| Acquired | Traded |
| Marco Belinelli | Julian Wright |
– This deal for me is a no brainer. We get a player with one proven talent for a player who has no one discernable skill. Marco can shoot, that much we know. Although he may be madly inconsistent, at least we know that he shoots 39% from 3 pt range. That’s more than what Julian Wright can boast. Looking at the advanced stat, we can see that Belinelli wins by a margin of 0.034. over the course of 82 games, that 0.034 can translate to 1 more win. Grade: A
| Acquired | Traded |
| Trevor Ariza | Darren Collison |
| James Posey |
– I was iffy when this deal was done. Trevor Ariza wasw and still is a huge question mark. Although he starred in Houston, he’s offensive numbers took a huge hit because he was wildly inefficient. And we used our Darren Collison, our prized rookie, to get him? Why?! Well I’m still not totally sold that we won that trade. I think we could have gotten more out of that trade. But looking at what Ariza means to this team defensively (looking from 3 games, we played worst defensively without him), I’d say it was an ok trade. Oh BTW, for those people complaining about the “age” thing, Ariza is 25 Darren Collison is 23. Ariza’s been in the league 6 years, DC 2. I believe it when Demps said we’re building a “young, veteran team” and I still do. Grade: C
| Acquired | Traded |
| Willie Green | Darius Songaila |
| Jason Smith | Craig Brackins |
– Again, many people were iffy when this trade came through. Songaila was ok as a backup last season, shooting great %s and generally being a professional. Brackins was a rookie Bower loved so much that he took him with the 21st pick ahead of players that were thought to be better prospects than Brackins in Damion James, Dominique Jones, Whiteside etc… and Green and Smith were nothing more than mediocre to terrible with the 76ers. But looking at this season, we can safely say that we won this trade. Songaila had a WS/48 of 0.044 for NOLA last season while Jason Smith has a WS/48 of 0.075 playing almost the same amount of minutes. And the Green part only makes it better(WS/48 of 0.074 but he looks better as a starter averaging 14.4 pts on 53% with 1 3PTM and 1 TO). It’s basically our rotten tomatoes for your noodles. We won’t eat the noodles every day and eating noodles is bad for the health, but days they make our days better. That’s more than we can ask from our rotten tomatoes. BTW, Jason Smith’s age is 24 while Green is 29 going on 30. Grade: B+
| Acquired | Traded |
| Jerryd Bayless | conditional 1st round pick |
– if we go by our projected rankings, that pick would finish 19th to 22nd pick in a weak draft so Portland would certainly get that pick(top 7 protected 2011); that for Jerryd Bayless? Awesome. Grade: A
| Acquired | Traded |
| Jarrett Jack | Jerryd Bayless |
| Marcus Banks | Peja Stojakovic |
| David Andersen | 9.7 mil TPE |
– After only 11 games with us, Jerryd Bayless, who we acquired for a 1st round pick earlier, was shipped along with the expiring contract of Peja for Jack, Banks, Andersen. I believe this is another move towards that “young, veteran team.” Jack is an excellent backup PG, but an OK starting PG. Bayless is an unproven product, one whose career, like Collison’s, would never blossom unless we trade CP3. Nobody would want that. This deal was above average. Not a home runner trade because I think the Jack Bayless trade was a meh trade. Experience over potential, and it’s not like Jack’s 30 years old. He’s 27. Got 2.5 years to get to the magic 30 number everyone seems to dread. By the time, his contract is up, and we’ll know whether CP3 has signed with us or not. Bayless would have never achieved that “potential” if we have CP3 playing 34 minutes. Peja can actually still play. As pointed by Ryan before, Peja’s a good defender because he can coax people to shoot mid range jumpers more than everybody else can. And he’s shooter’s touch is GREAT. But the ability to get a huge TPE(which is more valuable because of the looming CBA), is too good to pass up. Jack is 27, Bayless is 22.Grade: B
| Acquired | Traded |
| Carl Landry | Marcus Thornton |
– The controversial trade. Let me get one point through first, I LOVE Marcus thornton. I was one of those who believed he could be a great scorer. But facts are facts. Monty/CP3 never meshed with Marcus’ haphazard ways. I think Marcus’ abilities come from his reckless play. And that won’t suit with Monty’s controlled offensive game plan.
Now, getting Marcus for Landry? That’s an awesome return. Why? Personally, I think Landry’s best will always be better than Marcus’ best. Although Marcus is an explosive scorer, Landry is too. Landry will always be more consistent and more efficient. And he’s a big man. Getting quality bigs in this league is hard. There are more quality guards than bigs. We got a quality big for a quality guard. And I know Marcus’ can spurt in bunches thus, he can singlehandedly get us out of a deficit. But with Landry? We won’t need someone to score in bunches, because there will be less deficits to catch up to. If we can keep Landry and West for a total of 15 mil total, our frontline will be secure for 3 more years. That’s great. The only caveat I have is that Marcus fits nicely into the starting 5 of Paul, Ariza, West and Okafor. Marcus’ unbecoming can be traced more to his lack of chemistry with Paul than it is as a lack of trust by Monty. Grade: B+
Demps grade in 6 trades: A, C, B+, A, B, B+ if we give an A a 4, a B+ with a 3.5, and so forth. Demps numerical grade? 3.33/4. That’s a great grade, dean’s lister’s material LOL
you, what’s your opinion on demps 6 trades? Share them in the comments section and let’s have a civil discussion 🙂
12 responses to “Grading the Demps deals”
And trying out guys like Pops, Alexander, Jerrells, Strawberry and etc was very nice, as he took the approach of finding people that might actually have a chance to compete for a spot on this team. Im so happy for the future, CP or not I think Demps will always make trades that improve this team and Monty will make those players play their best each night.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing how Demps goes on his first draft night 🙂
Baby’s first draft . . . awwww . . . .
