Bill Simmons NBA playoffs mailbag: Very Interesting Trade scenario for the Rox

if they want to do a star for star trade up.... but like someone said if we are gutting our roster so they can gut theirs to become the houston hornets.. FORGET IT.. I am sure though the Hornets who are so broke they are giving "I O U" slips to the players that we will eventually take some of their scraps for cheap VERY soon. Wait have a little patience and I think eventually we'll get what we need out of them. It's like when Circuit City or alot of those other retail stores go out of business. Wait until they are close to the dead line and then buy it all for cheap.

 

To be honest, I don't think Hornets will let Chris Paul go. It's just speculation.

If they really do, there will be a lot offers on the table, nobody will get CP3 for cheap price.

 

i dont like this trade,but it might be the only good way to trade Tmac..

i dont think Hornets get any better after this trade either

two teams are gambling by doing this trade

Paul is an exellent G, but he is not and will not be a doniment one for his small size, so we'll from 0 next season , and wont win the championship in couples of yrs, even cant get one before next BIG DEAL , for i've witnessed the Tmac-coming yr for the former team.

terrible trade.

 

if you can get paul you GOT TO DO the trade

there is no comparable guard to CP3 in the league... he's a once in 20 year type of franchise player.

I love scola and landry but those are 2 role players

battier is a role player

I'll be honest. I love these guys so much that whatever teams they go to... I will root for those teams and I'll consider these 3 "my guys" for the rest of their careers

again. if you can get CP3 you do it. teh end

 

Although I wouldn't trade Yao, I agree with everything else you've said.

Icehouse did make a good point that our role players aren't necessarily any better than the ones traded for other big names. But I'd argue that in those cases, the team trading for the big name legitimately felt that they were becoming championship contender. And no matter how good Paul is or how healthy Yao stays, I don't see a team where the two of them are the only consistent offense winning a championship. The other pieces don't offset the loss of our bench. Peja is washed up - he reminds me of Glen Rice at the end of his career - a former dead-eye shooter whose past reputation can occasionally prevent double teams on other players but rarely puts any actual points on the board. Posey was a nice role player on the Miami and Boston teams, but he NEVER played as prominent a role as Shane has for us defensively. Chandler is Kelvin Cato part two, minus the bulk. Paul is great - probably a top 10 player - but can he really offset the loss of Scola, Brooks, Landry and Battier? I don't think so - you'll just see a similar result as 2005.

 

totally agree. We don't need Chandler, he is a center. and it doesn't make sense they trade their only center for 2 PF. let Hornets keep chandler, and we keep Landry.
then we end up with:

Yao
Landry
Peja
Artest
Paul

this is a very good starting 5, and DM will find us some good bench player later.

 

Remember when this was the smartest basketball forum on the net? Now apparently it's so stupid that the overwhelming majority of people who posted in this thread are opposed to giving up T-Mac's expiring contract + a bunch of roleplayers to add a 24 year old MVP candidate and one of the 5 best players in Basketball. I'm not surprised that most of those I saw in favor of this deal are long time members of this forum. The quality of posters on Clutchfans has seriously declined in the past few years. I don't really understand it either. There is absolutely no reason that newer posters shouldn't also have something positive to contribute. But seriously, we're talking about a guy who got votes for the MVP award this season - who is 24 years old - who plays what is probably the most important position in basketball now with zone defenses and the hand check rules - and who some people are saying could end up the GOAT at PG (though it would be hard to overtake Magic) - and you guys are like "But we give up Scola and Battier!" Hey, I love those guys too, but get real.

Quit being so sentimental. Yes. Morey would have to pull off some more moves via free agency, the draft and trades to fill in the holes this trade would make - but do you guys really not believe he can do that?

And quit talking about how Peja and Posey suck. We know that. We also know Tyson Chandler is over-priced. We wouldn't be trading to obtain them. We'd just be accepting that's part of the price tag to obtain Chris Paul. In fact, the fact those guys suck and are all vastly over-paid is the only reason Chris Paul could possibly be had in the first place. Otherwise there is no way in hell any team in their right mind would ever consider getting rid of him short of the Cavs calling saying "Want Lebron?".

Seriously, get over your personal feelings for our gritty roleplayers and start thinking about the fact you would pass up a chance to obtain a guy who is one of the top 5 players in the league and will probably eventually be one of the top 5 players EVER at his position because you really like Luis Scola, Shane Battier and Carl Landry. I love those guys too. I'd hate to see them go. But if this is a real possibility (and it's probably not) you just don't pass up on it. I mean, obviously you try to tweak it more to your advantage - but in the end you do what needs doing to make it happen.

