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

I would do this deal if we could keep landry.

 

They'd be bad for possibly one year then Grady and Cook would come off the books and they could go after cheaper players. If they don't want to be a 9 win team then they need to keep their team as it is and not try to dump salary. You can't have it both ways.

 

A stupid proposal? At least it works. A working trade is better than your lame attempt at a non-working trade. How would Portland match salaries? How? New Orleans, in that package, is looking to unload about 43 million dollars. Portland only has 41 million in contracts next year. They can't sign a fa and trade him immediately. Aldridge, Outlaw and Fernandez combine for 10 million with only Outlaw's being an expiring. Outlaw is probably looking to get paid after his bargain contract so they would be trading for a one year rental. Aldridge will want to get paid too eventually, why trade a stud in Paul for a guy that won't be nearly as good. Portland may be able to offer more talent but New Orleans is not trading Paul because they are looking for talent. They are only trading him because their team is in financial debt. Paul is a top 5 player.

The biggest contract on Portland's roster is Joel and his contract is not expiring. Might as well hang onto Chandler. How does it work? Please inform us of how Portland comes to mind as a "front runner." Consider Roy untouchable (or not if you must) and they would have to trade Oden, Joel, LA, Webster, Blake, Outlaw, Frye, Bayless, Batum, Sergio, and Rudy to be within 125% plus 100,000. That leaves Roy on the roster. That would net them maybe a starting 5 of Chandler, Paul, Peja, Posey, and Roy. Do you think that is worth it to them? Really? Would that really be "easy" for them? That was your "front runner" for Paul? That is the team you thought would be in the best position to trade? At least the Rockets can offer over 30 million in expiring contracts, young talent at bargain contracts, and about 8 million in immediate cap relief. I am sorry... Simmons proposal may be stupid but your proposal flat out fails.

 

That was some beautiful ownage.

 

I'm not sure where our draft picks fall over the next 2 or 3 years, but...

Battier - was aquired by trading a high draft pick
Scola - was a freak aquisition, i still can't believe it happened and i wouldn't count on getting that kind of a deal more than once a decade

Wafer, Brooks, Landry, and Artest are draft picks and aquisitions that I can easily see Morey being able to do again

BTW, you said "a little over a year". Battier was a Morey trade, but it happened 3 years ago. It took Morey - THREE YEARS.

I like this idea in concept, but it is a seriously roster depleting trade. So much so, that I would just trade Yao afterwards because by the time the team is rebuilt in 3 years, Yao is older and more injury prone. Trade Yao and increase the roster depth.

 

The Rockets need a star PG with enough legitimacy to call shots and ball movement. Right now we have a scrub starting PG who gets blamed if he goes on a shooting spree or can't call pays that others will take seriously. Yao and T-Mac can't call shots. They are too timid. A Chris Paul, Deron Williams or something to that extend would change things.

 

The worst part of being a Rockets fan is the number of trades this team executes. It seems like every 3 years we have a completely new roster. Until Morey got here, did we ever keep a draft pick more the 2 years?

Sometimes I feel like this is a team of mercenaries.

 

That seems to go back to the knock on JVG that he refused to play rookies. Or maybe that's really a knock on CD in that he never gave JVG rookies worth playing.

 

This is exactly what I am thinking. The proposed trade is fine in terms of talent exchange. But at some point as a fan, you do want to root for the GUYS who play for you team, not just the "team" as some abstract entity.

Gutting the team every 2 or 3 years is like playing fantasy league. The team becomes just numbers rather than real people.

After this year's playoffs, I really love this bunch of guys. I would be really depressed if a big chunk of them were going to be traded away.

Beside, Chris Paul is a dirty player. I don't know how I can root for him.

 

If the bolded part above is what we are referring to, the way I read it is that the only way we can trade him before Sept 09, is if he consents(to any team but the Bobcats)

Its not really a No-Trade clause, it simply allows a player to be traded within the first year if he wants it. The no trade clause bit is covered in the paragraph above it(the blue bolded), but it doesnt apply to Landry imo.


Im not claiming my knowledge of the CBA is totally correct, but this is a point which needs to be taken into account, so I would appreciate some clarification from our Cap Gurus(I know you are out there aaelliot and NIKE)

 

the team is defined by its stars, not by coach or role players.

we've only changed our team twice: 1, TMAC in; 2, TMAC out.

 

You're basically correct. Kobe Bryant is the only player in the league whose contract actually contains a "no trade clause", but the whole "consent right" held by players in Carl Landry's position (restricted free agents whose offer sheets were matched) and by players in Devean George's position last year (on one-year deals with Bird rights hanging in the balance) essentially amounts to a temporary no-trade right. It's just that the player only has this right for one year, whereas Kobe has it every year on his current contract.

