You got PM. Btw, your responses to me prove my point. People in North America tend to rely on the statistics they are given. People in Europe believe their lying eyes when they shop at the Boulangerie and market.
Translation: Hey Tay. I've got something to tell you, but it's politically incorrect and/or a couple of people in the general viewing audience may get offended or take it somewhere I'd rather not go, so lemme just say...
Not to get too political. Everything cycles around. US is down now but it will pickup. The current CBA was crafted at a time when playing oversees was only considered by players who had no other options. Not only was the dollar stronger but they were not paying very much either. Things are changing and the CBA needs to reflect that. I have my doubts as to Stern being the right guy to lead the NBA through the changing landscape. I get the feeling he still thinks its 1998 instead of 2008.
The Pistons could take back more salary than the typical 125%... they have a trade exception of 938K which is good until December. The new CBA actually helped owners spend more than in the past... teams going into the lux tax still get a share of the escrow... By staying below the tax the Pistons received over 3M in tax distribution plus potential escrow $'s. BTW a certain % of the tax is used for low income teams (this year 24M was distributed to low budget teams) Only 8 teams went into the lux threshold... with the Knicks and Mavs being the big losers with a 19M bill paid this month. That said the lux taxes are less "taxing" than with the previous CBA... if you go over by one mil it would cost your team 4M (losing out on the distribution).... teams often pay this much just to complete a transaction (3m limit). The point is going slightly into the lux threshold will not break the bank. Back to the original topic... I'm not sure how a trade of Tay (and filler) for Smith benefits the Hawks... unless they were going to move Marvin Williams to PF... he's certainly long enough (7' 3" wingspan) but doesn't possess a PF body... at least Smith has incredible athletisism (44" vertical)... I do wonder how long Smith's legs would hold up to the grind? It may benefit the Hawks better to take on Dice's expiring along with Jmax and our 1st rounder... we'll have the minny pick next year that should be close to a 1st rounder with more cap flexibility.
Some guy I've never heard of writes this in the Free Press "blog": So what's too much? Did they ask for some trophies? Hooper?
It is tough to ask too much with the salaries and salary cap. However, they may be asking something to the extent of Tay, Amir, and Arron, and/or maybe Sharpe? Or maybe J-Max is in that mix. It is tough to say, but you don't necessarily want to trade a third of your team for one player, unless it is someone of Kobe or KG's caliber. Don't get me wrong, Josh is a good player, but he's kind of unproven and is known to be a hardhead. Joe D. won't want to take on all the risk.
According to Terry Foster, Josh Smith is interested in Pistons, and that Atlanta is asking Tay and Amir for him. Is Joe that high on Amir that he figures it is too much? Surely he's seen more and knows more, but it is still a bit weird. DETNEWS | Weblog | Terry Foster's Blog
Tay and Amir for Smith..........hmmmmmmmmm, that`s a doozy!! I wish we could look into the future to see how Kwame is going to work out. Smith, Sheed and J-Max might be a nice mix of youth, and veterans on the front line. That`s a tough decision for Joe, if he has the oppurtunity to make it.
Foster comes right out and says that Smith for Tay and Amir is on the table. I wonder how good his source is. The other interesting part is this: If it's true that Smith is telling people he wants to come to Detroit then it seems to me there's a reasonable chance it will happen. Tay is probably not going to improve a lot at this stage in his career, but Amir is only 21, and his future is a mystery. He could turn out to be the best player in the deal. On the other hand, Smith is also very young at 22, so we might be getting him for the prime of his career.
I'd do Tay/pick, possibly Tay/Max, but i don't know about Amir either. Established player + a 21 year old w/ limitless potential does seem like too much for just Smith. Dealing Max may trim our front court depth, but i think he pretty much is what he is, and his rebounding is not going to be miraculously fixed unless he grows or becomes Ben Wallace. Neither of which are likely.
Joe needs to dump Amir ASAP if he can get a player of Josh Smiths caliber for him. If he waits too much longer all he will be able to get for him is a future draft pick that may or may not be good. Now that he has Amir Sr. on board it's time to dump Amir Jr. ..... before people on the outside start making the correlation.
i'd do tay + amir for smith. we're all hoping that one day amir turns into smith, while smith is already there. i wouldn't get rid of max.
nothing is limitless (wo)mang... lets just say... at the best, AJ can be as good as Josh Smith, plus two inches. at the very worst, Stromile Swift. personally i don't pass this up. besides bid Dwight, there isn't an established young gun with more upside than J-Smooth.
Smooth replaces Tay and then some IMO (keeping in mind that Tay peaked two year ago in my eyes). Fabio and Sharpe take care of depth at that position. Amir, unfortunately, is part of a stockpile which needs to be taken advantage of in a trade. We'd have four bigs plus Samb if we needed youth. its not possible to hold onto everything, no matter how you cut it. Making this move raises the talent ceiling on this team, without annihilating our depth (and with PF beng our deepest position its really not bad at all). I'm not really saying anything that nobody knows, but the league is already wary of Joe D; the pot needs to be sweetened a little for other GM's to take a sip. And i believe its a small risk worth taking.
Its tough call. There is also the issue of the salaries not matching so Pistons would have to take back an extra 6 mil or so which is probably the sticking point. Tay, Amir + bad contract for Smith would be too much. Is Amir going to play anyway next season? Real mins as in 10-20 MPG? If not then maybe we should be open to trading him.
I wonder if they'd take Tay + McDyess. Probably not, but it would help out with the salary stuff since Dyess is paid a lot more than Amir...
