i know i've said it before, but i can't think of very many reasonable trades in which i'd give up monta. he's too good of a player for what he's paid.
Nothing on Orlando I that would make me think about moving Monta besides Dwight. I'm still open to trading Monta though. His value is crazily high and I'm prone to believe that the team could be better with Curry dominating the ball and swapping Monta out with a more traditional quality wing player. If we did a Monta-Iggy move you'd think we could get more than just Iggy back based on their respective current "stock". Iggy + Speights/Hawes/Kapono (6 mil expiring)/etc.? Then we'd have a Curry, Iggy, Lee, Beans core plus we'd have added a bench rotation player AND we'd have the expirings still to land another big time player, ideally a C. The defense would be a lot better with Iggy and space eating C. Maybe down the line you can still swap Biedrins for another good wing player with a similar salary to further bolster the team. Monta is great but it kind of feels like Curry defers to him a lot and the other players are less involved when Monta plays. Hes getting ok assist numbers but its still give-the-ball-to-monta-and-stand-around offense when hes getting a ton of touches and having the tiny backcourt is a big reason why our defense struggles and we foul a lot too IMO. A guy like Iggy is no slouch on offense plus hes an excellent defender with excellent size, he can shut guys down and won't let as many perimiter guys blow by him. Curry, Iggy, Dorell, Lee, Beans looks pretty nice and gets us further away from small ball/up tempo ball. Plus we'd still have expirings and probably have added an asset from Philly because Iggy's stock is low and Monta's is sky high. But thats only assuming Philly even wants Monta back. He could fit well next to Jrue who is a big PG and defensive oriented. GMs have done a lot dumber things. After all Monta is playing like a top 5 SG and his presence allows Turner to get burn at SF and Jrue at PG. It could immediately vault them into the playoff picture. And if the GM is on the outs he may feel pressure to get an impact player immediately. Monta could be an easier sell in Philly too because of allvthe comparisons to AI. Oh yeah they desperately need a starting C too. I'd move Beans as well. If we could get Iggy and still keep those expirings/cap room and land a big center I'd be ecstatic.
Monta is just such a crazy-good deal for $10 mils. By comparison, Iggy is getting 15 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast and is making more than Monta at $12 mils. I agree with "i hate..." that dollar for dollar it will be very hard to get equal value back for a Monta trade right now...
I wouldn't want to trade our team leader for anything less than a Joe Johnson, Brandon Roy or a Danny Granger. I've never really been a fan of Andre Iguodola because he's not a very good scorer like the other multi-skilled high basketball iq wings and his free throw shooting will drive a fan nuts. I like the skills and defensive ability, though. Also, could he be the league's highest rebounding guard? That's impressive, but I wish we could be getting a guy like younger Paul Pierce for somebody like Monta. Paul Pierce is proof you don't need to be a higher flyer to get things done. We just need somebody to deliver when it counts. So far Monta has been that guy several times this season when nobody else showed up. Actually, I think our starting lineup is pretty decent. The only thing I don't like is how thin our bench is at certain positions like shooting guard and point guard. Charlie Bell is not a very good stop gap at combo guard. Rodney Carney is a hit or miss player most nights like a Mikael Pietrus. I like Reggie Williams, but he needs to go back to being a 3rd option scorer not a sixth man off the bench. He needs to pass more like he used to. Jeremy Lin is not very ready like most rookies aren't. Ironically, I think power forward is where we are the deepest, but too bad for injuries. We still suck very badly without a double double guy. Biedrins is capable but he fouls way too much and he does not make others better the way David Lee does.
