey could try to use them in a deal, but I assume they both get cut and we eat that expense.
Yeah, I think that Sacramento wanted to save these guy's 800K. Now the Rockets pay these two guys, while they get cut before the start of the season. Smart move by Sacramento. They pawn off 2 guys they didn't really need or want.
Trade exception sounds the most probable. Let's say Sac wanted to make a deal with Memphis for Lowry and Memphis only wanted a draft pick in return along with some cash. The TE makes it happen.
We already sent $1million to Sacto - why couldn't we just send $1.2million and they could do the cutting? Morey is clearly not stupid - why wouldn't he just do that? If you look at the numbers, including those guys salaries puts this deal right on the absolute knife edge of viability (yes it works, but only just).
Yeah - clearly they don't want these guys - which is why they (1) drafted them 2 months ago, and (2) signed them BOTH to contracts just 1 month ago
Yeah ok - you're probably right I'm probably reading into it too much from the Rockets side of things. Including those 2 scrubs pushes the deal to the maximum TE possible I guess... They could also package the $2.4mill exception with BJax and bring back $8.5million in salary
Who knows for sure but the more I think about it the more this deal has Morey written all over it. At first glance Sac seems as thought they could have done much better. There were rumors of better deals than what Houston was offering. But maybe Morey, in negotiations, says, hey will give you a first, Donte and Bobby, some cash and you are also going to get a 1.5 million T.E. with that. You can use that TE to pick up another player later. And Sac thinks about it and says yeah that TE might be cool but what kind of player can we get with 1.5 mil. And Morey says, "Hey I have an idea send us sinletary and ewing. We'll immediately release them and you can resign them if you want. That gives you a 2.4 mil TE and you can do a lot more with that. And Sac thinks about it and says yeah that sounds cool. Think about it... Sac got 2 first round picks, one of which was Donte Greene, Bobby and a TE that could also turn into a decent player for them. They just got a lot of flexibility in their rebuilding process. And they were able to do all of that while taking back less salary! So what in the eyes of your average fan looks like a crappy deal for Sac is really a good business move. And that's not even including the fact that they just acquired another expiring contract that they could parlay into a decent player at the trade deadline (See Gasol). So wile all of this may benefit Sac it certainly smells of Moneyball and Morey. Creative dealing 101!
17 players on contract for the kings if including singletar and ewing after the trade. their deals are also partially guranteed.
This is the best thread I have come across this summer, hands down An excellent look into the Doc's crystal ball..... Hinrich would be good here. I gained a lot of respect for him watching him play for (although they lost) team USA in the WC a few summer's ago. He played very well. But I do like Rafer's improvement last year and his NY link to Ron. I like the fact that we have 3 players (TMac, Shane, and Rafe) that Ron truly respects, and a coach that he respects as well. That bodes well for his potential behavioral problems, so I guess I would wait til later on the Hinrich deal if I could, and see how we do with the roster as is...
If this is right, and by no means am i saying it is, then you sir, are a genius. Very good thinking, i hope your right, however its unlikely based on the simple notion of it's just 'too good to be true.' If it does happen though, then id have to have serious doubts about your true identity. You could actually be Mr Morey himself.
I think Morey is gonna package these two players(Singletary and Ewing Jr.) for a backup C and PG. Don't think Brooks will be our backup PG, He's better suited as a spark off the bench. Don't be suprised if Landry, Head, Novak,Hayes, and/or Battier are included in the deal to get the player(s) they target. I could see a package of the players mentioned above sent to Miami for any combination of players that would include Taquan Cook, Dorell Wright(my fav.), Udonis Haslem, Mark Blount, and Mario Chalmers. Orlando and Indiana are other very possible trading partners...
I like that last suggestion with the trade with Chicago for Hinrich. He is a career 38% 3pt shooter and 2 years ago almost shot 42% and that was with noone on those teams being able to draw a double team to give him open looks. What kind of percentages could that guy shoot here with the kind of looks he would get off of Tracy, Yao and Artest?????
Hinrich overrated, do not want, slight upgrade over Rafer. Head is a US Select Team "Stud" now, shouldn't be packaged with Rafer for Hinrich.
I dont see it happening, hinrich as a player, he would be ideal for us. plays d, shoots fairly well, but overall is only marginally better than rafer, but then again, i do like rafer and his pg skills so i`m being biased. we would have to give up more than we want in order to get him is all i`m saying. battier is too much.
i don`t see Morey doing that, i think he`ll use them as pieces rather than just cutting em. they are rookies and unknown, so someone might take a chance on them. it`s different from butler`s situation, all the gm`s knew butler was a blob of ****.
