Full of young assets, the Rockets switch their focus to Eric Gordon
[Update] Eric Gordon is meeting with Houston today, which is exactly what I was told will happen when given this infor last night. Houston, and every other team that is interested, are fully aware Hornets will match any offer but are still hopeful that a sign and trade can be worked out. Hornets have not told the Rockets (not sure what they have told the other teams) that a sign and trade is a firm No. Keeping all options open.
The Houston Rockets have a ton of young assets and some old veterans who are not fascinated about the idea of playing for coach Kevin McHale for another year. I have been told by an extremely reliable source that they are getting packages together to go after some premier names, one of which is Eric Gordon. The Rockets believe that if they attempt to sign Gordon, that the Hornets will simply match, so they are attempting to do a sign and trade instead.
The sign and trade offer will center around Kevin Martin and the Rockets will allow the Hornets to choose either two or three of their young prospects- Jeremy Lamb, Royce White, Patrick Patterson, Terrance Jones, and Donatas Montiejuns. It is no secret that the Hornets targeted Kevin Martin last summer in the original CP3 trade, and Dell Demps has been fond of Montiejunas for some time now. Again, this will be the Rockets starting point- who knows where Dell can take it.
All that being said, if not for Eric Gordon’s injury issues this would be a non-story because the Hornets would never move a 23 year-old budding All-Star caliber player for a package like this, but the injury concerns are legitimate. While Dell and Monty continue to say that they want Gordon back, all options have to be considered, especially now that it appears that Gordon is going to get at least one max offer in the next two weeks. If the Hornets were 100% sold on Gordon and willing to give him a max deal, they would have done so last January. Instead, they offered him 8-10 million dollars below the max figure, partly because they did not think the market would dictate they pay him those kinds of dollars considering he played just 9 games last year.
So here the Hornets are forced to make a decision between paying Gordon max money or taking less than equal value for him. There are pros and cons to each side, and that is why Dell gets paid to do this for a living. Will he roll the dice and pony up the cash for a guy who has been in a suit more than in a uniform over the past two years, or will he acquire more assets and look to spend his money on someone else down the line? We’ll know the answer sometime in the next two weeks.
140 responses to “Rockets Putting Together Package for Eric Gordon”
Can’t the Rockets go troll some other team…
yes, go pursue josh smith
O.J. Mayo is an Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA) as Memphis did not make Mayo the $7.4M Qualifying Offer (QO) or any offer. It will be interesting to see how that affects the Gordon situation.
@504 In what ways do you think it affects GordonWatch?
BD,
The answer is two ways. The main one is other teams have an option besides Gordon, which is relevant since Keymaster asked if the Rockets “go troll some other team”. The other one is we could choose to sign Mayo if we chose to trade Gordon.
Sometimes in sports, you have to take some risks. Gordon’s health is a risk I am personally willing to take. I do not want a team full of players 21 or under. That would just be a mess. Gordon is starting to become the leader of the team. Pay the man.
Eric Gordon has been here less than a year and played less than 10 games. He’s becoming the leader of the team by default. This wouldn’t be like trading Chris Paul again.
By the way, Gordon is 23. While that’s not under 21, he’s not exactly a well of experience
yah u rite eric
With all due respect…the best four players on the Oklahoma City Thunder are 22, 22, 23 and 23. I think it’s fair to say that it’s not about the age, it’s about the maturity and the talent. When their best players were 21 or under…they won 50 games. It’s a bit of a cop out to just say young guys can’t win or that it’s a mess. I wouldn’t have a significant issue with trading Gordon. I think he’s a budding All-Star-level talent, but he has legitimate, evidenced injury issues.
Joe Johnson is rumored to be on the block right now. Granted, his contract is far more massive than what Gordon’s next contract would be. This is a very intriguing trade. I really liked Motiejunas last year.. Why did he drop?
When all is said and done, I don’t think Gordon is a quasi All-Star if he’s healthy.. I think he is a 3-5 year All-Star in his career. There’s a bit of a difference. But his injuries do worry me. If nothing else, this would give us more cap room to play with next summer. Thank God I’m not a GM.
to clarify, I’m not saying we should get Johnson. Just pointing out that he is a quasi All-Star whose team has paid for it by signing him to max, but that his contract is much heavier than Gordon’s will be
Gordon is untouchable for mine, he’s the centrepiece for our organization and someone we shouldn’t be bringing in a bunch of b-minus assets to get rid of…
I have major concerns making a guy the centerpiece that has zero full season under his belt.
