Official Trade Thread - Part XXIV

[verbal8]

$15 million might be the cash paid to Asik's but from a cap and luxury tax stand point his deal is flat. So the Houston can't afford him, argument isn't terribly strong. However the how well will he play with Howard, which will be at least 1/2 of Asik's minutes and a very significant portion of Howard's could be a significant issue.

Asik: ...isn't a free agent, I suspect we would have to give up something fairly valuable to get him - Porter or a 1st plus incentives.

No question we'd have to give something up -- i.e. acquire him via a trade. But surely Houston will be willing to deal him, no?

Heck, they need to deal him! I can't imagine they want to pay him $15m+ next year -- not given they owe $51m+ to Howard, Harden & Lin. That'd put them at $66m for 4 players! And a trade next year would require taking back @ that much in salary, so they'd likely still be behind the 8-ball.

He makes $5.25m this year; I keep thinking they'll want to trade him for salaries they can shed, not guys they can build with. We have quite a number of shed-able salaries. Might make us a good trade partner. But... is this an "Ernie" style deal?

[stevemcqueen1]

No Moses Malone love? Of course one year he had a WS/48 of .248 - yikes. Drummond's .172 isn't too bad though.

Moses was great. I don't think he qualifies as a pure defense and rebounding big like Mutumbo or Wallace though. He scored 29,000 points in his career and averaged over 20 PPG throughout his prime. Hit 30 PPG one year. He could score and that's what his MVPs came from. Plus I'm not sure he was a great defender (EDIT: that was an embarrassing mistake.)

Ironically, Moses was still a journeyman. By his own choosing I'd say. I think that era was wonkey and even great players might have to change teams to get the most money.

Drummond's WS/48 is great. Many of his per minute numbers are great. But he put up those rates playing a very very limited role. 20 MPG, only 60 games and 10 starts, very low usage, basically a fifth option on offense. Someone who is there to protect the rim and body up bigs in the paint and grab rebounds & get his scoring catching entry passes and offensive rebounds leading to dunks. Put him in a role where he's playing 30+ MPG and operating as the first option on offense and the bottom would fall out on his efficiency. He's not capable of playing the role other young star bigs are at this point in his career because he lacks the skill level.

Will he develop a high skill level eventually? Maybe, but I'm very skeptical. Maybe a little of a face up game one day. He should at least be able to develop a few post moves hinging on his quickness to score with. He's a dreadful jump shooter and I don't ever see that being a part of his repertoire. And I don't think the natural scoring instincts and mentality to get the ball and put it in the hoop are there. The aggressiveness.

[Nivek]

Gotta be honest -- this "make him the number one option and watch him fail" line of reasoning seems silly to me. What Detroit is doing with Drummond is WAAAAY smarter than what Sacramento is doing with Cousins. Drummond is staying focused on doing what he does well. And NOT doing what he doesn't do well. This is helping him be a very effective player, who does more to help his team win that Cousins does. This is smart.

Cousins may have more skills, but he's doing plenty of stuff out there that he's not good at doing -- and it gets expressed in missed shots and turnovers. And those things undercut other things he does that could help his teams win.

And, the assertion that Drummond was "very low usage" is inaccurate. Average usage (by definition) is 20%, but that includes guards and SFs. Last season, average usage for PFs and Cs was 18.7%. Drummond's was 17.9%.

"Skill" is overrated when it isn't connected to on-court results. It happened with Blatche throughout his Wizards career. It's happening now with a better player in Cousins. If Cousins was so amazingly skilled, his offensive rating would be better than 101-102. Taking and missing lots of shots and committing lots of turnovers -- those are not skills. Rebounding, playing defense, focusing on taking shots you can make -- that's smart, useful, productive basketball.

Cousins may turn out to be a great player. His potential is obvious. Lots of guys have potential, though. If he's going to realize that poential he either needs to get a lot better at the stuff he's doing frequently and poorly (in other words, become a much better shooter from outside of 3 feet) or he's going to need to change his shot selection to those that he's good at making -- namely those inside of 3 feet.

In other words, Cousins needs to either improve on these skills of his or he needs to play more like Drummond.

[Dat2U]

No Moses Malone love? Of course one year he had a WS/48 of .248 - yikes. Drummond's .172 isn't too bad though.

