There is a point, assuming you believe you can lure Horford back with a 5 year max contract next summer. DMo and TJones are both set to get paid. While there is a benefit to having them as RFA, it will only be in the sense that you have the right to match any offer. Their restricted status WILL NOT prevent them from getting big paychecks next summer. Look at it this way...... We're in February, and the Rockets are a top 2-3 seed in the west. Meanwhile Atlanta has had a rash of injuries and their lack of quality SFs is costing them games. KJ McDaniels has emerged as a legit player and future replacement for Brewer and/or Ariza. The Rockets offer Brewer, DMo, and Harrell for Horford, who has told the Atlanta front office he may walk in a few months. Not saying it will happen.....only saying that it's possible.
I am a KButter fan and having watched him all last season I have to say this. The acl injury is the worst for him. He was already slow as a turtle now if he loses like 10% of his athleticism we are talking about the least athletic player in the nba. And I seriously doubt he is 100% ready to play yet, but he seems to need desperately the money so he's willing to risk it. I would give him an invite to traning camp with a partial guarantee and see him first. Well Horford max will be what? 30+ per? And he will be 30 y.o next summer. So we will have the most expensive frontcourt in the league of two 30 y.o players. Locked for 5 years. I personally would prefer to pay DMO if he's back healthy but sure there's a possibility in your scenario. Though judging from Atlanta's recent decisions with their new ownership and front office they won't likely be interested even then in my opinion, not after paying all that money to Millsap who is not so young himself and instead of using their 15th pick trading for more ready to contribute now players. And why waste all these assets for someone we can sign for free next summer? And as we have seen bird rights don't matter as much with super max guys anymore.
Horford's max will start around $26 million. The reason you invest these assets is because clearing space to sign either Horford or Durant is more difficult than it seems. You would likely lose DMo and Brewer anyway in salary dumps. Bird rights matter because you could keep Lawson, Beverley, and Ariza. And lets not forget.......you're trying to win now. Even if Horford walks next offseason, you still had a 2016 playoff lineup of: Lawson / Beverley Harden / Thornton Ariza / McDaniels / Dekker Horford / TJones Howard / Capela / Hayes IF Horford does resign on a 5 year max deal, who cares that we've got $50 million tied up in Howard + Horford? Flexibility doesn't matter if you're winning championships.
Thank you....it does to me as well. He's got a lot of the typical qualities you see in Morey-like under the radar trades. Finishes at the rim, developing a jumper, good athleticism/length, came out of school as a junior, showed progress in various areas of his game. I don't think Lorenzo's trade market would be very hot. He will be a restricted free agent next year at the age of 25, and his team won't get full bird rights. Not many teams will be looking at a player like him that doesn't have star-level upside.
What's the deal with Marshall? Does anybody know? I know he suffered a nasty knee injury and has been rehabbing, but is there some sort of reason why he's not currently on an NBA roster? He's tall, can handle the rock, has pure PG instincts and can hit the long ball. He sounds like a younger version of Prigioni.
No I meant bird rights don't seem to matter to the max players any more. They don't care for the extra year and the better % raises. (see Aldridge). Of course they matter for the team that uses them to sign them. So even if we trade for him there is no guarantee based on bird rights alone he will resign with us. We will have one postseason/half year to convince him to stay. I don't think losing Dmo/Jones to clear capspace will be hard at all. Neither Brew. But yeah. Of course if such opportunity arises we must take advantage of it. Granted we won't be the only team interested and with a lot of assets to give (Boston, Suns).
He suffered an ACL in january in the london game and then in february he was traded to the Suns in the Knight trade and was waived. He was rehabing in Milwaukee with Jabari till June. He is very slow and doesn't have lateral quickness. He is a bad defender. BUT he has added a nice post game. He doesn't shoot much and he has a very weird shot. He was rumoured to sign with Minny but it didn't work out. As I said I'm a Marshall fan.lol :grin: Normally you would expect at least 9 months rehab from acl so he shouldn't be ready yet but he is desperate to find an nba team.
