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

Chris Paul, 24 years old, averaging 22.8/5.5/11/50.3%/2.8 stl.

If you say no, please get your brain checked.

 

The Rockets will not and should not do a trade like that. Yeah, Chris Paul is great and all, but I don't want to trade our best defender and our entire power forward tandem for him. It's just not worth it. Peja is on the decline, and Chandler is overrated. No, no, and no.

I can't really see any conceivable beneficial trade for CP3 involving the Hornets (or, rather, a trade that would benefit both organizations).

 

Old?

CP3 is younger than AB/Landry despite being a superstar already,

Chandler is 2 years younger than Sola,

Peja is 1 year older than Battier.

 

I'm late to the party but I'd like to echo this post. Well said.

No single attainable player in the NBA is worth Brooks / Landry / Scola together at this point in time. Yes, I said it. That includes Chris Paul.

 

peja at this point is worse than ryan bowen on defense and worse than david wesley on offense. please. this isn't 5 years ago, peja is past his retirement by at least 2 years.

 

Yea, Chandler is also a long overpaid player who has little to no offensive skills but is constantly injured.

Peja is also streaky as hell and extremely overpaid, as well as often injured.

 

Since it's basically a team for team trade it seems, after what I saw in the playoffs this year from the Hornets, no thanks.

In addition to that, Paul is a great talent, but man, there's somethin about him I dislike. Maybe it was the low blows he can deliver in a game.

Besides, Yao is notoriously bad with alley oops. That facet of Paul's game will go bye bye.

 

VERY tempting trade scenario...i was drooling thinking about paul, wafer, artest, and yao...but i'm not sure if its worth changing our entire team... for some reason i dont think paul and yao could be a good pair as some might think. to play with yao, you have to be a pg who doesn't do flashy passes and doesn't throw alley-hoops, which is def not what chris paul is. i mean im sure he CAN adapt to yao's slow playing and careful entry passes, but thats not his strength and we would not be utilizing chris paul as best as he could be used. plus the lakers are clearly one of the elite teams in the nba, and we took them to the brink of elimination. why mess up the entire team when our two best players did not even play most of the series? we only need small pieces...not a drastic makeover...don't ruin the entire team just because we barely lost to one of the best (if not THE best) teams in the nba. we're an elite team already in my opinion...lets keep it that way...not tear it down and start all over

 

Battier, Scola and Landry? HELL NO! They are my favourite players in this team

 

It is daydreaming for two reasons:
Hornet wouldn't let Paul go.
Rockets mustn't give up both Scolandry.

Make up a better story, will you?

 

dont think he was talkin bout Chris paul :S

Mmm this deal would make the rockets more interesting but i doubt it would ever happen
It just seems to unrealistic to give away one of our best defensive players and our upcoming PG whos learnin the ropes still and could become somthing great

 

This trade is great. It's better than most people would expect.

1)Most difficut positions to fill in the NBA are center and point guard. Now you have yao/chandler and CP3/lowry--You got the best combination in the NBA.

2）The biggest need is a backup center. Chandler is a ok or good starting center, but he's a great backup center. Yao can comfortbly reduce his minutes and chandler will reduce his as well(from starter minutes to backup minutes). This is HUGE to keep them injury free and fresh.

3)With Yao/CP3/Artest, it's much easier for DM to bring in role players. Actually good role players/free agents will treat us as true contender and are willing to take less and join us.

4)Landry/Scola/Brooks/battier are not going to be that cheap going forward. In these couple years, Rockets have to extend their contract with higher salaries going forward.

5)It's VERY VERY VERY hard to get a true young franchise player in this league. Some teams can't get one for decades. Yes, you can have all stars or No. 1 picks and still end up without a true young superstar to build with. With CP3, Rockets can not only contend for the next few years, they are going to contend for the next decade bearing some good followup moves.

 

Isn't Ryan Bowen supposed to be living on his defense?

Wesley was a pretty good Roekct player before he was injured. Peja had an off year, but he's still better than that.

I consider Peja a downgrade from Batter, but that down grade is only 1/5 important compare to the upgrade at PG position.

