Exactly (on your bolded statement). No one would trade for "Miller the player" in 2012, but they WOULD trade for "Miller the contract that allows us to dump $6-8M in salary". If the Rockets found a player they'd like to acquire via trade after the season, then Miller's contract would have been ideal for salary-matching purposes. Morey also knew that salary-matching rules would be made less restrictive in the new CBA (both owners and players agree on this), so Miller's contract would get even MORE valuable under the new CBA. Even if Morey couldn't get something valuable for Miller, he could always trade him (plus $1M cash) to a team like Sacramento with more cap room than they'll possibly be able to use. If cap space was that valuable to the Rockets, Les would gladly sign that check. I just don't buy that the motivation for the Flynn trade was creating $848k in additional cap room in 2012. You don't trade away a future first rounder for THAT. (Yes, I think Morey could have traded #23 and #38 straight-up for #20 in a deal only involving draft picks. You saw how Kahn gradually traded his way from #20 to out of the first round completely.)
Forgot to mention that Llull finished 2nd in the race for the MVP of the ACB regular season. Code: Clasificación: TOTAL AFIC. JUG. TECNICOS MMCC .1. Andy Panko (Lagun Aro) 63 10 3 25 25 .2. [B]Sergio Llull[/B] (R.Madrid) 55 15 25 10 5 .3. M.Teletovic (Caja Laboral) 50 25 10 0 15 .4. Sergi Vidal (Lagun Aro) 50 0 10 25 15 .5. Juan C. Navarro (Barça) 35 0 25 10 0 http://www.marca.com/2012/05/07/baloncesto/acb/1336389915.html He's part of the best 5 formed by Teletovic, Lorbek, Panko, Vidal and himself. His team has also started the playoffs and yesterday advanced to the semifinals. In his 2 playoff games he averages 13 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3 assists with a 56 FG% and just 1 turnover in 27 minutes. He's played very well. Semifinals will be against Caja Laboral at the best of 5.
Video of the latest Real Madrid playoffs game in full can be viewed here: http://acb360.orange.es It appears live broadcasts and other replays aren't freely available. In other news, Brad Newley had a big game for his team who are also playing in the ACB playoffs. https://twitter.com/#!/search/brad newley http://www.acb.com/fichas/LACB56318.php
SG, apparently. Didn't watch him, but his coach said after the end of the season, that his transition to the PG spot has failed and will be playing SG in the future. As I know, he was considers more of a sg all along. And apparently he will only come to the NBA if he gets a guaranty to start, so I don't know why everybody keeps assuming he'll come over and be a backup to Lowry or Dragić, if Kyle is traded. Better being a starter and receiving good money from one of the best clubs in Europe, while being a national hero in your home country, than sitting on the bench in Huston, away from home, having to built your basketball pedigree in a whole other league, unsure of success and your future basketball career.
Yeah, Madrid will sign Dontaye Draper this summer, so Llull can play (more?) SG from what I understand. That said, Llull is a combo guard to me. He's not a SG and not a PG. Think Lou Williams.
Yeah, perhaps, but that still doesn't change the fact that he's not coming over, unless something drastically change and the Rockets loose both of their PG's.
Yeah, that is the thing, with a lot of international picks, sometimes they don't pan out either in performance or they don't wish to leave their native country or leagues. Llull as a shooting guard might be another Rudy Fernandez, good but not good enough expect as a spark off the bench. I'd actually forgotten we still had his rights until I saw this thread.
So far I don't believe a single established Euro pro asked for this. Scola was a much better player in Europe and was just fine coming off the bench with the Rockets. If Llull is certain of his skills and potential, he'd have absolutely no qualms about being a bench player. Because he'd know he can start in time. In the NBA Llull can make absurd money compared to Europe, with long, guaranteed contracts that will keep him rich even if he gets injured. Any pro in Europe who thinks he can actually hack it in the NBA would most definitely come over. The difference in earning potential is huge. And Houston is a great team to play for if you think you're good. McHale has shown he plays anyone who perform well in practice. The Rockets have tried to trade Kevin Martin before and may easily do so to upgrade talent. Courtney Lee is an average rotation player. And shoot-first PGs are more useful in the NBA where it's more iso basketball.
¿?¿? Could you provide a link with those hypothetical coach's statements? Of course his season has been and is being a complete success for him. I just posted 2 days ago that he almost wins the MVP trophy, explain how that can be considered a failed season? I can't understand why some people insists on speaking about him as a SG, specially after what he's doing this year as PG (one of the best in Europe), also thinking in his transition to the NBA game, and even recognizing that they are not watching his games... Also wanted to talk about the topic of his hypothetical aspirations in the NBA, not accepting a bench role and things like that... I've never seen him talk about this, but Sergio is a down to earth guy and has seen how a teammate failed at the NBA (Sergio Rodriguez) playing at the same position. He absolutely won't ask for a starting role, maybe for a backup role, at most. BTW, Sergio Rodriguez won't continue next year in the team, that's why they are looking for a substitute.
To help clarify this theme about his best position. I found this statements on the official website of the team, corresponding to the day he was named best PG of the league and member of the "All-ACB team". "Ha sido la temporada de mayor madurez. He hecho una temporada bastante regular. En la Copa del Rey salió todo perfecto y pudimos ganar ese título que tanto ansiábamos y que tanto tiempo llevábamos si ganar y luego estar en el mejor quinteto de la Liga es un orgullo y una motivación para seguir trabajando y volver con muchas ganas la temporada que viene". ... Mis compañeros me han ayudado mucho y yo personalmente confiaba en mis posibilidades para jugar como base y finalmente se ha demostrado que sé hacerlo. He estado toda mi vida jugando de base, excepto los dos años con Messina y aunque pueda jugar de escolta me considero base". Translation: "It's been the most mature season for me. I've been pretty regular for all the season. At the King's cup everything happened perfect (his team won and he was named MVP) and we finally were able to won that coveted title. And the to be part of the best 5 in the league is and honor and a motivation to keep working and come back with more eager the next season." "My teammates have helped me a lot and I personally trusted myself to being able to play PG and finally I've shown that I can do it. I've been all my life playing PG excepting the last 2 years with Messina, and although I can play as SG I consider myself a PG." Code: CLASIFICATION FOR BEST PG IN THE LEAGUE 2011-12 PLAYER TEAM VOTES Sergio Llull Real Madrid 90 Marcelinho Huertas Barcelona Regal 35 Pablo Prigioni Caja Laboral 35 Pedro Llompart Lucentum Alicante 30 Aaron Jackson Gescrap Bizkaia 25 Link with video
My bad. I was convinced I read about it in an article, but apparently it was here: http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1178625 Just a forum post so disregard what I said. I apologize.
Thanks for clearing that up. I assumed they'd bring in Draper to play Llull more at the 2. If Rodriguez is indeed gone, it all makes perfect sense. Still, while Llull does play PG, I'm sure you'll agree with me that he is far from a pure PG. He's certainly gotten better at running a team, but he's still not too much of a facilitator, which is fine, as long as you're not asking him to be something he's not.
