I would give up rudy in a heart-beat for Butler http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/david_aldridge/02/08/morning.tip/
Sigh.... Kevin Pritchard is in for a reality check when some of these young players leave via free agency and he gets nothing in return.
"Don't discount Portland, either. While much has been made of the Blazers' pursuit of Washington center Brendan Haywood, the Blazers have just as much, if not more, interest in Butler, and are willing to put $3 milliion in cash toward a deal -- which certainly interests the Wizards. But Portland's refusal to put any of its young players other than Martell Webster in any potential deal puts it on the outside looking in." A. Who's discounting Portland? B. Oh I see, you are in your own article "Hey everyone, don't discount Portland. They refuse to give any of their young players up so it's probably not going to happen."
C'mon, you don't honsetly believe Pritchard is refusing to trade ONLY Rudy and 3 million in cash for Butler.. do you? Didn't Washington just ask for a starting package of Batum AND Rudy for Haywood? They'd clearly be asking for more in return for Butler...
I'm slowly starting to get into the "willing to trade Rudy" camp. Turning him/other pieces into Caron Butler would be amazing. I'd hate to give up on Rudy though, I'm a big fan of his, but his inconsistency drives me nuts. He's real good when he can drive and get to the hoop rather than settle for jumpers but I don't know if his body type can withstand that kind of pounding for 82 games every year. What would you do though with Roy/Batum/Butler?
See this is exactly what POR SHOULD be going after.... Give up Batum in a deal for Butler....Butler becomes your starting SF, and you still have a young Martell Webster to back him up, you still have Victor Claver overseas as a prospect, you have Roy\Rudy capable of playing SF versus certain lineups and Dante Cunningham...and not to mention Travis Outlaw, at least for the remainder of this season, but who knows after that.... Deal from a position of strength....POR can absorb the loss of Batum...WAS gets a nice young player to replace Butler.... and IMO keeping Rudy is more important for POR.....given Roy's injuries, having a good backup at SG like Rudy is important to have, and frankly Rudy is an extremely versatile and intelligent player....being a fan favorite doesn't hurt either.... I don't care for seeing a backcourt of Bayless and MIller when Roy is down with an injury...and I would much rather have Rudy out there at SG than Webster.... You don't trade Rudy for Butler, not when you have 4 young SF...that is just idiotic IMO...
I usually agree with everything you say, but im sorry, i dont trade Batum for Butler, Batum is the 2nd best player on this team. I would rather trade LMA than Batum
Actually it looks like they offered Martell AND Rudy, as well as 3 mill in cash. Others would have to be included to make the deal work.
Rudy + Webster + Blake for Butler makes a lot of sense and works cash-wise. You'd then have a really nice rotation at the 2/3 of Roy, Butler and Batum. Pretty easy to see how those pieces fit together. Probably the biggest concern is that Butler is 29, and Rudy and Webster are each about 5 years younger. So you are giving up about 10 years of net collective future play to get a guy who is an upgrade, but not a massive upgrade, over what we already have. I guess the key question is this: Does adding Butler make us a legit contender next year?
He is not the 2nd best player on the team...come on now..... Roy, LA, Oden flat out are the top 3 and near untouchable IMO..... After that it is debateable IMO who is a better player Batum or Rudy...the rest I could care less about.... All Batum has shown is some above average defensive ability...which is a very good skill...offensively he has been inconsistent at best...invisible at worst...He certainly thrives more in the open court...but then again so do most of our players outside of Roy and as long as Nate is the coach I don't see that changing much.... Webster BTW, while not as good defensively as Batum, has shown stretches of good defense as well though...and you short sell Butler who is a VERY good player and clearly a step up from anything we have our current roster....including Batum. And again, this roster is overloaded at SF...with YOUNG SF....No one wants to deal anything significant for Outlaw or Webster...You don't know what you quite have yet in Claver and you have a nice bench\back-up player in Cunningham...Can't give all these guys minutes.... Adding Butler to this team makes it a lot stronger NOW and for the next what? 4-5 years? at SF...I think too many people here are HOPING to see Batum develop into this "All Star" level SF...I'd rather have a player that I KNOW is one (or close to one) now...and BTW you still have a what 28-29 year old Webster 4-5 years from now, and\or likely a 24yr old Claver? This loss can be absorbed.... Batum is a good player...and yeah he is very young...His trade value is high...meaning POR can use him in a deal to get a STARTING CALIBER AND ALL STAR CAPABLE SF now and for the next several years.... Pritchard is an idiot if he cannot see that..... Not every young player traded away becomes Jermaine O'Neal....The Batum = Pippen comments are borderline ludicrous at this stage of his career....
That is a pretty nice solid 8 man rotation, with Mills/Pendergraph/Cunningham filling in the holes. It may be that we pick Blake right back up this summer too--it wouldn't be the first time he boomeranged back to this team. (That'd be the third time--is that some kind of record?) Or we pick up somebody else at the MLE to fill in the gaps.
*edited* Batum has a higher ceiling than a Butler in his prime, that he comes cheaper, that he already has a year and a half playing with the core of Blazers, and that his age fits in with the desired dynastic run.
why are we even posting rumors. kpee has zero trading skills not to mention hes in love with average players like rudy. there will be no trade. stop wasting time.
So *edited* because he disagrees with you on speculation? There is no more to back up you than him. Speculation is exactly that. 20 points and 7 rebounds a game is a lofty goal.
