Sign and trade Nate to Memphis idea

[nickagneta]

According to the Commercial-Appeal in Memphis the Grizzlies have been working out a bunch of PGs in the hopes of drafting their next back up PG.

Link

The Grizzlies, should they exercise all three first-round selections (12, 25, 28), will likely come away with a point guard.

For all intents and purposes, Conley is the lone player under contract at the position. Jamaal Tinsley and Marcus Williams will be free agents July 1. Local product Lester Hudson is a shoot-first player working to become more of a distributor but his contract for next season isn't guaranteed.

The situation — combined with a weak free-agent crop of point guards — is why the Griz took a hard look at guards Armon Johnson (Nevada), Jerome Randle (California), Ishmael Smith (Wake Forest) and Tory Jackson (Notre Dame).

By draft night, Griz coaches and executives will have entertained about 10 point guard candidates from a pool of 25 players expected to visit Memphis.

General manager Chris Wallace insisted the team would not sacrifice talent for the sake of satisfying a need during the draft. However, there will be more attention paid to who is available at point guard when the Griz are on the clock.

"If things are close, you may shade it in the direction of a point guard," Wallace said. "But you have to make certain things are close. It's not point guard or bust with the picks. The need and the talent may not match up with the pick. But there are players in this draft that are viable backup point guards."

But, this draft is real, real short on talent in the point guard position and I seriously doubt the Grizzles would wanted to waste a pick on someone who isn't going to make their club at that position.

So why not sign and trade Nate Robinson to the Grizzlies?

Here's the thing, the Grizzlies already have 10 guaranteed contracts on the books for next year as well as having 2 restricted free agents with fairly decent size cap holds in Rudy Gay and Ronnie Brewer. I think they will probably only retain one of these guys and maybe hold onto Lester Hudson to see if he can transform himself into a real backup PG. So that's 12 slots filled and three 1st round picks.

I think they are ripe for a trade of one or more of those picks as they really don't need three more rookies on this team.

So:

Boston sends Nate Robinson(S&T three year $10 million) and 2010 2nd rounder

Memphis sends Hamed Haddadi, Darrell Arthur and 2010 1st rounder #25

Memphis gets their back up PG.

Boston gets as good a young prospect PF in Arthur as they are going to find late in this draft and the #25 pick. This then allows the Celtics to draft a sf type with one pick(Damion James, Quincy Pondexter) and a SG with the other(Willie Warren or Jordan Crawford). This also allows the Celtics to fill out some of their empty roster slots with good young prospective talent that is at a cost controlled price for several years.

The C's will probably retain the Allens so returning players would be Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Tony Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, Rasheed Wallace and Glen Davis. Or in other words, their entire Championship winning core for another run at the title.

But they could then have Haddadi, Arthur, Pondexter and Crawford to develop and still have the MLE to go after two more bodies like Earl Watson and Rasual Butler.

[Bankshot]

I thought this was going to be about Rudy Gay.   Anyway, I'd rather keep Nate.  If we're not getting Gay or Conley, forget it.

[Roy Hobbs]

As a practical matter, it's not really possible to include draft picks in a sign-and-trade, because negotiations with free agents can't take place until after the draft.  There are of course under-the-table ways of determining whether Nate would accept Memphis' contract offer, but that's cheating under the CBA, and the last thing we need is to be punished by Stern as we're about to enter our rebuilding process (within a year or two).

I don't see a lot of potential in Haddidi, and he's complained multiple times about not getting enough minutes.  Arthur hasn't really show much, either.

At this point, I'd pass.  I'd rather either keep Nate, or try to trade his rights for a player that can help next season.

[Moranis]

If Nate's contract is only going to be 3.33 million a year over 3 years, why wouldn't Memphis just sign him?  Nate is an unrestricted free agent, he can go wherever he wants and we can't stop him.

[Birdbrain]

I would like to see Arthur actually do something on the court before I would make a trade for him.  Isn't he genius that got caught with Beasley smoking it up at the rookie camp a couple of years ago?

I'm actually Bullish with regards to Nate on the C's next year.  He's a FA correct?

[Bankshot]

I would like to see Arthur actually do something on the court before I would make a trade for him.  Isn't he genius that got caught with Beasley smoking it up at the rookie camp a couple of years ago?

I'm actually Bullish with regards to Nate on the C's next year.  He's a FA correct?

Yes, he's a free agent.  I'd like him back with the C's next year.

