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

T-Mac didn't want to participate an All-Star Weekend beacuse of it was going to be in New Orleans. What makes you guys think he'll accept the trade which sends him to LIVE IN New Orleans ?

 

Hah... that's a funny thought.

In reality though, he doesn't have much say. If the Hornets did this deal, it would be about money anyways. McGrady couldn't use the "I won't play" strategy.

 

The more I read the more amaze I am about people that do not like this trade.

Yes its basically the team that bring the Fakers to 7 games, but also lost 2 games by 40 and 19.

The trade is basically putting Yao and Artest in place of David West in a team that won 49 games.

For talks about bench, yao, chandler, artest, posey, wafer, peja, lowry and CP3, is a solid 8 man rotation. Add in hayes, cook, white, a rookie or 2, and someone from the FA, that is a solid squad no matter how you look at it.

I get it that peja is no longer what he once were, but peja will be back under RA and by maintaining his "bad" shooting year of .399%-.378%-.894% at FG%-3p%-3FT%, he will still be an asset at any team.

Posey is a solid player, his a player you want him to play defense and shoot 3s, he will be a downgrade to battier but not by that much of a margin.

Chandler, a 7ft who plays defense, was the league leader in offensive rebound for the 07 and 08 season.

And of course, a future MVP and hall of fame in CP3.

 

I guess it really is the offseason for such a lame not-even-a-rumor to cause so many responses.

Seems to me this trade doesn't pass the "common sense" test. Which is, how can NO save money by trading the only player on their team who bring in fans?

I know they have a lot of deadweight contracts. But the trade doesn't really solve that issue because the team isn't going as competitive as they are with CP3 making less than market value(max contract).

I can see such a trade being made for 30 year old CP3 making $20 mil a year. But right now, given his market value and his low salary, the guy is untouchable short of Cleveland coming in with the Lebron trade.

 

If we could keep Landry I would do da trade.

 

Bill Simmons is a Rockets hater.

 

this thread reflects how .... some of the fans are. not just YOFs.
I was amazed by this fact since yesterday.

How can you say no to this deal?

 

Giving up some many young pieces might not be the best solution. ( long term ) If this happens it would be the Barkley trade over again. Giving up young pieces to win now. Although, Paul is still a young player compared to what the Rockets got 12 years ago.

 

Please note this is not even a rumor: this is one possibility out of millions of possibilities. The only thing that makes this probable is, as evidenced by the Tyson Chandler trade, NOH wants to save money. So, let's remind ourselves that we're dealing with fantasy land, and we're just having fun with the figment of our imagination.

The only reason we can be hopeful is that WE, the rockets, are the only team NOH can deal with that can send them salary relief AND a young stud (aaron brooks). All the other teams that has capspace for 2010 either need it to resign their own players, or are young and in the rebuilding process and don't have the contracts to send to NOH. Our only competitor is Dallas. While they can send better expirings (Stackhouse is on the books for 7, but can be bought out for 2), we can send aaron brooks. So yay, go rockets.

(But who knows? If tracy is so anti NOH, he can be bought out for less. We risk, however, him signing for the minimum, and going to another team and possibly seeing him in an opponent uniform in the playoffs. Which, by the way, is a HUGE risk)

And moving on to the merits of the (unlikely) trade, How do you say no to this deal?

the other NOH contracts are cancers, sure, but not that crazy of a cancer. Posey is actually paid less than Battier. OKC were ecstatic to hear they were acquiring Chandler and his "cancer" contract. Only peja can be considered cancer, but his contract is only a 2 year cancer as opposed to Tracy's giant one year cancer, and Rick knows how to use Peja. Oh, we get Chris Paul.

The price we pay is an up-and-coming pg, an energy 6th man PF, a crafty PF, a glue guy, and tmac. Lowry can step in for AB without a huge dropoff, Posey can replace Battier without a huge dropoff, our two PFs are replaced by the NOH bigs and Hayes.

Oh, and we're also assuming we resign Ron Artest to fill the wings. Ron can't pound the rock when he has CP3 to defer to.

The ratio of Talent per dollar is awesome. That's undeniable.

So, question is: can this new core play defense? Defense wins championships, and defense will be needed to stop Denver, Portland, Lakers, Spurs in the future. How much defense do we lose when Scola and Battier are replaced by Peja, Chandler, and Posey?

 

Hasn't this been the case since... forever?

I mean, weren't there a bunch of fans who disliked the T-Mac trade because they didn't want to give up Kelvin freaking Cato(think about the absurdity of that for a second)? And every speculative "trade Rockets garbage for all-star" threads always these naysayers.

What's funny is that everyone of these posters would scoff at any similar trade proposals involving other team's role players for our stars.

 

Chris Paul is younger than Carl Landry, Scola, Battier, T-Mac, Jon Barry and Artest. Chris Paul is also younger than Brooks by 4 months. Chris Paul is the youngest player in the deal. He has more years of play in him than any of the other players in the deal. We get younger at the PG position(Brooks) and as our creator/scorer(T-Mac).

Tyson Chandler is 2.5 younger than Scola and a year younger than Landry. We get younger at the PF position.

We would only get older at the Peja/Battier+Artest, by 1-3 years.


Our future would be brighter with 2 younger players, while getting rid of a bunch of old players, and taking 1 old player back.

 

Ummm, we can trade Tracy anywhere and it doesn't matter one damned bit whether he likes where he's going or not. He doesn't have a choice in the matter.

He's not Jake Peavy.

 

Doesnt he has 'no trade clause' in his contract ?

 

Well said! Quote for truth.

 

Agreed on this point. It would hurt a lot losing Battier. He doesn't have any value to the Hornets so this manifestation of the deal makes little sense unless they traded him for smaller contracts.

 

I meant to say Chandler is a year older than Landry, but we still get younger at PF position.

 

How stupid of a proposal.

If the Hornets do come to point where trading Paul is a neccessity then I can think of 5 other teams that can easily give so much more in return than what is suggested by Simmons here. Portland comes to mind as the front runner for this kind of swap. They could easily package Aldridge, Outlaw, Fernandez, some picks and cash for Chris Paul and all the junk the Hornets have.

 

CP3's dribble penetration would open a lot of opportunities for Yao. Yao would become much more effective offensively. +1

Peja playing off Yao would make him a far more effective 3 point threat. +1

CP3 with the ball would not allow Ron to control the ball. +1

Chandler would be a much more effective weakside defender if Yao is beat. +1

Much better rebounding team with Chandler and Yao. (see game 7 07 playoffs) +1

The Paul to Chandler alley oop. +1

Less wear and tear and demand on Yao to carry the team with Paul. +1

Paul's passing vs Brook's passing. +1


I wouldn't want to see a complete overhaul of a roster like proposed but it is certainly intriguing given the possibilities. Like someone else said, you're really overvaluing the role players if you wouldn't do this deal. Yao needs to play next to another great perimeter player to be as great as he can be.

 

I'm pretty sure he doesn't. In order to get a no trade clause, you have to be in the league for 8 years and have played for the team you're signing a contract with for 4 years. Tracy signed his extension in 2004 which was the beginning of his first season with Houston. Also, he had only played 7 full seasons in the NBA at that point. He wasn't eligible to receive a no trade clause in his contract.

 

It is the big expiring contracts that the Rox have that make the deal attractive for the Hornets. The deal has very little to do with the quality of the returning players, and almost everything to do with the size of the expiring contracts.