 

This year the team was defined by everyone EXCEPT the stars. And if you've been following the Rockets since Les became owner, the team has been through a lot of major aquisitions and trades. Major players that have been in and out since then, include:

Olajuwon
Drexler
Barkley
Pippen
Horry
Cassell
Rice
Francis
Mobley
McGrady
Artest
Yao
...and don't forget Langhi

 

Query:

How many 1st round pick rookies did Jeff Van Gundy have during his tenure?

 

EDIT: ah crap...my bad...offtopic...lets not go there Carl Herrera.

 

I don't know if this is so significant. as far as role players, almost every team has a revolving door of role players - that's just the nature of the business. they're like bullpen guys in baseball in that you don't want to overpay to keep them and they are inconsistent throughout their careers. the spurs have had a revolving door of role players around duncan, ginobili, and parker. the lakers around kobe and shaq, the jazz around stockton and malone, the suns around nash and amare - the list is endless. role players are never a constant.

the team's identity is defined by its stars and we have had mcgrady and yao for 5 years now. it's run its course and i think most here would agree that it's time to go in a different direction. i don't think that the rockets have been any more premature in changing directions than any other team. hakeem/clyde/charles died of old age. everyone saw steve's decline and that is even more greatly underscored by his subsequent decline in later years through hindsight. and now tracy is pretty much finished due to injuries. while it's true that we have always been very agressive in personnel changes, at a wider level, i don't think we experience any more overturn than any other teams.

 

Not Scola and Landry. Hell no.

 

Looks like the mavs might be after him...
cp3, dirk, and terry would be pretty deadly to us....
http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/04/getting-chris-paul-could-be-plan-a-for-m.html

If there was a way to keep battier i would definitely do it....

 

i too would trade yao but since it won't happen let's set that aside for now.

i'm pretty convinced that while battier was a morey target, the deal was negotiated by dawson. given the fact that ALL of morey's deals to this point have looked fairly lopsided in value, combined with the fact that it makes little sense that an assistant GM would handle negotiations on the most important night of the trade season, it is safe to conclude that battier was a dawson trade. we did not begin stockpiling assets until dawson's official resignation. from that point forward, morey has taken virtual toxic assets and turned them into positive assets in just over a year.

then couldn't you just describe any of his other deals as freak acquisitions? he still had to identify the talent. most impressive to me is the lowry trade in that he took a guy who probably has negative trade value in rafer alston and turned him into a positive contributor PLUS another expiring contract to use next year. that's just brilliant maneuvering.

agreed. you have to remember that it's morey's system that is churning out these players. while he certainly won't continue with an unblemished record, you have to think he should continue finding contributors if he sticks to the same system.

role players can always be identified through the cracks but you just can't get talents like chris paul unless you suck enough to be in the lottery. you can even find second and third tier stars like monta ellis and kevin martin late in the draft and hope that they develop. the difference is that the once in a decade guys like chris paul never fall through the cracks. if you have a chance to get one of them, you utilize these assets you've built up and trade for them and then have faith in that same system to rebuild your farm once more.

setting emotions aside, it's not even very practical to hold on to role players with inflated value. not only are the odds that they will come back down to earth but they too have to be re-signed at a greater cost when their contracts are up. then suddenly, they aren't the value bargains that they once were.

 

You asking me to play GM for the Blazers and Hornets is funny but what's more riduculous is the fact that you think this trade with the Rockets has any chance. I never insuslted anyone on this board just called Simmons an idiot for thinking New Orleans would ever trade the best PG in the league for a bunch of expiring contracts and scrubs from the Rockets bench. Oh I would wet myself if Wizard Morey somehow landed Paul but that is a pipe dream nothing more.

I could careless about the Jailblazers but to me they are one of few teams with maybe the exception Chicago that has the talent neccessary to pull of a trade for a young superstar in his prime like Chris Paul.

If salary dumping is the only goal of the Hornets in this theoretical trade than even the Knicks have better shot at Paul with their contracts and mix of young players.

Look I am not slamming the Rockets but you have to take of your rosy shades and look at what is really going on here. The Rockets have decent pieces for a trade but nothing special that would make New Orleans give up Paul. In order to move a player like you would have to give some high draft picks and 2-3 good young players. Even Roy straight up Paul is a fair trade for me. A PG of that caliber is so hard to come in this day and age.

A plausible trade on paper is not always a realistic trade.