Moses was great. I don't think he qualifies as a pure defense and rebounding big like Mutumbo or Wallace though. He scored 29,000 points in his career and averaged over 20 PPG throughout his prime. Hit 30 PPG one year. He could score and that's what his MVPs came from. Plus I'm not sure he was a great rebounder.

Ironically, Moses was still a journeyman. By his own choosing I'd say. I think that era was wonkey and even great players might have to change teams to get the most money.

Drummond's WS/48 is great. Many of his per minute numbers are great. But he put up those rates playing a very very limited role. 20 MPG, only 60 games and 10 starts, very low usage, basically a fifth option on offense. Someone who is there to protect the rim and body up bigs in the paint and grab rebounds & get his scoring catching entry passes and offensive rebounds leading to dunks. Put him in a role where he's playing 30+ MPG and operating as the first option on offense and the bottom would fall out on his efficiency. He's not capable of playing the role other young star bigs are at this point in his career because he lacks the skill level.

Will he develop a high skill level eventually? Maybe, but I'm very skeptical. Maybe a little of a face up game one day. He should at least be able to develop a few post moves hinging on his quickness to score with. He's a dreadful jump shooter and I don't ever see that being a part of his repertoire. And I don't think the natural scoring instincts and mentality to get the ball and put it in the hoop are there. The aggressiveness.

Well duh. Why would you put him in a high usage role? He doesn't need to be a high usage guy to be a game changer. He had a huge impact for the Pistons in limited minutes last year. All I'd want to see is him maintain that effectiveness or improve upon it in more minutes, not necessarily carry a bigger offensive load. At some point during his career, he may be able to handle a slightly higher offensive burden, but even if he doesn't, he can have a huge impact on games with his defense.

Cousins will never impact the game the way Drummond does defensively and Drummond will never have the offensive skill or use possessions as much as Cousins does. However, Drummond's defense is so far ahead of Cousins offense (and keep in mind that Drummond is 3 years younger too) that I have a hard time seeing Cousins ever helping a team as much as Drummond did in his limited minutes last season.

[dckingsfan]

No Moses Malone love? Of course one year he had a WS/48 of .248 - yikes. Drummond's .172 isn't too bad though.

Moses was great. I don't think he qualifies as a pure defense and rebounding big like Mutumbo or Wallace though. He scored 29,000 points in his career and averaged over 20 PPG throughout his prime. Hit 30 PPG one year. He could score and that's what his MVPs came from. Plus I'm not sure he was a great rebounder.

Ironically, Moses was still a journeyman. By his own choosing I'd say. I think that era was wonkey and even great players might have to change teams to get the most money.

Drummond's WS/48 is great. Many of his per minute numbers are great. But he put up those rates playing a very very limited role. 20 MPG, only 60 games and 10 starts, very low usage, basically a fifth option on offense. Someone who is there to protect the rim and body up bigs in the paint and grab rebounds & get his scoring catching entry passes and offensive rebounds leading to dunks. Put him in a role where he's playing 30+ MPG and operating as the first option on offense and the bottom would fall out on his efficiency. He's not capable of playing the role other young star bigs are at this point in his career because he lacks the skill level.

Will he develop a high skill level eventually? Maybe, but I'm very skeptical. Maybe a little of a face up game one day. He should at least be able to develop a few post moves hinging on his quickness to score with. He's a dreadful jump shooter and I don't ever see that being a part of his repertoire. And I don't think the natural scoring instincts and mentality to get the ball and put it in the hoop are there. The aggressiveness.

OK, don't disagree with most of this. But... Malone was a great rebounder - especially on the offensive end. He probably scored 14 pts per game on offensive put backs - and he was rarely the #1 option on the offensive end. But as you pointed out he was a 20 pt/gm guy.

Can Drummond become the #1 guy on the defensive end - yup. Could he learn his role on the offensive end - don't know. Doubtful if he doesn't learn how to shoot FTs. How many times did Malone get an offensive rebound and then go to the line - geez, all the time. But that is what he needs to become - a big Moses Malone.

[Ruzious]

I can't see Drummond saying fo fo fo... or sweating like Moses. Totally different types of players. I don't know what option Moses was, but opposing teams definitely had to work on defending him. I think Drummond was an afterthought to most defenses - who were much more focused on defending Monroe.

