The Detroit rumor has said that the Pistons instantly rejected the Rondo/Ray for Stuckey/Rip/Prince deal, ostensibly because they wouldn't give up their "core" to get Rondo. Yeah, that expensive core of a below .500 team is essential to hold onto - no way would they give up a couple aging past their prime guys guaranteed huge money (the Hamilton extension was a much bigger mistake by Dumars than the Billups trade) for the next 2 to 4 years for a major backcourt upgrade, expiring money and a younger actual point guard (not a masquerading small 2) who actually passes and defends. Seriously, it's not like we don't all know that the core of the Pistons is going to be whomever they target in free agency this year and possibly next, and Stuckey is going to be at best a replaceable third option. And with rumors of Detroit potentially targeting Turkoglu, doesn't it make sense to try to unload Prince, even if he is a good player at decent value for a starter (but terribly overpriced as a bench player)?
From our perspective, we take a backcourt downgrade to get an admittedly great sixth man in Prince. I love Prince as a player, and think he'd help us, but he's guaranteed $20 million plus over the next two seasons. You don't pay that kind of money for a bench player (which I think Detroit realizes). For Detroit he's not a bench player, he's a legit starting small forward, but maybe they want something better for him. If not, and they intend to keep him, I can understand them not wanting to deal him when they'll have to pick up a new 2 guard next year and give Rondo an extension that may be fairly substantial.
In the end, the trade really doesn't work for either team. Except as a rumor. I think this was concocted by both organizations to help their positions in potential future moves. It tells me two things: 1. Detroit wants to trade Hamilton and probably Prince and is open to moving Stuckey, but they want to make out in a major way. 2. Boston doesn't want to trade Rondo, or really Ray, and wants to extend both at reasonable amounts.
For Detroit, the Hamilton extension is bad. But now, they've rejected a trade for an All Star shooting guard with a huge expiring contract and an incredibly promising young point guard who just averaged nearly a triple double over 14 playoff games. That sets the bar high on what they're willing to take for Hamilton and Prince and Stuckey - a superior young talent, an expiring contract, and more. Other teams might look at it and think about giving up similar packages to get Detroit's "core," placing less emphasis on the fact that this core looked flat out bad this season. Detroit may have just driven up the value of their players by making sure the story included a line like "Detroit immediately rejected the deal." It's telling to me that the source for the story was out of the Detroit front office. They want that rumor getting leaked and people thinking the value of Detroit players is higher than it really is.
For Boston, I don't think they would have pulled the trigger on this deal, much less made the initial offer. What's more, the rumor about Detroit's immediate rejection drives down the trade value of Ray and Rondo, so wouldn't it hurt to let the rumor get out there? Not if you have no intention to trade Ray or Rondo.
Driving down their value helps if you want to extend Ray to a 3 year (keeping the stagger effect of the Big Three)- $22-24 million deal or a 2 year $16-18 million deal and Rondo to a 3-6 year deal starting at $9 million instead of $12 million. The rationale could be "you're not worth those guys from a 38-win team, so what makes you think you're gonna get huge money on the market? Extend now with us and stay with a winning organization that will pay you as much as anybody else and get you more respect." And if it doesn't work, and Rondo and Ray want more money to extend, the Celtics are still setting a high price as far as what they're looking to get in return, even if this trade was "rejected."
In the end, I don't think the trade works for either team, but I think the rumor works for both.
Topic: Detroit Rumor May Be Targeted Toward Extensions not Trade (Read 2897 times)