Reply With Quote
Here's some food for thought from the ESPN Boards:::
John Robert Perry · Top Commenter · Works at DisneyAnthony Demetrius Allen - It's a catch 22. If they HAD traded Pau, they might have several players on the roster in his place. For example, when the Chirs Paul deal fell through, they could have just said, fine - Houston, we'll do Pau for the parts you were going to give to New Orleans - Dragic (now a very good PG bing paid less than Lin), Scola (not a star but a reasonably good PF), their 1st round pick (which I think became Jeremy Lamb), and Kevin Martin... and they turned Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb into James Harden.
So when Howard came to town, instead of playing with broken down Nash, he'd have been playing with young healthy Dragic, Kobe, James Harden, an Luis Scola. And without Nash, they probably wouldn't have brought in D'Antoni... and Houston wouldn't have had Harden to LURE Howard to Houston, so he might have stayed in LA.
Pau's value basically declined year by year after that. In the last trade offer, Cleveland was offering Bynum's non guaranteed contract. That's it. No draft pick (protected or otherwise), just a salary dump. If Cleveland would have been willing to give up even two second round picks (like they gave up to get Deng), Pau might have been enough to get them into the playoffs.
