[Philly Inquirer] 76ers have to knock over Rockets with young talent (UPDATE: 1/13)

I do a trade of Tmac+ Cook for Iggy + Sam + unprotected 2010 1st round pick.

From my point of view.
Iggy may not be a great player, but he is one player that will fit into this system seamlessly. High athleticism player that is willing to play defense and with range to 3p line.
Sam can just sit on the bench in place for Cook for all I care, and be a 12m trading chip for next season.
The 1st round pick is my deal breaker. With the way they are playing, unless Tmac and AI plays at all-star level for the rest of the way, we be seeing a top 5 pick on our way.

 

Bima, what about if we throw in Ariza:
Iggy + Dalembert + one young talent on rookie contract for TMac + Ariza + fillers.

Ariza can be viewed as a decent value to Philly. And trading him away lowers the payroll by 6M. Would it get them under LT?

 

While I see you working there, why would Morey give up Ariza in that deal other than to reduce payroll? Ariza is only 24 and is locked in to a long-term deal that pays him a reasonable salary. If the Rockets traded for (the 25-year-old) Iguodala, it would likely be with an eye towards having AI and Ariza as the team's starting wing players for the next 4-5 seasons. Battier (who is my favorite player) is going to be 32 pretty soon and may be the odd man out, especially if Budinger continues to develop as a backup wing.

Still, even if you don't like Ariza and want to include him in a deal, you're still likely going to exceed the LT if you want to re-sign both Scola and Lowry, let alone picking up the team option on Hayes. Basically, you could probably still keep Hayes and maybe Lowry, but not Scola.

Again, I would be SHOCKED if Morey took back Dalembert in any trade scenario that didn't involve both Iguodala and either Young or the Sixers' 2010 first rounder (never going to happen). He's too smart for that and would simply opt to let Tracy's contract expire than force the team into luxury tax hell for a decent second or quality third option at best.

 

Lets keep in mind that Les Alexander has said many times that he would be willing to go over the luxury tax for the "right piece". I think Iggy qualifies as this piece. He is very talented and can help us win this year, and next year he will be a perfect player to play second fiddle to Yao. I can't help but feel that Morey is going to rape someone out of everything of value that they own.

 

I hear what you're saying Bima - but 2 points!

Trading McGrady + Cook for Dalembert + Iguodala would just about sneak us under the tax threshold for this season (perhaps Dorsey might need to be shipped off too?)
That would save us something in the order of $12mill this season

And those 2 contracts combined wouldn't put us in lux tax territory for next season either (unless it plunged dramatically) - that is, assuming that Scola and Lowry's contracts come in at a reasonable level.

Other thing to note is that Dalembert is an expiring for next season, so perhaps that might be something to play with to generate some further reduction in salary.

The thing I'm not factoring in is the 15% trade kicker - does that raise his salary?

 

We can all speculate,but as noted by someone before,morey hasnt shown or maybe he hasnt had the chance to pull out a mega deal. It takes a certain type to do it. What if the spurs dangled manu and hill for iggy? What about the mavs dangling howard and dampier?

 

Your point being? I'm sure there will be other teams dangling other things for Iggy. It's up to Philly to decide which deal, if any, they would take.

All that the Rockets should do is make an offer that makes sense for them. If someone outbids them, so be it. You go make the next deal.

 

Unfortunately, the luxury tax threshold IS expected to drop dramatically next season, since it is based on substantially similar criteria to the salary cap (being a function of Basketball Related Income, or BRI). If the Rockets take on AI and Dalembert, they will likely be close to (if not over) the luxury tax line, BEFORE exercising their option on Hayes and BEFORE re-signing Scola or Lowry. Even if Scola and Lowry signed reasonable deals, the end result would have the Rockets well over the tax threshold.

If the Rockets are well above the luxury tax, why would they want to extend themselves further financially by trading Dalembert's expiring contract for even more long-term salary? Then, Les would be paying tons of tax money in 2011-12, as well. That just doesn't strike me as something in which either Les or Morey would be interested.

Yes, it does. My understanding is that the Rockets would need to pay Dalembert 15% of his remaining CONTRACT at the time he is acquired via trade. So, if the trade went down on February 18, the Rockets would have to shell out approximately $2.58M to Dalembert (on top of his regular bloated salary) to fulfill this obligation. To make matters worse, that trade kicker would be added to his cap figure (half of it added to his 2009-10 salary, the other half added to his 2010-11 salary) for salary cap and luxury tax purposes, making him even MORE of a cap killer to the Rockets. By my calculations, that puts Dalembert's cap figure for next season at a minimum of $14.2M. You can learn more about it here:

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q83

 

precisely!

our major appeal to any trading partner is the ability to save large amounts of money over the longer term. If someone wants to change the direction of their franchise, and possibly even enter the LeWade sweepstakes, then we'll be their first port of call.

 

So getting Sacramento to trade KT's contract for Dalembert with the Rockets throwing in cash to offset the <i>tradekicker</i> appears to be the best path possible if the trade goes that way.

If the Kings would also want a future pick with the <i>understanding</i> the Rockets would buy it back if necessary, then that would likely be as far as the Rockets would go.

The Rockets should not get themselves in a position were they have to make a uniform for Dalembert.

 

That's what I am trying to do. Get Iggy and a "Young" talent (or Sixers' 1st round pick) in exchange for taking Dalembert's contract. Ariza is an asset. Giving him out not only lowers the payroll but might get Philly to accept some filler contracts such as Cook, Taylor or Dorsey.

As for the wing positions, Ariza is basically the poor man's Iggy. You swap him out and hope that Budinger will develop. Battier still has a couple more productive years. They have time to find some good backup wings. Adelman is playing Brooks and Lowry together a lot anyway. So the SG spot is not thin.

 

Dampier has a partial guarantee for next season andhoward has a team option.The mavs can offer those 2 and a 1st for iggy and sam and not blink. Knowing dallas,they would probably also throw in stackhouse like they did van horn.

 

Well, good for Dallas.

 

Darryl Morey >>> That rich crying guy

 

So if we land Iggy or Butler/Miller then surely Battier gets traded? There is just too much money in the wing positions and Battier is probably the most likely to go...any contender would at least consider him. So what would you take for him? expiring? another rotation player?

 

If it gets us to a championship level, I think it does, than why not?

 

Really doubt Dallas is going to trade 2 starters when their team is playing so well.

Also I think Philly wants Tmac, they think he still has something left in the tank....Tmac playing at 60 percent is better than Dampier and Howard combined.

 

If Philly trades Iggy then they're succumbing to the fact that the next three years are going to be spent in full rebuild mode (something they should have done three years ago with the departure of webber). They're betting that sticking to Iggy/Sammy/Brand will be less effective than starting from scratch. Remembering that those three players combined will essentially prevent them from signing anyone significant or picking up that true franchise player they need from the draft.

The point is Sammy or Brand is coming with Iggy, if it happens. It just doesn't make sense for them to blow up the team starting with Iggy. They'll start with Sammy/Brand and use Iggy to sweeten the deal.

Of course at this point we'll have to address our roster issues. Someone is going to lose some playing time with the addition of a new SG/SF and PF/C.

 

Ariza is a mid class exception guy who is horribly inefficient, he can go to the bench. I would think that with Scola and Landry, we're ok at PF plus Dalembert's contract is better than Brand's and we need depth at C.