no difference (financially) between doing this or landing bosh. why les might not go for it is because the second pick is unproven. you dont want to have brand on your roster with a bust of a pick. if your sure favors, cousins, or turner will be an all star then you do it... if there is any doubt, you dont. probably too much of a gamble for les and morey.
Not sure what your point is. If Morey desperately wants a top pick, then OBVIOUSLY he believes the player he takes will be a superstar. In logic, smoothie's statements can be taken as a bi-conditional. Morey would take on Brand's contract to get Player A if and only if he believes Player A will be a superstar.
The 2003 Draft...brings back memories. The Pistons were already a conference heavyweight, and very dominant Eastern Conference team that went to the ECF, six years in a row. If they could've drafted anyone else not named Darko, of the three players behind him, the Pistons would've easily been the best team of this decade. Carmelo Anthony - Chris Bosh - Dwayne Wade Added to this group http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/2004.html (For the sake of the argument say, the Pistons still traded for Wallace) That team get its bonafide superstar and has a great nucleus with the Wallaces, Hamilton, and Prince.
i think it's a good move. hamilton's contract is basically the same as elton brand. you get to offload rip who cant seem to work along with gordon who's a better scorer than he is. you get brand who's gonna bang low down inside and eddie v who's a stretch pf/c (ala sheed). and then you get a no 2 pick you can use on turner. brand was just a bad fit in the 76ers. those guys win when they run. he'd be perfect for detroit as theyre used to play slow, grind it out basketball. he'd also get better with an offseason more of recovery. but the bigger question is would philly bite? you'd wonder how he would fit along side iggy when he couldnt fit with gordon.
as i said, if les and morey think that they can get an elite talent at #2 then i think it's worth the financial burden of brands contract. if they are not sure, then they probably wont risk it. of course, if there was a sure fire superstar available at #2, the sixers wouldn't trade the pic to get out of brands contract.
It took a 2nd round pick to dump Brand the first time. What's dumars gonna do to dump him the 2nd time around? IMHO this is a win for Detroit if they get to exchange Rip's contract with Brand. The Pistons right now have a logjam at the wing position, by exchanging brand for rip they get a pf for their sg at the same price AND upgrade their pick to number 2. For Philly, its a total ripoff. Rip may be better than Brand however Philly isn't really going anywhere regardless of whether they get him or not. The whole "give away the number 2 to get rid of brand" sound better to me than downgrade the 2 to 7 and yet still have to pay the same amount of money.
If Philly is already in the mood to move AI, then they would be unlikely to be interested in taking on Rip. If Cuban wants either Rip or AI, he might be able to get a great deal. It would continue to tie him to a costly payroll, but he is already quite far down that road already.
Actually a dampier+fillers for Brand swap might work nicely. With Damp's unguaranteed contract Philly can cut him outright and save around 9 mill instantly. The plus side is Dirk, Brand and Kidd would probably work pretty well since Dallas plays half court and Dirk can give Brand the space he needs to operate.Not only that, they have a hole at the SG slot so turner would be a no brainer at 2. Hmm looks like Cuban should be looking at Philly instead of trying to get LBJ.
Damp alone for Brand might be enough to make the salary numbers work. How would you compare Beaubois to Louis Williams? Should Philly also ask for Beaubois + Salary (Stevenson?) for Louis Williams?
