Potential Trades for a Big Man

[FNG]

Dane Moore tweets about a potential deal...Rubio, McDaniels and a future protected first for Myles Turner. He loves Turner, but thinks it's too much. I agree.

He also posts a poll of who would be a better pickup for the Wolves, Turner or Isaac?. I voted with the majority and took Isaac. There are recent injuries to consider for both though.

[Monster]

Dane Moore tweets about a potential deal...Rubio, McDaniels and a future protected first for Myles Turner. He loves Turner, but thinks it's too much. I agree.

He also posts a poll of who would be a better pickup for the Wolves, Turner or Isaac?. I voted with the majority and took Isaac. There are recent injuries to consider for both though.

I would pass on that also. Issac if healthy is basically a player no team is going to trade. He is very good defensively and he is able to shoot and score on offense. He can't stay healthy which is a shame.

[Lipoli390]

Dane Moore tweets about a potential deal...Rubio, McDaniels and a future protected first for Myles Turner. He loves Turner, but thinks it's too much. I agree.

He also posts a poll of who would be a better pickup for the Wolves, Turner or Isaac?. I voted with the majority and took Isaac. There are recent injuries to consider for both though.

Thanks for posting this, FNG. I hadn't heard about that. It's interesting.

I also think that would be too much for Turner. But I'd go for the deal with the following adjustments. First I'd replace McDaniels with Culver or Juancho, although we'd need to take some salary back. Second, I'd make sure the future 1st round pick is at least top-10 protected. I'd also be willing to add one or two future unprotected 2nd-round picks to the deal. Why would Indiana do that deal? I'm not sure they would, but here's why they might. First, Rubio would give them both a solid backup vet PG and an expiring contract that would give them $17M in salary relief after next season. Second, Culver would give them a young former #6 pick with upside who has already demonstrated he can be a very good NBA defender. I could see the organization seeing Culver as a guy Carlisle could salvage. In the alternative, Juancho would give them a stretch 4 to play alongside Sabonis. Finally, a future (2023) 1st-round pick and a couple 2nd rounders would give them valuable assets for a potential rebuild or for trade packages to add veteran talent for more immediate help.

As for the debate between Turner and Isaac, I'd opt for Turner because he's a proven elite NBA rim-protector and two-way player. Both he and Isaac have injury issues, so that issues seems like a wash between the two. I also think, the price for Isaac would be higher because of his upside.

Question: Would you do the deal if we replaced McDaniels with Naz Reid as part of the deal?

[FNG]

Lip, I would do the deal for Turner is it was Naz, Culver or Juancho instead of McDaniels (plus Rubio and the protected pick.

By the way, the deal that Dane Moore mentioned had the pick lottery protected. Also, he didn't specifically say that this was a deal he was hearing rumors about. But he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who throws stuff out to see if it sticks to the wall. Also, the fact that he mentions the deal, but then says he doesn't like it, led me to believe it was something he was hearing and not just making up.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Why would Indiana even consider a guy who's out for 6 months... and might not be worth the contract anyway... or arguably the worst 1st rd pick (Culver) of the 2019 draft.

Solid organizations who make the playoffs in 25 of 31 seasons without drafting (m)any super high draft picks don't give two shits about where a guy was drafted 2+ years ago.

Culver has been a terrible NBA player so far. The eye test says so. The numbers say so. Why would another team (with A LOT more success and even short-term potential than the Wolves) double down on the Wolves mistake?

[Duke13]

Dane Moore tweets about a potential deal...Rubio, McDaniels and a future protected first for Myles Turner. He loves Turner, but thinks it's too much. I agree.

He also posts a poll of who would be a better pickup for the Wolves, Turner or Isaac?. I voted with the majority and took Isaac. There are recent injuries to consider for both though.

Thanks for posting this, FNG. I hadn't heard about that. It's interesting.

I also think that would be too much for Turner. But I'd go for the deal with the following adjustments. First I'd replace McDaniels with Culver or Juancho, although we'd need to take some salary back. Second, I'd make sure the future 1st round pick is at least top-10 protected. I'd also be willing to add one or two future unprotected 2nd-round picks to the deal. Why would Indiana do that deal? I'm not sure they would, but here's why they might. First, Rubio would give them both a solid backup vet PG and an expiring contract that would give them $17M in salary relief after next season. Second, Culver would give them a young former #6 pick with upside who has already demonstrated he can be a very good NBA defender. I could see the organization seeing Culver as a guy Carlisle could salvage. In the alternative, Juancho would give them a stretch 4 to play alongside Sabonis. Finally, a future (2023) 1st-round pick and a couple 2nd rounders would give them valuable assets for a potential rebuild or for trade packages to add veteran talent for more immediate help.

