Ya but Portland isn't pressed up against a hard deadline like the thunder were. And I'd argue they aren't getting as much. At the time the pick the thunder got was very exciting.
Harden was 1) seen as a steal; 2) still somewhat of a question mark on his unknown. If people knew he'd be as good as he was now, not just possibly be this good, etc., we could not have gotten him for what we offered. People already know what they're getting w/ LMA. We aren't trading for potential. We're trading for an allstar caliber player in his prime. That won't come cheap because there will be plenty of offers on the table.
I'd argue OKC weren't up against a deadline either. They could have moved him at the trade deadline, or even kept him for this summer and done a SnT. Presti was acting funky.
Didn't they give harden a deadline to accept his contract? And I agree somewhat, they didn't want to get to the trade deadline and risk losing leverage. Needless to say, Harden is a lot cheaper than LMA would be.
Sure, but I mean, it is a false deadline. They could have kept him for all of this season. They lose some leverage, but not that much. I mean, push comes to shove, they can just match any offer Harden got on the FA market since he was still restricted. ooo they might pay some luxury dollars...meh, they'd avoid it if they just amnestied Perkins and moved Nick Collison into the starting lineup. The way I see it, Presti messed up, plain and simple.
This was discussed at length in the Random Trades thread and someone even went to the Portland message boards to ask what their fans thought. First off, when you trade an all star you rarely get close to their value back. From their fan's perspective Houston just doesn't offer them what they want, if it is even true LMA is on the block. Yes they want a center and Asik fits there, but they also really want a SG. They don't want Parsons. DMo and TJones are nice, but just not enough. Now their fans opinion aside, if LMA really wants out of Portland (I doubt it) then getting a package of Asik, one or two of our young PFs, and some picks really isn't a bad haul at all. This would still be a clear win for the Rockets (especially since it assumes we've already signed Howard) but not terrible for Portland (assuming LMA really wanted out). All of this is highly unlikely though, so take it FWIW.
This is geting real now. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Blazers Insider: Although LaMarcus Aldridge wants out of Portland, don't expect it to happen Thursday <a href="http://t.co/KmtWMC0u7Y">http://t.co/KmtWMC0u7Y</a></p>— Jason Quick (@jwquick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jwquick/statuses/350129198876196865">June 27, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Ya I agree, I just think they were strongly against paying the luxury tax. I'm hoping we allow Les Alexander to put his money where his mouth is and pay the luxury tax for a championship here in Houston.
The Harden deal kind of went down like the DWill deal... The team knew something had to be done sooner or later and they didn't want a big distraction to their season so they quietly went the "sooner" route.
woooaaaahhh crazy suggestion but think about this: Three team trade HOU sends White and Motiejunas to MIN HOU sends Asik and Robinson to POR HOU receives Love POR sends Aldridge to MIN POR receives Asik and Robinson MIN sends Love to HOU MIN receives Aldridge, Motiejunas, and White ^Picks may, and likely would, be thrown in if this were to happen http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=q4z8xea Why this works? -Not only do salaries match up pretty much across the board, but HOU also has space for a max player (Howard). - POR is in talks (though they "may" be passed in value of offer) to acquire Robinson, and Aldridge wants out. They could get back Asik and Robinson for letting Aldridge go. - The relationship between MIN and Love is rocky at best, even with Kahn gone, and an offer like Aldridge, Motiejunas and White (who is from MIN and would seemingly get along better their, plus Hoiberg will be in the Wolves' ear) should be enough to listen. I don't know about you... PG: Lin SG: Harden SF: Parsons PF: Love C: Howard ...that's a dope line-up
I like the framework of the deal for Houston, but if Min rejected the cavs deal of Thompson, waiters, and the number one pick, they probably wouldn't be getting enough in return.
I don't see POR agreeing to give LMA up just for Asik + Robinson, even if you threw in Minny's next yr pick. Maybe if we sent TJones their way too. We'd probably have to give up our pick too somewhere in this deal. btw, trade machine is very inaccurate for salaries because it lags behind. For example, LMA's salary next yr is ~$14.6M. But anyways, this deal can't include TRob because we have to move him first to clear room to sign Dwight to near max. Including him in this deal means we will not come CLOSE to offering Dwight near max. We're sending out White (1.7), DMo (1.5), Asik (8.3) and TRob (3.5) = 15M. We get in return $14.6M (Love's salary). Problem is, we already needed to move TRob's 3.5M to even get close to $20M, so taking back salary for moving it in that deal doesn't "clear" the 3.5M, meaning we've only really shaved off about $400k instead of the 3.5M we could have from moving TRob for a pick. We'd be like $4M short of offering Dwight his max of $20.5M, too large of a gap to bridge. Finally, I doubt LMA wants to go from POR to MIN of all places. Even though he doesn't have too much of a say right now, moving him to a team he greatly dislikes would...essentially mean he'd cry to be moved soon again. Not a headache Minny wants right now I bet.
Difference is that Aldridge is an all-star. IMO, Thompson is never going to be that, and though Waiters will have likely have his day, the number one isn't strong enough to change the deal.
Soft, injury prone, and with a bad back. Hasn't led a team out of the first round as the no.1 or 2 guy. The Rockets have been there, done that. Never again, please.
Great. In a couple of years this lineup will be: Dleaguer Harden Dleaguer LMA Howard +3 dleaguers+2 vet mins. The cap is 60M, we want to offer Howard 20M, LMA makes 20M and Harden makes 15M. That means at most you have 15M for 12 other guys.
Ignoring the fact that teams can go over the cap to keep their own players...Parsons was a 2nd round draft pick, Lin was undrafted, Beverley came from overseas, and Jones and Motiejunas were taken outside of the lottery. Obviously Morey can find those types of players again.
In your post here it says "he's requesting a trade to Chicago".. How is HOU involved?? (If indeed this rumor is true)
