There are only a handful of PG's I'd consider 'elite'. What "elite" PG's out there could be realistically obtained? His defense sucks but what about a Jose Calderon? His passing and court vision is elite. Pipe dreams of pipe dreams: Deron Williams.
IMO, none of those that would be considered "elite" are available. Hinrich is probably the best point guard for whom we could actually trade.
Hinrich is far from elite. He's not the same player he was 2-3 years ago. He's on the tier of Steve Blake. Andre Miller is a top-10 PG. But the way Philly is playing I don't see them making any big moves. Steve Nash, in the short term, would improve our team and development of Greg.
There is no way Hinrich is on the "same tier of Steve Blake." No. Not even close. Hinrich is a way better all-around player than Blake.
I never said he was elite. In fact, I pretty clearly said he wasn't, by stating that we couldn't trade for any elite PG's, but we could trade for Hinrich. That said, equating him to Blake is laughable.
hahahahaha...wow that was good. hinrich actually knows how to play defense, so that puts him above "blakey"
Elite is pretty subjective, so it's pretty hard to quantify anybody outside of the obvious candidates (Paul, Williams, Nash, Kidd, Billups) on balance I'd say they are at least 3 tool players (that is they are able to do 3/4 tasks at a high level: passing, defense, shooting, or slashing ... with the greatest weight given to passing and setting the offense) Calderon is a pretty elite player on the offensive end, but he's terrible enough on defense that I'd probably downgrade him from "elite" to "very good." I'm guessing that whomever KP might have in mind, the player is going to have to be a good defender on the perimeter, with good play-making ability and the ability to hit the open shot ... and probably not a wet behind the ears youngin' either. Hinrich comes pretty close to fitting that description I guess.
I am taking the middle ground on this. No way should we be thinking about getting Kirk. His numbers have dropped recently with injuries and he hasnt performed well on a losing team. While Blake isn't better by any means, it seems like a lateral move. Sacrificing blakes offense for kirks defense. You also have to take into account Kirks long term 8.5-10m dollar contract over 4 seasons in comparison to blakes 4.5m. using raef on kirk seems like a waste of money to me at least.
Everyone's numbers dropped on that team last year, and he's never had a major injury until this year. He only missed 19 games in his first 5 years; it's not like he's injury prone. I think it's arguable that Kirk would put up much better numbers than he has been if he came to Portland, as he would get much better looks. Also, he drives the ball more than Blake does, and he distributes better, so to say that Blake is better offensively is simply fallacious. Kirk's large, long contract would be a benefit to us, if taking him would help Chicago part with Deng as well. Nobody really wants to use Raef solely to get Hinrich; we would pick him up as part of a package deal--a deal which would upgrade our PG spot.
He's an elite athlete and slasher, but with him injured for the first half of the season and now not playing alongside Baron, I don't know that people have seen enough of him at the point to say one way or another. He's definitely an elite combo-guard though.
New Rule: KP should stay away from trading with players from uptempo systems. You never really know how they will translate under Nate.
1. But his numbers have gone down in the last 2 years regardless, making me question if he will make it back to the same level of play. 2. To say that Kirk would have more success is also simply fallacious. It's pure speculation. The problem I have with your take, and the same can be said for mine, is that it's pure speculation. We know what we have with Blake and we know what Kirk has done in his last 2 seasons. Recent history suggests Kirk isn't playing at the same level as he once was. Can he reclaim the magic? I don't know, but to promise Kirk comes with Deng seems a little steep and a bit of a quick trigger. Last time I checked Deng isn't going to be had for Raef and spare parts like Travis or Channing. And don't suggest replacing kirk with JBay, that would be a mistake.
I don't care that he's 5'11" , D.J. Augustin is going to be an All-Star PG down the road. He can shoot, score in bunches, and run a team. He's already playing at a high level.
