Next trade: Sacramento/Orlando?

[nbrans]

Now that we seem to be getting a bunch of expirings for Bibby, there's an opportunity to actually get under the cap this offseason and make a run at a free agent. There aren't going to be many teams with cap room, and with so few teams who can bid, this could be a really good offseason to get a good free agent at a reasonable price (candidates: Jose Calderon, Josh Smith, etc.)

Brad Miller

for

Arroyo, Garrity and Dooling (all expiring), 1st Round Pick

Miller could be perfect with Dwight Howard, and we could speed up the rebuilding process.

 

[VF21]

You can speed up a rebuilding process too much, IMHO. I don't want Hawes to be forced into a situation like some of the other rookies, playing too many minutes too quickly and just not meeting expectations. Miller has things he can teach Spencer, much like Vlade taught Miller. Passing big men will always be an extremely valuable commodity in the league and you deal one away at your peril.

Getting under the cap this offseason isn't, IMHO, what the whole thing has been about. It's about still being competitive enough to draw fans while aiming for 2010. But that's something only time will tell.

 

[nbrans]

^Well, Moore could always start at C until Hawes is ready. There's also still the possibility of the Artest/KT for Najera/Nene trade, which could leave Moore/Nene as our starting 4/5 (when Nene is healthy) and keep Hawes on the bench until he's ready. But nothing is going to help Hawes more than playing time.

 

[Vlade4GM]

You can speed up a rebuilding process too much, IMHO. I don't want Hawes to be forced into a situation like some of the other rookies, playing too many minutes too quickly and just not meeting expectations. Miller has things he can teach Spencer, much like Vlade taught Miller. Passing big men will always be an extremely valuable commodity in the league and you deal one away at your peril.

Getting under the cap this offseason isn't, IMHO, what the whole thing has been about. It's about still being competitive enough to draw fans while aiming for 2010. But that's something only time will tell.

I hear what you're saying about Hawes, but this would be too good of an opportunity to pass up and it would be better to have more options in terms of what offseason we want to go after. We can always grab some throw away big that can share the minutes with spence, we got to start breaking him in and giving him serious minutes some time or else how is he going to learn? The whole mentor thing sounds nice, but players don't do their growing in practice or words of wisdom, they learn by going out on the floor and learning from their mistakes.

 

[midtowner]

Blow it up

I like Brad Miller. He sets a good example for the rest of the team. But if the Kings can shed his salary, then they should.

Realistically, the Lakers are going to be better than the Kings for at least 4 years. The Jazz will also be better over the same timeframe. The Blazers will be better than the Kings for a long time if Oden pans out. I know that anything can happen (win the lottery or Garnett/Gasol trade), but our team really should go young. Better draft picks and shedding money should be the teams priorities.

What would be really nice is if the Maloofs lowered ticket prices while the team is rebuilding.

 

[nbrans]

Let's say this trade goes through and we also pull off Artest/KT for Nene/Najera. We sign Calderon. When you add in the two draft picks, this could give us:

PG: Calderon/Collison?
SG: Martin/Douby
SF: Salmons/Garcia
PF: Nene/Moore/pick?
C: Hawes/Williams

That's a pretty awesome start.

 

[VF21]

The whole mentor thing sounds nice, but players don't do their growing in practice or words of wisdom, they learn by going out on the floor and learning from their mistakes.

That's not actually true. Younger players DO look to the vets for guidance and wisdom and tricks of the trade. It's part of the process. You learn how to do something in practice and then you go out and try it during a game. You don't try your first half-hook in the middle of the 4th quarter of a critical game.

A successful team is a blend of youth and experience.

 

[piksi]

Brad Miller can only help the rebuilding process by staying here

 

[midtowner]

Portland is pretty good, with a minimal veteran presence. Plus, you can always buy a mentor for the MLE.

 

[Vlade4GM]

Portland is pretty good, with a minimal veteran presence. Plus, you can always buy a mentor for the MLE.

QFT.

 

[Merdiesel]

So do you think another trade is lined up?...

 

[Vlade4GM]

So do you think another trade is lined up?...

For Artest? Sure. For Miller? Who knows, there haven't really been much talk about Miller being moved as far as I know. I don't see why not though.

 

[Merdiesel]

For Artest? Sure. For Miller? Who knows, there haven't really been much talk about Miller being moved as far as I know. I don't see why not though.

To be honest... I'm loving Millers game right now. If the right trade comes along Im all for it, but at this point, I'm happy with Miller. Now Artest, I really would love to see him traded today. Heres hoping something happens...