Some people are making a big deal about him potential being a top 5 shooting guard. That’s because it’s probably the weakest position in Basketball. Will it stay that way moving forward who knows, but saying he could be really isn’t that big of a badge of honor.
making a big deal about getting wha monty knows we need, a guy who can legitimitely get and make his own shot at any point in the game
yeah besides from kobe and d.wade who else in the league is really that much of a nightmare at the 2 spot
[…] are reportedly preparing a sign-and-trade offer for Eric Gordon Rockets Putting Together Package for Eric Gordon | New Orleans Hornets | Hornets247.com Posted by Michael McNamara June 30, 2012 at 21:16 Central Full of young assets, the Rockets […]
Hmm … the idea of 4-5 key players on the Hornets’ team playing on rookie contracts is disturbing yet very exciting. I don’t know Martin’s contract situation, but might the Hornets then be looking at MASSIVE amounts of cap space next year to sign possibly two near-max players? Like it or not, this team will go as far as Gordon can take them next year, and the frightening reality is that he is just as likely to miss a significant chunk of the season as not. The flip is that if we have a near-superstar in Gordon it makes NO sense to lose him and hope to find another one next year. All things being equal, there is no way I could see New Orleans trading Gordon with all the interest in the team right now though. You have to give credit to Houston for making for an interesting NBA offseason already!
Remember the old saying, One in the had is worth two in the bush?
It’s NBA corollary is, One serviceable player on the floor is worth one quasi-superstar riding the bench. Cheaper, too.
So, if one or more of those prospects is markedly better than Marco then I say pull the trigger on the deal.
“One in the hand is worth two in the bush”
This means its better to have one proven all star, than two prospects that may never reach their potential. We already have plenty of young prospects. KEEP THE PROVEN ALL-STAR CALIBER PLAYER- Eric Gordon!!!
Kevin Martin is in the final year of his contract worth about $12.4mil.
I like EG as a player but dont see him on the court often enough to be worth a max contract. In saying that I propose this…
EG + JJ for K-Mart, Lowry and Motiejunas.
This trade will free up another $12.4mil plus Lewis’ $14mil once waived.
The media will love this because it’s required by federal law that we must praise Daryl Morey’s every move. If he goes to Houston there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll get injured every year…
I can’t imagine doing this trade. We need a good shooting guard to mentor Rivers and keep him humbled, and I don’t think Kevin Martin is that guy. He doesn’t play defense and his teams don’t win, I don’t care what the stat nerds say about how efficient he is. Pairing Scola with Davis seems to make sense but he makes way too much money. And like others said, having 4+ rookies on this team and no real veteran presence except maybe JJ would be a complete disaster.
Sorry Rockets. Oh wait, no I’m not, I hate you.
Re: the tweet you guys just made (who runs the Twitter feed anyway?), a max contract to Gordon wouldn’t be as bad as one to say, Amare or Joe Johnson because the dollar figures are way less. 4/55 is much better than 5/100 for Amare or 6/116 or whatever Joe Johnson got
Of course, we know the figures and have covered that all before, but Iggy and Granger’s deal were in that range and they are always in trade conversations, are overpaid, etc. AND those guys have actually stayed healthy. If Gordon continues to get injured, paying him 13 million or 18 million won’t be much of a difference. Anybody you pay that kind of money has to be a steady contributor or you have no shot at being a contender.
Based on the fact that we are no where near competing for a title and our main guys are going to be developing over the next 3 yrs. Just in my opinion I would swap EG for Lowry, Jones or Lamb and Motiejunas, they can keep Martin for another trade. If the other 2 of our “big 3” werent newly drafted players I would pay EG whatever was required.
Its hard to develop nine guys at once. I say let monty focus on the more important young guns like aminu, AD23, and rivers. You need some veteran leadership and help along with a proven scorer that can help build the young players confidence.
Yep agree with that, Apparently we have expressed interest in Nick Young.
…….I’ve gone on record as saying if Gordon stays we plan to build around him, BUT, keeping in mind previous injuries we have to at least entertain trades for him. Unless we already have new, and better, training/medical staff on tap for the next 5 years to help the Hornets stay healthy, we can’t ignore sign and trades. I gotta tell you, I do not want to be in Dell’s shoes right now….a package from Rockets sounds tempting…we can get some of the players we wanted originally in the CP3 trade. Which I might add the original CP3 trade to the Lakers was better than Clippers trade. If gave us bodies for Hornets to move and trade right now.
Not true. The Laker trade would have left us with one pick and more importantly we would HAVE NOT BEEN IN THE LOTTERY POOL.Hence no Anthony Davis. Would you have like that? B Davis ,think it through next time.
@KFTE…..you clearly don’t agree with my post but that whole “think it through” should have been “think like me” which I refuse to do my friend. Lakers trade was better as it was our original deal we created and not a last ditch effort to find another team even to trade with us after they killed that trade (Clippers)! Key houston players and Odom on the trade block and we still woulda got in the lottery because of our record….the #10 pick, I believe, would have been in question but not the chance to get the #1 pick…oh unless you’re one of the nut cases who believes the lottery was fixed because the angel of stern took a dump on my region. Is that what you’re talking about…please explain how you got three fools to like your comments on how we would have missed out on AD….keep playing with kids emotions like that and i’ll have to call you the Pied Piper!