agreed. I think with his TPE and possibly a new owner *cough* Chouest *cough*, i think he’ll be a less pricky Pritchard. Sneakily good in a getting underrated players
GREAT analysis. So, let’s put it all together because part of grading a GM is seeing the big picture and the entire puzzle. For instance- Shouldn’t the Jack trade, the Bayless trade, and the Ariza trade be put together. No way the next two are made without the first one- right?
So the Hornets get Ariza, Jack, Anderson, and increased their TPE for Darren Collison, Peja, a 1st rounder in a bad draft and Posey. How would you grade THAT trade as a whole?
It would have been interesting to see if he would have made more moves or less if the future of the CBA was known. I think that is holding a lot of GM’s back, personally. But unlike a team like Orlando, the Hornets will have the ability to be flexible no matter what the new CBA holds because there is not a bad contract on this entire team. The guys who are playing big minutes, who are playing well, are getting paid and that’s all you can ask.
Personally I would bump up the Landry trade to a B+, the Ariza trade to a C+, and bump down the Bayless trade to a B.
Great piece- you should do one of these every year so we can track Demps throughout his career and see how it loos as a whole.
i’d love to do that 🙂 i still have one journal i would like to publish, but i’ll hold it back for now because i’d like people to digest this journal first before i get to the next one. 🙂 the next one will talk about the misconception of Demps going for aging veterans much like Bower did. 🙂 maybe around Wednesday or Thursday i’ll post it 🙂
I agree with everything except the Ariza trade. When you look at it like Ariza for DC only it probably is a C but the fact we also dumped Posey’s contract, I think it becomes a B.
you’re forgetting that Ariza is also on a mid level contract. so its not really dumping Posey’s contract(we actually dumped DC’s contract), its more of we dumped Posey. period. :))
Wow, this Journal was awesome…. good use of statistics to prove points.
Here’s my only issue with the grades… and over my last few post I feel like I’m beating a dead horse a bit.
Without Trevor Ariza…. we lose our defensive identity. I’m not sure if I have enough fingers to count the amount of games Ariza won or saved for us this year.
His erratic shooting and 2-12 nights frustrate me beyond belief. However, the value of a 6’8 SF who is a top 5 perimeter defender in this league is wayy to often discounted. Not to mention that our interior defense, as a whole, falls apart without Trev because our Bigs are so undersized.
Would Wallace fit better? …..Maybe (Probably not)
Why? Trevor has Finals experience and a tenacity that comes out in the biggest games. G wallace has hardly any playoff experience. Pseudo stars have an uncanny habit of fading into the black during big playoff games (Especially game 7’s, ESPECIALLY in the WCF and FINALS).
I may be the lone dissenter here, but I think the Ariza trade is the only reason we are considered a pseudo-contender. Collison is a below average starting PG right now and given that he’s not 19 and is already coming up on his prime, I think you absolutely gotta sell high here. And I just feel much more comfortable going into a series with the Lakers or Spurs with Ariza as my SF and Jack as my backup PG. Call me Crazy If you’d like.
Riddle me this….. going into the gloom hypothetical future where CP3 leaves…. is the same year all of the class of Collison PG’s can be opted out by the team. Not saying that will happen with a lot of them, but you think it would take much more than a 1st rounder to get Lawson from Denver now that they have Felton….. Is collison much better than Ty Lawson?? Will he be 2 years from now??
that’s actually what i hate most about Ariza. we can’t actually trade him because of his defensive importance to the team, but his offensive struggles are so frustrating. he’s at a DRTG of 102 and ORTG of 96. if he can get anywhere near the Ariza we saw in LA, our chance would spike because instead of getting a -6 difference in rating from Ariza, we’d be getting +10. thats +16 which is HUGE. sadly, any hopes of Ariza becoming that player in LA is a close impossible.
Good Point. I completely agree that his struggles on offense really hurt our offensive “efficiency” model. My only optimism is that we’ve all seen him become lost in games and also get that look in his eyes and play with an unbelievable tenacity. Maybe I’m dreaming of that year with the Lakers, but I’m thinking he’s going to turn on his mental focus come playoff time. If he’s 100% focused for the playoffs, we have a serious chance at winning a series.
Good article. I still wish we had DC & Marcus but good analysis on all the trades. I disagree on the Bayless trade tho. That pick cud be important to us (Considering it is 19-22). We cud get a quality player, most importantly a SG or SF. This may jus be me but i dont like Jack long term. That pick cud potentially be Kemba Walker, Josh Selby, Travis Leslie who cud be great long term if CP3 leaves and serve as good backups until then
see that’s the thing i REALLY love about trading that draft pick. It’s a super low pick in a weak draft. That means guaranteed money to someone we don’t know if he’ll be good or not. And we plan for CP3’s departure when it comes. But right now? Our focus is too put the best, sustainable team for cp3. and right now, Demps is doing a good job.