Rockets had a deal in the early 20's but it fell through

Rumors of major trade talks abounded but the Pacers experienced a relatively quiet NBA Draft night Thursday. Hopeful of acquiring a first-round pick to use on Rice sharpshooter Morris Almond, the team couldn't complete that deal but did send a 2009 second-round pick to Miami for Croatian center Stanko Barac, who had been drafted No. 39 overall by the Heat.

Almond, the nation's No. 3 scorer (26.4) for Rice, was taken by Utah with the 25th pick in the first round.
"There was a guy we targeted in the first round and we thought we'd have an opportunity to get him but he was taken a little bit before the pick we were going to get," Bird said. "… If we could get in there and get the guy we wanted we'd be happy. It didn't happen but we're still going to have shooters and we'll get them this summer."
Asked if Almond was the target, Bird smiled and said, "That's a very good guess."
Though Almond got away, Bird reiterated his pledge to add perimeter threats to the roster. "I didn't say we'd get a shooter in the first round," he said. "I said we will get a shooter on this team before the summer's out, maybe multiple shooters. We need shooting on this team and we will get shooters."

 

Man, I know u r SLOWmustang. But citing a draftexpress rumor as your belief there is a pacer trade in place is .

The chron article clearly tells the Rockets expected to move up to #20 to draft Rudy Fernandez.

Now, u can go back to your fantasy bball world.

 

This makes zero sense. The deal was with Miami? Miami traded their pick for cash and D. Cook. We had two options to pick Rudy, and the only thing that prevented us was Les being cheap again:

If we had offered more cash to the Heat than Philly or more cash to the Suns than Portland we would have had Fernandez...

Losing in the Pacers deal sucks too...

 

Another year of bad draft karma...

 

Yao is will make us a Powerhouse for at least the next 10 yrs
Come one. . . . over Dramatic?

Rocket River

 

Who knows what they paid but $3M is the maximum a team can offer for a draft pick.

 

Rudy, F - ing Rudy Fernandez...no doubt. Well, maybe a little...

 

1. The article about the Pacers says Almond went a little before the team that they had a deal with. That doesn't mean the Rockets. You're jumping to conclusions to assume that it does. Besides, would we have even liked the supposed Pacers deal?

2. I don't understand why we couldn't have bought Fernandez as easily as Portland did. I'd like to hear more of that story.

 

i was p.o'ed when utah got almond. those F-ers...making another solid pick. It wont be fun watching the rockets lose to them again

 

I think that if Almond was on the board, the Pacers were offering Ike Diogu for the pick, plus a salary to match Ike's.

That would have been a good trade for you, since Ike is a pretty good prospect.

 

My guess is that:

(i) Phoenix probably had Portland on speed dial and called them once it became apparent that there was no one at #24 that the Suns loved (and couldn't get at #29 . . . Aaron Brooks?), knowing that Paul Allen wouldn't think twice about coughing up $3M for a late first round pick; and

(ii) All things being equal, Phoenix would rather sell a first round pick to a team (currently) bad enough to have the #1 overall pick in the draft than to sell it to a 52-win team who they view as a possible competitor for a Western Conference title during the remaining years of the Steve Nash Era.

 

have i ever mentioned that i hate Utah?

 

So plan B was to panic and fumble through some quick phone calls on a busy night. Then plan C was to just pick someone...

And how much money do these guys make?