ESPN insider makes up a trade: Abdur-Rahim for Rice and E. Griffin

This trade sounds so much better under JVG. U know this team will play D. We are more worried about production throught the lineup, especially at the 3. Rahim can help us there. There were periods last year when this team had huge offensive droughts, in critical games. I am not too sure if JVG can fix all our offensive problems right away, w/ the the same cast. But w/ Rahim, that would help. Then he can worry more about what he does best, D.
I would hate to still give up on Eddie. I love shot blockers, and in his rookie season he showed he is natural at it. But for some reason, had a horrid second year. imo, just a bad year. But i think if he can get over it mentally, he can only go up, waaay up.....But then again, it is for Rahim....under JVG.......hard to say....

 

Hmmm.....this is one of the first trade proposals that I actually like! I would probably do it.

 

I love this trade...Reef is a perfect three... This is possible because Ewing seems to like Badiane and may want to develop him by backing up MOtay...

 

Where is Leebigez? .

I like SAR being able to attack the 3 and the 4. I think he's a great complement to Ming and Francis.

I think I'd also be interested in Ratliff or Mohammed+ for Cato.
Either guy could give us the strong defensive support at 4 and good backup minutes at 5. Overall, more useful minutes and team balance.

 

This bozo thinks Taylor can play the 3! I laughed so hard I gave myself chest pains...

 

Well, if they look at projections and decide that the luxury tax won't be triggered and all the teams than proceed to cross the luxury tax threshold, won't that then trigger the luxury tax?

 

i have a feeling JVG wouldnt want to get rid of rice for his veteran presence. we kind of need those

 

I like this, although Mo as a 3 is questionable...

 

Expert says no luxury tax in summers 2005, 2006:

http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=63486

And since this is a roughly even trade in salary, it would not hurt our summer 2004 numbers. So let's do it! (if on the table).

 

If we did this, I would seriously want a Bruising, PF dud to play the 1st Qtr, for Yao's sake.
Someone built like Ike Nwanko and as nasty as a Detroit bad boy.
There's gotta be someone overseas like that.

 

yes, if it were that simple to raise your salary at will in a soft cap environment. If owners cave and start paying their own Bird-qualifying free agents significant amounts more than that player can get on the open market where few owners are allowed to pay more than an MLE, then yes, that will cause a trigger.

But the market is not a free will market. There are a lot of things that keep the league from raising salaries significantly.

Trades are never a sum gain in salaries across the league, as they involve existing contracts.

12.5% and 10% raises trail the league's proven revenue increase trends (look at the increase in salary cap to measure the increase in BRI).

Rookie Scale contracts only have ~8% increases each year of the contract.

Max contracts are now capped while previous max contracts are expiring. Note that for every Malone contract that expires, that's equivalent to 2 Steve Francis new contracts.

imo, what it boils down to is new salary to the league is really only seen in widespread use of MLEs or paying your own Bird FAs significantly more than market....both of which are largely controlled by supply/demand with or without a tax threat.

 

I think it would improve the team. Griffin might develop and that could come back to bite us, but Abdur-Rahim has been putting up the #'s for quite a while and is the right age to grow with our core players. And he's something Griffin is not, consistent.

He might not be the greatest defensive player by any stretch of the imagination, but with zones and JVG's schemes (one hopes) they can cover for that. He's a 20/8 guy night in and night out and can play the 3 and 4 depending on matchups. It also gives Piatkowski more minutes for his sweet jumper since he doesn't have to sit while Rice lumbers around the floor.

In fact, that's one of the things I like about the deal. Rice isn't around to take minutes from younger, more active guys who can shoot (Pike, Abdur-Rahim, Boki??) or play D (AGriff, who else?). The guy is a good locker room presence and occasional threat, but not much else except cap relief.

Les needs to put bodies in the club seats and luxury boxes... Shareef is a big enough name to add considerable buzz for the coming season and push some of the fence sitters into springing for those expensive season tickets. Sure, I would do it. I don't write the checks. (we still need a vet PG and a cheap defensive banger, though...)

 

If the rockets can't market themselves with Steve Francis and Yao Ming....Reef isn't going to make a whole lot of difference; I doubt he'd sell enough incremental tickets to justify his salary.

Shoot, I follow the NBA pretty closely, but if Shareef Abdur Rahim standing in line behind me at the movies, I wouldn't know him unless he was wearing his Hawks uniform.

 

He may not sell tickets directly but as we all know, selling tickets is all about winning.

 

This looks like an awesome trade....but ESPN Insider seems to be wrong the majority of the time. I'll wait until JVG or Alexander mentions something about it.

 

that trade will defenitly make us a lock for the playoffs. then we can sign art long for the leauge minumim to be our bruising 4.

 

I'm in the minority but I have never seen SAR as a Rocket. Not before Yao and surely not after. The team needs a true SF who gets his shots in the flow of the game.

SAR would not IMO be a 20 ppg player on the Rox as he would have to subjugate himself to being the 4th option. And he has taken nearly 16 shots/game to get his points.

I question whether (on a JVG team), there are enough shots for SAR to be effective with Francis, Mobley, Yao and Taylor as the other players on the court with him.

 

If we got SAR then Mobley would have to be the 4th option and allow SAR to be the third option. In my opinion we should NOT trade for SAR if he is going to be the 4th option. We should only trade to find the "3rd Star Player" we are looking for. If we trade for SAR then he would be that guy and Mobley would have to defer. I would rather have SAR scoring points closer to the basket (48% FG) than Mobley's off balance inconsistant shots. Perhaps start Pike at the 2 and bring Mobley AND Taylor off the bench for scoring punch.

On this team SAR would be the starting 4. SAR is only an inch shorter than Griffin (if that) but still weighs more. So if Griffin can play the 4 than SAR can do it, even in the West! Perhaps not for significant minutes but he can play there. With SAR that gives the team 3 players (Yao, SAR and Taylor) that can score from the post. Right now we only have 2. Getting a third post player gives this team more opitions and versitility.

SAR might not be the "perfect" compliment to Yao and the Rockets (such as Elton Brand) but he is hardly a detriment!

I just like the idea of having a 3rd "consistant" scorer on this team behind Yao and Francis. I like Mobley a lot...but he is just TOO inconsistant to be that "3rd guy" on the team.

 

Who is the first person who has heard ANYthing about McDavid's plans as owner of the Hawks? Will he be like fellow Dallasite Cuban or more like Sterling? Or crazy like Shinn or just something in between?