Duncan will be the big prize in his FA year. Every team in the league (that has a brain) will want him because he is top 2 in the league (maybe Shaq is better). So now the question becomes, how can we get him to come here. Obviously we will not be able to sign him, given our salary cap situation, which means we will have to get him through trade. The way I see it, there are two scenarios. I - Trade Francis, Rice, Morris, Thomas, and our pick to San Antonio for Duncan in the offseason. We would need to convince San Antonio that trading him now will enable them to get more in return than if they wait until he demands to be traded. We give them a lot of young talent in Francis and Thomas, the Pick should be good for a starting caliber player, and Morris is like a Bruce Bowen clone and they are very high on Bowen. San Antonio is getting very old and they need to make a move soon or they will be the Jazz. If they cannot play Parker as a backup, they might be able to package him to move up. San Antonio would need to include throw-ins for salary matching like Malik Rose or Terry Porter. One might think that we are giving up a lot. But I think that Duncan gives us just the front court/back court balance we need. He can play 4/5. Our projected lineup: 5 - Cato/Duncan/Collier 4 - Duncan/Taylor/Griffin 3 - Griffin/Williams/Langhi 2 - Mobley/Torres 1 - Norris/Brown That would be one helluva shot blocking front line. It should also allow the guards to gamble more on defense, and Cat is pretty good at getting steals. Could you imagine Duncan in the high-post with Griffin and Mobley waiting to rain threes while Cato hangs around for the free dunks. This would move us from lottery to contenders instantly. II - Trade Francis after his extension with all the above players minus Rice. Obviously this scenario is not as desireable to the Rockets, because then they are still stuck with an aging Rice's contract, albeit only for one year beyond the trade, perhaps opening up an oportunity to trade his expiring contract for caproom. In this scenario, we would just need to hope that the Spurs liked whoever we pick up this year if our pick next year is lower (not an unsafe assumption). On the Spurs end, they would not have to worry about needing to be able to resign Francis.
I agree with you, that the trade would help restock them with a young nucleus & give them a headstart on rebuilding, if Duncan leaves. However, the problem I see, is that San Antonio will have enough cap space in the 03/04 season to resign him & pursue some serious FA's that same year. In fact, if Duncan opts out, they'll only have (as of now) Parker under contract. That could change somewhat, based on what players they pursue this off season, trades they make next year, or what they resign their existing players for. Here's a link to their current projected team salaries, that'll make it a little clearer. http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/san_antonio.htm
The day the Rockets trade Duncan to us is the day the Spurs will not exist as a franchise. This is ludicrous. I guess you guys were the ones who proposed that we trade Olajuwon to SA, back in 92 when he wanted out of Houston. If SA does a sign and trade to help anyone out, it would only be to a Eastern Conf foe. The Rockets are one of the last teams in which SA would want to trade Duncan.
A few things though: 1) San Antonio knows Francis certainly won't be rushing to resign with a nucleus of KT and Parker, along with oldies Robinson and Smith. 2) Would San Antonio even want to trade Duncan with the key piece to the deal being a PG, when they have their beloved Jesus at the point? 3) Would these long time rivals be willing to make such a huge deal with each other? 4) If the Rockets suddenly traded Francis to what will be a rebuilding/lotto Spurs team, with Robinson, Smith, Porter, Ferry, Bowen all soon to be gone, after Francis signs the extention, that would just be downright wrong. Francis would have to agree to wanting to play for the Spurs after signing the extention, which I would bet serious money isn't going to happen. The only way around that would be lying to him and signing him to the max as a Rocket for life, while working out a trade behind his back. Something that would be horrible for public relations with all NBA players and would only be done if Jerry Colangelo or Jerry Krause controlled the team 5) Trading for Duncan and having Cato locked up for so many years would almost assure that Griffin will have to be used at SF. However, many still have hopes that he can develop into PF types he has been compared to, such as Duncan himself, and Rasheed Wallace. So do you keep the PG that is about to join Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson and Grant Hill as the 4th player in NBA history to average 15, 5 and 5 through his first 3 seasons and develop 19 year old stud Griffin at PF, while keeping another promising forward that is strong enough to play PF and quick enough on his feet to play SF...or do you go with the chatroom's #1 tanking leader at PG and the superstar PF, while the Rockets continue to keep EG on the perimeter in the future?
I don't care if you have Duncan or not, your new proposed line-up has Moochie starting at PG.....*shiver*......."Death to Moochie"...I mean "Death to Smoochie". So, unless Parker is thrown in with Duncan, then I wouldn't do this trade. Man...do some of you ever sleep aka SteveFrancis3?
The Spurs are not morons. They aren't going to accept Francis and a bunch of scrubs for arguably the best player in the NBA, not a chance. Pure pipe dream. The only shot the Rocks had at Duncan was to clear a ton of cap space for the 03 season. Signing Mo "High Times" Taylor and Glen "Steamed" Rice along with Moochie "The little dribbler that thought he could" Norris to long term deals (a trade in Rice's case) ended that hope.
lol. Hey now Manny, I know Tennessee isn't in the same time zone as Norway or Germany, where some of the posters that are on right now or were just on such as Heath and Sir Jackie Chiles reside. So I must ask you the same question As for me, on weekends I go to bed at 4:00 AM everyday. I am 1:24 minutes past my bedtime right now, so I suppose I will go to sleep
Actually, this might be the only day of the year in which you will see a post by me before 5 in the morning and that was because of a 6 A.M. Easter service. As a matter of fact, I just got back and now I'm back off to bed.
To get Duncan It may cost us Griffen more than Francis WOULD YOU DO THAT Griffen, KT, Rice and the Pick for Duncan This of it like this. . . If you were the spurs what would u want I'd Want Griffen, KT, and Mobley Straight up for DUncan The Rockets would say HELL NO . .and wonder where Dickerson is when they need him The Rockets would have to shoot back the Pick and Rice So Does Duncan = Griffen, KT, Rice and the Pick Rocket River
I don't ever see the Spurs trading us Tim Duncan, their prized jewel. We could offer Francis, Mobley, Griffin, for Duncan, Jesus Parker and then...Well, they might budge. I think to pry Duncan it would take a top 3 pick along with Francis+. They will probably want another franchise big man as soon as they trade Duncan, that means either Eddie Griffin or an awesome draft pick so that they can take their chances at Ming, Woods, Gooden, etc...
I think the Rockets would be moronic to give up Francis, Mobley, and Griffin for Duncan and Parker. Say Duncan goes down for an extended period of time. You would then, over that stretch, be seeing a rising star in Griffin avg. maybe about 20 points, say Mobley 20 too and Francis 25 That's 60 points, folks > about 15 for Parker. That's a lot of firepower you're giving up, and against the thoughts of probably 99% of the board, I'd be hesitant to give up any of our "big three,"...SF, CM, and EG...for Tim Duncan. I'd rather build around our star core. Like, how I'm praying something like this happens in the offseason: #3 pick/Kenny Thomas for Lamar Odom PG Steve Francis SG Cuttino Mobley SF Lamar Odom PF Eddie Griffin C Kelvin Cato I'd like to build a championship team around that, and a more capable bench than we have right now.
Not only would the Spurs be crazy to trade Duncan, they certainly wouldn't trade him to the Rockets. They are still fuming over selling Mad Max to the Rockets for $50,000.
