It expires in two years. He has an early opt out, but he's not going to exercise it. Being able to deal his contract was a Nellie miracle.
I see. I was thinking this was the end year, because opt outs have to be in the last year of a player's contract. But Crawford was signed under the previous CBA, so they could do whacky stuff back then.
Disagree. I'd say its nearly impossible to win a championship with only drafted core players. LAL had to trade for Pau (and Ariza), Bos had to trade for KG and Ray, Detroit traded for Sheed the year they won but even before that they traded for Chauncey, Rip, and Ben Wallace, Heat traded for Shaq and a medley of other players just before winning their championship, LAL traded for Shaq in their previous titles. San Antonio is the only exception but they got lucky landing the Duncan with the top pick while also already having Robinson and then made some great picks with Parker and Ginobili. There just aren't many old school Boston Celtic/LAL type teams that can gather up insane groups of talent in the draft and dominate. Most of the time you need to develop your best player in-house but number two type guys are often acquired from crappy rebuilding teams by well off teams who need one more piece. In this proposed trade we would be giving up on a lot of home grown talent in Beans, Marco, Kelenna, Wright, perhaps Curry but we're still keeping our top prospects in Randolph and Ellis (and to a lesser extent Morrow). Andris is proven to be a nice player but the other guys are only semi-proven and while their careers may look promising its unlikely that we'll be looking back saying we gave up a truly great player. Assuming we've done our homework on Amare's injury issues and contract status, we would be acquiring a still-young monster PF, an all-star of a few times, a dominant player in the paint PLUS we'll pair him with our best home grown prospects. I'm not in love with this trade but as I've said before, if we're giving up Beans and marginal prospects for an all-star big man you gotta do it (again, assuming Amare's health and contract situation are inspected). Adding Curry would hurt a bit but Nellie is a pretty good poker player and I think he'll either a) be forced to include Curry and squeeze more assets out of the Suns or b) wait the Suns out assuming they're pretty dead set on moving Amare and get Amare for a different package, maybe something centered around Ellis or maybe instead we add next year's first? I'm still not counting on this trade happening though. FWIW Sheed from Warriorsworld.net is saying the deal is done, Curry is included and the W's will get Earl Clark too. He cites people from Amare's camp giving him this info. Hes semi-reputable but I still don't really buy it. My guess is we keep Curry and end up executing a trade like what Charlotte apparently offered where we trade some depth at the wing position for a veteran upgrade.
Didn't this same exact thing happen with Amare 2 years ago where it was rumored he was getting traded to the Hawks, dragged out past the draft, and never happened.
Well, at this point it does not look like the deal is happening because of Curry. I don't think we have to make a deal right now, unless it's the proverbial deal that is too good to pass up. Thus, I would not mind seeing how Curry plays at PG. That was one of the key positions that we needed an upgrade at, and from what Nelson is saying, it sounds like he'll start Curry. If Curry is the real deal, then we would have found our PG for now and the future and upgraded our outside shooting which wasn't too shabby to begin with. I'm not predicting a playoff berth, but we should be better than last season. Finally, I agree with Zhone in that we still need to shed some more payroll for 2010. I think we need to keep SJax, but with the development of Azubuike and SJax moving to SF, we do not need sixth man Maggette. Of course, Mags' contract is the rub.
I agree with this statement, kind of. I didn't originally intend to make such a huge tangent, but you know, I am a draft fanatic. I really do have reasoning behind why I scout and pay attention so heavily during this one period of the year when no basketball is being played....because the draft is damn important for the future of your franchise. History is very clear on this if you want to be a championship team. (Of course, if your goal is the playoffs, well, then it's a slightly different story.. but the draft still plays the majority role. You can't ignore its importance). On the other hand, all of the important drafted players were obvious top picks. They had zero question marks - people knew they would be good, they were good, and they won. In most cases, they weren't really "developed" - they were already developed, or grown - they were just picked in years where teams were lucky to get them. Of course, it's not enough alone just to focus on the draft as no one can draft a perfect team with every selection. But the