They didn't "luck" into Steve and Yao. Francis voiced his desire not to play for the Grizzlies. Every other team had a shot at trading for him. CD/Rudy did it. It's not luck. As for Yao, getting the #1 pick was luck. What to do with the pick was NOT luck. Drafting Yao with the pick was not at all a no-brainer. A lot of people, including a large portion on this board, including myself, had much doubt about "wasting" the pick on a total unknown. Yet, CD was so tenacious in cutting through all the Chinese red tapes in securing Yao, under quite a bit of pressure. I say that was some job he did.
BTW how many GM's in the league with the Rockets personell (stud PG, little inside presence) would not have drafted Yao #1? How many GMs would have turned down a Francis (who most thought was the best talent in the draft) for MD + Othella + future #1 with some protections offer? Not many on both accounts. Was it all luck, maybe not quite all, but given the vast majority of semi-informed league brass would do the same thing I think the "no brainer" tag certainly fits. Surely you can agree we can't count on winning the #1 overall pick via lottery, nor having a lowball trade offer for the #2 pick accepted b/c said player was pouting about being drafted by Vancouver, to improve the team further. Unless you are the Mavs and willing to win at all costs--which Les has shown no inclination to follow--most trades, FA acquisitions and drafts are a lot more messy and complicated--and we have not done well in those and likely must turn that trend around to be an elite team.
They could have traded down the picks or done a sign and trade. I think media and a lot of fans suggested that. They did s***w up on several trades and drafts, but give them a little credit on drafting Yao.
You are right. Rice's 10 million dollar salary can only be traded up to the trade deadline. Of course the closer we get to the trade deadline the more valuable 10 million in cap relief becomes. The beauty of Rices salery is that we can us it for one high profile player such as SAR or a couple of players. We can pair it with another players salery or send him packing by himself. I will go back to the trade that sent Juwan Howard to Denver for Nick Van Excel and Reaf LaFrentz as an example of a team willing to unload talent for cap relief. Denver never had any intention of resigning Howard. Another example is the trade that saw the Hawks give up Glenn Robinson for the cap relief provided by Terrell Brandons contract which was about 10 million dollars. The trade exception as was explained in the Chronicle a while back can not be addedd to another player to sign a big time player. The exception must stand on its own as far as salery is concerned so if we wanted to trade MoT and the trade exception for SAR we could not do it. We would have to trade the exception plus a draft pick for a player that fits with in the 6 million dollar exception. IMO this makes the trade exception less valuable if we are wanting a high dollar, high quality player that a team might be willing to depart with for salery cap reasons.
Did Vancouver come to us and offer Francis for those players and the first rounder? No. My point in regard to the Francis trade was, every other GM could have made a low ball trade to get Francis after he pouted. But only we got it done. That's not luck or no-brainer in my book. In regard to Yao, canoner said it, many people thought we should trade the pick and get a solid veteran center plus some more. I had that thought too.
Exactly...We could have had KRush last year instead of Boki and anyone of those 3 picks for EG would have been better...And don't be started on RLewis...He should have stayed in Houston...
Granted we did a job job in putting out a low ball offer Vancouver might take, but it certainly was no-brainer that when faced with the decision of whether you give up MD, Othella and a flexible future #1 for Francis (consensus #1 talent from 1998 or 1999) you do so. Fans yes, but I don't think many GMs doubted what course to take. Certainly you can give the org a little credit, but in both Francis and Yao's case luck was 90% of it. Had Francis not been drafted by the one team he would throw a hissy fit for and refuse to play for (how often has this happened) nor had we lucked in the #1 overall pick on a great year to have it, we would be in dire straits. Heck if we had even gotten the #2 or #3 pick last year--which we would have been thrilled to get before landing the #1, we probably would have blown it on Dunleavy (apparently he was our realistic target) instead of Nene or Amare. It is much better to be lucky than good, and luck is the key reason we have optimism. Now is the time to be screwd and calculating to make the most of our oppertunities. As I said before, it is hard to think we could be as mediocre as we could be while giving up so little to have a youthfull core of Yao, Francis and Mobley. Heck, if you took a random sample of all NBA players excluding the 100 and filled out the roster spots from 4-13 or whatever I'll bet our team would be much better than it is now.
I agree 101% he sholda been gone with Rudy T., i cant belive he is still around. Get ride of his ass bring som1 else in & c wat they can do.
Where is djunior? Is he just gonna flood the board with pointless threads and not even defend his position?
hey guys forget about a trade forum we need a seperate forum for our friend djunior so he can post away
Like I said, 'djunior should be fired.' This isn't the only time he's started a thread and not bothered defending it.
