Moderators: Cowology, theBigLip, Snakebites, dVs33
avery church in charlotte,nc:: will the charlotte bobcats make any trades this summer?
Bill Ingram: Absolutely. Larry Brown has just begun reshaping the team. Don't be surprised if Allen Iverson's name continues to come up, and the Cats are looking for a big, as well.
colin in : then after the clips get prince and johnson they can trade randolph straight up for ben wallace! then they would become a very dangerous team PG - davis/taylor SG - gordon/davis SF - prince/johnson PF - blake/wallace C - Camby-kaman/dampier
Bill Ingram: If the Cavs are willing to do that . . .Zach isn't the most attractive trade piece in the league by a long shot.
Saulo in MN: Top 10 SGs since 2000.. whos missing and who shouldnt be here: Joe Johnson, Michael Redd, Brandon Roy, Manu Ginobli, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant.
Bill Ingram: Depends on your criteria. I could easily slip Rip Hamilton in there where you have McGrady or even Redd is the playoffs matter.As you go back towards 2000 Allan Houston was an elite SG, as well.
Mr. Kerr in Phoenix, AZ: hey man, what free agents do you think the suns need to add to be a better contending team?
Bill Ingram: They need to trade Amar'e for Tay Prince and Rip Hamilton . . .play some DEFENSE! And get a serious coach who his players will respect, not the cheapest option.
James (Ann Arbor, Mich.): Now that Chauncey Billups has been named third team All-NBA, he is be definition a top-15 player and a top-three guy at his position. If we gave up a top-15 player, should fans not expect to acquire a top-15 guy in his place this off-season? Neither Carlos Boozer nor Ben Gordon are even top-10 players at their positions, let alone players who will ever receive even one vote for one of the all-NBA teams. Unless we’re signing someone of Chauncey’s caliber this summer – and none of the players available are now nor ever will be of Chauncey’s caliber – then the trade will have been a failure. Am I missing something here?
Langlois: Quite a bit, actually. First, Boozer was a third-team All-NBA pick last season when he averaged 21.1 points and 10.4 rebounds a game. He’s 27. That should give him at least five more prime seasons. Coincidentally, if he becomes a free agent, the Pistons can sign him for up to five seasons. Gordon was one of 27 players in the league to average 20-plus points a game. He carried the Bulls to a few of their postseason wins over Boston despite playing with a pulled leg muscle. He just turned 26 – within a few months of Billups’ age when he joined the Pistons seven years ago. Billups was the best mid-level exception signing in NBA history and the Pistons got six great seasons out of him. If trading him gives the Pistons a shot at adding two players the caliber of Boozer and Gordon as both are entering their prime years, then Joe D will have made two great moves involving Chauncey Billups.
Josh (Sterling Heights, Mich.): With the Clippers looking to move somebody from their frontcourt to make room for Blake Griffin, would a three-way deal of Randolph to the Raptors, Bosh to the Pistons and Hamilton and Amir to the Clippers be possible? It gives the Raptors a big man so they don’t lose Bosh to free agency for nothing, it gives the Pistons the player they need in Bosh, and it gives the Clippers a veteran two guard to help Eric Gordon.
Langlois: Dealing directly with Toronto makes more sense for the Raptors and also the Clippers – though if the net result for the Clippers was as you suggest, they’d do it in a heartbeat to be rid of Randolph. He’s not worth the trouble. No way the Raptors are going to trade Bosh if the result is Randolph. They’d rather lose him to free agency and get to spend the cap space on someone they’d want to build around. But taking on Hamilton makes little sense for the Clips. Gordon needs to play 35 minutes a night, not sit and watch Hamilton do so. As I said, that’s a much less objectionable problem than having Randolph blocking Griffin’s path, but it still isn’t a deal that makes the Clippers as good as they should be.
Peter (Los Angeles): A lot of people, including yourself, are talking about drafting a point guard because that is where the draft is strong. But the Pistons needs are elsewhere – like backup small forward. I like Sam Young of Pitt. He had a good showing in the tournament. We need a player that can contribute right away and Young fits the bill.
Langlois: It’s disastrous drafting strategy to target a position and be determined to draft there if the talent doesn’t warrant the pick. Sam Young was a tremendously productive player at Pitt, but he’s also six months younger than LeBron James, who has played six years in the NBA. In many instances, he was playing against players four, five or six years younger than him last season. If the Pistons are comparing point guards like Jonny Flynn or Eric Maynor to Sam Young, what good does it do to take a small forward if you don’t think he’ll be able to contribute? On paper, the Pistons have Rodney Stuckey and Will Bynum at point guard. But they’re determined to play both of them together at times because they’re their two best players at breaking down defenses and the Pistons need that ability in today’s NBA. They’re going to need a third point guard, regardless of what else they do this summer to make them rethink that strategy. And the draft might be the surest and most cost-effective way to obtain one.
