Which of These T-Mac Trades Would You Do With the Pistons?

That was my vote. Both are really excellent players, to say the least, and Battier would be freed to use as a trading chip. Prince is an improvement over Shane. Move Battier for a point guard?

 

A_3PO

If the top players in the NBA are in a group of

Melo
Bosh
Pierce
D Howard
Kobe
McGrady
Duncan
C Paul
Dirk
B Roy
KG
D Wade
AI
Arenas (maybe)
B Davis (maybe)
Deron Williams
Boozer
L James
Yao

and a few others, how many are reasonably available to Detroit in a trade?
The better Eastern Conference teams (Boston, Cleveland, Atlanta, Philly, Orlando etc) are not likely candidates to do a major trade with Detroit.

That leaves these Eastern Conference teams:

Chicago
Charlotte
Bucks
Miami
etc

to do trades with. Either the stars from those teams aren't going to be available or those teams are far enough removed from the Playoff picture that trading for Detroit veterans is pointless.

Switch to the Western Conference and certain players aren't going to be available such as Kobe, Melo and Duncan. That leaves a very small pool of players left out of the larger list given earlier in this post. If Dumars wants to make a significant roster change, he has very limited options. Players like Rip, Prince and Billups are on a level below those listed above. If Dumars makes a trade for a player on roughly the same tier as those that Detroit already has, then has he really changed the team?

 

Just to go back to the Billups/Hamilton option. Like I said, that is the one deal that I would do without any hesitation. I'm surprised to hear any kind of opposition to a deal like that. Just look at the pros:

1. We'd have a high-scoring and very efficient backcourt.

2. We'd bring in a pair of durable guards that averaged about 75 games the past few years.

3. Our team FT shooting would improve drastically.

4. Rafer would be put in probably the best possible position, as a back-up PG and spark off the bench.

5. Rip would likely thrive in Adelman's offense.

6. Our defense most likely wouldn't miss a beat.

7. We'd still have our expiring contracts in Jackson, Francis and Head to go after another deal that might push us over the top.

8. We'd still have a very nice frontcourt rotation with some good scoring, and a lot of hustle and defense.

9. This deal wouldn't have a drastic impact on our capspace in 2010. Rip's deal expires in '10, so if things don't work out we can rebuild without him. Chauncey would still have 13 mill on the cap, but even with that we'd still have upwards of 20 million in cap space. Even if Rip gets an extension, we'd have a decent chunk of cap space left for a deal above the MLE.

We'd have a huge ceiling with a high scoring backcourt, a solid PG rotation, a high scoring low-post player, hustle guys all up and down the frontcourt, upside assets like Donte, Landry (assuming we sign him), and those expiring contracts.

Dumars probably hasn't come at Morey with this deal (I assume he's holding out on Hamilton since he hasn't been mentioned much in the rumors), but I would hope that Morey would pull the trigger on this, if possible. It's hard for me to come up with a better result if we end up dealing T-Mac.

 

Agreed!

 

I voted for the first 3 options. I'd have serious trouble rooting for Wallace.

 

From my POV, Detroit is seen by other NBA teams as a Motivated Trader. I think Feigen mentioned that Dumars has been calling around the NBA searching for a deal. Based on the earlier stories about Detroit asking about McGrady and Melo, it looks like Dumars wants (wanted?) an impact type of player to change the locker room dynamics.

If the reports of his initial offer of Prince + Billups for players like McGrady and Melo were true, then he was throwing out a lowball bid. If Denver and Houston were motivated sellers of Melo and McGrady, the low bid approach might have been the best choice. Since Detroit has been unable to make a notable trade this offseason, then it looks like he will have to do better the second time around. As other teams make trades and sign Free Agents, Dumars will likely have fewer favorable options than he did a month ago.

When the stories were going around about Detroit inquiring about players like Melo & McGrady, there was a story about Melo being upset with his name being bounced around in trade talk and Denver reassured him that they weren't planning on trading him. Supposedly, Denver countered to Detroit with a trade proposal of AI as the major piece instead of Melo and Dumars declined.

