metra wrote:Why would we want to give up our first round draft picks? Isn't that what we learned from this year? Not to do that?

Well if they create cap space to acquire and keep proven veterans--arent we getting the same value if we cannot get rid of them?

metra wrote:NBA CHAMPIONS AND DRAFT PICKS

What's up dudes! It's late at night and I put in some work researching NBA Champions and their draft picks. I know people have done it but I felt like doing it myself. Anyway, on with the story!

FINDINGS

Going back to 1969, out of 41 championship teams, 8 of the Finals MVPs were not drafted by the winning team.
2004 Pistons Chauncey Billups
2002 Lakers Shaquille O'Neal
2001 Lakers Shaquille O'Neal
2000 Lakers Shaquille O'Neal
1985 Lakers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1983 76ers Moses Malone
1975 Warriors Rick Barry
1972 Lakers Wilt Chamberlain

2 of those teams didn't have an All Star that was drafted by that team
2004 Pistons Tayshaun Prince
1975 Warriors Jamaal Wilkes*

* Rick Barry was traded back to the Warriors so I didn't count him

So in conclusion, the draft is important. Most Finals MVPs were homegrown. And 39 out of 41 championship teams had an All Star player that they had drafted. So we shouldn't trade away our first round draft picks!

If you would like to check out the whole excel sheet -- it's very neatly presented here for your viewing pleasure. Check it out since this took me an hour to make:

http://media.artemshnayder.com/nba_champs_and_draft_picks.png

Were in a different situation. I think that over the next 4 years---Al Harrington and David Lee would trump any draft pick by a long way that we would be able to acquire. Creating the cap space to keep these two players to potentially go along with two FA--maybe one major one this year and one major one in 2011--or maybe 2 this year? who knows. We have some cohesion here right now--Im certainly not going to over rate it but we don't want do devalue it either.

We have two young players on the bench and we can acquire good picks here and there with two's. You cant give away consecutive 1's no matter what. I think Mike D wants to play only 7-8 guys tops anyway--this is not a rebuilding situation anymore--this is a clear cap space to create an avenue to not only bring in top notch FA but RETAIN our own major players. I honestly don't see a better solution--I like the draft like anyone else but I would be willing to give someone my picks in 2011 and 2013 to take Eddy Currys' last year if we cant trade him.. I think that there is still hope that we can move Jefferies in a bundle deal with nate--hey maybe even with Hill. If you remove Hill Jefferies and Curry--we will have 48mm+ in cap space--more than enough for Lebron 17mm David Lee lets say 8mm backload and Harrington 6mm backload--you could do another guy at 15-17 depending on cap. Its been 10 years--to me this is all about the vets that we have and can acquire and give this thing a shot.

TMS wrote:how many 1st rounders is Curry gonna cost us anyway? forget that idea... dump him w/whatever expirings u can this year if possible, none of those guys are worth sacrificing a shot at signing a 2nd max FA this offseason.

The problem with Curry is he takes the space for guys we want to retain.

martin wrote:I would consider it especially if LeBron was in the bag. And then I would go after 2 max guys and ask them to each take 3 year deals under their value to be able to sign Lee, Al, Hughes at similarly just under value deals, promising them all to splurg big time when their Bird Rights kick in.

You want to pull a T-Wolves scenario and get us fined by the league. You can't promise guys future compensation.

BRIGGS wrote:

TMS wrote:how many 1st rounders is Curry gonna cost us anyway? forget that idea... dump him w/whatever expirings u can this year if possible, none of those guys are worth sacrificing a shot at signing a 2nd max FA this offseason.

The problem with Curry is he takes the space for guys we want to retain.

But he's lost weight, so maybe there's enough space now?