That clutchfans insider posted something interesting:
Originally Posted by cyberx View Post
He didnt ask for a trade but Fegan told Morey he wants a max, so Dwight said, "If you arent going to give me a max this summer, send me to a team that will be able to this summer while keeping my bird rights"
Not verbatim.. But you get it. He is looking for a max pay day.
Dwight even said he will go back to ORL - ROX dont want T. Harris Contract.
If we get him, I hope it's as a last resort for Houston/Howard, after they've given up the hope of finding a team that both matches Morey's needs and Howard's desire to re-sign for the max, because there's no way we should re-sign Howard to a max contract. Rent him, and let him find some other team to make the mistake of giving him four years at the max...which he will find.
True...some team definitely will.
Though to be fair, he probably deserves it. He's still probably a top 5 center, hard not to feel worthy of a max if you are him.
That's what ppl said about amare
Amare was NEVER as good as Dwight IMHO.
Amare in his prime was a dominant offensive player, and a below average defensive player. Dwight in his prime was a dominant defensive player and a dominant offensive player.
The two are on different levels.
Take away Amare's athleticism and you take away his scoring ablity (which was always based on finesse). Take away his scoring ability and he's nothing.
Take away Dwight's athleticism and he is still a he's still a 6'11", 265 pound beast with a 7'5" wingspan and the width of a tanker truck. The guy is an absolute tank, and his combination of strength/length/width will allow him to continue to shoot over smaller guys, alter shots defensively, and gobble up rebounds...long after the 'spring in his step' is gone.
Just look at guys like Theo Ratliff, Marcus Camby, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan - they continued to play meaningful NBA minutes approaching their 40's. Dominant defensive minded big men tend to remain productive until late in their career.
Hypothetical trade just posted to Yahoo the Vertical from Bobby Marks - Saying the C's are the best fit because they won't have to break up their core:
Here is a look at a hypothetical trade that could work for both teams:
Houston receives
David Lee
Jonas Jerebko
2016 Boston first-round pick
2016 Dallas first-round pick
Boston receives
Dwight Howard
Montrezl Harrell
you absolutely do that deal
It's nice to know that Danny is in a position to trump pretty much anything another team offers, if he wants to.
I haven't been a big Howard guy but if that's all it takes to get him you have to do it IMO. Adding Howard immediately puts you in the mix for ECF and Cleveland can implode at any time with that group. I stated it earlier come next Friday I would be surprised if the C's didn't have one of Howard or Horford and I wouldn't be stunned if they got both....
I'm just trying to imagine how good we could be with Howard and Horford, without even giving up the 2016 Nets pick and I can't even believe that it's a possibility
I'm just trying to figure out how to work that. I'm probably not giving up the Brooklyn picks, so I'm looking at the Memphis pick. I don't think they fall out of the playoffs (protected 1-5, 15-30), so I'm guessing that it conveys next year (protected 1-5), making it likely a 2019 pick (protected 1-8) or 2020 (protected 1-6). Wonder if they would do it for KO, the Memphis pick and someone along the lines of Young or Hunter.
Hmm, let me think about that Brooklyn pick...If we had Howard on the above deal and could get Horford for the 2018 pick, I'll have to admit, I'm tempted. Those picks are like frequent flyer miles: You can hoard them so you never run out, but you risk a situation where there isn't a flight available when you want to use them.
Mike
The later Brooklyn picks are much more risky - I'd be very open to giving those up for any player who significantly improves the team.
Think about it - Joe Johnson expires next year, and Deron's contract has already been shipped out. Thadeous Young is one one of the best contracts in the NBA (IMHO) at around $10M/year. That leaves Lopez as the only big, unpleasant contract on the team...meaning when the cap goes up after this season they WILL have cap space.
Much as I hate to admit it, having Young and Lopez in your front line is probably a decent lure to free agents as well. That's a legitimately strong (and still pretty young) core to build around. Add a good PG in free agency and a couple of solid role players (Afflalo type guys) and that team could VERY quickly turn from the 3rd worst team in the league to a #8 seed.
I think the 2017 pick is probably going to be late in the 10-14 range, with the 2018 pick being around the 15-18 range.
