? from Bulls' fan

[dflaschberger]

About Murphy. I really like his game. I know he is overpaid, but he would be awesome with Rose and Noah. I assume you guys want to keep him, but your payroll is really high next season-you might be in the tax. The way I see it, your ceiling next season, in all likelihood, is a first round out. Your problem is, you are not bad enough to get a high pick.

I'm sure many of you are frustrated with the late season run. Wall would look great with Granger, it'd seem.

So, I have 2 questions
Please tell me more about Murphy. I know he can shoot and rebound. Is he a good guy? How is his D?

Also, would the Pacers send him to the bulls, assuming we strike out with the top FA's, for basically nothing-just the savings? I know fans don't like this, but for ownership, an $11 million savings must sound good.


I would rather we trade for Murphy than overpay Boozer or Lee. I figure, if it works out, under the new CBA, we could resign him for $6 million or so, and have more $ for other positions
Thanks

[Dunthreevy]

He's a quality locker room guy and is pretty durable. Best thing about Murph is that you pretty much know what you're going to get from him on a nightly basis.

His defense is sub-par for a starting PF.

At this point, we're not trading him just for savings. If they wanted to do that, we would've traded him to Cleveland at the deadline this season. We're looking to get a young prospect back in return, one that will actually factor into the future of the team.

[PacersDG]

He's a great guy. His D not so great.

What savings exactly can you give us when his contract expires after next season...unless you can somehow bypass the rules and trade us contracts right now that expire in a week?

Either way, we desire young talent or we'll just let him expire.

[Miller4ever]

I imagine if you guys strike out, you'll be trying to pile on youth and expirings. Murphy is one of the two, but I'd want Taj + Kirk (Murph gets you the expiring as opposed to the 8 mil in 2012 you'd owe Kirk) and we'd give you Murph and a 2nd.That gives us youth and bolsters our guard rotation.

[Scoot McGroot]

He's a great guy. His D not so great.

What savings exactly can you give us when his contract expires after next season...unless you can somehow bypass the rules and trade us contracts right now that expire in a week?

Either way, we desire young talent or we'll just let him expire.

Chicago has cap space this off-season. He's offering to essentially use their cap space to absorb Troy Murphy's contract for a heavily protected future 2nd round pick that would convert to cash, or the rights to Mario Austin (both are not worth diddly right now).

It's legal, and valid, and I would think that if Tyler Hansbrough comes back healthy, and the way Josh McRoberts has played, they might consider it. A 2nd rounder this year unprotected might even push it over the top. Sure, we like Murphy, but we're looking at being over the luxury tax, and we're at the point that we need to try McRoberts and Hansbrough, as well as Solo Jones a bit more.

[dflaschberger]

Well said Scoot. I think Indy would save $12 million, plus any tax questions. They would give minutes to their young 4's and not get the #10 pick again-a top 5 more likely. That is what Indy needs-a real star with Granger.

I also considered Murphy, MikeD and the #10 for James Johnson and the #17. that would save Indy over $20 million and give you a back up for granger. Fans would not like it, but I'm thinking the Indy owner might not resist

[8305]

I was a proponent of moving Murphy for cap space at the trade deadline. But by then we knew the season was lost. Moving Murphy for nothing but capspace in the off season means we have a lesser product to start a new season. I'd hate to see that. I wouldn't be surprised if the Pacers don't hold out for some real value when it comes to Murphy.

The eternal optomist in me thinks NJ gets the 1st pick takes Wall. Harris is available and the Pacers are able to move Ford and #10 for Harris. Dunleavy has an offseason to train rather than rehab and returns to form. Hibbert, Rush and Price improve. Hansbrough comes back ready to go. You now have a rotation of

pg Harris and Price
wings Rush, Granger, Dunleavy
bigs Hibbert, Murphy and Hansbrough

That could be a playoff team and you would be glad you still had Murphy.

[Miller4ever]

Don't know if this means anything, but McRoberts is impressing the hell out of me, and he has three-point range and passing and more athleticism than Murphy. He also has hustle in spades. I would really like to see more of him, especially since his D is already as good as Murph's and he brings an alley-oop outlet to throw to.

[Kuq_e_Zi91]

I might be the only one, but I think moving Murphy is addition by subtraction. I honestly think you would see improvement in our W-L with more minutes for Roy, Josh, and Tyler (if back healthy). I jump all over any deal that moves Murphy and frees minutes for our younger players.

However, these expiring contracts are one part of Larry Bird's three year plan. He wants to use them to acquire a veteran or young talent to pair with our young guys and Granger. I agree with what he wants to do, I'd love it if we could get some valuable players from these expiring contracts. I just don't think it's possible. I don't think any team is willing to part with young talent or a vet who's a glue guy, for the services of Troy Murphy.

