Draft Picks / Free Agents / Trades; Let's talk targets

What a difference an extra year of college game experience makes. If he had left school he probably would have been lucky to be a 2nd round pick last year and probably would have ended up warming the bench of some NBA team. Now he has the potential to be a lottery pick and collect a fat pay check.

I swear Burke must have got a printout of every negative thing the NBA scouts said about his game and starting working on them immediately! He's got a nasty step back jumper, AS A SOPHOMORE IN COLLEGE! He added more upper body bulk and easily takes hits from bigger players in the paint. He already has NBA range in terms of the 3pt shot and that will only get better once he gets to the league. The only thing I worry about is his ability to defend his position in the NBA, but I feel very comfortable with his defense with Andre Drummond behind him.

If only Jordan Dumars was still on the Ann Arbor campus so that Joe could actually come down to Crisler and watch Burke while visiting his son...he may fall in love with the way he did Stuckey and really key in on him for draft purposes.

Actually thats exactly what Burke did, after the season he sat down and looked at his game and what he had to improve to take the next step. Its just not his game that you have to love, but the leadership he's taken on at such a young age impresses me. My only hesitation with him is he's the local kid so are we looking thru some pretty mighty rose colored glasses.

The thought of him running a pick and roll with Drummond with Monroe developing a decent mid range jumper..... get a sniper from range and the team looks on the right track for me.

Can this Burke fella play the 2? Does he have some "combo" in him?

Looks like Joes hands are tied again.

Two more reasons I don’t like the Ben Gordon trade « PistonPowered

That's crazy Mog.

I'm a little unclear on whether he is saying that you CAN'T trade them or that it is unlikely that another team would accept it due to the contingency factor.

He can't trade the pick since it may be Charlottes. It's against a rule.

Seems like another team should be able to take it back, knowing that it will either have a 1 or 0 value. I guess it probably screws up the fair compensation rules for the trade and salary cap though. Makes sense I guess.

Maybe it is a good thing that we have an asset that is off limits for Joe to trade during his remaining time with the organization.

They can trade it in the summer because then it'll be clear if Charlotte is getting it this year or not. If Charlotte gets it this year, then we can trade away the 2015 pick. If Charlotte isn't getting it (it's a lottery pick) then we should be able to trade it this year.

I don't think we can trade it this year if it's a lottery pick since they may get it the next year and that would violate the two years in a row rule.

Ay ay ay, you're right!

So Phoenix are interesed in Gay, and they are giving Dudley + picks for Rudy

From an advanced stats point of view, they'll be giving up:

- their top TS% and eFG% shooter
- their top total Win Shares and Win Shares per minute player in exchange for a guy who is 7th in WS/min on his team
- their top ORAT player
- their top ORAT - DRAT player
- their top +/- player and their top on/off +/- player.
- their #2 player in net production (behind Gortat)
- their top SIMPLE rating player (by a mile)
- a guy with a 15.8 PER for a 14.9 guy

The Suns' defense suffers by nearly 12 points per 100 possessions when Dudley is not on the court.

Gay has a .484 TS%, which is God awful. vs Dudley's .608.

Gay is due $16.4M next year, $17.9M the year after, and $19.3M the year after that! That is some really heavy money for a volume scorer with horrible efficiency.

Dudley is locked in through 2015 at $4.25M with a player option at that amount in 2016. That's a really great deal.

When you throw draft picks in there too, it becomes a rip off for the Suns IMO. Especially when they are trying to rebuild.

People will be watching Burke very closely during pre-draft workouts. Guys like Smart and MCW will probably be able to walk him around the court. That could drop him into the middle of the first round.

His combine measurements will be huge as well. He was 5'10 1/2 in high school. Has he grown any since then?

By the way, MCW is a fantastic basketball player, but his shooting makes Mateen Cleaves look like Ray Allen.

If Denver called RIGHT NOW and offered Ty Lawson in exchange for Will Bynum would you do that deal? I would! And I think Burke will be at least as good as Ty Lawson.

Yes. I see Lawson as a rock solid back up. I see Bynum as a quality third PG.

Burke could be a perennial All-Star, or his size could relegate him to elite sixth man status. Either way, I could see him and Knight on the floor together for 13-15 minutes a game. Can you imagine Burke kicking it out to a wide open Knight or OJ Mayo? I could get behind a three guard rotation of Knight, Burke, and Mayo.

Also, I agree that the SG position is as weak as it's ever been. Teams are now moving some of the SGs responsibilities to other positions. Back when SGs were king, the PGs distributed. The SFs were utility guys. The PFs were either superstars (KG, Duncan) or hatchet men {Oakley, Otis Thorpe). Either your center or your SG was the focus of your team.

Now, PGs are routinely leading their team in scoring at 20+ a game. "Stretch fours" are everywhere. SFs like Durant, LBJ, Gay, and Melo lead their teams.

I believe that two things have led to the decline of SGs. One is no hand checking. This allows smaller guys to get to the hole and minimizes bruisers being able to play on the perimeter, and it encourages teams to run. This allows more skilled players on the floor and thus less opportunities for your specialized SG.
The other thing is getting rid of illegal defense. A team's offense isn't simply calling an iso their SG anymore. You have to spread the floor with shooters.