sco wrote:rtblues wrote:Wondering what Zach Lavine's trade value is right now? The answer would be very telling in assessing his "actual" value.
If the sell-high thinking is true, it's time to look at this. Should the rest of the league's responses/offers be less than
exciting, it tells you something.
The talk of "building around" a player really isn't possible unless that player is an All-Star, an All-NBA first or 2nd team selection, Defensive Player of the Year, MVP, something tangible and real and not hopes. I just don't think you can consider anything less than one of these high-level achievement players as a cornerstone player you build around, unless it is a generational, obvious talent rookie like Zion, and even then...
Arguments to the contrary are simply the cognitive dissonance thinking of a fan, in other words, "I wish it to be true, so it is".
I totally agree that Zach isn't a #1 option to "build around", but I also have significant doubts that he brings you back a guy or a pick that is at all likely to be a #1 option to build around (honestly, I don't think any of the top guys mentioned in this draft are a #1 option on a contender). I know folks are enamored with trading him for a handful of magic beans, but they are just regular beans.
Well, now you've sort of confirmed it. If he wouldn't bring very much in return in a trade, what does it say about his actual value?
If he was a seriously sought after commodity, there would be something more in return than the magic beans you reference. And no, you would not get back a guy that you could build around, since, again, you've got to give good to get good.
The trade market and the values it ultimately assigns players are in-fact the ultimate acid-test of a player's worth, that trumps all of our opinions. Plus, this was a "sell-high" scenario we were playing out, so it should truly be his max value. Like Las Vegas odds-makers, the trade market also doesn't lie. It is what it is, it's not a matter of opinion, it's just the reality.
In the original post, I really only posed the question if it was time to look at trading Zach, while the Bulls would be "trading high" as he is in his prime and still on a good contract. I wasn't necessarily advocating for it, but just asking what people thought the value may actually be and how telling that answer may be.