Steve Nash to Portland (Proposed trade) Nash is a free agent after the season and, as our Marc Stein noted earlier this year, his contract isn't extension-eligible. So any team trading for him would basically be taking him on as a rental. Who would do such a thing? Well, the Blazers might. Portland has been undone by uneven backcourt play so far this year, something that obviously would change the second Nash showed up. And they have the perfect pieces to put into a deal. Raymond Felton has an expiring contract of his own that nearly matches Nash's, which means the deal basically comes down to prospects. Portland can offer two young guards -- Nolan Smith and Elliot Williams -- and possibly a future draft pick, as well. This may seem like small change for a player of Nash's caliber, but again, it's just a half-season rental, and I'm not sure the Suns will get any better offers than this. A year ago they might have been able to do nearly the same deal except with Nicolas Batum coming back; that isn't happening now. The Suns may not be willing to deal Nash, of course; that's been their stance the past two years. But the overwhelmingly obvious fact that this team isn't any good even with Nash may cause them to change their tune. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story?page=PERDiem-120131&_slug_=nba-time-play-let-make-deal&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fstory%3fpage%3dPERDiem-120131%26_slug_%3dnba-time-play-let-make-deal
Id rather not give up elliot williams id give smith up though. If we plan on offerng gordan near max money id give up elliot Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk
I'd give up either one of Nolan or Elliot, probably even both. If Batum's injury is indeed a torn ACL I'd consider him as well. I'd rather keep our draft picks but if we have to send out a 2015 pick I'd do that too. I think Nash gives us a shot at being the #2 team in the west, and then we are a few lucky buckets away from making the finals.
Are we good enough in other areas for a player like Nash to matter? If adding Nash gives us a chance at winning the championship, then they should do it. If not though, then shouldn't they hold on to their young prospects.
If you want to push your chips in, then Williams has to be on the table. He's got some upside ... which is precisely why the Suns would demand he come in the trade because Felton is clearly a downgrade and every other piece we have to offer in trade isn't particularly attractive for a team about to go young and rebuild. Frankly, I don't think Nash is the elusive last piece that pushes us into contention, but it would give them a shot at a higher playoff seed at least and that seems to matter to Paul Allen more than setting the table for a couple of years from now.
Nash enjoyed watching us Destroy the Suns last Friday from his seat on the floor. I think he would enjoy playing here as well. If Oden miraculously comes back and we were to get Nash this team would be transformed.
The problem with our young prospects, most of them are not that good of prospects. EWill is a maybe but he hasn't done well enough to break into playing time yet. Based on what I've seen of our prospects, I'd package the whole of them (along with getting rid of Felton) to get Nash, whether he stays or not. At this point, getting rid of Felton is a classic addition by subtraction. It is difficult to get worse. Gramps...
Throwing in some of Elliot, Nolan, or Babbitt actually would increase our cap space this summer a small bit as well.
Nolan, Luke, and Armon can all go straight to hell. I can't believe we wasted 1st round picks on the first two. Ewill is our only decent prospect right now.
A half season of Nash isnt worth giving up Williams and Smith. Nash isnt going to bring us a championship this year.
There's no guarantee Nash leaves after the year, but there's also no guarantee that he won't want to stay. Portland is the kind of place NBA good-guy types like Frye, Przybilla, Blake, Brian Grant, etc tend to really like. Nash kind of seems in that mold. I can see him re-signing here. At least there's a decent chance. Which means signing him limits the possibility of finding ourselves scraping up another Raymond Felton next summer. Sure I'd love to get Deron Williams, but I hate having too many irons in that fire. Yeah, it may be only half a season. But this season is also about 1/7 of Aldridge's remaining prime years. This is probably the last productive year for Camby (and possibly Wallace). I'd like to see us make the most of it with a decent playoff run, even if it doesn't result in a championship. I'd be reluctant to trade our youngsters, but then I have to remember there were times when I was reluctant to trade Webster, Outlaw, Jack and Telfair. You don't get Scottie Pippen without giving up Kelvin Cato.
I would do anything to get Nash. Our PGs are lame! We need someone to lead this club from the perimeter. And teams daring us to shoot will be punished by Nash. We won't see the bullshit of leaving Felton wide open to double Aldridge.
