If McGrady gets traded to Minnesota, then how will he find a new team to "impose his will" against? ______________ Honestly, I would do a McGrady for Cardinal + Blount + Wilkins + Rubio deal. Rubio is an asset. An asset that Morey may or may not have been after this summer. He would be the target of the deal (similar to how Morey targeted Lowry and found a way to make it happen last season). Cardinal, Blount, and Wilkins are nothing special, but they are all expiring as well. If so, then we're taking back less salary than we are giving away, thereby helping our luxury tax situation this year. Meanwhile, we would still have a bunch of expiring contracts coming off the books, some of which may still be used at the trade deadline, assuming we get a deal done with Minnesota early enough (it is easier to trade $7M expiring contract for someone of value than a $22M expiring contract). Worst case scenario, we are in the same situation we would be in if we had just let McGrady's contract expire next summer. Some of you might not like it if a deal like this happened, but if it was proposed, I actually think the Timberwolves would say no before the Rockets would. They don't really have any bad contracts on their roster, and they wouldn't be dumping any deadweight on us with this deal. The only reason I could see this deal happening is because David Kahn may see a chance to attain a superstar at below value (you guys can argue the validity of calling McGrady a superstar if you want, but fact is he would become the first big name star that team has had since Garnett. I like Big Al, but he may never be as popular as McGrady has been). Minnesota is hurting for some good publicity, and "acquiring" a "superstar and two-time scoring champion" like McGrady would be good for public relations. They would also (I think) have McGrady's Bird Rights, giving them a leg up on being able to re-sign him next summer if they like what they see this season. A deal with Minnesota (assuming it nets us Rubio) is appreciably better than anything involving the Knicks. Don't get me wrong, I like Al Harrington and Wilson Chandler as players, but in the grand scheme, Harrington is not going to put this year's team over the hump, and Chandler is not nearly as good as people around here seem to think. In fact, I'm not even sure the Knicks consider Chandler an "asset" when it comes to assessing trade value, based on his playing time, his usage, and excerpts from D'Antoni via the media. Wilson Chandler seems like exactly the type of player Morey can find for cheap and give a one year deal to. Not someone he would try to trade for. I'm no longer as confident that McGrady's contract will get us a superstar. The Hawks are playing too well to trade Joe Johnson, and Bosh, while he would be nice, seems unlikely as well at the moment. But I do think McGrady will be traded for something this year. If that's the case, then getting a potential wizard at PG for the future would be a great deal in my eyes. I just have to hope David Kahn cooperates...
Like plenty of others here, I took a glance at realgm's tradechecker. True enough: Only by adding Big Al can you make a trade. Unless Kahn envisions some three-way trade with the Rockets and someone else involving Tracy, I don't see it, unless Minnesota wants to turn over their entire roster. Al Jefferson. Rubio. Outside of this, nothing doing.
T-Wolves already have their young core of Flynn, Love, and Jefferson to build around. Rubio was/is a PR disaster. The poor start to the season is reinforcing the views of his detractors in the media, ie that of a clown GM. Kahn is looking desperate if he thinks writing letters to fans will save their season: http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_13812448
put down the pipe, people. al jefferson? if i have a 100 years old silver bracelet, and you have a 24k gold necklace, would you want to trade with me, str8 up or in any other way?
You keep referencing this letter, but I don't really see how that makes them desperate. If anything, he's preaching patience - and trading their #5 overall pick for an aging, injury-prone McGrady would probably set them back further. McGrady would give them no more cap space then they have right now - all three of those contracts in the trade are expiring as well. Trading Rubio would be Kahn basically admitting that he made a huge mistake in drafting Rubio - do you think he's willing to take that blame? I don't. Especially in wake of all these open letters to the fans. If you want Rubio, you're going to have to give up more than just Tmac. Maybe McGrady/Budinger/Llull/#1 for Blount/Cardinal/Wilkins/Pavlovic/Rubio. Dorsey would be waived in this scenario. But I think this is a more realistic scenario Minny would entertain - the question is would the Rockets? Is Rubio that much more of an upgrade over Brooks to lose Budinger, a 1st round draft pick, and the rights to Llull?
My Wolves want Tracy? Wow, somebody pinch me. If Tracy ended up anywhere, I would prefer Minny above all else. Kahn operates a lot like Morey so I wouldn't expect us being able to rip them in a deal.
A no.5 pick who Kahn was quick to bad-mouth and made a fall guy for the failed off-season negotiations. A no.5 pick who gave the excuse Minnesota is "too cold" and his mother doesn't like the cold. There was speculation Rubio would stay overseas longer than two years to qualify for a larger than rookie scale contract. It's likely his agent Fegan was laying some groundwork but it's still a possibility. Fegan lost out in his battle with Milwaukee over Yi. He's not going to let that happen again. Bottom line is if Rubio doesn't want to go Minnesota he can always stay Spain as he has done the first time around. That's Kahn's gamble, get better before Rubio arrives. If not sign Rubio in two years or lose his job.
I'm certainly not advocating for it - but I think it's more realistic trade (From Minny's perspective) than the ones other posters have been floating around. They would get Budinger and a 1st round draft pick for their #5 pick last year (assuming expiring contracts are a wash.) If I told you on draft night we could get Rubio for the 44th pick (or whatever Chase was) and next year's #1, you'd shoot yourself if you DIDN'T do the deal. Minnesota is not going to just give away Rubio because he went back to Spain.
if we somehow got rubio, could he play this year, or would he half to finish out his overseas contract first?
Morey likes Sessions, right? Would Morey like a bigger point like Sessions so Brooks could start and play off the ball?
Morey think highly of Rubio, He saw him play in the 08' Olympics. Remember in the off-season the Rockets were one of the teams interested in Rubio? I don't like Rubio's personality, but....I'm sure Morey would attempt to target Rubio before Sessions or even Jonny Flynn.
Send him... Maybe something like McGrady/Griffin to Minn Al Jeff/Cardinal/Rights to Rubio to Clips Kaman/Gomes/Blount to Houston We could always move Kaman this summer when Yao is ready to come back to a team on the verge of contending because there are always teams looking for a big man. Maybe flip Blount+Cook (7.96m +3.5m expirings) to a team looking for cap room next year, at the deadline for a swingman. Kaman/Hayes/Andersen Scola/Landry/Gomes Ariza/Budinger/Gomes Battier/Budinger/Lowry Brooks/Lowry
You may be right, but I just don't like Rubio's game. He seemed completely over-matched athletically against the US Olympic team.
I agree DD, but Morey typically isn't one to overvalue potential. It seems like that's all Rubio is at this point. I don't know, it seems like a frail lanky kid with little athletic ability that can't shoot would struggle in the NBA. Maybe I'm wrong.
if we get blount and daniels in return we will probably have to give up landry/buddinger We could swap blount for okafor if we desired too.