Ummm…why would we have not been in the lottery pool? Was our pick leaving in the trade too? I honestly don’t remember the specifics. Even if we got all the Rockets’ guys there’s no guarantee we would have made the playoffs had that trade gone through
We might have snuck into playoffs, but if not then by having many more wins, with almost metaphysical certainty would not have gotten the first pick and thus AD.
@Ron your assuming that the players would’ve actually played through injuries the whole season when you say we would’ve snuck in the playoffs….oh..my bad yea that’s right! Everyone likes the fact that half I squad wanted to “tank” when Coach was trying to get us to play hard cuz it’s not about the lottery. I couldn’t sleep when we got AD and Austin, but you best believe I don’t wish my team would stink to get a lottery pick….sum kinda Hornets fans I have watching my back!
Dude, the trade with the Clippers was so much better that even with the key piece of the trade, Eric Gordon, being injured almost all year it’s STILL seen better in a landslide over where the team would be if we accepted that Lakers deal.
@Jay you know….I guess I can see you and KFTE’s point…we keep saying one is better than the other like we can see how this all unfolds. It’s even harder to see my theory because I didn’t even get to see it unfold as the angel of stern came down and took a dump on the City and my Region. I can’t agree with you guys and the only reason you guys are saying that is becasue of where we are now after the deal with the Clippers but if you are a true Hornets fan then you will agree with me when I say that the Lakers deal, (BEFORE IT GOT TURNED DOWN, WE LUCKED UP AND FOUND THE CLIPPERS WHO WAS TRYING TO GET RID OF GORDON BECAUSE OF PAST INJURIES AND THE FACT THAT THEY GET A BETTER PLAYER IN CP3 AND ARE ABLE TO SIGN GRIFFIN TO A MAX DEAL UNTIL 2018 WITHOUT GORDON THIER ASKING FOR MAX MONEY AND BEFORE WE GOT AD AND AUSTIN) was a better deal…..stop looking at where we are and compare the deal side by side back when they first orginated please. K-mart can put up same numbers as Gordon without injuries, and Scoula just wants the play ball…..I forgot who the third person in the deal was, but you get the idea.
@BDavis Yes, we would have been a better team last year and possibly made the playoffs with the Lakers deal but we would have at most won a playoff series and then get eliminated. Then we would have been a middle of the pack aging team with players that don’t have a lot of trade value and don’t leave us with a lot of salary cap. Even if we didn’t get the #1 pick and say just got 5 and 10 in this draft I’d rather be that team than the aging middle of the pack one.
I just remember how sick and depressed I was when I heard about the initial CP3 deal. A bunch of mediocre guys from Houston and Lamar Odom, a headcase who I knew wouldn’t play with heart when he got here (Dallas now knows what I’m talking about). I was so relieved when it was revoked and the clippers deal came around. Gordon, a potential all-star was the major thing that made me feel good about the trade. The other potential guy we were rumored to get was Steph Curry, who I also would have been pleased to get. The Clippers trade was WAY better than the Lakers trade, even if we hadn’t have wound up with the #1 pick.
No. It wasnt. Even if Gordon leaves (which he won’t), the clippers trade was better.
I hope to God we don’t do this trade. We need a leader for these young kids we have.
Tuff decision. I trust Dell will do what’s best. I like Gordon,but he is injury prone , that the part that troubles me. Houston can only offer us young players at the same position we have young players. I am definitely not in favor of paying Martin 11.5 millions a year at 29 yrs old. The Thunder blueprint is what we must be shooting for.Free agent centers that can pay strong defense. The problem with that is Hibbert and McGee both are restricted and any offers would be matched. I would take a flyer on Alabi Solomon or Thabeet both young and can play defense. We are not in a hurry,playoff at least 2 yrs away. Plus we got to save our money to make a gigantic run at CP3 after next season.
@KFTE at the time of your post Denver hasn’t offered McGee a tender so that makes him UFA….unless they snuck and did it behind my back…which is possible.
If true, this is an intriguing option. I doubt there are many, if any, NBA players with Gordon’s injury record who end up being durable for more than a season thereafter. That is a real, quantifiable concern.
If we can get Martin, Lowry, and a young big of our choice for Gordon, I like it. We might even be able to get another young player. Houston ships out an expiring contract, a guy who wants out (and has two years left), a big, and maybe someone else for Gordon locked into a long term deal.
All this “if Gordon can stay healthy” talk is retarded… he has yet to… 78, 62, 56, 9… see the trend??
