Deron Williams?

[Badd_Intentions]

Blast from the Past here. Did we have a chance to Trade with Utah/Portland for the 3rd overall pick in the 2005 draft?

[Walt Cronkite]

Hamilton I believe often mentions that a deal was in place but we pulled out or Utah offered a better deal or something. I'm sure he'll chime in soon...

[BigSlam]

I think it was BB who pulled out because they (Blazers) wanted the #5 and the #13 from us but BB would only give them the #5 and the Raps pick that was owed to us (and ended up being #22 last year and Jared Dudley)

[Jack wore plaid]

Ugh. Bad memories of John Nash

[W_HAMILTON]

I think it was BB who pulled out because they (Blazers) wanted the #5 and the #13 from us but BB would only give them the #5 and the Raps pick that was owed to us (and ended up being #22 last year and Jared Dudley)

Yep. Bernie pulled out of that deal, after he said he had "held up the deal enough," ie, he didn't want any team to trade ahead of us and select a PG. I think he figured if Portland didn't trade down, they would select Webster, the Hornets would select D.Williams, and we would select Paul. At worst, the Hornets select Paul, and we select D.Williams.

Either way, it sounds like Bernie thought he could get away with having Chris Paul or Deron Williams fall down to us, without us giving up the 13th pick to move up and draft them.

At the same time, who cares about Deron Williams? Yes, we could have traded up and selected him, but why take him when we could have had Chris Paul at that same spot? I think Bernie would have selected Chris Paul over Deron Williams anyway.

So, some of this is inferred based on what happened, but YES, there is no doubt that it was very true that we could have traded up to the #3 if we only gave up #5 (Raymond Felton) and #13 (Sean May).

[freakazoid]

At the same time, who cares about Deron Williams?

Anyone with half a brain?

Seriously though, Paul is a great player, but Deron is just as good.

Try watching their head to head matchups.

[fatlever]

bernie would have definitely selected paul over deron. paul being a NC boy would have made that pick an easy one for bernie.

[W_HAMILTON]

Who cares who has good games against who? Felton has good games against Paul, that doesn't mean he's anywhere in his league.

Paul is the better PG between him and D.Williams, and even better, he would be the perfect type of PG for this team.

More like, Deron Williams is a great player...but Paul is better.

[freakazoid]

Who cares who has good games against who? Felton has good games against Paul, that doesn't mean he's anywhere in his league.

I guess it wouldn't matter if Deron only had 1 or 2 games in which he dominated CP3, but anyone who knows their stuff(obviously not you) knows that Deron has completely DOMINATED this matchup.


P.S. Don't be mad just because your little sister knows B-Ball more than you.

P.S.S. Looking forward to the olympics, when CP3 will be exposed and D-Will will show why USA is the best country in the world when it comes to basketball.

[W_HAMILTON]

Or, it wouldn't matter period.

Chris Paul is the best PG in the league, and if they had their choice, most teams would gladly take Chris Paul over Deron Williams right now.

Maybe those facts are why lesser players in Deron Williams and Raymond Felton get "up" to play against Chris Paul? Hmm.......

[fluffernutter]

Yeah, this is a little silly.

Paul had one of the great all-time point guard performances last year.

All-time. Like, top 5, all time (statistically speaking, plus he had a good post-season run).

Everyone needs to drop it.

Paul has proven he's currently the best point guard in the league. Not might be, or could be. He's proven it, as of last year.

It's time for other point guards to step up as Paul has and give us a reason to think about putting them in the same tier as Paul currently occupies.

Really, who would you prefer over Paul as a PG? You could argue that Nash is at Paul's level, but he won't be for more than a year or two; Paul has a decade of peak play in front of him.

C'mon people. Paul's in the same category of bad-assedness as DH, Kobe, and LBJ.

[fatlever]

paul is always going to struggle a bit against deron. deron is much bigger and stronger.

and i dont think paul will shine in the olympics as much as he does in the nba. paul dominates the ball 90% of the time in the nba, that does seem to work as well in international play, where ball movement, passing, cutting and shooting are premium. plus the international game is a bit more physical these days than the nba so paul may get hand checked and pushed around a bit more. but its two different styles of ball and it doesnt take anything away from how great of a player paul is in the nba.

[Copperhead]

Who cares who has good games against who? Felton has good games against Paul, that doesn't mean he's anywhere in his league.

I guess it wouldn't matter if Deron only had 1 or 2 games in which he dominated CP3, but anyone who knows their stuff(obviously not you) knows that Deron has completely DOMINATED this matchup.


P.S. Don't be mad just because your little sister knows B-Ball more than you.

P.S.S. Looking forward to the olympics, when CP3 will be exposed and D-Will will show why USA is the best country in the world when it comes to basketball.

And yet I don't see many people claiming Deron the best point guard in the NBA. If D-Will shows why the USA is the best country when it comes to basketball, all it will mean is he's better for international basketball competition than Paul. There was this one guy Jeff Malone that gave Jordan trouble each time they met. Jordan even wrote about it in his book. I sure as h*ll didn't see anyone saying he was a better overall player than Jordan just because he played Jordan extremely well. But whatever.

fatlever you're right. Bickerstaff definitely wanted Paul. I always watch this draft journey program and there's Paul working out for the Bobcats and the reporters are asking Bernie what he thinks about Paul. Bernie says other teams should be leary of him. And the reporter says "teams 1-4?" Bernie kinds of laughs and says "yeah". Then right before this seasons draft, NBATV was airing past drafts and right after the Hornets picked Paul, the draft crew Stu, Bilas and I forgot who else immediately started talking about how the Cats wanted Paul. ESPN's TrueHoop has some 2005 draft articles to be seen for anyone interested. As far as what this thread is really about in having a chance to trade with Utah/Portland, I found this little snippet.....

Portland GM John Nash, who reportedly wants Charlotte's fifth and 13th picks in exchange for Portland's third pick, is loving Charlotte Observer columnist Tom Sorensen, who writes that Charlotte should make the deal:

The Charlotte Bobcats should do what they have to, including giving up both first-round picks, to select Wake Forest point guard Chris Paul.
Charlotte honcho Bernie Bickerstaff has implied that the price is too steep, and he expects it to come down as the draft approaches.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-1 ... -Paul.html


These are the 2005 draft pages.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop?tag=2005%20draft

[Copperhead]

Or, it wouldn't matter period.

Chris Paul is the best PG in the league, and if they had their choice, most teams would gladly take Chris Paul over Deron Williams right now.

Maybe those facts are why lesser players in Deron Williams and Raymond Felton get "up" to play against Chris Paul? Hmm.......

I also think players get "up" to play against Paul. At the beginning of the season, Byron Scott was saying Steve Nash was the best point guard in the league (which basically just about everyone else was saying the same thing about the 2 time MVP) and I think that made Paul get "up" for Steve Nash. After the season Paul just had, Scott is no longer saying Nash is the best pg in the league.