mr570 wrote:Why are Suns fans so adamant about not trading 10? It's a weak draft. If all you lose is Oubre (Rubio old and never been a superstar) that's a deal worth making for an All Star.
The 10th pick is very valuable to us for a number of reasons.
1- It represents low scale cost contractually controlled asset, Which obviously is very important in this current financial climate, With the declining cap, financial restrictions, and happening to have one of the poorest owners ( by comparison) in the entire league. Cap flexibility will be absolutely critical to the success of individual teams currently.
2- This may very well be the last high range pick that we get for quite a while considering our forward progression, Even absent the Chris Paul trade. Good teams maintain a balanced roster of experienced veterans AND an influx of young developing talent to rotate into the roster, As well as to add low cost positional depth.
3- Value exchange based on principle. In this trade, We're already surrendering two KEY rotation starters that happened to help us to our best win total in years, and an 8 game win streak at the end of the season. Ounmbre has been a profound culture changer for our franchise, is just entering his prime, And gives us an edge this team has lacked for a long time. Rubio has been much better than expected, He's been the engine to a starting lineup that was in the top 7 in the entire league. And BOTH of Rubio/ Oubre were part of a starting lineup that had a + 20 Net rating! So our lineup outscored opponents by an average of 20 points with that lineup. So the value of Rubio and Oubre absolutely must be considered in proper context. Presti may not prefer either for his roster plans, But it's absurd for anyone to imply that they wouldn't have good value to a number of other teams in the league that he could flip them to for additional assets/ draft capital.
And additionally, As good as Paul is, His trade value in this scenario is predominantly being predicted upon his reputation. The facts of this trade are that Paul, Although still a difference maker is a HUGE RISK due to his age (potential for reoccurring injuries), documented pattern of injury, Resulting in his missing an average of 20+ games per season. And his contract equates to an investment of over HALF of a team's entire cap flexibility. So if he at all reverts to his usual patterns of missing 20 games or more, Then we've now tied up over half of our cap space in an injured player that obviously can't contribute if he's not on the floor. Also, post trade, This legitimately depletes our positional depth at key positions.
For instance, IF ( Fairly likely) Paul.goes down with an injury, Then who is our back guard? If we're giving up our only draft pick in this deal, How do we reasonably and affordably fill not only our backup guard position, But also our wing depth that we lose, Along with the other positions we'll need to give up in the deal, Just to make the salaries work? The huge risks associated with Taking Paul's enormous contract back, Along with the other concerning factors, doesn't at all increase his value in a trade, IF anything, it decreases it. Rubio/ Oubre and possibly a draft pick or young players from another team is realistically more than enough value in a return for OKC, When you consider that we're giving them over 40 million in additional cap savings, AND throwing in two productive starting level rotation players in the deal. If OKC really wants young players added, that's fine! I'm cool with adding any combination of Jerome/ Okobo/ Diallo/ even Lecque if they prefer. But if we're being honest, This trade is not a critical necessity to our success, If anything it's a heavy and ultimately unecessary gamble foarour team to try and take a jump in our next step.
