by TheMC5 on Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:31 pm
I am in the third year of my Indiana Pacers (who I chose because I figured they would be the hardest team to rebuild with) dynasty, and I need some advice/suggestions on a potential trade.
First, let me tell you little about my team and strategy. I generally like to try to stay below the cap, and build through solid draft picks and young players. I did that this time, luckily managing to trade for Greg Oden, as New York drafted him and they still had Curry. I suffered through 2 losing seasons, the second even after trading for Oden, but due mostly to injury. I only like signing big free agent contracts if it's for a guy in his prime who can take me over the hump, and will be incredibly valuable for the duration of his contract. Well, after the second season, I found that guy in Gerald Wallace. He was either 24 or 25, I think, and I managed to front load his contract, which averaged out to something like 10.25 million for 5 years. So now my roster looks like this
STARTING 5
C - Greg Oden, 81 - acquired from NYK w/ Gerald Green for Nenad Kristic, Jeff Green, Danny Granger
PF - David Lee, 74 - acquired from HOU w/ Juwan Howard for Jorge Garbajosa, Josh Childress
SF - Gerald Wallace, 86 - signed as free agent
SG - Adam Morrison, 79 - acquired from CHA w/ 1st round draft pick for Jermaine O'Neal
PG - July Jones, 78 - created point guard, pass first, defensively tough PG, though can shoot well, also, with 77 FG and 76 3PT
BENCH
C - Hasheem Thabeet, 66 - drafted #7 in 2007
PF - Chuck Hayes, 71 - signed as free agent
SF - Jessie Alvarez, 75 - drafted #7 in 2008
SG - Gerald Green, 74 - see Greg Oden
PG - Charlie Bell, 69 - signed as free agent
C - Jeff Foster, 65 - re-acquired from TOR w/ J. Reynolds for Steven Hunter, Juan Jose Barea
PF - Max O'Brien, 66 - drafted #27 in 2007
SF - Ronnie Brewer, 68 - acquired sometime for someone, I don't remember...Hassan Adams, maybe, from CHA I think
SG - Kelenna Azubuike, 70 - sigend as free agnet
PG - J(ames?) Reynolds, 60 - see Jeff Foster
The problem is that with the addition of Gerald Wallace, I can no longer afford to eventually re-sign all my core guys (Oden, Lee, Wallace, Morrison, Jones, Green). This year, I'll be OK, and could theoretically re-sign all my core guys, as I'll have approx. $20 million to spend, and the only guys I need to re-sign are Lee, Green, and Hayes (who could be replaced, but preforms very efficiently and effectively for my team). It's further down the road that I'm concerned about. Morrison's contract is up at the end of next season, and Oden, Jones, and Thabeet are up the year after.
So, I'm thinking about shipping out either Morrison or Green for a defensive SG + 1st round draft pick from some team that looks like they'll have a high draft pick come trade deadline. My original thought was to Utah for Alando Tucker and Utah's first round pick, but they're only 4 games under .500 right now, and trade deadline is almost two months away. So I'm in no rush to make a move, but I still don't know which guy to shop.
Morrison or Green?
I expect many people to disregard Morrison due to his poor real life performance, but he has progressed nicely, averaging 19.8 and 19.5 PPG in his first two season, and over 5 APG and 5 RPG in his second season. His defense is slightly better than Green's, though he's somewhat slower. He's been shooting above .500 all year, taking quite few shots, though his role has diminished somewhat, as he is averaging a career low 14.7 PPG this year. He is also on the cusp of acquiring star 3PT shooter abilities, with 77 FG and 82 3PT.
Green, however, has been starting in place of Morrison, though playing less minutes, and hitting his shots at an amazing .624 clip, averaging 9.8 PPG, in somewhat limited minutes. He too could eventually acquire 3PT star attributes, as he currently has 78 FG and 75 3PT.
Whichever player eventually gets traded, Azubuike (who has 3PT shooter ability, and who I'd love to get into the rotation) will step into the backup role. I personally feel a little bit better with the versatility of a Green/Azubuike rotation, rather than the pure shooting combo of Morrison/Azubuike. Also, the idea of July Jones throwing alley-oops to the likes of Wallace, Green, Odom and Lee sounds pretty nice. However, Morrison's outside shooting would be a nice counterpoint to Greg Oden's inside dominance and Gerald Wallace's insane athleticism.
Anyway, one of them must go. Green or Morrison? Who shall it be? Please, help me decide.
PS. Thank you for enduring that long-winded post. Cheers.