Westbrook: All the shots you want in Orlando

[tiderulz]

Elf+Vuc+picks, MAYBE hezonja

OKC has Adams, Kanter and Sabonis. They have no need for Vuc.

[MasterGMer]

What if W Brook leaves 2017 or Ibaka? That is 4 years of rebuilding to the trash can.

[rusoopE]

What if W Brook leaves 2017 or Ibaka? That is 4 years of rebuilding to the trash can.

exactly +1, people get too hyped about nonsense trades, when we should keep this rosterand see how progress, FA next year is gonna be exciting aswell, try to do the best we can this year to lure a possible star next season.

[Bensational]

He's an unrestricted FA.

But we still have his bird rights.

and that didnt keep Durant, Horford, Lebron, just to name a few

I think the original point in question was whether or not we could sign Westbrook to a max deal and still keep Ibaka, and I think mattyboi might have confused UFA with bird rights. I could be wrong though.

[LBPTarHeel27]

What if W Brook leaves 2017 or Ibaka? That is 4 years of rebuilding to the trash can.

exactly +1, people get too hyped about nonsense trades, when we should keep this rosterand see how progress, FA next year is gonna be exciting aswell, try to do the best we can this year to lure a possible star next season.

Would we really set ourselves back that far? We were a 35 win team last year. Say we trade Vuc + Elf + Mario + Picks away. Ibaka and Westbrook walk. We are left with Fournier, Gordon, & Biyombo next summer and a ton of cap space to fill in the holes. Would it really be that hard to get back to 35 wins? We'd still have our most promising young talent, a great coaching staff, and two quality players in Fournier & Biyombo.

The notion of letting things develop...hopefully improving significantly and becoming more attractive to a big name FA...is great and isn't the worst way to approach building our team. However, THE BEST free agent on the market next summer could be available right now. Next summer, we will struggle to get a meeting with him. By trading for him, you get a chance to show him that it can work here. He can have his team, his franchise. We would at least be on his "list" of potential destinations. Right now...we are just hoping that he thinks of us when he gets calls from all of the top tier teams.

The best case scenario: We land a true MVP candidate and retain him long term.
The worst case scenario: We suffer a small setback to our rebuild and start again.

We have been saying for years that we need our stud. This is a potential opportunity to do that. If we can pull it off...you take the risk. It is worth the reward and the worst case scenario would not be the end of the world.

[axl_c_cool]

what most of you guys are saying is that if we trade for westbrook, he will leave. but if we don't trade for him, he will magically want to sign a contract with us

But we should morgage our future and give him every bit of power needed on the hope he stays. Westbrook isn't signing with us, and if we trade him he leaves for one of the LA teams, chooses some different buddies and rolls out. IF we traded for him, and kept Gordon (Vucevic, Hezonja, Payton, multiple picks) and he signed an extension that makes things different, but he won't. It has to have guarantees, and it won't. That's 3 years of losing and lottery picks, for what, Westbrook and Ibaka to potentially walk.......

if they both end up leaving, are we still not back to the situation before the trade where we have a ton of cap space and in a better free agent pool? but i will agree that this whole thread is dumb

But we'd have lost our young core!

[Bensational]

Yeah, the allure of Westbrook is very appealing, but the risk is too big.


Dwight - left the Lakers and Kobe/Pau and their recent Finals/Championship caliber squad.
LeBron - left a Heat team with 4 finals appearances and 2 rings.
LMA - left a high achieving Portland squad with Lillard.
Horford - just left a team that loves him, that he's been with since he was a rookie, who were in the ECFs a season ago.
KD - just left an OKC team that was 1 game shy of a 2nd Finals appearance.

There are just too many star players who are showing their own agendas matter most in free agency (which is fine). The risk of gutting the team for a 1 year rental of Westbrook just isn't worth it. We could have every shot of signing him next summer, even if another team gives up a bunch of resources for him this summer.

[Nemesis21]

Do not trade for him, wait until next summer. Hopefully Henny and Ibaka stay in constant touch with Westbrook this season.

[Trailbreaker]

Would we be able to have a compelling argument to sign here come Summer 2017? I'm almost more inclined to take chances on a trade just to get Westbrook here and let things play out. The Eastern Conference is the easier road to the Finals. Did Westbrook and Ibaka get along well in OKC?

[Magic_Johnny12]

The highest I will go in regards to trading for Westbrook "mid - season" will be the following and hope Ibaka and the Hennigan connection and a long playoff run convinces him to stay long term.

Jeff Green
Mario Hezonja
'18 Own 1st (some type of low protections)
'19 LA unprotected 1st
Whatever 2nd rd picks they want

For

Westbrook
Singler (bad contract)

Anything more is simply not worth it.

[Driguez]

I wouldn't trade for him, wait for next off season. The probability of him leaving for a big market is way too high.

[thelead]

LOL... and you guys thought I was crazy just a week ago

[Magic_Johnny12]

The bottom line is if you're able to obtain a superstar because that's what he is and a top 5 player on all accounts you do it. If you think there's a 10% chance he'll resign you do the trade x10 over.

Also having Ibaka and Hennigan here would also help matters.

Hennigan seems like a gambling man and wouldn't blame him if he pulled the trigger.

[Magic_Johnny12]

I don't care what anyone says a team with that much offensive/defensive fire power with quality depth and a top five coach is competing in the eastern conference finals easily.

[Def Swami]

Think I'm going to give up on this dream. Furthest I'd go is Payton, Vucevic, and picks. And I think other teams can offer up more. The risk of losing him after acquiring him is too much for our rebuild. The pay-off would be huge if he did re-up, but could also set us back a bit if he didn't.

[Magic_Johnny12]

Westbrook > Irving
Fournier > JR Smith
Gordon << Lebron
Ibaka > Love
Vucevic > Thompson

Magic bench > Cleveland bench

Vogel >> Lue

Lebron at any second could go into god mode sure and they have a lot of experience on us, but it would definitely be a fun series to watch.

[Cammo101]

I've struggled with this decision for a while now, but I think you have to try to trade for Westbrook. It is simply too difficult to find one, you have to roll the dice and hope you can convince him to stay. You simply can not compete for titles in this league without star players. I wouldn't move Gordon, but I'd absolutely do Elf, Mario, Vuc (somewhere else in a 3 way), and as many firsts as it takes.

Then you pray. It's not optimal, but if you have a better plan for how we can compete for a title in the current climate of the NBA, I'm all ears.

[IGotDaMagicInMe]

Elf+Vuc+picks, MAYBE hezonja

OKC has Adams, Kanter and Sabonis. They have no need for Vuc.

Involve a third team we did the same when we traded Dwight

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[IGotDaMagicInMe]

Elf+Vuc+picks, MAYBE hezonja

For a top 5 player in the NBA? This place cracks me up.

I know the situation is somewhat different, but we traded a top five player for vucevic before anybody know how good he was, more harmless, and afflalo

Trading Payton, current vuc, hezonja and picks is much better than that haul

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[Baka_La Flame]

If we can get it done without giving up Mario or AG I say go for it. Other then that no sir