[Nivek]

When I get back to my stuff, I'll see if I can generate pace-adjusted numbers for Moses. Looking at rookie seasons for Moses and Drummond is interesting. Same age as rookies -- Drummond was better on the defensive glass, a better shot blocker, and shot better from the floor. Their orb% was the same. Drummond also got more steals and fouled less. Moses was better from the FT line, got a few more assists, but also committed a lot more turnovers (both per minute and as a percentage of his offensive possessions). He scored more because he shot more and he was better from the FT line.

If Moses were around today, it wouldn't be an easy call to say he's better than Drummond.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Maybe I'm naive, but some of the things that intrigue me about Cousins is first of all his chemistry with Wall. Watching them at Kentucky, watching them in the rookie all-star game, they just play well together. Beyond that, Cousins seems to want to come to DC. He plays on a bad team, in a small market. His game is offensive, but this team needs an offensive player inside.

From Zach Harper CBSsports.com
"The Washington Wizards started the 2012-13 season as one of the more pathetic teams we've seen in a while -- offensively, that is. As of January 11, the Wizards were the worst team in basketball with a 5-28 record. The problem wasn't the defense. They were giving up 101.5 points per 100 possessions, which was good for 12th best in the NBA. They could stop teams when they needed to with Emeka Okafor manning the middle and active players on the perimeter.

The problem was they couldn't score, almost to an embarrassing degree. The Wizards were managing 93.1 points per 100 possessions, easily the worst offensive rating in the league behind the Indiana Pacers' 97.8 (29th in the league). To put that into context, only one team over the last 10 seasons has been worse at scoring and that was the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats team (92.3) that ended up being the worst team in history (to make them both feel better, the 2002-03 Denver Nuggets put up a pathetic 88.9 points per 100 possessions)."

But I guess what interests me most about Cousins is just his moxy. He intimidates, and is not intimidated. He is the kind of player that does not back down from anyone. He won't be afraid of guys like Lebron or Howard, and shrink away from those challenges, like alot of players do. He is the kind of teammate you want on your side going into a battle. Combine that with Wall who has the same mindset, with the chemistry the two of them have together, and IMO they would be a winning combo.

Two 1st round picks, Ariza, Seraphin, Singleton for Cousins and a contract they want out of (Salmons or Hayes) I think could do it.

Cousins, Porter, Webster, Beal, Wall as our core for now and the future. I like that core. And this season added with Okafor, Nene, Harrington, Vesely, Booker, Rice, Temple, Maynor, Salmons. I think this team can move to the upper echelon of teams in the league with the likes of Oklahoma City, Indiana, Memphis, Chicago, New Jersey, Houston etc as challengers to Miami.

[deneem4]

^^^^^ this exactly, we migh be able to squeeze patterson out of there as well we ado 2 1st rders .will a lineup of
Wall
Beal
Webster
Patterson
Cousins. ..

We set for some years and we are contenders

[payitforward]

No one doubts Cousins' talent -- I've seen a lot of him (as much as one conveniently can living on the East Coast), and he's got huge gifts. And no one questions whether he "can be a great player." But "can be" doesn't equal "is" or even "will be." That remains to be seen.

I would have picked him in front of Wall in 2010, with the slight worry that his attitude issues might stick with him and hold him back. They have. And even more, he's started to think he can do anything -- or rather, he's started to do lower % things over higher % things. In particular, right from the start of his NBA career he showed that he wanted to take 5-10 foot jumpers instead of doing what he did at Kentucky, which is operate almost exclusively inside. With the predictable result that he's a lot less effective in the pros than he was in college.

In the case of Drummond, he's been waaay better in the league than he was in college. And if you don't think this guy is "ridiculously talented"... well, I don't know how you could miss it; leave it at that. Watch him.

Start w/ the physical specimen Drummond is, and his level of coordination and speed. It seems obvious that he has a huge upside. I.e. that he "can be a great player." In fact, so far he has been one! Now, he's only logged 1000+ minutes, so no conclusions can be drawn. But so far so good -- and that's a separator between him and Cousins about whom one can say "so far so maybe."

Holy backtrack, Batman!

No, no backtrack. Just an obvious acknowledgement. Unlike most of you guys, I don't have a crystal ball, and I don't lean my head back and muse and then come out of my trance saying confidently what's going to happen to a player in two years or whatever. I look at what he's doing and what he's done. That's the most likely guide to his future (in basketball as in life).