Sam (St. Louis): How about trading for an additional first-round pick? New Orleans (21) or Sacramento (23) for four 36 and 39. Both teams are hurting in cap space and this gives the Pistons another chance to get a solid rotational player like Patrick Mills, Omri Casspi, Terrence Williams or Jeff Teague.
Langlois: If the Pistons are involved in a trade for a first-round draft pick, it’s far more likely to be a trade out of the first round than picking up a second pick. The reason? First-round picks count against your cap space. At 15, the Pistons will have a cap hold of about $1.5 million. That’s that much less they’ll have to throw at a free agent. I’m using $17 million as the amount they’ll have now – which takes into account the cap hold they’ll have for the 15th pick and a couple of $400,000 mininum cap holds to get them to the 12-man minimum – but if they unloaded the pick they’d have close to $19 million. If they keep the pick at 15 and take on another pick it would take them closer to $15 million.
Sam (Fort Myers, Fla.): Brandon Bass has become an emerging star in Dallas – a real hustle guy and a great finisher down low. What’s the chance the Pistons make a bid on him this off-season?
Langlois: It’s possible. He’s very happy in Dallas and the Mavs would love to keep him – among other reasons, he’s tight with Dirk Nowitzki, and it’s always good to surround your franchise player with players that make him happy. But the Mavs have big designs this summer that start with retaining Jason Kidd, so it’s possible Bass, an unrestricted free agent, lands a decent deal – something along the order of Jason Maxiell’s four-year, $20 million extension signed last fall – that the Mavs wouldn’t entertain. I think the Pistons start with more obvious targets, but Bass would be an alternative.
Jose (Lansing, Mich.): I really like Rodney Carney, Trevor Ariza, Chris Wilcox and Drew Gooden as possible Plan Bs in case our other plans fall through. They are all younger than 28 and could all fill a need at a decent price.
Langlois: Ariza, perhaps. The rest are Plan Cs.
Roger (Flushing, Mich.): With the declining economy, won’t players’ salaries be lower, thus making the lesser cap space as attractive as when it was expected to be $20 million?
Langlois: There’s a grain of truth to your thinking, Roger. With the salary cap number coming in lower than anticipated – because what was anticipated was the usual hike of a few million dollars – the Pistons won’t have as much to spend as it appeared when the Chauncey Billups trade was made last November. But there could be a chill over the free-agent market this summer with so few teams having any money to spend and some of them wary about spending it. A potential hurdle for the Pistons, then, will be what do the players who have opt-out clauses – guys like Carlos Boozer or Hedo Turkoglu, for instance – think about entering this free-agent market? Would they choose not to opt out and take their chances on a better economy – and a much deeper free-agent crop – next summer?
D.J. (Fremont, Calif.): I am thinking way out of the box, but what about trading Rip and the No. 15 pick to Houston for Tracy McGrady and Prince to Toronto for Bosh. Then use our free agent money on Trevor Ariza and bring back Dice for one more year. McGrady, Bosh and Dice’s oney would be off the books in 2010. Everyone is down on T-Mac for health issues, but Arnie Kander has worked wonders with other injured players.
Langlois: You’d have about $2 million in cap space left after absorbing the $21 million McGrady has coming next year and the nearly $16 million Bosh has coming if all you’re trading away is the combined salaries of Prince and Hamilton. That $2 million isn’t going to get you half of either Ariza or McDyess, never mind both combined.
Mike (Broadview Heights, Ohio): I was wondering with the trade rumors going on with Rip, is it possible we could get the fifth pick from the Wizards for him?
Langlois: The fifth pick in a bad draft for Rip Hamilton? First of all, it’s an impossible trade. The Wizards are way over the cap. They can’t take on salary without sending back salary. Second, and maybe Flip Saunders would feel differently about it, but Hamilton and Gilbert Arenas doesn’t feel like a compatible backcourt to me unless Gilbert is serious about becoming a more traditional point guard. Third, there’s a reason the Wizards are shopping the No. 5 pick: In this draft, many teams feel they are just as likely to land an average starter with the 15th pick as with the fifth – you’ll just have to pay a lot more to take him at No. 5.
Kejuan (Ecorse, Mich.): I keep reading that the Pistons are in the market for a starting point guard. Why? They just traded away, arguably, the best point guard in the league.
Langlois: They’re not in the market for a starting point guard, Kejuan – despite anything you’ve read. This stems from Joe Dumars’ end-of-season press conference when he said he would like Rodney Stuckey to play off of the ball SOME OF THE TIME to take advantage of his ability as a slasher but, more to the point, because doing so would also enable the Pistons to put Will Bynum on the floor more and that would give the Pistons two players who can create off the dribble – something Joe D feels is critical given the way the NBA is played today. It was not meant in any way, shape or form as a repudiation of Stuckey’s ability to play the point.
