Yeah I'm starting to be more and more okay with this idea. It allows to make a little more of a run in the playoffs without restricting our cap space at all for the future. Then we can go out and get a Love/Cousins type player.
If both CP3 and D12 were not options, I would go ahead and sign Josh Smith (4 years 50 million) and JJ Reddick (3 years 18 million) Then trade Thomas Robinson, Royce White, Carlos Delfino, Greg Smith for Marcin Gortat. Phoenix gets multiple young pieces to help in the rebuild. Bring back Fransisco Garcia Asik/Gortat Josh Smith/Jones/Motiejunas Parsons/Garcia Harden/Reddick Lin/Beverly
Wow you would be a perfect GM for Detroit, Minnesota, or Milwaukee. Are you from the Rust Belt by any chance?
A line-up of Harden, Pau, Parsons, Asik, and Lin/Beverly would make us a top four seed in the West. We would definitely make the 2nd round of the playoffs, and in 2014 when other really good superstar FA's would come loose (Lebron, Bosh, LMA and Love as expirings unlikely to re-sign with their current teams meaning dumpoff trades will become possibilities), we could afford to sign one outright. The real kicker, and someone knowledgeable about the cap would have to correct me on this, would be if we could somehow revoke our Bird rights on Pau and let him hit the UFA market, sign/trade for our superstar at the max, and THEN go out and re-sign Gasol and have the ability to go over cap to give him a team friendly deal. Again, I dunno if we can do this because of the revoking Bird rights part. Second, he would have to be willing to take a hometown discount in exchange for more opportunities to compete for titles. But if anything close to this is a possibility to happen, then count me in. Pau Gasol on a 3yr 18-24M deal in the twilight of his career would be fantastic to have.
You're right. You're crazy. Bledsoe isn't that much better than Lin, and we don't need old expiring contracts when we already have a young core. Love is great, but only if we keep out pieces intact.
I want Kevin Love, but this is how I envision it: We sign Josh Smith or Millsap via FA Wolves start under-performing again and Love becomes more disgruntled At the trade deadline or 2014 off-season we do a 3-team trade Team X get: Millsap/Smith Wolves get: Team X's 1st round pick Rockets 1st round pick Thomas Robinson Terrence Jones Rockets get: Kevin Love Everybody wins!
That's nice! I would definitely go for that. Team X would have to have a lot of cap room, though, so that limits the options. If we could find a team in that position, that trade is definitely possible.
if we cant get a star, i want us to be a team that makes a deep playoff run next year. then in the 2014 offseason or after try to get another star player other than a stretch 4 and backup center, i think we need a good perimeter defender and a good shooter. i dont think garcia can be a go to wing defender. and we dont have any good shooters, ones that make an open shot 9/10 times. we've missed plenty of open shots in the season and playoffs. we got guys that can create their own shot, but they're not great at making them. im talking about mid range/3pt shots. no i dont think we need a better pg. lin did exactly what i thought he'd do. but if he doesnt have a good p&r big on his team, he's better as a backup guard then starting pg. its a huge part of his game. im sure morey will get a starting 4 this offseason three way trade with hawks and bucks. we get horford and sign some bench players. here's my roster for next season, which keeps changing like tweice a week lol rockets trade- garcia(6.4m), delfino(3m), jones (1.5m), smith(884k), and tim(788k) rockets get - horford(12m) and deshawn(2.2m) hawks trade - horford(12m), and lou(5.2m), deshawn(2.2m) hawks get - garcia(6.4m), delfino(3m), jones (1.5m), smith(884k), tim(788k), and gooden(6.6m) bucks trade - gooden(6.6m) bucks get - lou(5.2m) sign mozgov and n young to 2-3 year deals, last year team option. mozgov can be had for 2-3mil. young 3-5. pg - lin / bev / brooks sg - james / deshawn and brooks / anderson sf - parsons / n young pf - horford / dmo / robinson / white c - asik / mozgov young hasnt had a good full season since 10-11. his price wont be high. thought he'd do well in philly but that team had a bad year. so he gets a chance to prove himself with houston. he'd be in a good offensive system that will give him good shots. also be our main perimeter defender. all our backup pfs aren't proven but all first round picks and im willing to take the chance that one of them pans out. dmo, tj and robinson all had good runs this season. tj's out but who knows with white. no one wants him so w/e. this team is not only for making a deep playoff run, but also a potential contender since most our young core have sky high potential.
We sit back and wait for another top player that is available. Not Josh Smith's, but the Love's, the Aldridge's, etc.
Only moves we should do is either sign Dwight or cp, which I don't think is likely, Or sign a proven free agent to a short term contract, like al Jefferson for two years. Anyone who thinks we can trade for Kevin love or Aldridge this summer does not know how basketball works, and must think the gms don't either. Josh smith might be a little risky to sign for max years and money but I think that's what he'll get from someone. So try and sign Al Jefferson to a 2 year contract paying him 10+, and then try and use him as trade bait after if he's not a good enough fit.
Any trade that nets us Love and leaves us with Harden would be just peachy, in my book. Problem is, I just don't see Minnesota trading him under any circumstance. That would be akin to the Rockets trading Yao, minus the China bucks. Just wasn't going to happen, even when it became clear he was injury prone. I think the Rockets' only shot at him is going to be in free agency. Here's hoping the Wolves keep sucking with very little hope of improvement between now and 2015.
Bledsoe isn't that much of a upgrade over Lin, if at all. He suffers from the same issues that Lin does at this point: Turnovers, inexperience, inconsistency, and inability to shoot. Bledsoe will be better on the defensive end simply by nature of his freakish athleticism, but Lin is easily a better distributor, floor general, and can pace his team. Bledsoe is so helter-skelter that he is basically made to be a super-sub sixth man. Getting Pek and Love would be fine. Love would probably be near impossible to get - on the same level as trying to deal for Lamarcus Aldridge. We could probably achieve similar levels of effectiveness in the frontcourt if we picked up Pau or Jefferson for the coming season. If we really wanted to make a move and try to contend next season, I'd go with the following as the most likely scenario: Lin/Bev Harden/Garcia or Delfino Parsons Jefferson/TJones Asik And then try to grab an athletic wing for cheap (Dorell Wright, Martell Webster, Earl Clark, Matt Barnes).
Some pretty insightful and intriguing analysis and speculation, OP. It is fun to ponder ... let's see what happens!
Christ no, like Beverly, he's an energy guy, suited to backup duties, and his performance comes in a system designed for point guards. In many ways he reminds me of Darren Collison, looks awesome in a system designed for Chris Paul, but take him out of that and he'll be the fantastic disappointment Collison is as well (not to mention Bledsoe does kind of lousy when playing as a a starter).
You're probably right. I can't claim that I've seen more than maybe ten of his games this season so I'm just going off of NBA writers that I respect, but my knowledge isn't expansive. For what it's worth with the extremely small sample size, here are his stats when he got 30 or more minutes this season (10 games): PPG: 17.1 FG%: .433 (65-150) RPG: 5.2 APG: 6.0 SPG: 2.5 BPG: 1.5 3 Pointers: 44% (8-18) TO per game: 2.8
I dont think Bledsoe is that much of an upgrade over Lin. Both are young with potential and Lin puts up better stats, even at a per 36 comparison (although slightly). Defense might improve, but I just don't know if it's worth it because they both have potential. Besides, Bledsoe is going to require a much higher salary
The Clippers were terrible with Bledsoe starting instead of CP3. Bledsoe isn't anything special, besides his defense. Thats a really small sample size, so its really hard to get anything of worth from it. But you can get those stats will be going way down if he has to play with Harden, especially those assist numbers.