 

BTW, Scola will be a free agent after next season, in his prime and ready to cash in. Of course, that's probably bad timing for him when you consider all the big names that are going to be available, but he's going to get his.

 

Offseason speculation only. Just for fun.

I highly doubt NO would give away CP3.

 

I'd counter by saying even IF McGrady comes back healthy enough to average 18+ ppg with 4 and 4.....I don't believe he wants to stay in Houston. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the impression that he wants to audition next year for a new contract elsewhere. Plenty of teams will have the cash to court him.

All that said, I don't think Shinn would offer McGrady much money at all, after handing regrettable contracts already to two vets hampered by bad backs. He needs to clean house and go with a Kansas City Royals business approach.

 

doesn't mean he was good at it.

no, just no. wesley was alright at shooting 3s, and peja is definitely very good at that, but basically that only happens maybe once every 3-4 games. he's wayyyyyyyy too inconsistent. i guarantee you if we get peja you'll be pulling your hair out screaming for adelman to get him out of the game. as for defense, i don't think peja's tried to play defense in years.

 

But that's the inherent risk you run in building your team around Yao (and why I would trade him, but that's a totally separate issue.) due to the cap structure, any scenario under which Yao gets hurt leaves you in huge trouble. let's assume we take the best case scenario in a mcgrady deal and acquire a star scorer - say iguodala or monta ellis - keeping our nucleus of role players intact. if yao goes down again, while that team can still probably squeak into the playoffs as a 6-8 seed, they aren't challenging for any titles. mediocrity is mediocrity. that's just the risk of keeping yao. if les has made the decision to stick with yao, it would be foolish to hold off going for broke simply to ensure a playoff berth.

i should preface by saying that the chances that they trade paul probably fall around 1% - he's not disgruntled like tracy was. but it is a fact that the hornets are in financial straits and where there is smoke, there is at least the possibility of a fire. if you're daryl morey, you don't trade any of your assets this summer until you're absolutely sure chris paul will not be put on the block.

secondly, before an old schooler points this out, many will remember that one of the main arguments used here for trading for mcgrady was that "you can build the roster later." as we all know, that didnt exactly happen and was essentially that duo's undoing. the distinction here is that daryl morey has proven himself fully capable of building a team from scraps, a far cry from the track record of his predecessor. while CD left this roster bereft of even any semblance of talent three years after the mcgrady trade, daryl morey built this current team in little over a year with no assets. that point cannot be underscored enough. the heart of this team, scola, landry, brooks, artest, lowry, and wafer were all attained with no positive trade assets and battier too was a morey acquisition. if a deal as proposed cleaned out the cupboard, i would have full confidence in morey's ability to repeat the same feat.

not to underestimate what this team accomplished this season, but i don't think we are as close to a title as many here believe. i have a firm belief that stars win in this league, and if you have the good fortunes of acquiring one of the 5 best players in the league, again, you do it, especially taking into consideration the prowess of your GM to find cheap talent.

selling the farm for the best point guard to grace the league since magic johnson's retirement is a no brainer. you build the farm, let the value inflate, and sell high. rinse and repeat. i seriously can't believe this is even a debate.

 

Please pass me what some of you guys are smoking. PG and C are the hardest positions to fill in the league. If you can snag one of the leagues top 5 players without giving up one All-Star type player then you do it. Top 5 players, in their prime, aren't exactly easy to acquire.

If a GM can't build a team around at worst the games 2nd best C, and arguably the best PG in the league...along with Artest...then he should be fired. Do y'all even realize how hard it is to get a top 5 wing guard and a top 5 pivot on the same team?

 

Chandler is still young, when he plays with Yao, less Center minutes will likely to make him stay healthy.

Peja is a downgrade, but he still can be good in any given year if he somehow can stay healthy. His skills are still there.

But think this way:
Sclola's contract will be up soon, and he'll get paid at 30.
Battier is 31, he's great right now, but his defense relies on his foot speed so much, how long can he keep it up?

We all saw his defesne suffered at the beginning of the season when he's still recover from ankle surgery.

Landry has a history of injrey too, maybe even more frequently than Chandler.

AB's stock can't be higher than he's now.