As for the debate between Turner and Isaac, I'd opt for Turner because he's a proven elite NBA rim-protector and two-way player. Both he and Isaac have injury issues, so that issues seems like a wash between the two. I also think, the price for Isaac would be higher because of his upside.

Question: Would you do the deal if we replaced McDaniels with Naz Reid as part of the deal?

Lip I think you're forgetting Kahn is the Pacers GM. Swapping out McDaniels for Culver in this deal is laughable, the Pacers hang up the phone. Culver and Juancho have no value!! Cmon man!

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I value McDaniels nearly as much as Edwards. He could be THAT important to us. We literally have no one other than him on the roster that can both defend at a high level and make an outside shot. No one. I'd literally put him 3rd behind KAT and Ant in prioritizing the "do not trade" list.

I realize McDaniels is still a work in progress. But if we think there is, say, a 40 or 50% chance that he becomes a fully-formed 3&D hybrid forward - and I'd like to think we saw tangible signs of this last season - then we must keep him. And I'd argue that kind of player with his length and mobility may be a more important rotational player deep in the playoffs than a guy like Myles Turner.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, I would do the deal for Turner is it was Naz, Culver or Juancho instead of McDaniels (plus Rubio and the protected pick.

By the way, the deal that Dane Moore mentioned had the pick lottery protected. Also, he didn't specifically say that this was a deal he was hearing rumors about. But he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who throws stuff out to see if it sticks to the wall. Also, the fact that he mentions the deal, but then says he doesn't like it, led me to believe it was something he was hearing and not just making up.

I agree with you about Dane Moore. I suspect he was hearing something from a good source and not just making it up. He's not Doogie. :) As you noted, it's pretty revealing that he mentioned the deal, but then says he doesn't like it. I suppose it could have simply been a deal he heard from a rube somewhere, so who knows.

In any event, for me the key in any wheeling and dealing is to keep McDaniels. To be as good defensively as he was last season as a rookie is can't be overlooked. I knew he was a talented top recruit coming out of high school who failed to meet expectations as a college freshman. What I didn't know until last season was he has an obviously high basketball IQ and terrific instincts that you can't teach. Of course, he also has great length and athleticism. I like Naz Reid a lot, but McDaniels is the keeper of the two if we have to give one of them up to improve the team.

[Coolbreeze44]

I can almost guarantee you McDaniels will end up being a better player than Turner.

[AbeVigodaLive]

For reference, per 36 rookie seasons:

Turner (19) - 16.3 pts / 8.7 reb / 1.2 apg / 49.8% fg / 21.4% 3fg
McDaniels (20) - 10.2 pts / 7.3 reb / 2.2 apg / 44.7% fg / 36.4% 3fg

A couple of things since... statistically, Turner stagnated in a lot of ways. Turner shoots some threes with mixed results now. As high as 38.8% in 2019 and as low as 33.5% this season. His scoring has actually gone down to 14.6 per 36. And his rebounding has largely leveled off or gone down, too. He blocks a lot more shots though... leading the league 2x in the past 3 seasons.

As for McDaniels, we'll see. First of all, many envision him as a 3-and-D guy... which might add more value for the Wolves long-term than another big next to Towns. And there's a good chance he might improve like most top guys do each year. We definitely saw flashes.

But I just want people to imagine being a Pacers fan back in 2016. If we're all THIS excited over McDaniels... just how excited were the Pacers with Turner?

Or how excited should Chicago be about Patrick Williams? Or ATL with Okongwu? Or Detroit with Hayes? Or Detroit with Bey? Or Memphis with Tillman? Those are just wings/bigs from last year's draft in similar situations.

The league is loaded with promising young talent every season. We're just not used to seeing it here from unexpected sources. I think McDaniels is going to be legit. His footwork was awesome. He seemed so much better than the boxscore showed. But is it a guaranteed thing that he improves significantly? Add him to the list of dozens of other NBA players. Some pan out and some don't.