Right now Chuck Hayes is starting. Chuck is doing his best Willis impression and is playing out of his mind. Brad Miller is Chucks backup, with Hill switching on both the 4 and 5 when Miller's porous defence is too much of a liability. Scola starts at the 4 with Patterson recently barging into the lineup and knocking Hill down a notch on the depth chart, but Patterson can also play on the three against bigger dudes now that Chase is starting and Battier moved to Memphis.
Williams might never mature as offensive option while fighting for the ball between Johnson, Smith and Crawford. In fact his 3 is lacking compared to Budinger. He could be a much better defensive player _last year_ before his back injury. He is long, his length is astounding, he has great foot speed and hops.
Zaza is a likable player who was a rebounding phenom a few years back. He brings 275 lbs and a legit 6-10 to the roster. He's also got a decent ft% and has shot less than 15 3 pointers his entire career, something I really have came to appreciate in a big man. His minutes fell a great deal after the arrival of Al Horford.
Don't get me wrong, Marvin and Zaza are fascinating pieces. Marvin is especially salivating and Zaza brings something to the Rockets that we don't have right now, which is injury resistant players with size. They are good pieces, but IMHO, they need to go to different teams to prosper, and they don't bring things to us right away that we desperately need. Not that we don't need height and size in a durable package, but Zaza is never going to start for the Rockets at the rate Hayes is playing right now. In Adelman's system, a passing big man in the high post while we run the Princeton is crucial to starting the ball movement, and Zaza's assist to turnover ratios are more often than now < 1. That's just not going to work. Also, trading youth for Zaza is essentially a win now move, which the Rockets are not really pushing for. I re-iterate again, he is a good piece for a contender, just not one that would make us better than keeping Jordan Hill in the long haul.
Marvin Williams and Patrick Patterson are similar players, except that Williams is a better physical specimen, and Patterson is headier and calmer. Budinger brings excellent shooting as well as decent slashing to the basket (albeit not as good as Marvin in transition, but good enough), which neither Williams or Patterson really has right now in their repertoire at the 3.
Last but not least, Jordan Hill actually has a back to the basket game. When he has his motor on for crashing the glass, he's really a rarity of a prospect, it just seems that he sometimes stands around for no good reason and is not really understanding when to move away from the ball and when to cut. When you see his Rockets offensive highlights on youtube, they are always either in transition, or that he's at the receiving end of after making a good cut. There are no catch the ball at the low post, back in a few dribbles, spin and hook, up and under or those classic post moves. These are things that he would score with when he was in Arizona. The point of keeping Hill isn't for maximum utility now. Between the end of the bench in the NBA and the NBDL is unfortunately this uncomfortable purgatory where Hill currently resides. He needs to figure out how to pass the ball as a big man and function in Adelman's offense without being the focal point like where he was in college. Otherwise he'll be fine. Somewhere in America, training your new employees is apparently making a come back, and I wholeheartedly approve of this.
So I've thought about it for a bit, and the answer is I would probably not do the deal. And you could get better reloading pieces elsewhere right now for Zaza. And Marvin's probably not someone to give up on yet. But he would be extremely interesting for the Jazz, and I'm sure they have pieces to give back that would be more suitable for your team.
Oh and by the way, the salaries don't come close to matching
