Damn why are you being a dick? Yeah I was misinformed that they could technically make trades. The GM clearly isn't being allowed to act in the best interests of the franchise and they are handcuffed by the league on deals of any significance.
Agreed 100%. This trade was incredibly beneficial to the Rockets despite the protests on the board. I'm holding out hope the deal gets done eventually.
This trade would of been good. We get Gasol, high chance of landing Nene. Then later, maybe Monta Ellis to fix the scoring problem and the problem they have at GSW.
Looks like Stern is now saying Paul has to stay on the Hornets the whole year. The league has completely ****ed the Hornets.
I don't see why this substantially improves the Rockets. First of all, replacing KM with Courtney Lee is almost equal to replacing Gasol with Scola, yeah Gasol is overall the better player but he's also old like Scola, has had injuries like Scola, and while longer than Scola he's extremely weak-willed. So really, this trade is a wash, you lose out the 0.600% TS from Kmart in favor of Gasol's upgrade over Scola. Factor in Dragic and the pick and this is a net loss for us. I'd be ok with net loss trades since we have a lot of assets, however in this case you'd be trading for a "win now" player, and unfortunately this trade cost us our other "win now" player (KMart). Lowry, Kmart, Gasol and Hayes (resigned to 5M a year) would have been a good combo and IMHO championship calibre worthy, but as the trade stands now I'm glad it didn't happen. More importantly, you'd be handing the Lakers their championship contender for the next 6 years. Lakers as the heat? I'm sorry, but the Lakers already have their role player core ready in Kobe, Artest plus their other players. If they got CP3 then all the Lakers would need to do is offer a pick and Bynum for DH. Kobe, DH, CP3+Artest, Walton and other guys. I'd like that combo more than LBJ, Wade, Bosh and scrubs.
Do I want it to be? Yes Should it be? IDK. They need to come out with a better reasoning though. Only excuse IMO is salary increase for the Hornets, or that it somehow violated the new agreement.
Fun fact: If this had happened 24 hours ago, the players wouldn't have accepted the deal today and the lockout would have continued lol
Does anyone have any knowledge on this issue and know if there is any possibility of this trade happening tomorrow?
I hope the Rockets will at least still go after a C after all this drama. I would like to see Nene or Marc Gasol on this team. Almost losing Scola, Martin, Dragic, and picks would have sent this team back like the Barkley deal.
The gap between Gasol and Scola is much wider than the gap between Lee and Martin. Kevin Martin only plays one end of the floor, and Lee is a strong defender at SG that can put up 13-15 points per game. It also balances the starting lineup, and fixes the size issue. Lowry-Lee-Bud-Patterson-Gasol is a better starting lineup than Lowry-Martin-Bud-Scola-who knows. If you sign Nene the defense in the Gasol lineup is even stronger. Martin, Bud and Scola play no defense and you have no rim protector. With lowry, lee, bud, patterson(or nene), gasol, you get strong offense(lowry, bud, lee, and gasol can all score) with better defenders in lowry, lee, Gasol and either patterson or nene. You also have a shot blocker in Gasol to protect the paint.
I'm pissed as hell. Finally the Rockets had a healthy 7 foot All-star big man in a trade but it was blocked. Would have loved to see a Nene/Gasol combo.
Gasol and Scola are similar players - numbers wise it's a wash. Luis Scola averaged 18.3 ppg and 8.2 rpg in 32 minutes per game Pau Gasol averaged 18.8 ppg and 10.2 rpg in 37 minutes per game Then you look at how freaking terrible Gasol is in the playoffs, as he averaged only 13 ppg/8 rpg last year while getting ass raped by Dirk. http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/996/pau-gasol
I didn't like the deal by itself, but it did free up enough cap space to possibly sign one of the FA centers. I'm thinking the deal wouldn't have been bad if Morey had another deal in place.
IMO the key point is signing Nene. Which the Rockets would have cap to do so following the trade. With Nene, Gasol, and Patterson(played well defensively) backing up, the Rockets would instantly shoot up into top 10 or even top 5 defensively. If Nene doesn't cost the full cap, the Rockets might've even been able to fit in Hayes. Another thing is that wing players are the most readily available players on the trade market. The Rockets would still have their young guys(Motiejunas, Morris, CBud, Flynn, etc.) for trade at the trade deadline for a semi-decent scoring wing. I don't have a name since Morey targets guys no one knows about. But something like the Ron Artest deal. So defense becomes top notch. Offense you are set at 3 positions(Nene, Gasol, Lowry) with Lee spreading the floor and possibly a scoring wing from a trade. That's contending. Sure, we'd still probably rank below the Lakers, the Mavs, and likely the Thunder, but being in "contending" status so quickly following Yao/T-Mac debacle is a miracle in of itself.
