I don't know what is going on here, but in the past, if KP was tageting Casspi, he would wait to see if Casspi dropped to #22 then make the trade with Dallas.
Yep. Makes no sense to make a trade this early unless the plan is to package (a slightly better #1?) for a higher pick. Puzzling, huh?
If that's our target, he won't be available at 22. He won't last past Utah at 20. Perhaps we can package the 22 with other assets to leapfrog Utah. Maybe 22 and 33 (or 38) for somthing in the 14 - 16 range. Phoenix doesn't like high picks (too much guaranteed salary) and they can use second round pick on international players and sta\sh them overseas with no financial obligations. Of course, if we move all the way up to 14, Blair may be the target rather than Hansbrough. BNM
Very odd, I agree. Good news, as far as I am concerned, insofar as it reduces the chances the team will trade out of the first round entirely... Ed O.
I think we're trying to improve our pick so we can trade it away to get back proven talent. It doesn't make sense to move up two spots this late in the first round if you are targetting a player in the draft. There are way too many variables. -Pop
The plot thickens...I concur, KP is likely to keep wiggling up in the draft. Wonder who his eye is on?
At the M&G last year KP told us that 24 hours before the draft he had the top 15 spots pegged dead-on. I think that would be very tough this year, but he's probably called agents asking about "promises" in the 20's. This reminds me a lot of buying 25 last year to jump SAS and get Batum, or taking Foye to keep HOU from getting Roy. A coq-bloq, as it were. Who's slated at 22-24? Well, Ford has ranges of players stopping at 24 as Blair and Maynor. But he has Clark/Johnson/Mullens' floor at 21, and Teague and Lawson at 22. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2009/insider/news/story?page=09DraftBuzz-090624 Casspi's also been mentioned there in his mocks. If Hinrich's coming, I find it hard to believe Lawson's going to be picked unless Bayless and Sergio also go away somewhere. Mullens I don't see as a fit. Clark? Maynor? Maybe. But if SAC's keeping #4, they'll have their pick of PGs and don't need Maynor.
From ESPN Insider... As we just reported, the Portland Trail Blazers agreed to trade the 24th, 56th and worst of their second-round picks in 2010 to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday for the 22nd pick in the draft a league. The trade has been agreed to in principle and should be finalized in the league office later Wednesday. Why would the Blazers move up two spots in the draft? The word around the league was the Kings had zeroed in on Omri Casspi with the 23rd pick. Casspi could be a good pick for the Blazers to either keep or bring over this year to provide more toughness in the frontcourt. Other potential targets for the Blazers could be Florida's Nick Calathes, Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair, Georgetown's DaJuan Summers and VCU's Eric Maynor. For the Mavericks, they pick up a couple of extra picks to move two spots in the draft. AND ... If the Blazers can't move further up in the draft, they very well may move out of it all together. The team has been trying to clear cap space for the summer so that they could facilitate a Kirk Hinrich trade with the Bulls. At this point, they seem willing to sell their pick along with the draft rights to Petteri Koponen and the expiring contract of Sergio Rodriguez.
I'm having a hard time believing it is Casspi. It seems more like minor repositioning for a bigger jump later.
Casspi makes sense if this move is expected to be the only move. Sacramento has targeted a player Pritchard wants, so he moves just ahead of them. But I think there's a decent chance that he'll continue to work deals and #22 isn't his planned stopping point. In fact, it could be just a backup. Moving up to #22 was easy and painless, so he did it. His real plans are to move higher, but if he can't, at least he sits in a more favourable position to land Casspi, if he likes Casspi.
So why allow Sacto the chance to make a trade to move ahead of the Blazers? Seems like Pritchard would wait out the picks and have a contingent trade if Casspi (for example) was really his guy.
The only reason I can see that they announce this trade, now, is because they have another move to make. The reason being, KP usually likes to make his key move on draft day, and swoop in and take a player before somebody else gets them, or get somebody who slides by manuevering after they slide. The only reason I can see they would announce this now, is that he has to have this in place before draft day to complete the mission to get the target player(s).
