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

exactly right. from a salary cap perspective its a very smart risk to take, because if you get lucky its cheap talent, and it has very little downside. but from a purely financial perspective, given the rarity of these picks turning into any kind of real asset, its a much larger gamble. its easy to say its not a risk when its not your $10m you just spent on a few second round picks. if i told you that if you invested $10m in something, it would have a 15% chance of producing anything worthwhile, would you invest in it? no. but this game is different only because of the cap and its contract & spending restrictions. this risk is worth it because it allows an owner that's willing to spend to create potentially valuable assets for a comparatively small investment, outside of the restrictions of the cap.

 

Say what?

 

Wonder if you could flip Iggy and Battier to the Heat for a maxed out DWade, if he decides he wants to come to H-Town. Or how about Iggy and Battier to Cleveland for a maxed out Lebron, if Lebron wanted to go elsewhere?

 

you could throw in a couple of truckloads of Prozac for the city of cleveland as a sweetener. and some fire extinguishers for when they burn down their arena. oh, and cash to make the salaries balance.

 

we give up WAYYYY too much

 

Exactly. I have been saying I wasn't sure I wanted to get in bed with Iggy's contract and it risk us getting anything awesome in Free Agency. But I'd hate to miss out on this deal and then go empty handed in Free Agency this offseason except for spare parts.

I still don't know if Iggy can be "The Guy" or how he would work with Yao. But I am at the point where I think this may be the best deal we could possibly get.

But what do I know?

 

If the finances are too much to deal with taking on Dalembert, we could flip Battier and Andersen for say Marcus Camby to save some cash. Getting a player like Iggy is a rare opportunity and should be taken advantage of.

 

I don't think we need "The Guy" like most fans do. This team has quality players who are capable of stepping up and if you add another scoring threat or two then the defense either has to play straight man-to-man defense on Brooks or Landry (or Iggy) or leave someone who can score wide open. The problem right now is that Battriza is finishing games and forcing Scola/Landry/Brooks into playing 3 on 5.

I really think we are just one more scorer and one big shotblocker/rebounder away from being in the mix. This trade solves that even if Iguodala doesn't get any better than he is today.

 

Iggy and Dalembert perfectly fills our current needs ( at least on paper). Iggy can be the 2 guard we sorely need and Dalembert is the 7'0" shotblocking defensive presence we don't have at all this season. And when Yao is back next season we can trade Dalembert's expiring for even more goodies or maybe even trade away Yao instead (also expiring). Although the latter is highly unlikely.

 

Best thing about Iggy? He rarely misses a game.

 

That's part of me leaning toward liking this deal. It doesn't hurt so bad to tie up the big bucks into a guy that has a history of being healthy and who is just entering his prime as a player and an athlete.

Simply put, I'll take 18/6/5 every night over 22/5/5 half the time.

 

I feel like we'll swing a deadline deal wtih Philadelphia or Phoenix if both clubs continue to underperform.

We've been linked in Amar'e talks in the past, and I don't see any reason why we wouldn't continue our pursuit given his performance this season. Iguodala and Dalembert also address serious issues on our current roster. If we can get ahold of Speights, Thad. Young, or Jrue then we really did well for ourselves.

I have a lot of faith in the Rockets' management and acquisitions. I loved the Artest move, and I still like Artest. I understood that the Ariza move made a lot of sense, and I still like Ariza. Budinger and Taylor seem to both be solid players with heaps of potential.

Good time to be a Rocket fan.

 

GREAT time to be a Rockets fan.

fixed

 

If the Yao/T-mac combo can't win you a championship i doubt a Yao/Iguodala combo well.

 

But what if they're not the only two on the team that can put the ball in the hoop???

 

Iguodala actually plays more than half the games each season. He would also have the benefit of playing next to guys like Landry, Brooks and Scola as opposed to Ryan Bowen, David Wesley and Juwan Howard.

 

I don't know much about Iggy, but I kinda doubt he's as soft and fragile T-mac. He's like Samuel Jackson's character in Unbreakable.

 

You have to look at the supporting cast, too. If the TMAC/Yao of '04 played with this current squad....easy championship.

 

Battier and Andersen for Camby? Two not so young/talented non expiring contracts for a useful expiring contract, the cheap owner Sterling would fire any GM who even suggests that.

Nobody is wiling to take Dalembert's contract without dumping their own bad contracts. That's why this deal wouldn't happen unless Les is willing to pay LT for Iggy/Dalember(basiclly there is no chance for that) or there are young talents/ draft picks involved(very unlikely for Philly to give away both Iggy and prospects/picks). Let both Lowry and Scola walk in the offseason for nothing before Dalembert's contract expires also wouldn't happen under a GM like Morey.

I don't see this happening.

 

I don't know if it ever was going to be "easy" against prime TD, Parker and Manu, but that team would have a real good chance against Spurs.