I am sure Morey would trade Ron if it made the team better. There's no doubt about that. If you can upgrade at the pf spot by packaging Ron with Landry or Scola, or the pg spot by packaging Ron with Brooks or Rafer - you do it. But it has to be a true upgrade (in other words, a third star, not just another role player). The reason to do this is two-fold - first it's better to have one great player than two solid ones, and the other is when you have a lot of depth, it helps guys get more PT. As for the team being unhappy with Ron - that is a surprise considering that he has played well and seems to be behaving well. I don't know what the team is unhappy about? His injury?
I think Ron+Rafer for Nash is highly possible. Rafer has played long enuf to know how to give the ball to a big C. Ron's an upgrade of Bell. Nash is old and this PHX team has no future. Rebuilding is a reasonable choice.
Checked on realgm and this trade works,but I'm sure I could come up with a few different combos to make saliries work. Nash for Artest, Head, Brooks, and Dorsey Plus Nash does not have a long contract and would still keep us in the 2010 sweepstakes. Would you do it? If you believe in Wafer then we still have firepower off the bench in Landry, Wafer, Alston, and to an extent Barry.
Wafer has been playing well, no doubt about that. However, we should not be so quick to label this as his 'emergence'. Maybe after the Hawk has a season of consistent production can we reliably say that he is, well, a reliable player. I'm not ready to say that his production has lessened the value of a Ron Artest. Or have we not learned anything from the Aaron Brooks ups and downs saga? I'm sure Morey, who knows how to measure the risks involved, is not going to give up Ron just because of wing player X's good month. Don't get me wrong, I love the Hawk. He's just not proven enough.
I'm glad someone else notices this. DD will make several nearly identical posts when he gets on a topic...it's quite annoying frankly. I actually had him on ignore for a while, now I just kind of skim through his posts to see if it is anything relevant. As far as the Nash thing, why would we want him? He'd be utterly useless in our offense. Nash and Yao Ming do not mix.
Exactly what i was saying, Nash needs a run and gun team to be his best, we are a half couort set up team, that together would equal failure.
Nash and Ming don't mix??? Have you not noticed how well our offense runs when our PG is playing well? Be it hitting 3's or going to the bucket the Rockets offense is at it's best when Rafer or Brooks is hitting. A healthy and productive Nash is heads and shoulders above Alston and Brooks. Nash would be asked do the same things we all want Alston to do on a more consistant basis - hit open jumpers and get to the bucket for the finish or dish.
You make an excellent point. The question is; how would T-Mac respond to not having the ball in his hands as much? Could he still be effective without being the primary playmaker? I would not be as concerned about a Nash/Ming mix as I would about a Nash/McGrady mix. That being said, I would still be surprised if Artest is dealt.
I have no doubts he's being shopped. I do doubt that he's being shopped hard or that they are intent on getting him off the roster. I don't think it has anything to do with the bone bruise - if anything, they may want to be doubly sure that he's 100% healthy for internal evaluation / showcase purposes. What were we hoping for and what have we gotten from Ron: 1. Toughness and leadership on the court -->gotten a guy that seems overly concerned on fitting in and not rocking the boat 2. A strong third option that doubles as a great backup 2nd option when Yao or McGrady is out -->gotten a guy that has displayed a disturbing habit of breaking plays to go after low percentage shots He hasn't had any incidents, and in all fairness, he needs more team to find his role on offense with us. It'll be much easier for him to do that now that the current lineup has begun to gel and found a rhythm. Still, it's pretty disheartening to see that the only two guys shooting worse than him this year are Rafer and Hayes. Again, I think Morey is doing nothing more than gauging interest and sending out feelers. It's his job, and he'd be negligent if he WASN'T talking to teams with the deadline approaching. Evan
so basically you want to get rid of our 2 best defenders in 1 trade? we better be getting back a defensive powerhouse in return.
I think discussion of nash is moot. rafer / ron for nash makes phoenix better. we are not going to make a rival better, especially not one as potentially dangerous as that team. if we trade ron it will likely be to the eastern conference or to a very weak western conference team. last I checked the clippers have quite a few power forwards (kaman, camby, randolph). I'm not sure if / when any of those contracts will be expiring but it is a thought. I certainly hope we don't trade scola or landry -- I'm very happy with both. If we were to give up one, I guess I would say landry despite his upside and reasonable contract [since we're trying to win this year]. we could be potentially going for a point guard, but I don't think rafer is as bad as people let on. he's streaky as all hell but we are a better team when he plays. having an entirely new point guard come in to run the show after rafer has been here for this long seems like a bad idea. not to mention, who could you possibly get? toronto is NOT giving up calderon, period. all of this is frankly giving me a headache. I trust morey and I know whatever he does is generally for the better of the team. obviously you don't let the player that you just traded 2 #1 picks for walk. so if they're not going to re-sign him they will probably trade him...but who can you get really?
Using RealGM effectively and "real"alistically requires more than dumping players into a pool of salaries. First, PHX has to consider the risk of re-signing Artest. Then they have to cut at least 1 of the other players to make the roster max of 15. As far as Nash "fitting in" with a big man, D'Antoni had them a few BS calls and some Hack-a-Shaq from dumping the Spurs out of the playoffs. Nash's bigger problem (than age) is Steve Kerr and Tery Porter. Then again, Nash isn't even a remote possibilIty beyond RealGM
Kirk Hinrich, Andre Miller and Mike Bibby for Ron Artest. With all due respect DD, I would not take any of those guys for a Ron Artest especially Hinrich.
you hit the nail on the head. hinrich isn't even as good as rafer. I'd take andre miller, but I don't see the 76ers trading him. the hawks will definitely not trade bibby -- they have too many wings to begin with.
I think everybody needs to just chill the f*** out. I'm pretty sure Morey has everything under control, everyone explores their options with any type of 'expendable' players around the trade deadline. He is not going to trade Ron for scrubs, that's the point of shopping to see what everyone has to offer. We gave up a pretty good amount to get him so I'm sure DM wouldn't trade him for anything less than what we gave up for him. Although I do wonder what we could get for him, I doubt he'll be traded... Too much heart!
what an upset it will be..after seeing artest getting pumped up and saying we will be contenders before the season, only to be traded mid-season.
