http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9002028/the-best-bargains-nba Honorable Mention Carlos Delfino (Rockets): 2 years, $6 million He's always been a solid NBA swingman (2013: 39 percent 3FG), only nobody wanted him last summer before Dork Elvis begrudgingly stepped in while thinking to himself, I'm just going to keep stockpiling assets, and at some point, maybe I can parlay a few of them into a franchise scorer and a top-five lottery pick, even if this sounds totally insane and my staff thinks I might be popping hard-core meds. Every August, there's always one or two Delfinos still kicking around, which is what makes it so funny when teams spend so much money in July to lock up the same type of player. Kyle Lowry (Raptors): 2 years, $12 million Seems like a terrific price on paper, but it's worth mentioning that (a) Memphis and Houston abruptly gave up on him, and (b) Toronto quietly shopped him before dealing Jose Calderon instead. Translation: He's a pain in the ass. I thought his numbers would jump when they traded Calderon, but he just submitted his worst month of the year. Strange. Maybe he's properly paid? 13. Omer Asik (Rockets): 3 years, $25.1 million Let's face it: Chicago blew it by not matching Houston's poison-pill offer for Asik ($5 million this season, $5 million next season, $14.9 million in Year 3), then inking Taj Gibson to a four-year, $38 million extension (kicking in next season). Why not keep Asik and take care of Gibson next summer? Who was paying Gibson more than $38 million when his specific style fits Chicago better than any other team? This season he's playing 22.2 minutes, giving them his usual stellar defense and averaging 7.7 points and 5.4 boards. Um … another team was breaking the bank for Gibson during an era when everyone is TERRIFIED of the luxury tax? Didn't the Bulls out-think themselves? Why not … • Shell out $7.1 million in 2012-13 for Asik ($5 million) and Gibson ($2.1 million) instead of $4.9 million for Gibson and two lukewarm bodies (Nazr Mohammed and Vlad Radmanovic), then deal with Gibson's extension after the season? • Keep their options open with Asik and Gibson while seeing how Derrick Rose's post-ACL progress is coming? • Either bite the tax bullet and keep Asik AND Gibson (and amnesty Carlos Boozer after the season), or shop Asik before this season's trade deadline for future assets? Like Houston wouldn't have traded for him? Or the Lakers wouldn't have been intrigued by an "Asik/Deng/Charlotte's future no. 1 for Dwight Howard" offer? The bigger point: If you're a big-market contender, you can't lose an asset for absolutely nothing. Just sell the team at that point. Why even own it? You're gonna sweat out the luxury tax every year when you're in Chicago, the third-biggest TV market in America and a city that could absolutely support two professional basketball teams? And yes, Asik is an asset. We didn't need to see him thrive in Houston to realize that Omer Asik was good at basketball. Throw in his age (26) and I think Chicago blew this one. Try not to bring this up to Reggie Rose. 7. Chandler Parsons (Rockets): 3 years, $2.78 million When Dork Elvis dealt a former lottery pick (Morris Twin X) to Phoenix for a future second-round pick, on the surface it seemed like a salary/minutes dump. But was it? The Rockets were betting on their history of finding second-round gems (Carl Landry, Chase Budinger and Parsons), as well as the upside that comes with locking down a potential rotation guy at an absurdly cheap price. Our 17 best second-rounders since 2006: Paul Millsap, Steve Novak, Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Marc Gasol, Ramon Sessions, Nikola Pekovic, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik, Goran Dragic, Marcus Thornton, Chase Budinger, Danny Green, Lance Stephenson, Kyle Singler, Chandler Parsons and Isaiah Thomas. Including Novak (whom they waived eventually), the Rockets somehow landed four of them. Thanks to Phoenix, they'll be picking in the mid-30s this June looking for a fifth winner. Why wouldn't the Suns have just kept the pick and tried to play those same second-round odds? Because they had to reunite the Morris Twins! Look, everyone, we have twins! These guys look exactly alike!!!! COME SEE THE TWINS!!!!!!!
Novak was actually traded for the rights to swap 2nd round pick with the Clippers, that became Chandler Parsons.... http://www.nbadraft.net/nba_draft_trades/2011 Simmons should've known that....
I usually like Grantland articles, but Simmons forgets that the poison-pill may make Asik problematic for Chicago to trade him for assets since the third year would take up a significant amount of cap space for any trade partner if Chicago had matched.
HOU ended up with more than its share of decent 2nd round picks because it buys many of them-- 3 in 2009 alone, so even if many of them bust you still get a few good ones left. Kiss enough frogs like Newley, Taylor, and Dorsey and you are bound to find a few princes.
While on the surface that sounds like a knee jerk racist statement, upon further review there mat be some truth to it.
[Simmons]The Best Bargains in the NBA 3 Rockets up there. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9002028/the-best-bargains-nba
Lol! It's funny cause its true. Would have been even more funny if they paid the 1st round price for Marcus that they were considering last year. But if the Parsons and Budinger contracts have taught us anything, especially in the age of the luxury tax, those early 2nd rounders are extremely valuable. Here's to hoping Morey can work his 2nd round magic once again.
I am a massive fan of Bill Simmons, but I think he's on Morey's ass a lil too much. It seems that anything Morey does is gold to him. Morey is fantastic, sure, but even mentioning Carlos Delfino? I mean even though that is a great signing, there are plenty of those out there -- Earl Clark, Ray Allen, OJ Mayo, to name just a few. Morey is fantastic but I dunno, it just seems Simmons is on his ass too much
Allen is actually number 10. Most of these are winning teams, which always get more of a bias, which can explain why Delfino is there over clark or mayo.
I don't have any quotes to pull so I can back it up, but I used to think Simmons was strangely harsh on Morey. Even earlier this season he said the Rockets were built like a gimmick, as I recall? But he has been warmer lately; maybe because he sees it all coming together for Morey.
well he might've made a joke here or there about the 9000 power forwards on the roster. But he has been very supportive of Morey and his approach, including taking all these risks, gambling on all these prospects, tearing the roster up, etc. I think Delfino is there because Simmons seems to have so many restrictions for this list. He wants to exclude lotto picks, most of 1st rounders (except the ones that got traded), expirings, guys with good extensions.... That's like half the NBA right there....
That is not true....Simmons has criticized the rockets and morey on many occasions. With regard to the list of top bargains he is only stating the facts. Morey is known for signing productive players for less than market value.
I generally like anything Simmons write about basketball, but if he's going to include max players like Lebron, then he needed to include all of them. Durant, Westbrook, CP3(yes he'll be a FA but at max money he's still going to be hugely underpaid), Harden, etc. I'd even put Kobe and Melo in there because I think they're STILL underpaid despite making like $20-30mil. As much as I love Parsons for a paltry 900k/yr, any GM would take Harden at $15mil over Parsons contract.
ABSOLUTELY. A lot of "analyst" was laughing and degrading Morey aka Dork Elvis cause they can't comprehend what the hell he's doing. Now they see everything coming to fruition. Whos laughing now?!