 

As soon as I start giving the rookies hell one of them starts talking sense.

 

Well, I think it does make sense due to the fact they are moving these people to get rid of their monstrous contracts and save money. Tyson Chandler has a monstrous contract. Also, they have Hilton Armstrong. Yes, they would suck something awful, but that isn't their concern. They're just trying to save money and stay afloat. There are some saying it's a very real possibility that the Hornets could go out of business and cease to exist completely. That's the whole reason this scenario is even being taken relatively seriously.

However, if Morey managed to make this happen and find a way to keep Landry or Scola I'd be beyond thrilled.

Also, that starting 5 would still have Lowry, Hayes and Wafer off the bench. (assuming we resign Wafer as well as Artest). Sure, we could use some more size to back up PF and Center, but overall that's not even terrible depth.

 

I'm shaking my head, and I'm not the only one by a long shot. Sure, this is a fantasy, but if you can get a young superstar who plays one of the hardest positions to fill, a top 5 player, a player who automatically keeps you in the playoff/title conversation for the next decade, regardless of what happens to Yao, you do it. And you don't do it for nothing. You pay with regret for what you're losing, some regret for the bad contracts, but you still do it with a smile on your face.

The bad contracts? Peja and Chandler expire after 2 seasons. Yup, we're obligated for only 2 years, and during the second year they are expirings that Morey can deal at the deadline for talent. Chandler is very useful backing up Yao, playing some 4, and while he's nearly as bad as Chuck at the FT line, he's a hell of a lot taller, can finish, and is a big target for Paul around the basket for the easy dunk. Peja is pretty much finished (bad back), but we can get a few useful minutes out of him. More than we've gotten from the disappointing Barry.

I'm all over the "deal." Like R2K and others, I'd want to keep one of Scola and Landry (and I'm a huge fan of Scola's and like Landry a lot), but you have to pay for talent and this is talent on a grand scale. While I don't think Posey "is everything Shane is and more" (sorry Lee, but you're wrong, IMO), he is a good rotation player and good enough that, with Artest, I don't think we lose all that much.

Love the idea. I don't think it'll happen, but we've seen many unlikey trades during the history of the Rockets. If we know anything, it should be that anything is possible.

 

I think the Hornets would go bankrupt before trading Paul.

I stated earlier that I would even give up Yao for Paul given Yao's age and injury situation but this rumor is just teasing Rockets fans. It's not impossible that Paul could be a Rocket someday but this piece of speculation by ESPN doesn't mean it's any closer to happening.

 

I basically agree with you - except I think they'd give up Paul before they went bankrupt. But it's the offseason. There is not much else to talk about. And I'm literally in awe of how many people would be opposed to this trade.

 

Like Hakeem said when we traded for Drexler (paraphrasing): "You need to give up quality to get quality." Battier, Scola, and Landry are great role players. Any team would love to have them. But Chris Paul is a once in a generation type player, and we'd be getting him in his prime years. I trust the Rockets ability to find good complimentary pieces to fit around him.

 

True, but it's been an amusing diversion since I came home a little while ago. I thought the thread would be rediculous and discovered that it is littered with excellent posts. Anytime NIKEstrad can be coaxed out of hibernation, it's a good thread.

 

I'll admit that I don't really see a problem in getting Chandler too if this deal comes around. Yeah, he's overrated, but he'll do as a backup C, and while Peja is trash, that's what you have to accept for getting someone like Chris Paul.
After thinking about this, I would probably accept this, but with a whole lot of reservation, and I would do anything necessary to keep either Scola and Landry, as losing both means we would have a gaping hole at the PF position and the Hornets don't need another PF as West isn't a bad player at all.

 

Well, they can trade Chris Paul for Yi, and get all that chinese money that Yao brings Les. The team owner will double his profit.

 

Out of the ballpark home run.

 

Yea, I guess they wouldn't go bankrupt but I think they'd create a situation where Paul demanded the trade to avoid fan backlash. They wouldn't initiate the deal because of the consequences.

The only reason I posted my thoughts about this being a tease is that I hate seeing ridiculous hopes unnecessarily turn into disappointment.

I agree that it's shocking to see any Rockets fans that would be against this kind of deal if it did become available. I think it would be even more shocking to see the results of a Yao for Paul hypothetical trade scenario.

 

CP3 is overrated and doesn't fit with Yao. It'll be a huge setback for Rox if this trade goes down.

 

Wha?

Overrated is overrated.

I'd do any trade that keeps CP3 and Yao on the team honestly. At least with CP3 we can be certain that after Yao retires we'll still be a force years down the road.