monsterpile wrote:Let's say the best deal you can get is the Waiters Richardson 1st round pick deal. What could Miami do to sweeten that deal? 2nd round picks? Well...we have theirs next year. From now will a top 55 protected pick in 2024 they only own 1 of their 2nd round picks. A future 1st round is a ways off so I can understand Miami being hesitant to deal a pick that's years down the road. It feels like the Wolves absolutely need more than that deal unless you have believe Richardson is gonna be an Otto porter level player and maybe you can actually squeeze some worthwhile play out of Waiters during the contract. Lots of ifs there for paying those 2 guys a total of around 23 million each of the next 2 years after this one.
Thibs isn't dealing Taj in this deal and i don't think it does much for Miami anyway. They already have a bunch of bigs. I don't think the value of trading Taj helps us get something worthwhile in this deal kinda like us getting Olynyk back helps us that much more than Waiters since the Heat likely value Olynyk and he also makes more money that Waiters. Again why do we have to be a dumping ground for Riley's mistake? We need to be compensated for that when we have by far the best asset.
Monster - You might be right that Thibs wouldn't deal Taj. If so, that's just another reason to fire Thibodeau. I love Taj, but he's simply not a key part of this team over the long haul and if trading him can help get a reasonable Butler deal, then he absolutely should be included in the deal. Would he do much for Miami? Yes, if you assume as I do that we get Bam in the deal. Look at how many minutes Bam got last season -- about 22. Maybe James Johnson gets those minutes, but Taj is better and more likely to stay healthy. He would clearly have significant value to a Miami playoff push playing 22 minutes a game for the Heat. And he is also Pat's kind of player. But even if Riley doesn't think Taj would help a lot, that's not the point. The point of including Taj is as a salary-match alternative to Gorgui. If reports are true that Gorgui's value is a negative 2 first round picks, or convervatively 1 such pick, then including Gorgui in the deal would likely be a nonstarter for Miami, which is essentially what's been reported. Taj provides much better production than Gorgui and does so without the ugly long-term contract. In other words, Gorgui has substantial negative trade value while Taj at worst has absolutely no negative value and likely has at least some positive value.
For salary-match purposes we're going to have to take bad salary back in any deal for Richardson. That's because all of the players with salaries to match are on what most would consider relatively bad contracts. Olynyk is the only player who MIGHT be worth his contract, but Riley's not going to give him up. I don't particularly like T. Johnson's contract, but it's only two years with the possibility he could opt out after 1 year and he's a player who can hit threes, handle the ball and actually contribute something positive to the Wolves while here. That's why I think the deal to do at this point would be Butler and Taj for Richardson, Bam, Tyler Johnson and Miami's pick. I'd actually be willing to forgoe the pick in that deal, but I'd insist on it and think we could get it. It might be useful in moving Gorgui's contract next summer.