IMHO those picks are both too high a risk to NOT cash them in if you can. This year the Nets are crippled and can't do anything to improve, which is why that pick is solid and gold and practically untouchable.
If trading the 2018 pick puts us in a position to get Howard AND Horford, I would be all over that.
This team is strong at PG, strong at SF, and solid at SG. Our positions needing upgrading the most are PF and C, where we really don't have a clear starting caliber player. Adding Horford AND Howard would make us absolutely deadly. Even Golden State would have their hands full with us.
Incredible, you have been able to figure out where the Brooklyn '17 and '18 picks will fall.
Would you handle my stock portfolio?
Yeah, that's exactly what I said. 
Mike
Let me explain my perspective.
The MotivationIt's no secret that the owner of the Nets is desperate to win. He spent a fortune and gave up the team's entire future to order to bring in KG and Pierce in the hope of fast tracking his way to a title.
He wants to win, and he wants to win bad. It's clear to see that he takes this personally, and see's the team's success (or lack thereof) as a reflect of himself. He will do and pay anything to bring this team an ounce of respectability
The team has no draft picks, so there is absolutely no incentive to try to tank their way back to relevance. The only way this team will improve is by being a "buyer", which is perfectly appropriate given that the owner of the team has quite possibly the deepest pockets of any owner in the league.
The MeansFirst things first - the Nets don't need to become a top 5 team in order to kill the value of our draft picks. All they need to do is become somewhat respectable/competitive. If they can become good enough to compete with teams like Washington, Orlando and Charlotte, then they will be a fringe playoff team...and that potentially pushes our pick as far as 8-12 range or maybe even higher.
A pick in that range wouldn't be without value, but it probably wouldn't carry enough value to bring us back a star or borderline star in a trade. It is also unlikely to bring us a star or borderline star via the draft. That means that if we have a chance to get a star / borderline star right now by giving up that pick, it's probably a good move.
How would the Nets get competitive?
With Deron gone and Joe Johnson's contract expiring, Brooklyn will go into free agency with only
$50M in committed salaries. That means that (with the cap expected to rise to around $90m) they will have about $40m in available cap space.
Given the owners' desperation to become good, combined with his well documented willingness to throw away money like it's going out of fashion, you can be pretty certain that the Nets are going to be going HARD in free agency after just about every possible player they can get.
Their team has so many holes that they they can sign just about ANYBODY and it will help them, which actually works to their favor in this case because it means that they have lots of options.
There is also a decent amount of incentive for free agents to sign in Brooklyn:
1) It's a huge market
2) It's a fresh team/brand with an opportunity to become the face of the franchise
3) It's a shiny new arena
4) There is a Billionaire owner who's not afraid to empty his pockets to get talent
Finally, history shows that they can get quality players to sign there - they draw Deron in when he was still in his prime, and they convinced Lopez and Young to re-sign to long term deals as well.
Finally, while Brooklyn has a lot of holes, they are not without hope. They also have two very strong core pieces in Brook Lopez and Thad Young to build around, plus solid prospect Hollis-Jefferson.
They don't need to rebuild from scratch, they just need to solidify their backcourt and add a strong bench player or two for depth. That would be enough for them to be JUST competitive enough to make that pick drop
significantly in value.
Lets say the Nets get lucky, and manage to add Rajon Rondo and Bradley Beal in free agency...then add Aaron Afflalo and Joakhim Noah as extra depth off the bench. Add this to their current core, you have a borderline playoff team - not good news for our 2017 pick switch.
The following year, in 2018, the cap goes up even more..to around $100m. This gives the Nets yet another opportunity to add talent / depth in free agency, and by that time they'll even have a couple more future picks available to bargain with. It's not hard to the Nets could make a playoff spot that year and see a first round exit, which would see our pick probably fall somewhere round the #16 range (i.e. where our own one landed this prior off-season).
Basically, the Nets got in to this big ugly hole at the best possible time. If this happened two year ago they would be crippled for years, and we'd be almost assured of three golden picks. But their suckiness happens to align very nicely with the massively rising cap, which will potentially go a long way towards helping bail them out of their big, ugly hole.
This years pick is the golden child - it's like a dream come true.
The ones in 2017 and 2018 should still be half decent, but they are unlikely to come even remotely close to the value of this year's one.