Drummond is an absolute monster. He has physical gifts that are unreal. He seems to have a humble and positive attitude, and he seems to be team-oriented. He's only played 1000+ minutes, but they were incredibly productive minutes. Among the best in the league. He keeps playing the way he's played so far, he'll be one of the top players in the league. No backtrack in any of that.

[payitforward]

No Moses Malone love? Of course one year he had a WS/48 of .248 - yikes. Drummond's .172 isn't too bad though.

.248 is not a "ws48" figure -- maybe you mean his wp48? But actually Moses had much higher wp48 numbers than that. And Drummond's wp48 as a rookie was .313 -- only LeBron, CP and Durant did better.

As great a rookie year as Drummond had, Malone's was even better -- and he played @3400 minutes! Note, however, that he was 23 when his rookie season began. Drummond was 19.

Moses had an absolutely great career. He was a hall of fame player, obviously. Not to mention he played until he was almost 40!

[payitforward]

...Drummond's WS/48 is great. Many of his per minute numbers are great. But he put up those rates playing a very very limited role. 20 MPG, only 60 games and 10 starts, very low usage, basically a fifth option on offense. Someone who is there to protect the rim and body up bigs in the paint and grab rebounds & get his scoring catching entry passes and offensive rebounds leading to dunks. Put him in a role where he's playing 30+ MPG and operating as the first option on offense and the bottom would fall out on his efficiency.

Sigh.... More of the "I've got a crystal ball, and let me tell you what I see in it" stuff.

The only uncertainty about Drummond is that you can't draw definitive conclusions based on 1200 minutes. Otherwise, all that you say above is irrelevant. Suppose his usage level stays low, and he continues to put up 15 points (on 60% shooting) and 15 boards every 40 minutes except that now he plays 30-35 minutes a game vs. 20 as a 19 year old rookie coming off one (chaotic) year of college ball.

Let me put it slightly differently: every 40 minutes last year DeMarcus Cousins scored 16.9 points by shooting (i.e. not looking at FTs). Drummond scored 13.4 points by shooting.

To get 3.5 more points than Drummond, Cousins had to take 7.1 more shots. His effective FG% on those shots was 24%. So his high usage hurt his team rather than helping it.

Not to mention that Cousins' high usage also allowed him to turn the ball over more than twice as often as Drummond in that 40 minutes. And that Drummond got 35% more offensive boards in that 40 minutes. Put another way, for every offensive board Cousins got, he also turned the ball over once: net team advantage = 0. Drummond had 3 times as many offensive boards as turnovers. Oh, and 3 times as many blocks as Cousins.

It just doesn't look like the delta of greater usage, that Cousins unquestionably has, helps his team.

Cousins has the talent to be a tremendous player. One day maybe he'll actually be a tremendous player. Drummond has come out of the box at 19 as a tremendous player. Of course he might fall off his 2d year, and Cousins may suddenly get the message and get something more out of his potential.

But that's the future, and I don't have a crystal ball. Last year, Drummond posted a .313 wp48. Cousins posted .056. We'll have to wait and see what happens in the coming year.

[montestewart]

No Moses Malone love? Of course one year he had a WS/48 of .248 - yikes. Drummond's .172 isn't too bad though.

.248 is not a "ws48" figure -- maybe you mean his wp48? But actually Moses had much higher wp48 numbers than that. And Drummond's wp48 as a rookie was .313 -- only LeBron, CP and Durant did better.

As great a rookie year as Drummond had, Malone's was even better -- and he played @3400 minutes! Note, however, that he was 23 when his rookie season began. Drummond was 19.

Moses had an absolutely great career. He was a hall of fame player, obviously. Not to mention he played until he was almost 40!

No, it's a WS/48 figure, and those figures for Malone and Drummond are in Basketball Reference, in the last column of advanced stats. Where do you get your wp48, or do you calculate then yourself?

[Ruzious]

No one doubts Cousins' talent -- I've seen a lot of him (as much as one conveniently can living on the East Coast), and he's got huge gifts. And no one questions whether he "can be a great player." But "can be" doesn't equal "is" or even "will be." That remains to be seen.