Based on recent activity by Denver in dumping Camby for Free, it doesn't look like the Nuggets will be very aggressive in improving their team this offseason. I realize they gained a trade exception, but based on them taking the minimal Clippers offer over the Nets offer:
Nets couldn't offer 'enough of nothing' to get Camby
it leaves the impression that minimizing luxury tax trumps having a good team. If the future is the goal for the Nuggets, then taking a Detroit veteran doesn't serve their needs.

Portland
Trading for Prince might be the only thing that Portland would be interested in. Rip and/or Billups would take minutes from Roy and/or Bayless. Rasheed has already done a tour with the Trailblazers and is unlikely to go back. Players like Bayless, Roy, Oden and Aldridge that Dumars would probably like to acquire are going to be extremely hard to pry away from Portland. If Portland offered players like Webster or Outlaw etc for Prince, do players on that tier change the dynamics of the Pistons' roster & locker room?

Atlanta
I thought the Hawks was fairly conservative on the financial side and would be hesitant in taking on major contracts. They will have some players coming up for renewals over the next several years and they will likely stay financially prudent. If you were the Atlanta GM, what would be an Even trade for Josh Smith that would help the team?

 

mac for rip, prince, maxiell.

 

agree, but prince for outlaw and webster sounds good for both teams, but of course portland would be getting the better player and would improve their team so i wouldn`t want that trade to happen.

 

A_3PO

I have been reading two different Detroit Message Boards and a McGrady trade is still one of the more popular topics.

Has Josh Smith talked about playing in Detroit?

 

I like Billups-Hamilton-Prince-Herrmann(resigned as filler) for Tracy-Battier-Landry(Resigned)

 

I voted for Billups and Rip, but if I were the GM I'd ask for a lot more. McGrady is unbelievable.

 

This leaves us fairly thin at the 4.

 

I don't make any trades that involve McGrady.

McGrady is a point guard, Shooting guard, and point forward while he is on the court.

His shooting percentage is down. But it's probably because of all the double teams. With Barry, Battier, Head all shooting 3's in the 40%'s and Yao in the low post, this team is goin places.

 

I will take Billups, Hamilton, Maxiell, Stucky for T-Mac, Alston, Hayes all though that may seem a bit too high for T-Mac adding Maxiell and Stucky to our young core looks very nice on paper and even nicer on the court.

Dorsey
Maxiell/Landry
Greene
Stucky
Brooks

If Dumars dont like that then fine we will settle for Billups and Hamilton straight up for T-Mac.

Any trade scenario that involves Prince and Wallace is useless to our team.

The way i see it Prince is not too much better than Battier anyways and having both dont make sence to me.

Then trade Head for a draft pick to clear cap space.

Yao/Dorsey
Scola/Landry/Hayes
Battier/Greene/Novak
Hamilton/Barry/Francis(closer)/Jackson/Head
Billups/Alston/Brooks

Yea Prince and Sheed is absolutely useless to us in any trade scenario. The way i see it they are better off keeping those 2 guys as opposed to giving up Hamilton anyways.

We would still have Jackson, Head, Francis, Harris, Novak, Butler all coming off the books.

This move still dont put a dent on our 2010 plans except for Billups this is why i believe Morey will want Stucky and Maxiell (expiring) as well and that would slightly over value T-Mac.

Just say no to Prince and Wallace i believe Prince to be slightly over rated because of being on team USA drove up his value. As far as blocks and steals go and team field goal defense, Battier proved to be better defensively than Prince.

 

bring Rip home anyway.

 

Billups
Rip
Battier
Scola
Yao

is a sick starting 5. And 4 out of 5 of them are good to play every night.

 

I like Rip and Tayshaun for Tracy. I think that would be a good one.

 

I chose none of the above. I will take my chances in Free Agency in 2010 with Tracy's expiring contract.