Laughable (or sad) that the Rockets really think they can get PG in trade. For who? Trevor Ariza and Montrezl Harrell?
I'd rather miss out on PG altogether than trade Ingram or Ball for him at this point. Those two young stud prospects and max salary flexibility moving forward would be better than PG and not much with him only under contract for this coming season.
Don't see PG being all horny to play with Gordon Hayward in his reported recruiting attempts. Would be nice sure but GSW kicking that C bag team's a** anyway so no extension being signed up front. Come to L.A. blaze his own star and hang with Kobe, Magic and an exciting young roster by end of this season or re-sign with the ever so annoying James Haren Flops-a-Lot and CP2 Flops-a-Lot. PG has Bigger Balls than this. He knows where to find those. Trying to keep calm here but just do not see the attraction in cold weather, 2nd fiddle-next-couple-of-years to GSW Boston or with annoying duo of Harden and old man Paul.
Not true. Competitors might still trade for him even as renters if they're not giving up much or not giving up pieces they consider future building blocks. Boston, San Antonio, and Houston all fit that bill. Indiana might take a lesser offer from another team instead of trading with us. It's happened before with Minnesota and Garnett.
The only way Deng goes out is if we piece an asset to him like Randle. Not touching Ball, Ingram, or Zubac.
why should we have to give up ingram or ball to acquire PG when guys like butler and cp3 are getting traded for scraps? **** that. indy had their chance and passed over a deal involving clarkson/randle+2 1st rounders. we're not trading for PG at this point. all we can do is hope he doesn't end up in boston or cleveland ball/ingram/zubac should not even be thought of as trade pieces. the d-lo trade was stupid enough, let's not mess with the young core any further
I'm not disagreeing. I'm just saying if we're ready to panic, that's what it would take. Send Ingram out and I think the conversation with the Lakers changes immediately. If I'm Pelinka, I'm on the phone with Mintz basically all day long. Who does Paul want to play with? How much money do we have to clear? That helps tell us what young guys we absolutely need to keep and which we can afford to lose because Player X (LeBron) is coming.
Those two are untouchable. With those two developing eventually someone will wanna play with those two because they're both gonna be All Stars in this league. Very confident in that.
Only if you believe that Russell could have helped us more this upcoming year over Brook Lopez. I definitely think Russell is the better long term player to have but Brook will help us more next year to be good which we need to be in order to show PG13 we're improving.
This is a 25 win roster. 30 at most. Sorry to be a negative Nancy, but it is what it is... Russell could have been held onto longer; and with the addition of Lonzo could have increased his trace value next year if they were so inclined to get rid of him even after seeing him with Lonzo. I'm not against getting rid of Russell. I get it. I don't get doing it a year early when we didn't have a deal lined up for Paul which I thought was the reason we traded Lopez; along with shedding Mozgov's contract and creating space financially.
Why do people assume Russell's trade value would've improved? It's very possible he could've thrown a hissy fit with Lonzo being drafted, would've sulked, been disengaged in games, half assing it out there like he often did anyway, and his trade value would've decreased and nobody would've wanted him a year later. He wasn't part of the future plans. He didn't fit anymore. They moved on.
They moved on with no contingency plan but 1-year rentals and hopes that PG won't like it anywhere else.
You know, I wanted to be wrong. I still want to be wrong. But this was my position on the day of the trade and still is. You only rush to make that deal if you've got something in the bag and its becoming more and more apparent we don't.
I also forgot to throw in that by making the Russell trade we give ourselves the opportunity to do what PG wants which is to recruit some of the players he wants by creating room for a 2nd max contract.
It was worth it if for no other reason to get rid of one of the "immovable" Mitch and Jim f*** ups in Mozgov, so we at least don't have to listen to that 1/2 of the whining and moaning for another full season, plus it wasn't the only reason now was it? Cap space in 2018 for a George running mate and an All Star caliber "stretch" Big Man coming back for at least a rental to help likely more with the win total next season than inconsistent Russell and getting rid of a player (Russell), who for whatever unknown here reasons yet to come out, was deemed not a good character / leader type of guy Magic and Rob and Luke are trying to build with going forward.