Why is he all of a sudden going to stay healthy??
4 short, 20 short, 26 short, 57 short . . .
first order differences, 16 6 35, second order differences, -22 29,
I’d have to fit a cubic, but it seems that we’ve passed any points of inflection, and he’d miss more than 82 games. Data censoring will affect us.
You conclusion is sound unless something has changed to make the past not a predictor of the future here. Different injuries over the time makes it seem that way. If it’s his `toughness’ however . . .
But they aren’t different injuries… he missed college games with a wrist injury… then missed 3-4 weeks of NBA time with the same wrist injury…
And . . .
first of all, throw out the 9 because that is illegitimate , we sat him on purpose for shot at big ez
second, don’t pther nba gms have this data, yet falling over themselves to sign him?
They are different injuries…
His wrist injury at IU was a non-issue his first two seasons in the NBA (and a non-issue at IU, since he was one of the best players in the country). Then he got hacked and fell hard, spraining and chipping a bone in his wrist, which led to missing several games.
His knee injury last year was completely unrelated to his wrist injury, except for two key points:
1) As Jason mentioned, his “toughness” may be an issue.
2) He plays flat out hard every minute he is out there, and many of his smaller injuries occur from hustling too hard. Not that long ago, we had a guard who hustled too hard sometimes, leading to injuries from time to time. Can’t seem to remember who that was 🙂
Hopefully the Rockets interest in Gordon will discourage other teams like Phoenix from making contract offers for him.
To me, I see that Gordon will attract low ball offers to start. We’ll see if those offers improve.
Low ball offers, huh? Gordon has a very good agent and he has tremendous upside if he stays healthy. That’s why Houston is now rumored to offering Gordon a max deal. A trade is the likely end result.
Was one thing… then another… “to start” wad purposely written for that reason.
Glad you brought data to support that.
Don’t want Hornets taking a gamble giving a potential all-star to a division rival. Keep the man for now.
It is Terrence Jones, not Terrance. Sorry if it is aggravating, but I just wanted to let y’all know.
I would have to talk to Gordon and see if he really is committed to staying in New Orleans. If he is, don’t do the trade. If he isn’t, consider it but field more offers and try to raise his value. I don’t really like this deal that much.
I would tell them to give me Lowry and Motiejunas and they can keep Martin and probably their third player, too. I guess someone else who makes considerable money would have to be thrown in, though, so… Livingston.
Lowry gives the young, young team some stabilization and a proven commodity. And of course, their point guard of the future.
Next summer, they’re left with: Davis, Lowry, Motiejunas, Rivers, Smith, a lottery pick, options on Aminu (a lock), Ayon (a lock), Henry (doubtful), Miller (too soon to have an idea) and Vasquez (probably a lock), and anywhere between approximately $24 and $34 million in cap space.
why do some many ppl like lowry im i missing something he is not a future point guard
Martin is expiring, and will be 30 and is more injury prone than Gordon, so I don’t see them re-signing him. I don’t think there’s any chance that the Rockets would give up Martin and Lowry, so Lowry is an easy choice between the two.
Didn’t Gordon say that he had the knee injury with the Clippers, They just never knew how serious it was. I wouldn’t let EG go in a trade unless there were a future first round pick involved. The fact that the Rockets are in the same division as us makes me believe that Dell will smile and say no thanks. Screw the Rockets.
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t just pay Gordon. Worst case scenario, he gets injured, we get more high lottery picks, and his contract comes off after our high picks are developed. Best case scenario is he stays healthy, we’re competitive, and we become contenders.
However, sign and trading with the Rockets just gives us more rotation players which we already have in abundance and doesn’t really make us better. Are any of those players really capable of being All-NBA? I highly doubt it, so keep Gordon and roll the dice. We gotta pay someone anyways…it might as well be someone we know can put up 25pts/game
Worst case is we are awful for the next 5 years or so? I don’t know that seems like a really bad case to me.
HH,
My problem with your argument is the prediction of high lottery picks if Gordon is injured. This year The Hornets finished tied for 27th (likely 4th lottery pick) but, with three more wins, the Hornets would have been 22nd (likely 8th lottery pick). A three game swing isn’t the cost of Gordon sitting out 90% of our games, it’s the cost of Ariza sitting out 10 (or 15). So having Ariza play 10 (or 15) more games would have put us out of high lottery territory. Having Okafor play more would have improved our record more. [I know both Ariza and Okafor are gone!]
My point is I believe the Hornets with their new draft picks, returning players who are more mature and will have a training camp and preseason together and with the coaching staff, and yet to be signed FAs and/or RFAs, will not be a team that gets high lottery picks even if Gordon misses significant time.