And to answer the OP's question. Murphy is a good locker room guy, he maximizes his talent to the best of his ability. He excels at defensive rebounds, though some would argue his numbers are skewed because sometimes he steals rebounds from teammates. He can hit the trailing three at the top of the arc pretty consistently. Those are about as far as his pro's go.

His con's: Terrible, beyond poor, man to man defender, whether it be in the post or when his man faces him up and takes him off the dribble. He's too slow-footed to play defense against the more athletic power forwards and not strong enough to defend the bigger power forwards. A combination of the two, like an Amare Stoudamire or Andray Blatche even, and you're in store for a field day. He has no post up game whatsoever and for a PF that's a huge disadvantage. I've yet to see Murphy successfully post anyone up, this is including point guards when there's a switch. He just looks lost and passes it back out. He's very easy to gameplan for because his offense is limited to threes, because he never crashes the offensive glass to even get second chance opportunities. One example, a Utah game last year he hit 6 threes in the first half. Utah adjusted and ran him off the three point line and he was shut out in the second. What are you going to do? You can't run him off screens.

Despite his limitations, I think he can be a very valuable rotational player, especially for a team like Chicago that can hide him on defense because of Noah and with options on offense like Rose, Hinrich, etc so he isn't made a go-to guy like here in Indy. It also helps if you have a coach that doesn't insist on playing him near 40 minutes every game regardless of shooting struggles or other factors that might make another, more intuitive coach think twice and pull him.

[Miller4ever]

If we could get rid of Murphy for a pick, I'd do it for anything better than 40th. It helps financially, it helps our young players developmentally, and we could free up some space to sign a legit veteran presence. Murphy's a veteran, but we need presences like Watson and Foster.

[dflaschberger]

Sounds like it might work for both teams. With Deng and Noah, his poor d would not be a big factor. he would love playing with Rose-he'd get a ton of open looks.

Again, not my first choice, but thanks for the info

[Kuq_e_Zi91]

After thinking about it, I wonder what Murphy's rebound numbers would look like when paired with Noah. In Indy, either he's on the floor with Roy who isn't a good rebounder himself, or he's been the center in a small line-up. I'm quite certain his production in that area would drop since Noah eats up the glass, and I can't imagine him trying to pry any rebounds away from the grasp of Joakim Noah. Would definitely be interesting to say the least to see how he fits.

[Wizop]

Murphy and Ford will be heavily shopped. Dunleavey will probably be impossible to trade off this years performance but I saw real signs of improvement in the last few weeks. I'm hoping his injury bothered him much longer than admitted and that he might return to prior form next year.

[dflaschberger]

I actually considered this, if we strike out on Bosh (I don't want us to overpay Lee or Boozer).

Murphy, MikeD and the #10 for James Johnson and the #17

Indy frees up more than $20 million-your owners would have to love that. Plus, it frees up minutes for young guys.

The bulls use the #10 to get XHenry. I figure, both Murphy and MikeD are on contract years and might provide a bounce. Plus, they are two huge expiring deals. Our team would be

Rose/kirk/ACLaw
Kirk/MikeD/Henry (groom him)
Deng/MikeD
Murphy/Gibson/Deng
Noah/Asik or Miller

[Miller4ever]

I don't know much about James Johnson, other than he shoots okay percentages for a rookie. Dumping that much salary would be awesome.

[dflaschberger]

JJ is a athletic and has potential. My main concern is whether he is serious about his game. He clearly has talent-many bulls' fans are high on him.

[Grang33r]

I actually considered this, if we strike out on Bosh (I don't want us to overpay Lee or Boozer).

Murphy, MikeD and the #10 for James Johnson and the #17

Indy frees up more than $20 million-your owners would have to love that. Plus, it frees up minutes for young guys.

The bulls use the #10 to get XHenry. I figure, both Murphy and MikeD are on contract years and might provide a bounce. Plus, they are two huge expiring deals. Our team would be

Rose/kirk/ACLaw
Kirk/MikeD/Henry (groom him)
Deng/MikeD
Murphy/Gibson/Deng
Noah/Asik or Miller

Does James Johnson make us a better team? No. Is James Johnson potential much higher then say Tyler Hansbrough? Not so sure it is. And Indiana passed up on Johnson to draft Tyler last year. Pacers NEED to get lucky and pick the absolutely right guy with the 10th pick. Teams looking for depth trade down, teams needing a star look to trade up.

[Miller4ever]

Bird has said that he wants to trade up.

[dflaschberger]

JJ is a 3 man-he can't play the 4.