Fake Trade Thread 2014-15

[BeesWax]

Well that is your opinion.

Spacing is the one thing we need at this point.

I suppose we could just play Hairston or Hendo as third point.

Roberts is a better ball handler and a good shooter and much smarter. Lance can play some backup point and is a solid shooter. Hopefully we'll make some kind of move that allows to resign CDR and Hairston projects to be a pretty good shooter. Our spacing issues aren't so bad or important that we need Neal. He is just at the very bottom of the totem pole in my opinion.

I'm talking about Neal playing behind roberts, literally at the bottom of the totum pole.

For fear of injury I would really like to have a real 3rd PG. If we could find a young project type guy that would be nice or a veteran pg who is fine in that role.

[MasterIchiro]

Hairston is 100% low man on the totem pole.

[Braggins]

Hairston is a spot up shooter right now. He can't dribble like Neal and he can't pass worth ****. Hairston is the cameo guy imo. Neal stays for his scoring streaks and Henderson goes for his lack of shooting/spacing.

Neal costs more and has no upside compared to Hairston and we don't need him at point at all. I would rather get rid of Neal over anyone on our roster. It just makes more sense to me to get rid of Neal since he ideally will never play anyways and it isn't like he isn't getting any better or could provide anything more than the nothing he provides us with currently. Even when he has a little run his defense is such a joke that he is still barely a net positive.

[Braggins]

Hairston is 100% low man on the totem pole.

Why would we value someone who has maxed out as a third or fourth option over a young guy who makes less and has room to develop? Even if we don't really need him at all this year there is still a chance he could become a very good backup as a 3 and D guy. Neal isn't getting any better and is flat out terrible.

[MasterIchiro]

Here is a deal I would make:

Zeller for Harrison Barnes

PG-Kemba Walker/Brian Roberts
SG-Lance Stephenson/Gary Neal/PJ Hairston
SF-Michael Kidd-Gilchrist/Harrison Barnes
PF-Marvin Williams/Noah Vonleh
C-Al Jefferson/Bismack Biyombo

Because of the drafting of Vonleh we need more shooting depth than we need Cody Zeller so I say turn Zeller into shooting depth.

Marvin Williams takes over the spacing role of McRoberts and Lance takes over the secondary ball handler role. Williams is a 2 year wall in front of Vonleh instead of the 4 year wall McRoberts wanted to be here.

[yosemiteben]

Here is a deal I would make:

Zeller for Harrison Barnes

[MasterIchiro]

Hairston is 100% low man on the totem pole.

Why would we value someone who has maxed out as a third or fourth option over a young guy who makes less and has room to develop? Even if we don't really need him at all this year there is still a chance he could become a very good backup as a 3 and D guy. Neal isn't getting any better and is flat out terrible.

Because Hairston doesn't know wtf he's doing out there in summer league let alone against NBA defenders. Neal is **** 29 years old and has played as a major contributor to a Spurs playoff team. Hairston is going to make all kinds of mistakes not knowing how to dribble and chucking up the ball with defenders in his face. There is no way I give Hairston first backup minutes on a win-now team. Neal is here for 1 year. Hairston needs at least one year. I'm in no special hurry to push out Neal to create a premature opportunity for PJ Hairston's rookie year. Clifford even mentioned they're not going to force-feed minutes to Vonleh. These are rookies on a win-now team. It's not like last year where we were kind of in limbo half the year, tank or fight for the playoffs. We're clearly a playoff team, so development needs to be more gradual.

[Braggins]

It is hard to say for sure because Hairston is a wildcard, but I think he will be higher on the depth chart than Neal if they are both on our roster this season. Neal is a better ball handler but we don't want either of them handling the ball anyways and Hairston has better size and athleticism and more upside. He actually can be solid to good on defense if he tries a little bit. Neal is just pathetic. Has everyone forgotten how bad Neal actually was last year? I can't shake the images of him watching guys blow by him and lackadaisically jogging on closeouts while opposing teams shooters lit us up.

[Liver_Pooty]

It is hard to say for sure because Hairston is a wildcard, but I think he will be higher on the depth chart than Neal if they are both on our roster this season. Neal is a better ball handler but we don't want either of them handling the ball anyways and Hairston has better size and athleticism and more upside. He actually can be solid to good on defense if he tries a little bit. Neal is just pathetic. Has everyone forgotten how bad Neal actually was last year? I can't shake the images of him watching guys blow by him and lackadaisically jogging on closeouts while opposing teams shooters lit us up.

I just don't see Hairston being higher than Neal on the depth chart at all next season unless Neal gets injured. Kind of a moot point anyway since neither one of them will get a decent amount of minutes unless we deal Henderson.

[BeesWax]

Here is a deal I would make:

Zeller for Harrison Barnes

I would make that trade assuming we move Henderson somewhere. Barnes can add some scoring punch to our bench and gives us an extra option in a small ball lineup. Or we go bigger and run some Lance-MKG-Barnes-Williams-Biz lineups and really push the pace.

[Braggins]

Hairston is 100% low man on the totem pole.

Why would we value someone who has maxed out as a third or fourth option over a young guy who makes less and has room to develop? Even if we don't really need him at all this year there is still a chance he could become a very good backup as a 3 and D guy. Neal isn't getting any better and is flat out terrible.