draft comes up again and again as the most important thing in the past 10 years of NBA finals & champions. If you look below, I compiled just a short list taking a team's top 6 players for the two teams to make the finals. (Copy and paste job from an article I meant to write about being a basketball gm, but I never got around to actually making the point then). Very few teams succeeded without landing their franchise cornerstone initially in the draft - the exception among champs is the 2005 Pistons, and the other exceptions are 02-03 Nets, and a good argument can be made either way for the Celtics and the Lakers, although landing Pierce/Bryant via the draft is hard to discount. This leaves approximately 14 out of 20 NBA Championship level teams as draft-based... And what's especially enlightening is how clear the star player is well, the star. I mean there were teams that didn't make it that had a star, but the overwhelming majority teams that did make it that did had their star drafted at a top position within the past 10 years. 1999 - Spurs beat Knicks Spurs: primarily built through draft, especially franchise players Drafted (3) - Robinson, Duncan, Elliot FA (2) - Elie, Johnson Trade (1) - Rose Knicks: evenly built through draft, FA, and trades. However Ewing was a major franchise piece achieved by the draft. Drafted (1) - Ewing FA (2) - Houston, Thomas Trade (3) - Johnson, Sprewell, Camby 2000 - Lakers beat Pacers Lakers: Primarily built through FA & draft. More FA-oriented with O'Neal leading the way. Drafted (2) - Bryant, Fisher FA (3) - O'Neal, Fox, Harper Trade (1) - Rice Pacers: Primarily built through draft. Core of franchise players drafted and put together for 5-10 years. Drafted (4) - Miller, Smits, Croshere, Davis FA (0) Trade (2) - Rose, Jackson 2001 - Lakers beat 76ers Lakers: Same as above, 2000 Drafted (2) - Bryant, Fisher FA (3) - O'Neal, Fox, Harper Trade (1) - Grant 76ers: Primarily built around draft, arguably who in the heck are these other guys without Iverson being drafted? Drafted (1) - Iverson FA (2) - Lynch, McKie Trade (3) - Mutombo, Snow, Hill 2002 - Lakers beat Nets Lakers: Same as above, 2000 Drafted (3) - Bryant, Fisher, George FA (2) - O'Neal, Fox Trade (1) - Horry Nets: Primarily built through trade, with Kidd leading the way, although the draft played an important role Drafted (4) - Martin, Jefferson, Kittles, Van Horn FA (0) Trade (2) - Kidd, Harris 2003 - Spurs beat Nets Spurs: Primarily built through draft Drafted (4) - Robinson, Duncan, Parker, Ginobli FA (1) - Jackson Trade (1) - Rose Nets: See above, 2003 Drafted (3) - Martin, Jefferson, Kittles FA (1) - Rogers Trade (2) - Kidd, Harris 2004 - Pistons beat Lakers Pistons: Primarily built through trades and free agency Drafted (2) - Prince, Okur FA (1) - Billups Trade (3) - B.Wallace, R.Wallace, Hamilton Lakers: See above, 2000, although free agency was attempted to fill gaps in the team Drafted (2) - Bryant, Fisher FA (4) - O'Neal, Fox, Payton, Malone Trade (0) 2005 - Spurs beat Pistons Spurs: Primarily built through draft Drafted (3) - Duncan, Parker, Ginobli FA (2) - Bowen, Horry Trade (1) - Mohammed Pistons: Primarily built through trades and free agency Drafted (1) - Prince FA (2) - Billups, McDyess Trade (3) - B.Wallace, R.Wallace, Hamilton 2006 - Heat beat Mavs Heat: Built through draft and trades Drafted (2) - Wade, Haslem FA (2) - Mourning, Payton Trade (2) - O'Neal, Williams Mavs: Built through draft with some trades Drafted (3) - Nowitzki, Howard, Daniels FA (1) - Dampier Trade (2) - Terry, Stackhouse 2007 - Spurs beat Cavs Spurs: Primarily built through draft Drafted (3) - Duncan, Parker, Ginobli FA (3) - Oberto, Finley, Bowen Trade (0) Cavs: Primarily built through draft Drafted (4) - James, Ilgauskas, Gibson, Pavlovic FA (1) - Hughes Trade (1) - Gooden 2008 - Celtics beat Lakers Lakers: Evenly built between draft and trades Drafted (3) - Bryant, Farmar, Vujajic FA (1) - Fisher Trade (2) - Odom, Gasol Celtics: Built through trades and draft Drafted (3) - Pierce, Rondo, Perkins FA (1) - Posey Trade (2) - Allen, Garnett 2009 - Lakers beat Magic Lakers: Evenly built between draft and trades Drafted (2) - Bryant, Bynum FA (1) - Fisher Trade (3) - Odom, Gasol, Ariza Magic: Built through free agency and draft, although Howard as the franchise player was obtained via the draft Drafted (2) - Howard, Lee FA (3) - Pietrus, Lewis, Turkoglu Trade (1) - Alston So anyway.. basically what I'm saying is: We need alot of luck in the draft to win reliably, unless we build an amazing front office like the Pistons managed to do that one year. That's kind of a sad thought, isn't it?
If we're going to trade or get guys off the wire for someone past their peak or guys who may be available, then I would not mind signing Rasheed, Drew Gooden, Leon Powe, Trevor Ariza or Jamario Moon to up to mid-level deals if their teams decide to let them go. Maybe we could pull off another deal like Mully did last year for Turiaf.
