Rustyman wrote:As this topic refuses to go away, let me add a few thoughts as to how I see this issue. Let me preface this by saying that to me, both Harper and Castle remain PROSPECTS at this point. We have some pointers around Castle which says that we think he can at his best become a mini Kawahi, at worst, a poor man's Derek White. For Harper, we only have his college tape and while that seems promising, we have to go off the general assessment of scouts that he is the second best player in this draft by a considerable margin with the potential to be the best after his rookie contract. With that in mind, these are my thoughts on the two.
1. Harper/Castle only gets traded if the target is Giannis and then only one of the two.
2. Neither Harper or Castle gets traded for any other player or combination of players.
3. If Castle turns into nothing better than Derek White, he would be a winning part of a winning team.
4. If Harper turns into Vassell or something even less, we still have a relatively cheap backup PG/SG. If we were to trade him for Lauri or KD, I will guarantee that Harper plays many more games and provides much more value to another team. That is why other teams want him as they see that he can potentially provide much more value to them in the short-term than he is likely to provide for the Spurs. The Spurs however are building this team for the long-term and the first opportunity to say Harper was not a success is if he does not get a near max extension after his third year.
5. If Harper turns into something much more, he can replace Fox in 3-4 years time when a considered and informed choice can be made over the performances of the two for the Spurs.
6. Castle is a SG/SF combo, he is not a point guard. He will get the coming season to show that he is capable of filling that role for the Spurs as I expect him to be the starting SG. Now his outside shooting might not be great currently, but we hope he improves and he showed that he can fill up the stat sheet one way or the other in the final third of the season.
So at the moment, I am more in favor of keeping both. Now there is still lots of time before the draft and I expect there to be lots of discussions for other trade targets, however, without a trade for Giannis, I think our best option is to go forward with both in the short to medium term.
If we think Harper is the real deal, we almost have to move Fox. I'm no capoligist but we need to match salaries for Giannis. Thats any combination of (Fox/Vassel) and (Johnson/Barnes) plus picks that Milwaukee would want. If I'm the Bucks I would want a sign and trade of Fox, whatever player and some high level picks.
Again if we think Harper is the guy, we cant sign Fox anyway because that would make him nearly untradable in the future.
I'm not an expert on Harper so I don't know. But I have seen Fox and we cant keep all three of them, especially if we max Fox. Plus, IMO Fox isnt a difference maker for us like Giannis would be.