Jim (Farmington, Mich.): Do you think getting Jrue Holiday would be a good draft pick if he were available? I also would like to know if the Pistons could get Bosh, McDyess and Turkoglu?
Langlois: It’s seeming more and more unlikely that Holiday will be around at 15, Jim. Word is that he’s under serious consideration at No. 4 to Sacramento. And if he doesn’t land there, he’s probably going to be gone before 15. Your scenario is certainly one of many possibilities. Getting Bosh would require parting with either Hamilton or Prince. If it’s Prince, then signing Turkoglu would be one of the better options for Joe Dumars to fill the void at small forward.
J.D. (Detroit): Since Blake Griffin is the clear No. 1 pick in this year’s draft and the Clippers have a pretty crowded frontcourt with Camby, Kaman and Randolph, could the Pistons offer a package similar to Rip or Tayshaun, the No. 15 pick and another pick next year?
Langlois: The Clippers, logically, will be shopping any of those three veterans to make room for Griffin. They’ll have him under cost control for four years and will expect big and immediate production. What I said above about the Pistons far more likely to trade out of the first round than to move up? Well, if they had the opportunity to move up to take Griffin, they would certainly do so. But unless the Clippers are intent on self-destruction, there’s no way they would do your trade. And, by the way, there’s no way they could – again, they’re over the cap, so you can’t trade away a draft pick and take on millions of dollars in salary.
Adam (Lambert, Calif.): Any chance Tyler Hansbrough is around when Detroit picks in the round two? I think he has the work ethic our team needs to get back and could see him as a David Lee-type player.
Langlois: Lee’s bigger and vastly more athletic than Hansbrough. Hansbrough is more skilled at a similar stage. Some scouts wouldn’t take Hansbrough even in the second round, but my hunch is there will be some team picking from the middle of the first round down that looks at the field and goes with Hansbrough, banking on the fact that he’ll be a hard worker who’ll stick around for a decade or so and not cause any trouble.
WWE stages raw takedown of Nuggets
Vince McMahon got his takedown of Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke on the WWE television show Monday night. Sort of.
During the World Wrestling Entertainment's "Monday Night Raw" show, McMahon shoved a mock Kroenke to the mat and the faux Kroenke fell out of the ring at the Staples Center. The wrestling card was switched from the Pepsi Center last week to Los Angeles because of Game 4 of the Lakers-Nuggets series being played in Denver. Originally, the date was held by the WWE. In the TV skit, the counterfeit Kroenke, microphone in hand, sauntered toward the ring with a basketball under his arm. He handed the ball to an equally fake Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who was standing next to a phony David Stern and Jack Nicholson.
The imitation Kroenke then announced that he is "the owner of the soon-to-be NBA champion Denver Nuggets. And I cannot stand the WWE or its fans, for that matter." "Do you think that I care that I screwed thousands of WWE fans? I do not. I have much more important things to do with my team than worry about you people." McMahon then entered the fray, ambling into the ring and telling the pretend Kroenke, "None of this had to happen. All you had to do was pick up the phone, say `I didn't think my team would make the playoffs, I screwed up."' Seconds later, McMahon shoved "Kroenke" after warning him, "When you push the WWE universe, they push back."
Tuesday 2nd June
Jeremy Wise Detroit PG 6-2 Southern Miss Jamie Knox Undrafted.
WWE, McMahon taunt Kroenke on 'Raw'
Vince McMahon got his takedown of Denver Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke on the WWE television show Monday night. Sort of. During the World Wrestling Entertainment's "Monday Night Raw" show, McMahon shoved a mock Kroenke to the mat and the faux Kroenke fell out of the ring at the Staples Center. The wrestling card was switched from the Pepsi Center last week to Los Angeles because of Game 4 of the Lakers-Nuggets series being played in Denver. Originally, the date was held by the WWE.
In the TV skit, the counterfeit Kroenke, microphone in hand, sauntered toward the ring with a basketball under his arm. He handed the ball to an equally fake Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who was standing next to a phony David Stern and Jack Nicholson. The imitation Kroenke then announced that he is "the owner of the soon-to-be NBA champion Denver Nuggets. And I cannot stand the WWE or its fans, for that matter." "Do you think that I care that I screwed thousands of WWE fans? I do not. I have much more important things to do with my team than worry about you people."
McMahon then entered the fray, ambling into the ring and telling the pretend Kroenke, "None of this had to happen. All you had to do was pick up the phone, say `I didn't think my team would make the playoffs, I screwed up." Seconds later, McMahon shoved "Kroenke" after warning him, "When you push the WWE universe, they push back." The finale featured five-man tag teams wearing Nuggets and Lakers jerseys. The Lakers won, eliciting loud cheers from the Staples Center crowd.