The day of Hornet high lottery picks is over, and keeping a high salary but often injured Gordon around will be a salary cap drag on the Hornets for years to come. There is no good outcome with a often injured high salary player for any team. That’s what is driving this sign and trade discussion on the Hornets’ end, and it is a real concern with Gordon’s injury history.
Hell no!!! The Clippers-Grizzlies and Heat-Pacers playoff series once again underlined the fact that in the NBA, one elite player is worth more than a handful of good players. True stars in the NBA are rare and hard to get a hold of, so you don’t trade one unless you absolutely have to. We have cap room and Gordon is an RFA, so we don’t have to.
If we were getting Lowry in return, I’d do it without the blink of en eye!!!!!
Come on Dealer Dell! Work something out!
Lowry at point and Rivers at his natural position at SG! That would be perfect!
Rockets is shopping Lowry as well, They might sign Dragic and put Gordon next to him! We get a PG with huge potential!
Rockets can give Martin and Scola to whatever team they want! We no longer need them after drafting Rivers and Davis!!
If there will be a trade, please get a player like Lowry.
Exclamation Points!!!
Double Spacing!!!
NOW PUT ON CAPS LOCK AND YOU’RE GOOD!!!
SILLY ROCKETS, TRICKS ARE FOR KIDS! It’s a good package no doubt if we didn’t already have a lot of young projects on our team already but we do.
Also the Rockets are showing everyone for future reference that the “acquiring failed or average lottery picks and hoping that one of them turns into a star or that you can put them together to trade for a star” plan doesn’t work so well.
“Failed or average lottery picks?” Based on what…?
Three of them were just drafted five minutes ago, and one is not yet in the United States.
And “hoping one of them turns into a star?” They tell me that’s kind of the point of the draft. I’m not sure, though.
…
I’m talking about when they traded for players like Johhny Flynn, Terrance Williams, Hasheem Thabeet, and Courtney Lee hoping that one of them would become a star or at the least that they could use them to trade for a star.
Sam Amick just tweeted that Hornets will match a max offer.
rather see if he would accept a 5 th year from us like 5 yr 69 mil as opposed to 4 yr 58 max he can get from others
That’s what you would expect NO to say. If Gordon’s agent says to NO that he won’t sign long term with NO and wants to go to, say, Houston, Dell’s best option is to work out the best trade he can. Unfortunately, NO had a chance to wrap up Gordon long term during the season and chose not to meet Gordon’s number. If NO’s ownership had been in place then, perhaps a different outcome. But, it is what it is.
“The maximum that another team can offer Gordon is $55M over 4 years, or $14.4M/year. During the first year of the deal, the cap hit would be $12.9M for the Hornets.”
So I wonder if we match a deal for Gordon, AND, throw another year on top of that (because we are the only team that can) 1) would that be enough for Gordon to become the leader that you all want him to be (check rap sheet on players after max deals) 2) is Benson going to focus on training and medical staff to keep him healthy along with a team of super scouts to get one more key player and well as stack our bench.
Lets talk about what needs to happen after we sign Gordon because I promise you it won’t be the last move needed to become Champs….we have dig deeper than that Hornets fans….don’t be fooled!
Don’t underestimate the power of Dell Demps to somehow turn this into a three team trade and give us a better package than this one.
For the record, I want to keep Gordon at any cost, but this will definitely be interesting.
I’d be up for a combo of promising prospects/big expiring deals/unprotected draft picks for EJ.
I don’t really have faith that our young pieces will be anything than quality bench players on a try contending team.
Can you really see Henry, Vasquez,or Aminu, giving team like the Heat, Thunder, or Celtics key mins during a playoff run? I get it’s early but usually it doesn’t take 2 or 3 season to spot championship pedigee. I don’t see that in our young pups and would care if we brought in new guys to see if that potential is there.
You have a very warped perception on this team.
throne……sometimes I wonder if you are even a hornets fan……your negativity is too demeaning……maybe you should go purchase a team and post comments on their site. give you something to do as opposed to posting on this one
I don’t get blind optimism. If you’re happy about the direction of the team kudos. However don’t tell me how to view things or where to express my views.
Vasquez is at least as good as Mike Bibby who started for the heat in the 2011 playoffs and could not hit a shot. He had a .281 FG% and .258 from three. So, I can see some of these players could be role players.
We don’t need more rooks on the team. IMHO Gordon will be the best SG in the league in a couple of years, if he can stay healthy. To me that’s a risk I’m willing to take…
YES!
dell keeps alluding to a blueprint in place. i hope that is to pair big ez with in monty’s words “a killer”, not a guy that we hope will evolve into one one day, but a guy who’s there at 23. anyone else see ej dominate at the pan am games?
i hope the plan is not to keep adding young pups until our avg team age is 19.5
as much as i cant stand this idea the bact that we are contacting batum’s reps may be evidence that we’re considering this, or it could just be due diligence, or it could be best of worlds that we keep are after batum AND ej
Batum is a small forward..