Moving One of DMo or Jones for Horford is much more palatable .... it leaves you with one or the other to play behind Horford rather than Chuck Hayes or the unsigned Harrell (who is no guarantee to be here by the start of the season). I'd prefer to keep DMo because he is more versatile but Atlanta would probably prefer him in exchange for the same reason. I don't believe they would have full bird rights to Lawson if he were to become an FA after this coming season. I don't think most people understand that once you are over the cap $$ doesn't matter , its just about how much talent you can put on the court. They just see a bunch of zero's and freak out. Lets say they trade Jones , Brewer & Harrell for Horford this season & Dwight opts out. Dwight signs another max deal starting at $30m Horford is resigned at his $26m max DMo gets an offer in the $18m range and the Rockets match it. That's $74m tied up in three players and entirely possible .... they can still pay Harden his ~$31.5m the following year and still have Ariza , PatBev , KJ , Capela , Dekker & Lawson (assuming they picked up the option year giving them full bird rights). Not to mention the players they could sign with the MLE / BAE over that time period. They could easily have a total of more than ~130m in salary commitments in the 2nd or 3rd season of the new TV deal.
Not so random trade idea: Since PF is the sore spot on the team and most seem to think Jones is the guy that will / should be moved .... why not use him to shed a little salary , making it easier for Morey to get a deal done with Harrell and return a player with one more year on his contract at the same position. Send T.Jones to Portland for Mason Plumlee who's salary fits the Shved TPE and a 2nd round pick. Jones is the better player but Plumlee is one of the few PF's in the entire league who make less than $1.619m and has two or more years remaining on their deal .... and is somewhat useful. Basically the Rockets shed Jones entire salary , allowing them some wiggle room to sign Harrell to a 4 year deal with the rest of the MLE and don't have to deal with him becoming a FA at the end of the season along with DMo. Sucks to lose Jones athleticism .... but they have some serious cap issues right now and this is a reasonable option to alleviate some of that.
Another one would be Dieng from the Twolves Twolves have Towns, Pekovic, Garnett, Bennett and Payne so they Perhaps Jones to 3rd team for 1st, and then package 2 first for Dieng. We could then move Capela to the PF position (which would better suit him due to his lack of strength) He would just need to add a little jumper.
Mason Plumlee is a better player than Terrence. If Portland would do that trade they've got serious problems with their front office.
If you like Lorenzo Brown for 3rd string PG then you should like Spencer Dinwiddie in the same role as well.
Jones is definitely the more "explosive athlete" .... I dont know who the better player is but I think its relatively close tho Plumlee is probably more versatile in that he can play 4 or 5 where Jones is almost strictly a 4. Either way , it's a deal that both sides could benefit from in that Portland gets a player with a lot higher upside in Jones and the Rockets get a solid rotation guy and shed salary. The Rockets could give up a 2nd rounder or a heavily protected first ... and come away from the trade happy with their big man rotation , especially considering they would have 4 players capable of playing the center spot tho only two are really viable at the PF position. It relieves some of their cap problems by using the Shved TPE to absorb the incoming salary as well as pushes that players impending free agency back a year so they aren't forced to make a decision between one or the other with huge contracts. There is the other option that I pointed out in another thread (Bima has as well) in trading the rights to Harrell (prior to his signing a deal) for a player who's contract fits that same Shved TPE ($1.619m). Thing is that deal doesn't solve the problem of having both Jones and DMo hit FA at the same time tho it does leave you with the ability to sign players to 1 year vet min deals and still use the rest of the MLE at some point down the line tho doing so would hard cap them. There really aren't a lot of players who you could trade Jones for outside of Plumlee and Mitch McGary from OKC and Mike Muscala from Atlanta that can be traded prior to December who fit the following description: play the PF position have NBA experience contract is small enough to fit the Shved TPE contract is greater than 1 year in length don't suck - can be expected to contribute There are a few others who become available in December including Bargnani & Hansbrough but these players don't solve the cap issues now which would allow Morey to sign Harrell to a 4 year deal with all or some part of what remains of the MLE. There are a few rookies available soon , 30 days from the date they signed their contracts but most of them are late picks and not expected to contribute to a contender and its doubtful teams would move them anyway. Plumlee - Portland McGary - OKC Muscala - Atlanta Would you take one or more of them for Jones ?
