Bucher: Minnesota a darkhorse for McGrady

[Klomp]

Minnesota Timberwolves
Incoming Players: Channing Frye, Raef LaFrentz, Tracy McGrady, Patrick O'Bryant, Steve Novak (buyout), Troy Hudson (buyout), Petteri Koponen (sign)
Outgoing Players: Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Marko Jaric, Theo Ratliff, Rashad McCants, Antoine Walker

Portland Trail Blazers
Incoming Players: Theo Ratliff
Outgoing Players: Channing Frye, Raef LaFrentz, Petteri Koponen

Golden State Warriors
Incoming Players: Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith
Outgoing Players: Patrick O'Bryant, Troy Hudson

Houston Rockets
Incoming Players: Marko Jaric, Rashad McCants, Antoine Walker
Outgoing Players: Tracy McGrady, Steve Novak

These picks to HOU:
GSW Top 20 protected pick
MN MIA Pick

Pretty bad for Houston

[funkatron101]

Is it just me, or do Warriors fans keep trying to push Hudson back onto us?

[Klomp]

Except hes a Wolves fan, funk

[the_bruce]

-= original quote snipped =-
Pretty bad for Houston

I based th HOU part on what I had seen in this thread.

[the_bruce]

As a side note.

Regardless of how great TMac is I don't value him that much. I personally think anything over an expiring + top 10 protected pick is overpaying for a guy who is injured 1/2 the season.

If you disregard players who have been bought out he has the highest cost to production ratio in the league. 18m a year for 1/2 a season? Maybe Shaq beats him in this area, but nobody else comes close to these 2 players. At least an overpaid Ben Wallace is available if you need him?

Personally the best 2 team offer I would make is:
Theo + Walker + MIA pick

This forces MN to ship out Bassy\Gomes\Smith, and they lose a pick which is increasing in value as time goes on. A Lineup of...

xxx
Al
Brewer
Tmac
Foye

is an improvement for 1/2 the games TMac is healthy, but I'd much rather get a 5 in all honesty.

[the_bruce]

Actually I love this deal with TMac removed! Lets get the FO onboard.

Golden State Warriors
Incoming Players Sebastian Telfair Craig Smith(or Gomes)
Outgoing Players: Patrick O'Bryant, Troy Hudson

Minnesota Timberwolves
Incoming Players Raef LaFrentz Channing Frye Patrick O'Bryant Troy Hudson Petteri Koponen
Outgoing Players: Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, Craig Smith(or Gomes)

Portland Trail Blazers
Incoming Players Theo Ratliff
Outgoing Players: Raef LaFrentz, Channing Frye, Petteri Koponen

GSW Top 20 protected pick to MN

POB\Frye\Raef
Al\Frye
Brewer\Green\Jaric
McCants\Jaric
Foye\Jaric\Koponen

[Devilzsidewalk]

I'll take McGrady after the season, not now...we need that top pick.

[karch34]

I wouldn't do it for this year's pick. Depending on what the package would be outside of that, I might consider it. However, I'm not sure if T-Mac is the piece we need. He's a good player, but paired with one of the "elite" big men in the league right now he hasn't really elevated Houston to another level. I also worry that he's not going to be happy here. He basically forced his way out of Orlando. The health questions are also nagging.

I think he's like Vince Carter which is a big name, but the actual production and impact on a team's success is severly over-rated.

[revprodeji]

We cant do this years pick. No worries. We have the top-10 thing (I call it the dummy lock, so dummy McHale cannot trade the pick) so we cannot move the pick prior to the trade deadline. Which means either ESPN pulled it out of the butt, or it is a different pick. Ala the MIA or BOS pick.

I actually like BruceAllen's trade (both of them) first one

Frye is a perfect fit for the 5 spot next to Al. Which would allow us to clearly go for BPA in the draft.

Lafrentz is a vet 4/5 with a shorter contract.

McGrady is T-Mac
POB has potential and would make a fair back-up
Hudson is an ending deal so a buyout does nothing same with Novak and I have learned to trust MNWI's crushes and Koponen was one of them. It only costs us the Mia pick, shad, bad contracts and expirings. This leaves us with a line-up of

Frye/POB
Al/Richard
Gomes/Brewer
T-Mac
Foye/Kaponen

Raef/Madsen/Buckner/Green play the scrub roles.

We add a top rookie and this is a sick team

Here is the second deal..

Minnesota Timberwolves
Incoming Players Raef LaFrentz Channing Frye Patrick O'Bryant Troy Hudson Petteri Koponen
Outgoing Players: Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff, Craig Smith
GSW Top 20 protected pick to MN

Frye/POB
Al/Richard
Gomes/Brewer
McCants/Jaric
Foye/Koponen

similar 9 man rotation with McCants instead of Tmac. we still go BPA in the draft with the GS pick (currently 20th) we could grab Hardin if we still wanted size (i like him off the bench I think) or any of the foreign projects like Ibaka, Jawai, DJ White, Pekovic or even a swing like Rush.

I think this deal almost puts us in a better spot long-term then the T-mac deal. Good call Bruce

[4ho5ive]

-= original quote snipped =-



What about a swap of Craig Smith and Channing Frye. Frye won't clog up the lane offensively, but he will on defense. I think his contract is cheaper than what it would take to sign Gomes. Smith would play well in Portland alongside Oden or the perimeter oriented Aldridge. I love Smith as much as everyone else on here, but I would do this trade.

