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Rockets trade D-Mo, Thornton to Pistons for first round pick

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Clutch, Feb 18, 2016.

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Do you like this trade for the Rockets?

  1. YES

    185 vote(s)
    27.6%
  2. NO

    485 vote(s)
    72.4%
  1. malakas

    malakas Member

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    Why if Dmo gets more than 6m we won this trade exactly???

    Do you expect rookie extensions to be as low as rookie contracts???

    If Morrey wasn't prepared to pay 6 mil for DMO...then I don't even know what to say.
     
  2. zeeshan2

    zeeshan2 Member

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    Thanks buddy
     
  3. RasaqBoi

    RasaqBoi Member

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    D-Mo is use to Kevin McHale letting players chill & play PS4 during practice.
     
  4. RudyTBag

    RudyTBag Contributing Member
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    Remember Lowry to Toronto for a first rounder?

    Wait and see "knowledgable Rocket fan"...
     
  5. J.R.

    J.R. Member

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    Oops, already posted.

    http://espn.go.com/nba/insider/stor...-trade-donatas-motiejunas-houston-rockets-nba

    Trade Grades: Does Motiejunas help Detroit? How did the Rockets do?

    February 18, 2016

    The Deal
    Pistons get: Center Donatas Motiejunas, guard Marcus Thornton
    Rockets get: Center Joel Anthony, 2016 Detroit first-round pick (top-8 protected in 2016, top-10 protected in 2017 and 2018)

    Detroit Pistons: C-

    In an unexpected turn of events, the Pistons look like the most aggressive buyers at the trade deadline. Days after adding Tobias Harris from the Orlando Magic, Detroit has now added Motiejunas to its young core.

    While the Harris trade was a slam dunk, there's a lot more risk here for the Pistons. Unlike Harris, Motiejunas isn't under contract for next season. He'll be a restricted free agent, and it's difficult to forecast the market for a player coming off serious back surgery.

    After undergoing surgery last spring, keeping him out of Houston's playoff run, Motiejunas missed the season's first 20 games. He returned in early December, was ineffective, and has sat out since New Year's Eve due to lingering back pain.

    Presumably, Detroit wouldn't make this trade without confidence that Motiejunas will be healthy for the stretch run. The long-term implications are more difficult to predict. If this is a temporary setback, the Pistons might be able to re-sign Motiejunas at a good price because of his lost season. If the back continues to bother him, Detroit might have paid a high price for damaged goods.

    Even when healthy, it's not clear how effective Motiejunas really is. Most of his value is based on 2014-15, when Motiejunas started 62 games and showed ability inside (his 53.4 percent shooting on post-ups led all players with at least 100 attempts, per Synergy Sports tracking) and out (he made 36.8 percent of his 3-point attempts after shooting worse than 30 percent beyond the arc his first two seasons). However, Motiejunas still struggled to protect the rim as a center and wasn't especially efficient overall.

    The good news is the Pistons don't need Motiejunas to be a star, merely a solid reserve. Presumably he'll replace Aron Baynes as Detroit's backup to (and hacking insurance for) center Andre Drummond, with the ability to occasionally play alongside Drummond depending on matchups. Motiejunas' ability to stretch the floor enables him to play with Drummond offensively so long as there's a bigger power forward he can defend at the other end. Thornton also has some short-term value to Detroit, which was in the market for a veteran wing stopgap with starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and backup Jodie Meeks both sidelined by injuries.

    Still, a first-round pick that could be in the lottery is a lot to give up for the right to match any offer to Motiejunas. If he's healthy and plays well down the stretch, the Pistons could find themselves having to choose between letting Motiejunas walk and overpaying a player who doesn't appear to have a starting role at any point down the road.

    Houston Rockets: A

    A few hours before the deadline, the Rockets' big-picture strategy remains unclear. Whatever direction they go, however, dealing Motiejunas for this kind of value makes sense. As important a piece as he was to Houston's 2014-15 regular season, Motiejunas got usurped in the frontcourt pecking order this season by the younger Clint Capela, who has also shown the ability to play alongside starting center Dwight Howard in addition to backing him up.