 

[Vlade4GM]

To be honest... I'm loving Millers game right now. If the right trade comes along Im all for it, but at this point, I'm happy with Miller. Now Artest, I really would love to see him traded today. Heres hoping something happens...

Yea, but Miller is really not a cornerstone piece of a rebuilding team to put it mildly and he's too expensive to play veteran mentor. I don't mind if they move him for shorter contracts at all. Also this may be our last chance to get anything for him, I doubt his value will get higher than it is right now.

For Artest, there has been way too much smoke for them not to pull something off before the deadline. If they don't I'd be extremely disappointed.

 

[Spike]

Portland is pretty good, with a minimal veteran presence. Plus, you can always buy a mentor for the MLE.

The young Blazers are fading. Miller's role as a mentor is not one that can simply be picked up with an MLE. A mentor doesn't just mean "nice old guy." If the team is looking for Hawes to learn Miller's skill set, it doesn't make sense to move him to another team.
On a side note, the Bibby move tells me that they've taken care of a big contract situation. There's not the big rush to move Miller, who is actually playing quite well. My money's on Artest moving now. (Even though I said nothing would happen.)

 

[SacKings4Life21]

This would be a great trade. A steal in my opinion. Millers contract would be wonderful to shed. I agree about the wisdom and mentoring stuff, but if we shed alot of cap space, then we can really be competitive sooner than later.

 

[=LarryLegend=]

Nene's name has come up in trade discussions with the Sacramento Kings. Denver could trade Nene straight up for Ron Artest. This would obviously be a risk for the Kings given Nene's injury history and the four years left and over $40-million left on his contract. However, the reward could be huge as well for Sacramento. When healthy, Nene is one of the better two-way post players in the game. And it's just not easy in the current NBA landscape to find guys who can score with their back to the baskets, play defense and run the floor the way Nene can.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=7400

 

[Vlade4GM]

The young Blazers are fading. Miller's role as a mentor is not one that can simply be picked up with an MLE. A mentor doesn't just mean "nice old guy." If the team is looking for Hawes to learn Miller's skill set, it doesn't make sense to move him to another team.
On a side note, the Bibby move tells me that they've taken care of a big contract situation. There's not the big rush to move Miller, who is actually playing quite well. My money's on Artest moving now. (Even though I said nothing would happen.)

I'm sorry but you don't pay 10 mil a year for a mentor, that's insane and even though Hawes is our biggest prospect right now he's not bigger than our need to clear future cap space. Also, I don't want Hawes to be like Miller. Hawes has a great low post game that should be the focus of his game, Miller is primarily a passing/jumpshooting center and if that's what Hawes is going to become we might as well trade him because that isn't going to do squat for us. His biggest asset is his low post game and that is something Miller doesn't know about.

Unless they have delusions of getting some significant cap space this offseason, moving Bibby's contract is really inconsequential since his deal expires after next year. So if they were going after cap space this offseason it would be more likely that Miller is moved for some expirings.

 

[Warhawk]

To be honest... I'm loving Millers game right now. If the right trade comes along Im all for it, but at this point, I'm happy with Miller. Now Artest, I really would love to see him traded today. Heres hoping something happens...

Agreed. And Hawes needs more time to learn the tricks of playing the 5 in the NBA.

 

[midtowner]

Hawes already has learned Miller's "skill set"

As far as on-court play goes, there is little more for Miller to teach Hawes. Offensively, Hawes can already shoot and has better post moves than Miller. Hopefully, Miller hasn't already taught him how to get shut down when a small forward guards him.

Miller's passing skills are good, but Hawes can not really work on hitting cutters until he is actually in the game with the ball in his hands. Hawes already has a good offensive basketball IQ, so the passing will come with playing time.

Defensively, Miller might not be the best teacher. Although, I give him props for his rebounding this year. Hawes needs to hit the boards but this is more attitude than skills.

The best knowledge that Miller could drop on Hawes is what he learned from this offseason. You only get better as a player if you are serious about how you take care of your body and prepare.

I like Miller. I am fine with him staying. But the only way Hawes is going to get better is with playing time. Maybe it makes sense to keep his minutes limited this season, so he is hungrier this off-season. But if an opportunity to move Miller came up (Orlando should be all over it) I think it would make sense in the long run.

 

[Vlade4GM]

As far as on-court play goes, there is little more for Miller to teach Hawes. Offensively, Hawes can already shoot and has better post moves than Miller. Hopefully, Miller hasn't already taught him how to get shut down when a small forward guards him.

Miller's passing skills are good, but Hawes can not really work on hitting cutters until he is actually in the game with the ball in his hands. Hawes already has a good offensive basketball IQ, so the passing will come with playing time.