Only question is: Would division rivals trade with each other?

Im all for this deal.

[Carpe Diem]

Why does everyone see TMAC as injury prone? He has played 25/39th this season and has never failed to play half his team's games. As for him being a "cancer," we heard that about Walker too. A change of scenes might do him good.

Two ideas: 1. MN gets TMAC gives Ratliff/Doleac/McCants/Miami's first; 2. MN gets Frye/Portland #1 for Smith/#2 (08).

[WallyWorld]

[quote="Carpe Diem"]

Why does everyone see TMAC as injury prone?

He has played 25/39th this season and has never failed to play half his team's games. quote]


Those stats sum it all up buddy. Thats nothing to write home about.

[the_bruce]

Why does everyone see TMAC as injury prone? He has played 25/39th this season and has never failed to play half his team's games. As for him being a "cancer," we heard that about Walker too. A change of scenes might do him good.

Two ideas: 1. MN gets TMAC gives Ratliff/Doleac/McCants/Miami's first; 2. MN gets Frye/Portland #1 for Smith/#2 (08).

If you average out his 4 years in Houston he misses about 15 games a year. So how about 1/8 of the season he's useless and not seeing action. Then theres the games he coming off an injury and not at 100%? That's surely worth 5 games a year? Then you take into account that the entire team strategy needs to change when he is out and they can't get into a flow. Or if they are gelling and he comes back its disruptive to what has been going on during his injury. That's gotta be worth a few games?

He probably only affects 10 games by being out, but there are other factors when a guy is in and out with chronic injuries. I'd say that these sort of factors combined account for 20 games a year. When you are paying a guy 18m a year you'd think the team should get their monies worth. Regardless of how good he is having TMac on your team does help your team long term.

Sorta like having a Ferrari that you are forced to park on hills because the starter is fried. Sure it's a great car, but you gotta get it running first.

[Carpe Diem]

It doesn't make him injury prone. Injury prone is someone who misses more than 1/2 of his team's games multiple times. McGrady hasn't done that. Nor has he proven to be chronic and when he plays (which is most of the time sans two seasons) he averages over 20 ppg.

Is he a cancer, perhaps. But injury prone or a problem in that regard, I disagree.

[twolves4]

the miami pick is lottery protected, so it cant be dealt during the season since we dont yet own it

also we cant deal our pick which we owe to the clippers (protected) until the season is over and its official that we are going to be in the lottery (its just league rules, plain and simple)

alot of this tmac talk is coming up in regards to the trade deadline, which obviously is during the season..basically we cant deal any first round picks until the season is over, so the only chance we have at mcgrady is if houston decides to hold onto him for the rest of the year, and deal him in the offseason..obviosuly at the end of the year, we will have our pick, and miami will be keeping theirs since theyre headed for the lottery as well, SO THEN a deal could be talked about..obviously this thing hasnt even been talked about by management yet since its impossible to get done at this point

you cant trade picks that you owe potentially owe to somebody else, nor can you trade picks that dont yet belong to you..Bucher made this thing up in his head without using any common sense

[twolves4]

Why does everyone see TMAC as injury prone? He has played 25/39th this season and has never failed to play half his team's games. As for him being a "cancer," we heard that about Walker too. A change of scenes might do him good.

Two ideas: 1. MN gets TMAC gives Ratliff/Doleac/McCants/Miami's first; 2. MN gets Frye/Portland #1 for Smith/#2 (08).

whoever called walker a cancer in the first place was a complete idiot..in boston, everybody on that team and coaching staff said walker was the locker room leader of the team..in dallad don nelson praised walker for his locker room leadership..heck, boston brought him back to make a playoff run, knowing that pierce was badly struggling without antoine there to be the teams emotional leader..in miami, he had a body fat% issue, and conditioning problems stemming from an achilles injury, but was never ever a malcontent..im not sure how you can look at all those things and say the guy is a cancer..if anything, hes one of the best locker room leaders in the league, and has always provided a ton of encouragement and help to young players no matter where hes played (wonder why al jefferson was so excited to have toine coming to minnesota??)

[the_bruce]

It doesn't make him injury prone. Injury prone is someone who misses more than 1/2 of his team's games multiple times. McGrady hasn't done that. Nor has he proven to be chronic and when he plays (which is most of the time sans two seasons) he averages over 20 ppg.

Length and severity of injury has no bearing on what injury prone actually means.

[Wingman]

If we can keep our 1st this year, Al Jefferson, Randy Foye, and either Brewer or McCants I would do the deal. I would wait till the deadline when we have locked up a high pick.

Foye
Brewer
TRACY MCGRADY
Micheal Beasley
Al Jefferson

Its not really that huge of a risk, we don't lose that much talent. Plus I have no faith in McHale bringing in a supertstar through free agency. If we could end this season with a rising star(maybe 2), a legit superstar, some solid role players and a top 3 draft pick I would be extremely pleased.

[revprodeji]

Hope we score 120 a night, cause that line up will not be defensive.

[Krapinsky]

^^^^^I agreee with Rev, that's an Isaiah Thomas lineup right there.