[nickagneta]

I don't. Never liked him. Never liked his game. Still don't.

Obviously, as Roy pointed out, this isn't going to happen but I still think the best thing to do is sign and trade this guy away. What Memphis could do to facilitate this trade is pick the guy the Celtics want in the 25th spot and then do the trade after the free agency period opens.

[Moranis]

I don't. Never liked him. Never liked his game. Still don't.

Obviously, as Roy pointed out, this isn't going to happen but I still think the best thing to do is sign and trade this guy away. What Memphis could do to facilitate this trade is pick the guy the Celtics want in the 25th spot and then do the trade after the free agency period opens.

why on earth would memphis give away a draft pick for a player it could just sign outright.  The C's would have to make it worth Memphis' while.

[nickagneta]

I don't. Never liked him. Never liked his game. Still don't.

Obviously, as Roy pointed out, this isn't going to happen but I still think the best thing to do is sign and trade this guy away. What Memphis could do to facilitate this trade is pick the guy the Celtics want in the 25th spot and then do the trade after the free agency period opens.

why on earth would memphis give away a draft pick for a player it could just sign outright.  The C's would have to make it worth Memphis' while.

If you read my write up, and you may have. you will see that the Griz have 10 players under contract, one player with a non guaranteed contract(Lester Hudson) and two players that are restricted free agents that are quality players(Gay and Brewer) and three first round picks. That's 16 players, 11 of which would have 2 or less years of experience before the season started.

The team needs quality backups and they need veterans and they need less young players. This allows them to keep payroll down while signing a vet and get rid of three younger bodies. Just signing him just exacerbates the problem and increases payroll on a team very concerned about payroll.

[Moranis]

I don't. Never liked him. Never liked his game. Still don't.

Obviously, as Roy pointed out, this isn't going to happen but I still think the best thing to do is sign and trade this guy away. What Memphis could do to facilitate this trade is pick the guy the Celtics want in the 25th spot and then do the trade after the free agency period opens.

why on earth would memphis give away a draft pick for a player it could just sign outright.  The C's would have to make it worth Memphis' while.

If you read my write up, and you may have. you will see that the Griz have 10 players under contract, one player with a non guaranteed contract(Lester Hudson) and two players that are restricted free agents that are quality players(Gay and Brewer) and three first round picks. That's 16 players, 11 of which would have 2 or less years of experience before the season started.

The team needs quality backups and they need veterans and they need less young players. This allows them to keep payroll down while signing a vet and get rid of three younger bodies. Just signing him just exacerbates the problem and increases payroll on a team very concerned about payroll.

but Memphis could just sell the draft picks or trade them (which they would do long before the sign and trade period) or they could draft foreign players and keep them over seas. 

Boston offers absolutely no value to Memphis in these unneccessary trades. 

There has to be value and this offers Memphis no value.

[bobdelt]

why would a team with cap room, or any team with an mle, do a sign and trade for nate?

Sign and trades are pretty rarely. Teams try to avoid helping out other teams.

[snively]

I don't. Never liked him. Never liked his game. Still don't.

Obviously, as Roy pointed out, this isn't going to happen but I still think the best thing to do is sign and trade this guy away. What Memphis could do to facilitate this trade is pick the guy the Celtics want in the 25th spot and then do the trade after the free agency period opens.

Nate's shown me enough to make me confident that he can effectively man the back-up 1 and give us a scoring punch when the starters are cold.  If we can retain him at a reasonable price, I'd rather have him than the #25 pick.

[Bankshot]

I don't. Never liked him. Never liked his game. Still don't.

Obviously, as Roy pointed out, this isn't going to happen but I still think the best thing to do is sign and trade this guy away. What Memphis could do to facilitate this trade is pick the guy the Celtics want in the 25th spot and then do the trade after the free agency period opens.

Nate's shown me enough to make me confident that he can effectively man the back-up 1 and give us a scoring punch when the starters are cold.  If we can retain him at a reasonable price, I'd rather have him than the #25 pick.

I'd rather have Nate than the #25 pick too.

[lon3lytoaster]

Nate's really proven his worth when he's gotten time this post-season. He's a fire cracker and not just a spark, but an electrical storm. I love the dude and hope he's back next season.

It's a far cry from when everyone thought he was a little punk with the Knicks, course a lot of people around here said the same about KG before we got him, myself included.

[PosImpos]

oops, wrong thread.

i'd love to keep nate if possible