I would have picked him in front of Wall in 2010, with the slight worry that his attitude issues might stick with him and hold him back. They have. And even more, he's started to think he can do anything -- or rather, he's started to do lower % things over higher % things. In particular, right from the start of his NBA career he showed that he wanted to take 5-10 foot jumpers instead of doing what he did at Kentucky, which is operate almost exclusively inside. With the predictable result that he's a lot less effective in the pros than he was in college.

In the case of Drummond, he's been waaay better in the league than he was in college. And if you don't think this guy is "ridiculously talented"... well, I don't know how you could miss it; leave it at that. Watch him.

Start w/ the physical specimen Drummond is, and his level of coordination and speed. It seems obvious that he has a huge upside. I.e. that he "can be a great player." In fact, so far he has been one! Now, he's only logged 1000+ minutes, so no conclusions can be drawn. But so far so good -- and that's a separator between him and Cousins about whom one can say "so far so maybe."

Holy backtrack, Batman!

No, no backtrack. Just an obvious acknowledgement. Unlike most of you guys, I don't have a crystal ball, and I don't lean my head back and muse and then come out of my trance saying confidently what's going to happen to a player in two years or whatever. I look at what he's doing and what he's done. That's the most likely guide to his future (in basketball as in life).

Drummond is an absolute monster. He has physical gifts that are unreal. He seems to have a humble and positive attitude, and he seems to be team-oriented. He's only played 1000+ minutes, but they were incredibly productive minutes. Among the best in the league. He keeps playing the way he's played so far, he'll be one of the top players in the league. No backtrack in any of that.

That's total BS, pif. You're a professional double-talker. Saying things like "Drummond is an absolute monster" does not give you the leeway to a reasonable person to then follow up by saying "Uh.... but he's only played 1,000 minutes, so I haven't committed 1 way or the other on him". You're trying to talk out of both sides of your ass, and the words coming out don't smell like roses.

[payitforward]

.248 is not a "ws48" figure -- maybe you mean his wp48? ...

No, it's a WS/48 figure, and those figures for Malone and Drummond are in Basketball Reference, in the last column of advanced stats. Where do you get your wp48, or do you calculate then yourself?

Ah, my bad -- WS/48 stands for "win shares per 48 minutes." Win shares is a "dirty" stat (i.e. it's affected by much more than what the player himself does).

WP48 is the metric first exposed in The Wages of Wins by the economist Dave Berri. WP48 is designed above all to correlate as accurately as possible w/ team wins and losses, which it does to @ 94%. Win Shares doesn't correlate nearly as well, nor does PER.

Although WP48 based on a player's easily accessible numbers, it is the product of both position adjustment and regression analysis, meaning you can't easily calculate it. For that reason, Berri came up with WS48 as an easy-to-calculate way to approximate the accuracy of WP48.

Like PER, WS48 based on box score numbers, but unlike PER it doesn't over-value field goal attempts (i.e. at no matter what FG%). As long as you are comparing players at the same position, WS should be just as good as WP. But I've found many cases that don't seem to bear that out. Note that I use WS40 rather than 48, because 40-minute numbers are easily found at draftexpress. The formula is

WS = (pts+offensive rebounds+ steals+(.5x(defensive rebounds+assists+blocks) minus (FGAs+TOs+.5x(fouls+FTAs)))

It's easier to follow in a narration: to find a player's WS40 you look at what he does in 40 minutes PT. Add points, offensive rebounds, steals, and 1/2 of defensive boards assists and blocks. From the result, subtract the number of shots and turnovers and 1/2 the number of fouls and FTAs.

As a rookie, Moses Malone had a WS40 of 17.6. Shaq had 15.1. Drummond posted at 15.6. Other guys -- especially if they were very young -- didn't post outstanding numbers as rookies but went on to be great: Kevin Garnett for example. Cousins may turn out like that. He wasn't good as a rookie but was much improved his 2d and 3d year. Nowhere near the Malone/Shaq/Drummond levels -- at least not yet.

[go'stags]

Obviously Drummond wasn't a focal point of his offense, and Cousins was. That should be taken into account. Drummond was not asked to create offense. Cousins was asked to do so. This is true.

If their efficiency was close, then I would probably give the advantage to the guy that you can throw the ball to. That's not the case though. Cousins being the primary option doesn't mean much if hes not doing well.