    Given how much Rockets general manager Daryl Morey prizes flexibility, re-signing Motiejunas to a big contract this summer seemed unlikely. So Houston has to be elated at getting a pick likely to land in the middle of the first round in return.

    The protections on the pick Detroit is sending the Rockets are worth noting. According to ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the selection is top-8 protected this season and protected in the top 10 each of the next two years.

    Realistically, barring unprecedented injuries, the 2016 protection basically amounts to the Pistons keeping the pick if they land one of the top three spots in the lottery. Otherwise, even if Detroit misses the playoffs -- a reasonable possibility given that the Pistons are currently a half-game out of eighth and weakened themselves in the short term by trading backup point guard Brandon Jennings to get Harris -- Houston is almost certainly getting this pick.

    Swapping 30 games of an injury-limited Motiejunas plus his matching rights for a four-year rookie contract of a player drafted around 15th is terrific from a value standpoint.

    There's another small, ancillary benefit to this trade for the Rockets, who shed about $700,000 in salary taking back Anthony's $2.5 million deal. That either translates into luxury-tax savings for Houston, which is currently over the tax line, or makes it easier for the Rockets to add salary in subsequent trades. By virtue of using the full mid-level exception this summer, Houston is hard-capped at $88.7 million in payroll. The Rockets now stand about $1.2 million below that total.
     
  6. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!
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    Oh please regale us with all those great draft picks of his.....please...who is still in Houston that was drafted by us and is making a difference.

    DD
     
  7. kingkingston

    kingkingston Member

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    lol didn't Jeremy Lamb land us Harden ?
     
  8. PeterKingX

    PeterKingX Member

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    Totally B.S.
     
  9. Rockets025

    Rockets025 Rookie

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    I believe we did this for a first round pick. I forgot what team wanted to trade with Houston but I'm pretty sure a first round pick was being asked for a solid player?
     
  10. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
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    LOL. They apparently didn't do a good job hiding DMo.
     
  11. Tfor3

    Tfor3 Member

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    Chucker? What would u rather he do? Dribble the ball for 23 seconds then pass to a teammate? SF3 and JH13 approve this message.
     
  12. malakas

    malakas Member

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    Yes he was picked at 20th selected by the Wolves. You don't EXPECT your 20th pick to be as good as DMO. And when they do and you spend years developing them you keep them.

    If you think that every 20th pick is as good as Dmo you are deluded.

    This is this "We will choose the boat over the box. This box can be anything..it can be even a boat."
     
  13. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"

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    Please calm down. Personally prefer a late 1st round pick to spotty non-rebounding guy who plays on average 1 in every 6 games for the team.

    Had sweet, unusual skill set... 16% of the time. And zero skills 84% of the time.

    I get people wanted more, but the crying is over the top. We are a team going nowhere and we have to shake some things up, especially if this move leads to a larger move. Just wait until the end of the day to declare that DMO and Thornton were leading us to a top 4 finish this year (or next year).
     
  14. Caesar

    Caesar Member

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    Does Daryl Morey look like a b****? He's in that war room right now working! BUSTING HIS ASS.

    He's in there like:
    <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MrTsuvykUZk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
     
  15. Flops

    Flops Member

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    Can someone refresh my memory on what we gave up to get DMo?


    In my opinion it looks like the rockets got a full refund on DMo despite his potential for health issues the rest of his career. Nothing amazing but sounds good to me. Thornton was really a non-factor for the rockets... he can score every now and then but he really isn't a major piece of the team.
     
  16. Rockets025

    Rockets025 Rookie

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    JBs plan to give Brewer 48min a game and play PF
     
  17. AB423

    AB423 Member

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    **** u morey
     
  18. boiler

    boiler Member

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    Did DM get an all-star for DMo?
     
  19. Madano

    Madano Contributing Member

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    The Suns wanted a first round pick for Morris... Brewer + the pick for Morris? It'd be okay value if Morris's off the court issues get resolved and he regains his old form. Plus we'd get rid of Brewer.
     
  20. Crashlanded19

    Crashlanded19 Member

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    Also the pick we received from Toronto during the lowry deal helped make it happen. I have remind this to people every time we ask "why did the rockets let lowry go?".
     

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