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

We include Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry, Shane Battier, and Luis Scola on top of Tmac's expiring?

That group beat the Lakers twice and has proven to be better the Bees.

No freaking way.

Battier and Scola non tradable.

Tmac, Berry, Brooks, Landry for CP3, Chandler and Peja.

 

CP3, Yao + a bunch of scrubs = ?

We pretty much gave up the entire team for this trade

 

Chris Paul just turned 24 years old.

He just averaged 23 points and 11 assists a game, with 5.5 rebounds and almost 3 steals while shooting better than 50% from the field.

Jason Kidd is a Hall of Fame point guard. He never averaged as many assists as Paul did this year, never came within 4 points of how many points Paul averaged, never averaged as many steals as Paul did this year, and has never shot better than 45% from the field in his 15 year career.

If you can get him without trading Yao, you do it.

 

if Paul + Yao are set,
the "scrubs" like Chandler, Artest, Posey, Peja, Lowry will do you wonder.

and you still have Adelman and Morey.

Do it.

 

You'd have to at least sub Cook for Landry or Scola... his contract is also worth more to NO than either. Maybe Morey can work one of those deals where Shane gets bought out and cames back to the Rockets.

From a bball standpoint, Chandler would be serviceable, though I see him as more of a second unit kind of guy and Peja would be good on a regular season second unit but not so good when playoff teams had a little time to plan for him. Peja is no longer a starter in this league.

So, if you could keep Scola, it'd be essentially two starters (Brooks and Battier) for Paul and Landry for two or three decent second unit guys, including one (Chandler) who could spell Yao and give you some quality minutes. Assuming we still have Ron, Morey would have to come up with a decent starting 2, though with Paul at the point, somebody like Von would get spectacular looks.

 

why must you always infuse sanity into every thread?

more shocking than the simmons mention is the fact that the board seems near unanimous against this hypothetical deal.

with daryl morey's knack for acquiring key contributors on the cheap, i would do this deal twice every day of the week knowing he could fill out the roster on the fly. we're not nearly as close to a title as some of you presuppose - sell high.

 

Absolutely not,

Scola, Landry, Brooks, Battier are the heart of the team. Thier effeciency is what makes us good. You trade them away and we are essentially the Rockets of 04/05, ie two great players surrounded by scrubs. That deal is highway robbery for the Hornets and Morey would never take it. I'd rather trade Yao for Paul/Chandler straight up and get something good for McGrady.

 

I do not think we have to give that much.

If they want to move CP3 with their bad contracts, Landry/Brooks/Battier/TMac would be the best they can get, anywhere. I am not even sure I want to that trade, I just hope for one season in 8 years we can have a stable team and a good start.

 

I would say do that trade. We would have Paul and Yao (also Artest) which is an amazing foundation to build around. I have enough confidence in Morey that he would be able to fill out the rest of the roster with quality talent and fill some pretty big voids that would be left in giving up Battier, Scola, and Landry.

Think about it though, when Morey got the reigns to this team we had Yao, Tmac, and no trading assets whatsoever. He's been able to add guys like Artest, Scola, Brooks, Landry, and Wafer at virtually no cost. I will take my chances he can do it again because it won't take much adding to Paul and Yao to be a serious title favorite IMO.

 

howbout keep it simple (not sure if the numbers match though)

tmac, artest, & brooks

for cp & posey

 

Hayes used to play alongside Yao quite well. We don't need too much offense from PF with Yao,Paul, Peja, Artest on the court.

Paul/Lowry, Artest/Powey/wafer, Peja/Posey,Chandler/Hayes, Yao/Chandler with pickes bought from this draft would still make Rockets a contender.

 

I'm shocked that you are shocked by this sentiment. About the only thing that is more shocking is your revelation about the existence of the Hangout.

 

Artest is not a scrub. And Lowry/Posey/Peja are better than any scrubs Rockets had on that 04/05 team.

 

Agreed. Especially roleplayer types. We'd need a scoring bench 4 (though I also think we could maybe keep either Landry or Scola in this deal -- both are true 4s, and the Hornets already have David West), and would have to do some sorting at the wings. Morey pulled Scola and Landry out of thin air, so he seems quite adept at finding guys who can fill that role.

The deal I proposed here would save New Orleans more than Simmons' proposed deal. We wouldn't get Chandler, but would also keep Battier and Scola.

 

Oh and my thoughts about this proposed hypothetical deal:

That sure is a lot that we would be giving up but you have to ask yourself a couple of questions:

1) Is Les willing to keep Yao no matter what and always build the team around him?

2) Does Les and Morey feel that Chris Paul is one of the 5 best overall players in the NBA?

If the answers to these 2 questions are yes, then I think you have to do this deal and have faith like cabbage said that Morey will find the complementary pieces to fill in. But I would still have concerns with the injury proneness of Chandler and the overall suckiness of Peja. But with Paul, Yao, and Artest that is a team that will still challenge for a title. The only question will be the health of it (which of course will be something that will dog Yao for the rest of his career).

 

DELETE.

 

The sticky point in this hypothetical is Scola and Landry. You'd have to keep one. If you sub Cook it becomes a deal of Brooks and Battier for Paul, which anyone not related to Brooks or Battier would do in a heartbeat and one of our PFs for Chandler, Peja, and Posey, which is a deal most people do without thinking, (I'm talking from a basketball standpoint... the contract stuff adds another layer.)

And isn't it interesting that nobody cares about what happens to TMac?

 

best PG + best center...... what else do you want?

If your GM can not build a contender around Yao+Paul, please fire him ......

 

We'd have beter offense with that lineup, and won't don't lose too much defense there. Chandler is a better defender than Scola or Landry, CPs is a lot better defensively than Brooks, and Posey/Lowry/Chuck are good defenders off the bench.

 

Always say yes to a deal if you get a player in return who's younger than any you're giving up, and also far, far, far, far better than any player you're giving up. Chris Paul is a future HOFer, he's only 23, and we'd have him in his prime for the next 4 years. Posey is a pretty good replacement for what Battier gives us, and Chandler is the athletic PF/C we've been clamoring for. Peja is way overpaid for what he can be expected to produce, but at least we know he's a guy who has been successful under Adelman.

If New Orleans was desperate enough to do this, of course you do it.