Paul Pierce - GO for IT, get out of the middle

[Xman]

I am tired of us being in the middle of the pack. Not good enought to win and not bad enough to win one in the lottery. The team has played surpringly well and has a shot to make noise - but we know we still need a star player. Well, it looks like PPierce is available. GO get him. (other, we get another pick 13-16 and fail to sign anyone really good - then just end up here again).

I say try for less but be willing to do:
Pierce (15.3)
to Rox for Morris (14th pick last year), PPatterson (14th pick in 2010 who has showed promise), Thabeet (#2 overall flyer expiring contract needed to make $$ match), and Flynn (former 6th overall pick with next highest contract also expiring)(could ask for Dragic over Flynn if $$ still worked - or maybe TWill or CLee). We might even add a lotto protected pick (that converts to 2nd rounders if not used) or the NY pick.

It gives us a chance this year. PPatterson is only one contributing right now - Pierce would more than make up for that.
Boston gets a couple of young players to develop, freedom from PP salary (leaving only Rondo on the books past this year and he is rumored to be on the move) and a pick.

This just seems like something that could work and we should do. The trio of Lowry/KMart/PPierce should be worht 50+ a night. Add in around 22 from Dally/Scola and our bench should put us over 100 a game - which is significant.

Plus - matchups work better:
OKC - their studs are PG and SF - now they both have to work on D instead of just throttlings us on offense. We might lose both battles (Lowry to Westbrook and Pierce to Durant) but they should be close enough that we can win the war by taking the other positions (Scola>Ibaka, KMart>>>Sefolosha, Dally=Perkins).

LAL - Kobe>>>KMart, Gasol>>Scola, Bynum>Dally but Lowry >>>Fisher, PPierce>>>Barnes. It would be interesting.

LAC - Paul>>Lowry, KMart>>Foye, Pierce>>>CButler, Griffin>>>Scola, DeAndreJ>Dally. Again, winnable and fun to watch.

SA and Dallas - same thing.

From the east, it is either Miami or Chicago.
Chic - Rose obviously drives Chic but we have all around talent to take them.
Miami - Probably our worst matchup (and same said for a lot of other teams). Lowry would dominate and Dally might do something. But, Wade would probably get off on KMart and Lebron would contain PPierce while Bosh and Scola was close. But, if we got that far I would be thrilled.

Just saying, with Pierce, it is possible. Without him, forget it. GO big or go home. Go for it or blow it up.

[aznkillabeezZz]

Paul pierce won't make us out of the middle. He's not the Pierce of 4 years ago. I'll pass.

[Xman]

surely PPierce>>>Parsons?

[Alex I Be]

Ill pass if it means trading Patterson....ill do it if u replace him with the Argentinian.

[zapatasblood]

pass

[Mr. E]

Panic move which would cripple Houston financially moving forward. Pierce would not put this team over the top.

Also - in case you aren't paying attention the team is in the playoff hunt

[rocketsballin]

not at the end of his career

[LarsV8]

Your overpaying. Take out Patterson and add in Bud.

GO read the Managed Blowup article on the Celtics board.

[Kal El]

1. Boston is not trading Pierce. i mean nothing is impossible but im sure PP is going to retire with his #34 in green.

2. It does not make Houston at all any better than we are now. we have a decent/balanced roster. No we do not have a championship contender. Right now we are in the middle and we need some luck for us to be better than just a playoff team. But Piece alone will not do that for houston. We give up our best man to man defender in Patterson and we haven't seen what Morris can do... for what? Pierce is 34 and has been in the nba for 13 seasons. he is going to retire soon.

[000001]

no

we have two bad contracts scola and martin and you want another plus give boston a pick should be the opposite whe you take a bad contract you ask for the player and picks
for example if we had the room in the salary cap to take on pierce then we could ask boston for pierce and 1 or 2 first rounders

happen last year with thabeet

and we are not a pierce away from a ring we are not close to the heat bulls lakers thunder

[moofs]

What they said. No. Now if you centered the trade around scola and stopped trying to give away our young talent, it might could work...

[Xman]

Hmmmmm, well I guess having a mediocre team that makes or just misses the playoffs is fine with most.

Pull out PPatterson, put in Budinger. Does that pass muster?
What if we have to give the NY pick?

[moofs]

There is a thing called "leverage". Boston is about to lost Pierce for nothing (via age). If their goal is to get something back, the condition is that it wont be anything significant because any trading partner will know they have Boston over a barrel. As such, you don't offer good draft picks, or significant young talent.

And paul pierce does not put us over the top. Pau didn't even do that, and he's currently a much better player at a position (pf) where we currently need much more improvement.

Chandler and Budinger are both currently almost as good as old man Pierce, if not better. How does Pierce help other than "yay, we got someone who's been famous!"

[Xman]

Pierce would add about 10 points a game and better defense.

[x-]

Pierce would add about 10 points a game and better defense.

Pierce would be an upgrade on offense, no question, but on defense?
Say what you will about Parsons, but the guy is a really good defender.

I've already stated my opinion on trading for Pierce in the other thread:

I'm really not sure what to think of the idea of trading for Pierce, but I think I'll side with TMU and other Rockets fans that would be very hesitant to pull the trigger on a Paul Pierce trade.

I just think he doesn't fit with our core (age wise) and the risk/reward isn't quite there for us, as we aren't really Paul Pierce away from being a serious contender.

[moofs]

He'd have to take way too many shots to add 10ppg when he's shooting 41.5% fg and 35.6% 3p.

He's old, and his oldness is making him inefficient (not horribly, but much more so than the Pierce of old). It's not 2001. Time matters in the NBA.

Parsons currently provides 3.9 more possessions per 36 minutes than Pierce, is 10-11 years younger, makes a fraction of what Pierce does.
His only real disadvantage is that he doesn't shoot quite as good as Old Pierce. He's at .469 ts% to Pierce's .541. This is more than made up for by the fact that he shoots half as much as Pierce, that Pierce's TS% is still subpar, and that those 3.9 more possessions, even if they're taken by Parsons, are worth about 3.4 points. If he passes them off to someone like Budinger, they're worth about 5.

[acturner101]

Why not flip it around?

Send Scola, Martin, Thabeet, and a filler or 2 for Ray Allen and KG? it doesn't really make the rockets any better this year but it leaves us plenty competitive.

Houston does it because they dump the 2 bad contracts they have and stay competitive plus at seasons end they have only Lowry and Morris under contract and have more money than anybody to spend in free agency. Makes it a bit easier to woo Superman if you give him a say so in what team he has around him?

Boston does it because Martina and Scola fit more with PP age wise and gives them a dynamic scoring 2 to replace allen plus scola and a few young players to fill out the roster like Hill or Flynn. leaves there window of competing open for another year or 2 maybe? even though they'd still get ousted by chicago or miami. so would everyone but OKC so yeah.

[moofs]

That was the other thing I was thinking. It makes Boston worse though. We'd have to give up more for either of those guys. Also, I think Scola is more effective as an off-ball threat with a legit post player, or at least that's my current theory as to why he sucks this year. That + knee surgery + Dalembert eating his rebounds.

[Xman]

I would do that (assuming nothing better pops up) - Scola, KMart, Thabeet, Flynn for KG and RAllen.
We make a run at the west title and start over with a clear cap next summer (just Lowry, MMorris and PPatt - plus other small ones like Parsons).
Boston does this only if they are going to keep Pierce until he retires. If they want to do so, then this makes sense. (KMart expires same yr as pierce - scola same year as Rondo).

[Guy986]

Ray Ray and Pierce already have one foot into retirement. DO NOT WANT