What would be wrong with using 12 mil a year to sign him to play with gordon?
I don’t see how Monty wanting a top 5 2 way SF to go with Gordon hints at anything at all.
is there any basis to this, or is it just posted to inflame the fan base and stir the pot? if so it worked on me.
Everyone loves Gordon right now. I am curious to see whats gonna happen if we pay Gordon a 4 year max deal and he still cant stay healthy. Will yall still love him so passionately or want to throw him to the wolves (i.e. Peja)??
I’d make this trade without hesitation. We will be loaded with assets and cap space to pay someone else and be just fine, with less risk. Gordon is a risk, we all have to be realistic about that fact. Smart money would make the deal. Wishes, hopes, and dreams will only focus on the best case, the far end of the spectrum that says Gordon will play all 82 games in each of the next 4 years. We have to be fiscally responsible, and do our due diligence guys.
I’d rather lose Gordon for nothing than get back all the Rockets garbage. We already have too many power forwards and Martin is getting old and by the time Davis and Rivers start figuring it out he’ll be on the decline. The Rockets package doesn’t make us any more of a playoff contender than we are with Gordon and it doesn’t help our future any. Ideally I want to keep Gordon, but if we’re not might as well get nothing back and let our young guys develop while losing a lot and grabbing Cody Zeller or Nerlens Noel or Shabazz Muhammad. I know none of us want to endure another crappy year, but I definitely don’t want to endure 5 years of being the Rockets.
Rockets fan here. Since Gordon wants a 4 yr 58 mil deal(14.5 per year on average) how about we give you Lowry, Martin(for salary match purposes) and 2 rookies of your choice(Motiejunas, Jones, White, Lamb) and the first round pick we own(Got it from LA who got it from Dallas; top 20 protected)? Does that seem fair? You guys can start totally fresh with Davis and Rivers, Martin comes off the books next year and Lowry can play points a spread the floor, also letting Rivers play his more natural SG position. It seems to make sense from both ends to me, what do you think?
I’ll take Lowry, K-Mart, and make it a three-team trade for a good center.
Hornets should get lowry, lamb, and terrence jones..Giving us legitimate depth and a decent point gaurd..Get rid of risky often injured EG, who is trying to take the hornets to the bank, undeserving of a max contract…This is where Dell needs to earn his money and build young..Bring in a veteran free agent for leadership..Next years free agent crop will be better..New Orleans being an great spot to land for a free agent…Lots of Cap space also..Make the deal…
Hmmm in 3-5 years when we’ll be competing, Gordon will be 26-28 and Martin will be 32-34. I wonder who I want
Martin is expiring.
Settle down.
They can keep martin
Hornets need to trade Eric if he really wanted to be a hornet he would not visit other teams
If Im right Eric will work out for other teams to try to get a max offer that the hornets will match, & Eric knows that so why not workout for another team to make you an offer that we will match & make max money. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to be a hornet to me, just sounds like he wants to get paid (& who doesnt?)
Fortunately, our economic system permits an individual to seek out opportunities. The NBA owners and players have worked out a deal to allow guys like Gordon to play elsewhere.
I envision Gordon getting two or more max offers (Houston and Phoenix likely), going back to NO and letting them know their preferred team. NO negotiates the best deal they can. The preferred team knows Gordon has a 2nd max offer in hand, so they can’t hold up NO. End result, Gordon is gone.
And when they sign him… what do we get?
Or do you mean there will be a sign and trade?
And Gordon not signing with that other team has no effect on the ‘hold up’?
I think you need to work through the subtleties.
As a rookie, this player missed 25 games. Then, 5, 7, 31, 31. He missed 17 games this season. With this track record, would you want him on your team? Would you have offered him a long term contract?
Who will be the first to answer who this player is?
Are we worried about Wade or the general patterns associated withplayers who miss games consistently or this one guy?
Which is more informative?
You are referring to Dwayne Wade of course, although your numbers are a little off. It is 21, 5, 7, 31, and 31- and this argument has been made multiple times before, but what people who bring up this argument fail to do is make a fair and balanced argument- one in which they also show players who got injured early in their career and continued to be injury prone.
There is an exception to every rule, but the norms are the norms because they occur more frequently than the exceptions.
The fact is that nobody on earth can predict Gordon’s future, so to point to this player or that player as an example of what might occur is a red herring. Nothing to see there.
Valid arguments on both sides, no right answer yet.
There was a time when Wade was considered injury prone. Even now, he always seems to be injured but he plays through it.And I hate to break it to you but he was and is better than Gordon probably ever will be.
