Lee was a starter in Orlando and then was a back up for the Nets. He will make a solid back up for Martin.
I really don't think so. It would have to be a blockbuster deal. The Rockets seem to have been after Martin for awhile, and even though he's "fraile", he can score, and can get to the line and hit, which is almost priceless to me. I think the Courtney Lee move was 1. too spread out our depth a little 2. money saving for future moves. Just my thoughts from what I"ve been reading.
Dude, do you not understand why Morey made this trade? He traded Ariza away because of his big contract and Chase will have more opportunities to shine now that Ariza is gone. Second, the Rockets finally have a good legit back up SG for Martin because last season, Houston never really had a back up 2. So basically this trade help relief some cap room for Houston, which enables them to make a bigger trade, then Chase can play more minutes now since the SF spot opened up, and the Rockets got a legit SG to back up Martin. I just don't understand where you came up with this.
My Guess is Morey feels he gets what he needs with Lee in terms of D and 3 point shooting. I don't think Lee will just be Martin's back-up. I suspect he's play along side Martin to give another 3 point shooter to spread the floor and thus open up Martin's game more.
Some of you get my point, and some of you completely miss it. I'm NOT saying I want Martin traded. I'm NOT saying Lee is as good as Martin. I'm NOT discounting the potential money saving benefits of this trade. What I AM saying, is that with Martin starting already there aren't very many back up 2 minutes. And most teams don't go 10 deep, which means that they have some players playing a little out of position for limited minutes depending on matchups or lineups. The only case where we really NEED Lee is if Martin goes down. But that's the other part of my point. If Martin is so injury prone, and if Martin is so weak defensively (which Morey has gone on record that changes will be made if guys don't pick it up) would it be entirely inconceivable that they brought Lee in as a potential replacement were they to find a good deal for Martin? Trading Martin has benefits that no one has disputed so far in this thread. 1) He has far more value than Battier or Jeffries. Therefore, if he's the centerpiece of a trade we would have to include less of our other young player/pick assets. 2) Trading Martin would let us not have to use the TE or the expirings of Jeffries or Battier (maybe one of them if another player comes back in trade). Therefore we could let those players expire or trade them for nothing as a further salary dump instead of locking into an Igoudala type player with no relief on the books. Then from a pure basketball standpoint. It stands to reason that Martin's production will come down because we have so many other offensively gifted players in the starting lineup and on the bench (I said earlier in this thread I didn't think it would, I've changed my mind. It very well could) So maybe Morey and Adelman think that his scoring, which will be going down, isn't as necessary. Putting Lee in as his replacement and bringing in Igoudala who isn't quite as good a scorer, but is a far better defender would make the team more balanced. A Lee/Igoudala wing tandem is far better defensively than Martin/Battier, and really may be almost equal offensively. If trading Martin (who I love) brought us that and we didn't have to lose any of our other assets outside of maybe Hill, then yeah I think I'd be considering those options.
As a counter argument to the argument I just made. I am really interested to see how this 10 man rotation works. Our guys could be rested and healthy all year. We have the luxury of staying with the hot hand instead of just hoping our top 3 players carry us to a win like in years past. Maybe guys like Martin and Brooks can be a bit more physical defensively if they're playing fewer minutes and even more aggressive offensively. I like the potential. Either way i'm excited. This team does need another guy who can create his own offense when things get tough. Martin is not that guy. So now that we have Lee I think Martin, a guy who a week ago I didn't think there was a snowballs chance in hell we would trade, seems like a potential candidate if the right deal came along.
My only issue with your stance is that Martin is a quasi all-star; Meaning, he can average 20 ppg for an entire season on a team like the Rockets. Trading him would have to net us a significant upgrade at one of the positions. But at what point is a player expendable? I mean in reality, every player on our roster is expendable.. if the right deal comes along. If Martin gets traded for Granger, was it because he was expendable? If Yao gets traded for Dwight Howard, was he expendable all this time and we never knew it? When you start talking about potential deals involving Martin, you have to think high salary guys who are all-stars or near that level like him. With deals of that magnitude, I think less of a certain player being expendable than I do that the team just saw a talent upgrade to be had. Trading Martin for someone like Granger would bring us back to our problem pre-Ariza -- 3 SFs and only 1 SG. In other words, I'm sure that a good portion of the reasoning on the Ariza-Lee deal was to balance out the roster. I don't think adding a backup SG makes Martin any more 'expendable' than Yao was made after the Brad Miller signing. If there's a deal for a potential all-star player who makes our team better, everyone is expendable at this point.
I disagree with that analogy. Yao simply can't play more minutes. Miller is just to give us something to alleviate that. He's old. He's not the future. Lee on the other hand is a young player that Morey has coveted for a long time. Well if we have Igoudala or Granger we don't have any need to play Battier any more than occaisional minutes. He's the projected starter now because of his defense. If we bring in a good defender then he becomes the 3rd stringer behind Budinger. And like I've said, the whole 3 SF's and 1 SG "issue" isn't realy that big of a deal. Every team plays players out of their natural position for stretches. But that's not the point of a potential Martin trade. Martin for Iggy (I keep using him instead of Granger because its seems more likely) is a lateral move at best. I might actually prefer Martin. However its the improvement from BATTIER to Iggy and the comparative downgrade from Martin to Lee. I think thats an overall positive shift that could be made without killing us financially or trading in our future assets and would make us beasts defensively and would give us the perimeter creator we so clearly lack. I bolded that, not to be obnoxious, but to point out thats the most important part. That's why I think he's more expendable now. Its not a matter of, "well of course you always make moves for better players" The situation makes it so that a lateral move or even a downgrade could be a potential upgrade.
Morey really pulled off a huge score here and here's why: The financial aspect is pretty clear and we got a steal of a player in Lee. Morey has assembled a very versatile, deep team. Morey values Lee's defensive attitude, attention details, and offensive prowess. It comes down to match ups in the playoffs. Imagine it: Lee and Battier on Westbrook and Durant, Battier and Lee taking turns guarding Kobe, Lee and Battier on Wade and Lebron, etc.. Of course none of this certain, but obviously Lee was brought here to fill Ariza's role for a cheaper price and should be better at it. We lose some athleticism and length on the wing, but that was expected, However, I don't see Lee getting Ariza's minutes but probably tops off at 20 minutes and can be used in specific match up situations as touched on above. Morey wanted Lowry since the draft, Morey wanted Martin because of his efficiency, and Morey wanted Lee since the draft. These are players that Morey has wanted for awhile and now he has them . We are set to do some damage.