Because Hairston doesn't know wtf he's doing out there in summer league let alone against NBA defenders. Neal is **** 29 years old and has played as a major contributor to a Spurs playoff team. Hairston is going to make all kinds of mistakes not knowing how to dribble and chucking up the ball with defenders in his face. There is no way I give Hairston first backup minutes on a win-now team. Neal is here for 1 year. Hairston needs at least one year. I'm in no special hurry to push out Neal to create a premature opportunity for PJ Hairston's rookie year. Clifford even mentioned they're not going to force-feed minutes to Vonleh. These are rookies on a win-now team. It's not like last year where we were kind of in limbo half the year, tank or fight for the playoffs. We're clearly a playoff team, so development needs to be more gradual.

He averaged under 7 points per game on 38.5% fg and 35% 3 pt shooting during that playoff run. He wasn't a major contributor just because he had a little hot streak in the finals. I'm pretty sure those are the only two games anyone remembers from his entire career. I don't think we need to push him out to make an opportunity for Hairston. Ideally, neither of them will be seeing any kind of significant minutes but Neal costs more and has no upside. Hairston could actually be a contributor in a year or two whereas Neal is just bad and going to continue to be nothing but a third or fourth string desperation option. Neal is 29 and still doesn't know what he is doing on defense. He is about as bad as it gets. It was literally pathetic watching him play defense and he doesn't really have any room for improvement. Hairston has all the tools to be a good defender and if he gives effort would likely be better than Neal this year. Neal sucks and serves no purpose here. We could clear 3 million in cap space by sending him to the next team that thinks they are going to get Neal from those two games in the finals a couple years ago.

[mrknowitall215]

I agree with 'Braggins' that Gary Neal's perception around the league is ballooned by the aspect that he played for the Spurs during a title run where he had one big game on the big stage of the NBA Finals, and now everybody think "if Popovich gave him valuable minutes in the playoffs then he must be a rotational player", when that's not necessarily the case

[Liver_Pooty]

I agree with 'Braggins' that Gary Neal's perception around the league is ballooned by the aspect that he played for the Spurs during a title run where he had one big game on the big stage of the NBA Finals, and now everybody think "if Popovich gave him valuable minutes in the playoffs then he must be a rotational player", when that's not necessarily the case

I don't think thats the case at all, but hes much better than Hairston right now.

[Braggins]

I agree with 'Braggins' that Gary Neal's perception around the league is ballooned by the aspect that he played for the Spurs during a title run where he had one big game on the big stage of the NBA Finals, and now everybody think "if Popovich gave him valuable minutes in the playoffs then he must be a rotational player", when that's not necessarily the case

I don't think thats the case at all, but hes much better than Hairston right now.

Why though? Do you not think Hairston could average 8-10 ppg on bad efficiency with bad defense?

[Braggins]

I don't expect anything from Hairston this year but I wouldn't be surprised if he performs above expectations if given the chance. I think he will look better when he has competent guards creating opportunities for him. Alternatively, I don't deny that he could also go completely off the deep end and be out of the league in a couple years.

[MasterIchiro]

Hairston will be more inefficient and need to be spoon fed. He's limited to smaller spaces, can't create for himself or others and is too slow to escape being a needy player who needs to have everything lined up on a silver platter. And he's not a better 3-pt shooter right now than Neal because his shot selection sucks even worse. The kid needs to ride pine. They had better not deal Neal.

[Liver_Pooty]

I agree with 'Braggins' that Gary Neal's perception around the league is ballooned by the aspect that he played for the Spurs during a title run where he had one big game on the big stage of the NBA Finals, and now everybody think "if Popovich gave him valuable minutes in the playoffs then he must be a rotational player", when that's not necessarily the case

I don't think thats the case at all, but hes much better than Hairston right now.

Why though? Do you not think Hairston could average 8-10 ppg on bad efficiency with bad defense?

On 14 shots a game probably.

[Braggins]

Hairston will be more inefficient and need to be spoon fed. He's limited to smaller spaces, can't create for himself or others and is too slow to escape being a needy player who needs to have everything lined up on a silver platter. And he's not a better 3-pt shooter right now than Neal because his shot selection sucks even worse. The kid needs to ride pine. They had better not deal Neal.

Since when could Neal create for himself or others? I know sometimes Neal dribbles around a bunch and throws up a terrible shot but that isn't what we want on this team at all. Neal is only effective at all when in the exact role you just described for Hairston. Neal needs to ride the pine. If we are giving Neal minutes that likely means bad things for our team. I don't think either will see significant minutes next year but we haven't even seen Hairston play with our actual roster yet and he has upside. I can't believe anyone is defending Neal. We already know Neal sucks and he is completely maxed out. Neal is the most expendable player under contract by far. There is seriously no upside at all to keeping him here as a fourth string SG. You would seriously trade Hairston before you would Neal?

[yosemiteben]

Here is a deal I would make:

Zeller for Harrison Barnes

I would make that trade assuming we move Henderson somewhere. Barnes can add some scoring punch to our bench and gives us an extra option in a small ball lineup. Or we go bigger and run some Lance-MKG-Barnes-Williams-Biz lineups and really push the pace.

For as much as I like to stick up for young players, I guess it makes sense to think that Barnes could really improve, but his numbers last season scared me off.

Plus I don't want to hear all my Duke friends whine about how "MJ slurps UNC players," regardless of how true that statement is.

[BeesWax]

I don't think thats the case at all, but hes much better than Hairston right now.

Why though? Do you not think Hairston could average 8-10 ppg on bad efficiency with bad defense?

On 14 shots a game probably.

It would not shock me in the slightest if Hairston could outplay Neal. Hairston's play in summer league hasn't been great mostly because his shots aren't falling. He is getting good looks and has had fine shot selection durning the games he is just rattling shots out. Once he gets it dialed in and gets to play in normal offense I expect his shot to trend more towards what it was his sophomore year at UNC.