shamelessblazer
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Now while I'll freely admit this is a pipedream, things may be falling into place and I believe a deal could be reached with the suns hypothetically that does make a lot of sense for each team.
To outline some circumstances for Portland:
We have a logjam, and many players who really do deserve playing time aren't getting any. This isn't just the young guys waiting their turn, but they're all young guys and don't have vets to learn from in front of them (for the most part). I think this was part of Sergio's frustration the last couple of days, not that he wasn't playing, but that Bayless is being grooomed behind him too and trying to murder the guy in practice. In addition to Sergio's limited time Frye and Batum's minutes will likely be out the window when Webster comes back.
We have expiring young contracts, who we'll either trade, play a lot (and trade others), or lose for nothing this summer, sooner or later something will need to happen, and that's for sure.
We have Raef's expiring big contract, which could provide major relief to a cheap team
We can see how much our team responds to up-tempo play (and just motion in the half-court in general) when they believe they'll be rewarded for it, yet Blake does a poor job of this, and really his "off ball" contributions include merely sitting in the corner waiting to spot up (when does he grab a board, cut to the basket for a lay-in, or set a screen?). Sergio isn't the shooter to capitilize on this for 30 mpg, but definitely fills his role nicely at 15mpg, while Rudy is a huge catalyst to motion, he struggles somewhat w/o Sergio out there.
While Brandon is a tremendous player who I want with the game on the line every time, he tries to do too much on his own, and his play-making abilities are limited to drives and kicks, I never see him hit the cutter (when he has the ball) and I don't see him move w/o the ball much at all. This isn't a knock on his selfishness, or an argument for Sergio, Rudy > Brandon, but to take his game to the next level, he needs to start getting some easy points and becoming a weapon w/o the ball. Last night I saw D-Wade cut backdoor multiple times, and even tonight I saw Lebron scoring some easy ones this way. In addition to scoring easy buckets, this is an essential way to help out our bigs. Brandon is our best player, I'm not saying he should be an off ball player (ala Reggie Miller or Rip Hamilton) but I do think we should be taking advantage of our bigs, and to do this Brandon will need to learn to be a cutter like others did (Penny, Kobe, Wade, Nash, Parker, and Ginobli have).
I outlined this more in a recent post:
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=851412
I really think that a bigtime consolidation move could help us compete in the playoffs this year, but more importantly set the tone for our young guys, give the ones we're keeping for sure more of a chance to develop with experience around them, and offer our guys more playing time to grow, possibly creating a more amicable locker room. In addition I think it could help our offensive flow tremendously, and the development of Oden and Lamarcus.
As far as Phoenix goes:
Things aren't looking so hot down there. They look disjointed and confused, and their offense is mainly dumping it to shaq, who's holding up remarkably well 6 games into the season (who knows for how long). Nash is having a real hard time (I know only 10 games in) but things are getting testy. They're hitching themselves to someone on the brink of retirement at the expense of Amare and Nash. They may be interested in going full bore this direction and getting some young talent who fits that direction (half-court) while clearing cap space (their owner is cheap and big FA class to put next to Amare in 2010)
in their forums they have threads on:
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=850599 Nash looking out of synch
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=851639 the offense going primarily to Shaq
and wondering if its the right time to trade Nash http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=851628
Here's my hypothetical trade:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...~2015&teams=22~22~22~21~21~21~21~21&te=&cash=
We send:
Lafrentz, Frye, Outlaw, Bayless, and Blake
They send:
Nash, Diaw, Hill
Realistically this does put us in championship contention, and Nash moves close to home, with a team built amicably to running a little more (Nate would need some chill pills though). Nash would really bolster our offensive flow, he CAN contribute off the ball with shooting ability and cuts to the hoop, he would do wonders for the development of our bigs (can you say Amare?), and he is overall a very high level player for us. Hill provides a stabilizing solid vet presence who's good on defense, a good shooter and really bolsters our depth, Batum learns from him for the rest of the year. And Diaw is hated in Phoenix for not being aggressive enough but what's new (next to Frye and Outlaw), we lose shooting with that swap but gain defense, passing, and rebounding. All of these guys would help our transition game WHILE being able to function in the half-court (unlike Barbosa). Realistically losing out on Travis, Bayless, and Outlaw is hard and a lot of potential, but we were probably going to have to give up one of Travis and Outlaw, and Bayless would've come at the minutes expense of Sergio anyways. This looks like a short-term move, but would pay long-term dividends as the winning tone was set, consistency was added, and as they expire (one by one) our guys step into larger roles. The only bummer is Diaw's contract, but it's not enormous, and we have Paul Allen.
Nash/Sergio (limited)
Roy/Fernandez
Webster/Hill/Batum
Aldridge/Diaw/Randolph/Diogu
Oden/Pryzbilla
(we would at least be national TV darlings)
For the suns they save a lot of money, retool, arguably become better suited for the half-court game (especially with Frye playing off Amare and Shaq), and grab some great young prospects in Frye, Outlaw, and Bayless (2 home grown and fan favorites), while still clearing a ton of cap space, and they really don't look that bad this year either.
Blake/Bayless/Dragic
Bell/Barbosa
Barnes/Outlaw
Amare/Frye
Shaq/Amare/Lopez
not a bad team and a young core of Amare, Bayless, Lopez, Outlaw, Frye, and Barbosa is nothing to scoff at long-term.
