What player would need to be available for DM to trade up?

I don't think that's true - I think a lot of people thought he would be very good - everyone was just scared about his injury history. The fact he went so high even with the legit injury red flags is proof of that....and of course he has pretty much lived up to that billing - a great player, when healthy.

...not that this has any bearing on this conversation, but I always believed in him. It's in the archives here...somewhere. Not that I'm a great talent scout, but I felt he showed a lot of character sticking with the difficult situation in European and really humbling himself to fit into the system they played there. People didn't like how cocky/arrogant he was, but his teammates and coaches over there all praised his work ethic and if you ask me, a guy who wants to work hard to get better AND has natural talent is a can't miss prospect. You could argue about his ceiling, but injuries are really the only thing that stop hard working players with natural gifts.

Yes, I know he can't contact Bosh because of tampering(which I think is a silly rule given the timing of the draft and value of those picks) but teams have "agreements" for trades every year that can't be officially announced until later on(the Gay/Battier one for instance) so obviously a high pick gives Houston the chance to wheel and deal. The point of my post was simply to throw out the option that maybe Morey wasn't moving up strictly for a player, but also to negotiate a trade. It's not unreasonable.

Nice selective memory there. I notice you left out Baron Davis, Caron Butler, Andre Iguadala, Sam Dalembert, etc. Houston was mentioned in a lot of trade scenarios this past trade deadline including the guys I just mentioned and there was hardly any Kevin Martin talk in the last two weeks leading up to the trade deadline although obviously Houston was having those talks too. Iggy and Caron where the two deals that seemed more likely than the Martin one. At least those were the two players discussed at length on the board here and I doubt Morey seriously thought he could acquire those players for as cheap as he wanted so yes, I do believe there was some misdirection. I believe Morey has said in the past that he thinks all players have value but it's a combination of how productive they are on the court vs. how much the make or what is given up to get them. I'm sure in the back of his mind he thought, "ya, I'll take Iggy for T-Mac but Philly isn't that stupid."

I think floating trade scenarios and showing other teams you are a willing trade participant is part of "doing your homework" - even if nothing comes of it. I think with Morey at the helm you will always see us mentioned even in the periphery of most rumored trades. It makes for some pretty contentious talk on the board here, but in the end I think a big part of it is Morey smoking out possible trade partners and networking to establish what other offers teams are fielding to get a sense of value and determining if there is room to exploit that. I don't think Morey is deceiving anyone, I just think he is very thorough in determining assets undervalued by their teams.

 

It's not really selective memory, I just didn't list every single guy we were attached to - apologies. But I'm not sure it helps your argument. Morey had offered McGrady and Budinger for Iguodala and Dalembert, but was turned down. There was no misdirection -- just another team refusing our offer and Morey moving on. I have no idea how serious our pursuit of Caron Butler was -- Baron Davis ended with McGrady's microfracture. I guess there could have been a possible misdirection with Chicago, as I have no idea what that offer was or how much of a possibility it was. I think Morey pursued the Kmartin deal in the final hours to help push NY into dealing Hill + better protection on the draft picks.

I agree with you in that Morey doesn't necessarily deceive anyone -- he just puts a lot of irons to the fire. IIRC, the Kevin Martin deal happened within the final 24 hours -- I don't think they were negotiating for weeks up until that point as you suggested. I remember Morey saying they knew he was interested in Martin and he knew they liked Landry -- at the time, it sounded like Sacramento finally decided to give up on KMart and dealt him to the Rockets. In fact, I think Cuban commented about how he wanted Martin as well but wasn't aware he was available -- mostly because the deal happened so quickly. But I still think that most teams/players we have heard the Rockets tied to, they were indeed interested/going after them.

I don't recall hearing anything about his injury history. He played 33 games (I'm assuming in all of his teams games) the year he was drafted, so there was no injury concerns there. The only year it looks like he may have missed time was his freshman year (played in 13 games), but that could have very well just have been him being a freshman and not getting much run.

Congrats on being one of the very few who believed in Jennings. I'm still not sold, but he's made a great first year impression.

 

What? When was that ever offered?

Please provide a link/proof.

IIRC, Bima pretty much proved that we never could have or would have made an offer for Dalambert, please let us know where your information came from.

Or did you just make it all up?

DD

 

I appreciate your vow of confidence in me. Fortunately, I am willing to give facts/reasoning to support my opinions/arguments, unlike some posters (ahem)..

And I don't recall exactly where I saw it, but I certainly did see it. Here's a link off a quick search:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/Trade_Scenarios.html#axzz0pv7mM6j1

There's a few links on the web, but most (if not all) seem to point to this article as the original source.

Bima looked at the money involved and didn't think we'd be players because of that -- but as I've said then and many times, money is only part of the equation. You have to look at the bigger picture, not just the financial situation. At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is becoming a better ball club. That's why Les is willing to take on the money/tax this year. Bima's a great poster and an invaluable asset to the BBS, but I'm sure even he was surprised at the news that the Rockets would match both Scola and Lowry AND plan to use the MLE this summer -- in other words, the Rockets plan on being in tax hell, which is the reasoning he gave for his opinion of the Rockets not seriously pursuing Iguodala.

 

I feel that PF is his natural position as well. Monroe is better than Hill IMO.

 

It was from a Philly insider on another board.