Hey Pelicans fans, what are your thoughts on Marcin Gortat?

[scooper1030]

Hey guys,

I'm a Suns fan here, and I want to ask you how you would feel about targeting Marcin Gortat in a trade. You guys could use a traditional starting center who can provide defense and rebounding, and Gortat would be just that. Plus, I'm pretty certain you could make a trade without having to give up any major pieces currently on your roster.

For example, a trade of Marcin Gortat and Malcolm Lee for Jason Smith, Greg Stiemsma, Anthony Morrow and a first-round pick (anywhere from 2015 to 2017) would work financially. Or, if you don't want to give up that much frontcourt depth, you could replace Stiemsma with Rivers + your choice of Miller/Thomas/Withey/Onuaku to make the salaries balance out.

In either case, you guys would end up with Holiday, Gordon, Evans, Davis, Gortat, Aminu and Anderson all on the same roster. Even in a deep Western Conference, that sounds like a playoff team to me if Gordon stays relatively healthy.

And why do the Suns do this? Well, we're just trying to tank/rebuild. Trading Gortat for Smith/Stiemsma would make us even worse and give us a better chance at the #1 pick in the 2014 Draft. On top of that, both of those two guys are expiring contracts, meaning we can drop both players at the end of the season and have over $13 million in cap space to use on free agents.

Plus, the future draft pick would give us yet another young prospect to work with in the future.

So, how does that sounds to you? Does it make sense? Would you rather give up Anderson to go get a center like Asik from Houston? Or would you rather just leave the current roster untouched?

[NO-KG-AI]

I'd do it as long as we don't risk a top 5 pick or something. I like Gortat a lot, and I think his size and physicality would help Anthony Davis in the paint a lot.

[tsherkin]

Gortat's solid if you don't have a star center. Very good defensive rebounder, sometimes solid on the offensive glass, not a turnover factor, not TOTALLY useless at the line, has been flashing a pop jumper while playing in Phoenix (and a pretty solid one in some seasons), typically finishes well around the rim (extremely well alongside Nash, but even better this past season).

You could do a lot worse, as long as he's healthy, for sure. He isn't old, either. Like NO-KG-AI said, though, as long as it's top-5 protected, then it's a solid deal. Asik would probably be a better choice, though.

[tsherkin]

Asik or Gortat would be wicked additions...

[PELICANSFAN]

Would love Gortat if we did not have to give up key players. Steimsma is beyond bad.