Can he do it well? Yes. I actually think he would would be in an excellent situation here in DC. But would I give him a max contract? I lean towards no. There are a lot of question marks. Do I think peopple are crazy for wanting to give him that? No. I could easily talk myself into that.

BTW, you can definitely design a very effective offense around Drummond as a devastating roll man in the pick and roll. He would suck in all kinds of attention as a true force, similar to Dwight in Orlando. Will he be as effective in the post as Dwight? No, probably not. So you would need other skilled players around him. Nothing wrong with that. And on both boards and on defense he is an absolute monster. His biggest question mark, and it is a big one, is his FT shooting. That could take him out of the game in the fourth quarter. It needs to improve.

But If i had to choose between the two players, I would definitely choose Drummond.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

I'm sorry did I miss something? I'm not getting why all the Drummond talk, is there speculation Detroit is trying to deal him? Seems to me if anyone is obtainable it would be Monroe. Monroe is due to become a RFA, the Wizards could make him a max offer and put the onus on Detroit of whether or not they want to match, or possibly trade him at the deadline before it comes to that. Why would they deal Drummond when he is still on his rookie contract?? Drummond with his lower salary if anything makes Monroe more expendable.

Monroe or Cousins seems the more plausible debate IMO.

Bosh or Love could be another one.

[deneem4]

Drummond plays with monroe...a big who is equally if not as talented as himself
Cousins plays with Thompson a player whos no where near him...

Drummond and monroe is a 1, 2 combo u cant speak on drummond without speaking on monroe because theyre usally always on the floor together...its lik the utah bigs...of course theyre going to look lik they're monsters because theyre playing with an equally talented player nxt to them...but if either was actually good solo...then they record would reflect that....

[payitforward]

I'm sorry did I miss something? I'm not getting why all the Drummond talk, is there speculation Detroit is trying to deal him? Seems to me if anyone is obtainable it would be Monroe. Monroe is due to become a RFA, the Wizards could make him a max offer and put the onus on Detroit of whether or not they want to match, or possibly trade him at the deadline before it comes to that. Why would they deal Drummond when he is still on his rookie contract?? Drummond with his lower salary if anything makes Monroe more expendable.

Monroe or Cousins seems the more plausible debate IMO.

Bosh or Love could be another one.

Drummond came up and the question of how good he is or can be got its own momentum. You're right there's no way we'd ever acquire him.

But I think it's pretty doubtful we'll acquire Cousins either -- if he gets better, Sac'to will max him. If not, why would we be the ones to do it? As to the "reunite with John Wall" meme, I don't see anyone suggesting that Wall would move West to Sacramento, and no that's not likely, so what makes the other idea more likely?

Monroe had a terrific rookie year then slipped back. I'd like to have him, why not, but not as a max player -- and someone will likely max him.

Bosh's best years are behind him; I'm just as happy with Okafor, especially given Bosh's ridiculous salary the next couple of years. And Kevin Love's injuries may limit his future, though yes he's been awfully good.

I'm not sure there's a way to acquire a top-tier Center as a FA.

[dckingsfan]

I'm sorry did I miss something? I'm not getting why all the Drummond talk, is there speculation Detroit is trying to deal him? Seems to me if anyone is obtainable it would be Monroe. Monroe is due to become a RFA, the Wizards could make him a max offer and put the onus on Detroit of whether or not they want to match, or possibly trade him at the deadline before it comes to that. Why would they deal Drummond when he is still on his rookie contract?? Drummond with his lower salary if anything makes Monroe more expendable.

Monroe or Cousins seems the more plausible debate IMO.

Bosh or Love could be another one.

Drummond came up and the question of how good he is or can be got its own momentum. You're right there's no way we'd ever acquire him.

But I think it's pretty doubtful we'll acquire Cousins either -- if he gets better, Sac'to will max him. If not, why would we be the ones to do it? As to the "reunite with John Wall" meme, I don't see anyone suggesting that Wall would move West to Sacramento, and no that's not likely, so what makes the other idea more likely?

Monroe had a terrific rookie year then slipped back. I'd like to have him, why not, but not as a max player -- and someone will likely max him.

Bosh's best years are behind him; I'm just as happy with Okafor, especially given Bosh's ridiculous salary the next couple of years. And Kevin Love's injuries may limit his future, though yes he's been awfully good.

I'm not sure there's a way to acquire a top-tier Center as a FA.

That is what they said on the Houston board