That's if we want to trade. And who'd we want anyway? Howard? I bet he's gonna suck and be a nightmare.
This is a story about Josh Smith, but there's a bunch about Monroe and his pros/cons: The ironic thing, after reading the article, is that if DET swapped out Monroe for LMA they'd solve a lot of their frontcourt problems. DET being able to run out Smith/LMA/Drummond would be sick both defensively and offensive. In return, though, there would have to be much more coming back than just Monroe--who could be a very useful player, but would put a ton of pressure on our D--and I don't think DET has the assets or the inclination to do so.
brings up an interesting question: assuming that both players get the "max" allotted to them (if we keep LMA or get Monroe in a trade and extend him), would you want to be paying LMA a 5/94M contract with a salary starting at 17M or so in his Age 30 season and going up to 20.4M in his Age 34 season; or a 5/77M contract to Monroe starting at 13.7M in his Age 25 season and up to 17M in his age 29 season? Or if he goes the RFA route (the "Roy Hibbert Plan") the max would be 4/58M.
Zach Lowe pretty much sums up my exact feeling on the matter in that article "But Drummond projects as a game-changing defender. Monroe does not, and offense-only big men on their second NBA contracts tend to become drains on a team's salary cap who also place limits on their team's ceiling." So my answer is that I don't want Monroe on any big contract unless he improves on his D.
I think he can improve his D but let's say he doesn't, he is barely below Aldridge in that area who does have the large contract.
People are giving too little credit for aldridges footwork and man on man defense. He rarely needs any double help and he's able to keep the forwards out of their sweet spots. There's no oddity that the team holds players to shitty fg% when he's close to the basket. I doubt Monroe will ever get to that level.
You are greatly under valuing Aldridges D and Monroe hasn't really improved on D at all in three years so I doubt he is suddenly going to start caring Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
LMA is a better defender. I not debating that. I debating by how much. LMA is not close to all-world. And for the record, I don't want to trade LMA. I would rather he stays. I just don't see that happening. Monroe is probably only one of the 10 young players I could see being worth trading LMA for (if they threw in a 1st and maybe some other player).
I've been trying to bring up the issue of LMA's next contract for a while now, but nobody seems to be interested in thinking about it. I think it would be an absolute nail in the coffin to be paying him $17-20M a year. And that's the #1 reason we should trade him by the deadline - regardless of whether he wants to stay with us or not (and, BTW, I don't think he does) he will be a huge financial burden.
EDIT: He's making 14 mil now. A 4 mil increase is now a huge nail in the coffin?! Lmao!!! Okay let's break this down shall we? Let's say he's getting 18 mil next contract. Let's break down his career numbers as reference. Career stats: 18.3 ppg, 7.8 rebounds, 2 assists 1 block and 1 steal That means he's getting roughly around 1 mil per point. Now let's look at your boy Nic Batum. 11.8 mil going into the season Aldridge may get his big salary. 11 ppg, 4.3 rebounds, 2 assists, 0.8 blocks and 1 steal. By this same account, Nic is just a financial liability. Yet you give Nic a pass and say Aldridge is some sort of burden? Seriously blue9....
Iv thought about it but were I stand on it is that we should have a core that's grown and be an up and coming team by then so paying LMA max money isn't going to be a bad thing since we wouldn't have the space to go out and use that money to grab a player of equal or better value, also lets be honest no player of LAs caliber has ever signed with portland. Trading him for young assets should only happen if we know he is leaving or someone gives us a "can't say no" type trade. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
If the Harden Rumor was true; that was a big fumble IMO. Pairing Harden with Lillard would have been insane!
I thought the Harden rumor was made by someone here. I never actually saw a rumor saying it was ever discussed. Just idle chatter of what OKC could get. I don't think anyone expected Harden to be this good especially after the egg he laid in the finals. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Oh I thought it was a rumor. My mistake. But could you imagine if OKC had Westbrook, Durant and Aldridge? That's way better than LBJ, Wade (old) and Bosh.
We most certainly can get much better value. A player like Hickson at $5M is a far better value than a ~30-year-old LMA at $17-20M. If we give LMA a max extension he'll be the next Rashard Lewis...only teams will be even less hesitant to take him back in a trade because of the new tax structure. I don't particularly want Monroe on a max deal, but that'd be far more preferable than LMA on an even more expensive max deal.
Okay for one, he will not get 20 million. Sorry, but no team in the league will pay him that amount. I'd say 18 mil MAX, and that's even pressing it. But your reference that a 5 mil Hickson is more valuable than a 30 year Aldridge is completely silly. Is a 5th year Matthews better than a 12 year Kobe? That's how drastic the talent jump is.