Also, it’s great in hindsight to say that Wade broke the trend, but like MM said there are arguments for both sides. Blake Griffin and Greg Oden both missed their entire rookie years with (I think they both had) microfracture surgeries. Blake obviously came back just fine. Oden…not so much. There’s no guarantee that Gordon will follow Wade’s pattern.
Two ways 2 go: 1) sign E.Gordon to the max for 4yrs/58 mil (that’s Gordon price and offer. That’s what he’s looking 4 in teams.) As a wise man who name I can’t think once said ” You Gotta think, if You don’t want to hurt your bank.”Only way I’ll trade E.G. is through 3-team trade deal that involves us getting a 1st Rnd Draft pick, a superstar that is less known for being one, another C or PG all bundle up in that deal.
Gonna be hard to get that number from other teams, I think.
This is very unlikely. Late last night Ken Beger from CBS tweeted that the Rockets aren’t packaging Kevin Martin in any trades right now. They like his expiring contract.
Driving up value using the guy who guaranteed Chris Paul wouldn’t play a minute in New Irleans in 2010-2011.
Every player loves everywhere unless they are max guys.
Every team loves their players because they are such great assets.
If the Hornets were to re-sign Gordon.Benson should get an insurrance policy on Gordon in case they would to amnesty him in a few years.So it wont affect our cap in the future.
They can’t amnesty contracts made under the new CBA.
We have addressed this so many times on our site that I can’t believe an avid commenter such as yourself doesn’t know that this is not a possibility. Please read:
http://www.hornets247.com/blog/2012/06/24/hornets-cba-faq-part-one-eric-gordon-anthony-davis-and-cp3/
Only player that can be amnestied is JJack
I thought you called us an idiotic fan base.
@Josh Which Podcasts was that in? I gotta hear that one…LOL!
@J called us an idiotic and pessimistic fan base in one of the articles before this one.
Who gets his his max contract first from Benson first, Eric Gordon or Drew Brees?
it’s two different leauges and two different contracts.Brees will get his but at 33 years of age he’s worth a long term deal as long as he has the best offensive line through out his tenure with the Saints.As for Gordon the Hornets ownership will think about this because theres a risk factor with Gordon yes alot of you don’t mind taking a risk but you talking money and games he play.It’s better to be smart than dumb and take a sign and trade.I don’t mind the Blazers giving up Myers Leonard,Wes Matthews and a 2013 1st rd pick which you filp for another player.I doubt that would happen but just a thought
We’re assuming we pay the max (I’m hoping no other team offers him the max) Then Gordon prolly get’s his first becasuse NBA can sign on 11 July, Gordon wants to rap this up so he can do London, and Brees situation will get done the Friday b4 camp starts on the 16th….which happens to be Friday the 13th…..ok maybe Brees signs on Thurdsay the 12th!
Random question. Does the new owner seem willing to go over the cap and pay the luxury tax for the right player? I know we won’t have to to re-sign Gordon , but there are alot of players out there I would love to see in a Hornets uniform.
Let him make a signing first.
Most teams are over the cap, and few teams will be over the tax going forward. Ignore these distractions.
@Bama Yes and No, Benson doens’t know much about sports so he leans heavily on his GM and Coaches. That’s why he had Mickey Loomis come over and sit next to Demps becasuse he trust his opinion. Benson won’t make the decision himself to go over cap and if you ask him directly he’d said “I would hope I wouldn’t have to because i’m already $338mil in the hole” But if a combo of Loomis, Dell, and Monty said “Mr. Benson this guy is the next Micheal Jordon but we need to go over cap to get him” then he may consider it. I doubt he does it though!
Jason, what I meant above is that a team like Houston wouldn’t be able to hold up or rob NO if Gordon’s agent has another max deal in hand. They’ll have to offer more to NO to get the trade involving Gordon done. Gordon’s agent can take him to the 2nd team (Phoenix, perhaps) but wants NO to get a good enough deal that NO agrees to the deal with Houston, Gordon’s first choice. Of course, I’m creating a hypothetical example to try to make my point. What NO could do is say to Gordon’s agent that they can work a deal with PHX but not HOU. Again, hypothetical. Finally, Gordon has leverage at day’s end, risking lots of $s by playing put his contract and becoming an UFA next summer. Then, NO ends up getting nothing or trading without any negotiating strength.
They’ll have his bird rights and will be able to do these sign-and-trade deals if he picks up the QO, so don’t just focus on the one scenario.
As you pointed out, there are counters to every move in the dance you laid out.
gordon can’t become free agent next summer
Sure he can. All he has to do is accept a 1y deal, like the QO before him.
If it was up to me I would just amnesty J Jack now, match whatever offer is out there for Gordon and offer Nicolas Batum a 4yr/48 million deal even if we have to do a sign and trade with Portland to give back either Aminu or Xavier Henry and call it a day. Get a Kwame Brown or Turiaf at the Center position I don’t even care and have a nucleus of Rivers at PG, Gordon at SG, Batum at SF, Davis at PF and find role players attached with them. Monty invested 2 years in developing Batum so the relationship is there if we make a fair offer I strongly feel Batum would rather come here. Just my 2 cents.