To outline some circumstances for Portland:
We have a logjam, and many players who really do deserve playing time aren't getting any. This isn't just the young guys waiting their turn, but they're all young guys and don't have vets to learn from in front of them (for the most part). I think this was part of Sergio's frustration the last couple of days, not that he wasn't playing, but that Bayless is being grooomed behind him too and trying to murder the guy in practice. In addition to Sergio's limited time Frye and Batum's minutes will likely be out the window when Webster comes back.
We have expiring young contracts, who we'll either trade, play a lot (and trade others), or lose for nothing this summer, sooner or later something will need to happen, and that's for sure.
We have Raef's expiring big contract, which could provide major relief to a cheap team
We can see how much our team responds to up-tempo play (and just motion in the half-court in general) when they believe they'll be rewarded for it, yet Blake does a poor job of this, and really his "off ball" contributions include merely sitting in the corner waiting to spot up (when does he grab a board, cut to the basket for a lay-in, or set a screen?). Sergio isn't the shooter to capitilize on this for 30 mpg, but definitely fills his role nicely at 15mpg, while Rudy is a huge catalyst to motion, he struggles somewhat w/o Sergio out there.
While Brandon is a tremendous player who I want with the game on the line every time, he tries to do too much on his own, and his play-making abilities are limited to drives and kicks, I never see him hit the cutter (when he has the ball) and I don't see him move w/o the ball much at all. This isn't a knock on his selfishness, or an argument for Sergio, Rudy > Brandon, but to take his game to the next level, he needs to start getting some easy points and becoming a weapon w/o the ball. Last night I saw D-Wade cut backdoor multiple times, and even tonight I saw Lebron scoring some easy ones this way. In addition to scoring easy buckets, this is an essential way to help out our bigs. Brandon is our best player, I'm not saying he should be an off ball player (ala Reggie Miller or Rip Hamilton) but I do think we should be taking advantage of our bigs, and to do this Brandon will need to learn to be a cutter like others did (Penny, Kobe, Wade, Nash, Parker, and Ginobli have).
I outlined this more in a recent post:
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=851412
I really think that a bigtime consolidation move could help us compete in the playoffs this year, but more importantly set the tone for our young guys, give the ones we're keeping for sure more of a chance to develop with experience around them, and offer our guys more playing time to grow, possibly creating a more amicable locker room. In addition I think it could help our offensive flow tremendously, and the development of Oden and Lamarcus.
As far as Phoenix goes:
Things aren't looking so hot down there. They look disjointed and confused, and their offense is mainly dumping it to shaq, who's holding up remarkably well 6 games into the season (who knows for how long). Nash is having a real hard time (I know only 10 games in) but things are getting testy. They're hitching themselves to someone on the brink of retirement at the expense of Amare and Nash. They may be interested in going full bore this direction and getting some young talent who fits that direction (half-court) while clearing cap space (their owner is cheap and big FA class to put next to Amare in 2010)
in their forums they have threads on:
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=850599 Nash looking out of synch
http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=851639 the offense going primarily to Shaq
and wondering if its the right time to trade Nash http://www.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=851628
Here's my hypothetical trade:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...~2015&teams=22~22~22~21~21~21~21~21&te=&cash=
We send:
Lafrentz, Frye, Outlaw, Bayless, and Blake
They send:
Nash, Diaw, Hill
Realistically this does put us in championship contention, and Nash moves close to home, with a team built amicably to running a little more (Nate would need some chill pills though). Nash would really bolster our offensive flow, he CAN contribute off the ball with shooting ability and cuts to the hoop, he would do wonders for the development of our bigs (can you say Amare?), and he is overall a very high level player for us. Hill provides a stabilizing solid vet presence who's good on defense, a good shooter and really bolsters our depth, Batum learns from him for the rest of the year. And Diaw is hated in Phoenix for not being aggressive enough but what's new (next to Frye and Outlaw), we lose shooting with that swap but gain defense, passing, and rebounding. All of these guys would help our transition game WHILE being able to function in the half-court (unlike Barbosa). Realistically losing out on Travis, Bayless, and Outlaw is hard and a lot of potential, but we were probably going to have to give up one of Travis and Outlaw, and Bayless would've come at the minutes expense of Sergio anyways. This looks like a short-term move, but would pay long-term dividends as the winning tone was set, consistency was added, and as they expire (one by one) our guys step into larger roles. The only bummer is Diaw's contract, but it's not enormous, and we have Paul Allen.
Nash/Sergio (limited)
Roy/Fernandez
Webster/Hill/Batum
Aldridge/Diaw/Randolph/Diogu
Oden/Pryzbilla
(we would at least be national TV darlings)
For the suns they save a lot of money, retool, arguably become better suited for the half-court game (especially with Frye playing off Amare and Shaq), and grab some great young prospects in Frye, Outlaw, and Bayless (2 home grown and fan favorites), while still clearing a ton of cap space, and they really don't look that bad this year either.
Blake/Bayless/Dragic
Bell/Barbosa
Barnes/Outlaw
Amare/Frye
Shaq/Amare/Lopez
not a bad team and a young core of Amare, Bayless, Lopez, Outlaw, Frye, and Barbosa is nothing to scoff at long-term.