Defensively, Miller might not be the best teacher. Although, I give him props for his rebounding this year. Hawes needs to hit the boards but this is more attitude than skills.

The best knowledge that Miller could drop on Hawes is what he learned from this offseason. You only get better as a player if you are serious about how you take care of your body and prepare.

I like Miller. I am fine with him staying. But the only way Hawes is going to get better is with playing time. Maybe it makes sense to keep his minutes limited this season, so he is hungrier this off-season. But if an opportunity to move Miller came up (Orlando should be all over it) I think it would make sense in the long run.

I think the best thing Hawes can do for his game (besides get more PT and confidence) is build his strength up this offseason. He needs to work his *** off to get into great shape and put on some muscle so he can bang in the low post (which is where his game should be, not should 15 ft out).

 

[=LarryLegend=]

call me crazy but, i say keep brad. artest for eddie,kleiza and their pick!

 

[Warhawk]

I like the Brad we've seen this season and I think he could still teach Hawes a few things. Passing #1, but some others as well.

But yeah, adding strength to Hawes will be key.

 

[SacKings4Life21]

come on guys hawes is never going to be good.

 

[AleksandarN]

Agreed. And Hawes needs more time to learn the tricks of playing the 5 in the NBA.

What are bigman coaches for then? I rather the Kings spend 1 million on a bigman coach not subject the cap then waisting 10 million capspace on Miller

 

[bajaden]

I'm not sure why everyone in intent on just throwing away talented players and receiving basicly nothing in return. The two hardest positions to fill are pt guard and center. If you want to trade Miller, then get something of value in return. And I don't mean a draft pick. You have no guarantees with the draft.

One of the hardest things to do is to teach a team how to win. Reggie has done a pretty good job of doing that this year. Drop the talent level down too low, and losing becomes a guarantee, and then could become a habit. The trick is to keep enough experienced talent to mix with the new inexperienced talent. Once you build a winning tradition, you never want to entirely let it go. Its not always easy to get it back. Look at the Raider's and the 49's. Both teams that had winning traditions.

Portland looks like its finally on the right path, but look how long it took them. Remember how long it took us to right the ship, and it was a mix of new and old talent. I say hang onto Miller at least until he's in the last year of his contract. If you want to move him then, it would be easy. Until then, he can still help us remain respectable.

 

[BawLa]

I'm all for trading Miller. No one on this team is untradable. That said, I think we should hold off on trading Miller until this time next year. Not only to help Hawes develop, but also to establish a full year and a half of consistent production.

The next trade is Artest.

 

[VF21]

If we're gonna trade with Orlando, I'd like to order Dwight Howard, please.

 

[Vlade4GM]

I'm not sure why everyone in intent on just throwing away talented players and receiving basicly nothing in return. The two hardest positions to fill are pt guard and center. If you want to trade Miller, then get something of value in return. And I don't mean a draft pick. You have no guarantees with the draft.

One of the hardest things to do is to teach a team how to win. Reggie has done a pretty good job of doing that this year. Drop the talent level down too low, and losing becomes a guarantee, and then could become a habit. The trick is to keep enough experienced talent to mix with the new inexperienced talent. Once you build a winning tradition, you never want to entirely let it go. Its not always easy to get it back. Look at the Raider's and the 49's. Both teams that had winning traditions.

Portland looks like its finally on the right path, but look how long it took them. Remember how long it took us to right the ship, and it was a mix of new and old talent. I say hang onto Miller at least until he's in the last year of his contract. If you want to move him then, it would be easy. Until then, he can still help us remain respectable.

Respectable? That's just another word for mediocre and rebuilding on the fly crap. That doesn't work, it doesn't get any results, just patchwork.

Miller is not going to anything for the future of this franchise, cap space and draft picks are worth more.

 

[Bricklayer]

Now that we seem to be getting a bunch of expirings for Bibby, there's an opportunity to actually get under the cap this offseason and make a run at a free agent. There aren't going to be many teams with cap room, and with so few teams who can bid, this could be a really good offseason to get a good free agent at a reasonable price (candidates: Jose Calderon, Josh Smith, etc.)

Brad Miller

for

Arroyo, Garrity and Dooling (all expiring), 1st Round Pick

Miller could be perfect with Dwight Howard, and we could speed up the rebuilding process.

Like it, always have. Only additional item of interest could be flakeboy's (Fran Vasquez) rights.

Been suggesting variations of that since the beginning of the year, and still agree -- Orlando has a aneed, we have a need, we could turn the whole rebuilding thing around in a single trading season if we were able to pull this as well as an Artest deal off.