I agree w/ Ian H — Batum is a huge upgrade @ the 3, something we really need to compete for a conference title &, in most cases, will likely need eventually. Meanwhile, Vasquez, Gordon & Rivers can share the minutes @ guard & we can find a backup PG, like FA Scott Machado. We can also make do with a journey-man center, to share minutes w/ Smith & Davis. The Davis-Batum-X line-up may give us an edge over Davis-McGee-Aminu, and, w/ Monty’s connection, may be more likely to happen.
Thank you, someone with a vision. Centers are now undervalued in this league. It’s a perimeter league now so having a Rivers, Gordon, Batum, and Davis nucleus with the oldest player being Gordon who will be 24 on Christmas is a phenomenal core. There shouldn’t be any arguing that. Monty has a relationship with Batum, has a lead player in Gordon and will be able to mold both Rivers and Davis from scratch. When crunch time comes the lineup would be Gordon, Rivers, Batum, and Davis and another perimeter player, period. Just go look at the Finals and you could see that as clear as day.
I know that’s it’s a business but jack is on an one year deal. You don’t treat people like that especially a guy that single handily tried to hold this ship together last year.
@Veezy you bring up a valid point. JJ has earned his 5mil and we could use him this year as he is a viable backup at point. Hell, what am I saying, at this point he is the starter until Austin proves himself at PG. I doubt they would start Vasquez over JJ too! And yes in the interest of changing the perception about N.O. to bring in players they def won’t do a player dirty right now!
Watching golf so it’s easy to multi-task! Mike Wells, who reports the Pacers, said via Twitter that Gordon met with Pacers earlier today. PHX tomorrow. Houston today, too. Lots of teams in the hunt.
This was somewhat covered in the CBA FAQ, but one more question: let’s say the Rockets sign Gordon to an offer sheet. Can we then match-and-trade him, or does he have to originally sign with us in order to sign-and-trade him? My understanding is that we can, but to any team except the Rockets in this scenario.
There’s a year mortorium on trades generally without the player’s approval, and he can’t be traded by us to a team whose offer sheeti he signed while he’s on that contract. Also, we can’t match-sign-and-trade.
lowry is a nice player, but I would be willing to trade EG for the following:
next yrs #1
Montiejunas – need a big
Lamb – another good SG to replace EG
R White – versatility to play PF and SF, little nuts but can bal
Kelvin Martin – work on trade offers before doing this trade
Here is a piece with quotes from Gordon on his free agency journey and specific comments toward the Rockets.
http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterockets/2012/07/rockets-meet-with-hornets-free-agent-guard-eric-gordon-today/
Let me guess before I click… statements that make it seem like he’d like to play for the Rockets… yup.
No he doesn’t really say that. Just that he wants to play for competing team. I feel like no one is going to offer a max contract. Suns I heard will give 4/48 and who knows what the Pacers are really trying to do.
If that’s how you read it.
I see a man trying to solicit offers.
Isn’t that the point? Hornets are dragging their feet in giving him a max contract and he wants to drive the price up. I just feel like he doesn’t want to play here.
The point is he’ll get offers and thr Hornets are in charge unless he signs the QO or doesn’t sign any deal.
There is no feet dragging… the market sets the value.
@Nolakid, thanks for the link….interesting read…especially the part when he brings up being traded from the Clippers. But after reading It I kinda feel like he wants to play with us, but he’s unsure about the His and Hornets’ future!
All of this is reminding me how exciting/annoying free agency can be.
You spelled TerrEnce jones’ name wrong
This is the best news I have heard all day. I was initially hoping that Kidd, Nash, or Andre Miller would come here. But they’re all looking elsewhere and if they do a sign and trade, I would take Kevin Martin, Terrence Jones, Montejunas and/or Lowry. We still need a point guard and hopefully this will give us enough flexibility to sign Sessions or someone of his caliber.
Just wanted to throw this out there…
What would a package of Eric Gordon and Jack be worth?
Would Hornets fans accept Lowry, Courtney Lee and Royce White?
Could we then go after J McGee to be our starting centre?
We could then trade Lee for a SF to fill out our least productive position right?
I like the idea of Lowry, Lee/Rivers, Aminu, Davis, McGee
Vasquez, Lee/Rivers, White, Landry, Smith/Ayon
Gordon gets max offer from PHX and says that where he wants to play. Can NO match and sell Gordon as a centerpiece of the team? Kind of hard to swallow. Or, do they save face, do a sign and trade, and move on? I’m betting on the latter.