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Disregard Mirotic, Aquire Favors!

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...cus-cousins-new-orleans-pelicans-nba-playoffs

Going to go ahead and say that acquiring Niko ain't happening. I had hoped they'd be dumb and sell him off to keep DMC and appease Davis. Sounds like they will try and limit how much exposure they have on the next DMC contract and let him walk if need be. The other option being selling off more picks to shave some salary.

Anyway... I'm saying goodbye to Niko until FA 2019.
 
Except that we likely traded Favors for Niko. Because we weren't keeping them both. Now if Favors moves on this offseason, we have a problem.

I'm in a win now mode and Favors is better for this team right now. The chemistry we have is off the charts. I don't see Mitchell hugging Mirotic after the game last night. He did Favors though. I'll never say 'what ifs' about this trade from now on.
 
It looks like infection is absolutely right that we could have had Niko for Burks + 2018 1st. It looks like a bad decision at this point, unless DL pulls rabbit out of his hat with the pick.

But in addition to the takes which I thought were bad at the time and which have clearly not born out now (Jazz might be tanking, Niko's not really good) here's some complicating factors. These are not to argue that the trade shouldn't have been made, but just to throw a little complexity into the scenario:
  • It didn't seem to make a lot of sense to trade for Niko and keep Favors (both should be starters). DL might have been trying to find a return for Favors that was similar to the return Chicago was asking for Niko (a first rounder), but never found one. He may have even been holding off on a Niko trade in order to find a good trade, and then events intervened with New Orleans willing to pull the trigger on the 1st rounder more quickly.
  • We don't know if Chicago would have accepted lottery protection on the first-round pick. Perhaps they were holding out until someone gave something better (as NO did with only top-five protection).
  • As accurate as Infection was that the Jazz weren't tanking, there's no reason for the Jazz to have been fully confident that they'd make the playoffs. We barely made it in as it was with an insane last 35 games. Our pick could very easily have been 12-14, even without tanking. That's a someone different calculation than the 21st pick (even if the odds are still better with Niko).

Thing is, we don't know the effect Niko would have had with our teams chemistry. That chemistry is the strength of the team. In my myopic opinion, I don't remember seeing anything like it. We'll never know how adding a new player at the trade deadline would have changed things, but could it be any better than we are without him? Most likely not.

I'm good without him.
 
Favs has been really good so if the trade would have cost us Favs I’m not sure I 100% do it now.

Didn’t mean to rehash this just thought the article was relevant and it sounds like they consider Niko part of the core going forward. Again... re-signing cousins and not finding a taker for Hill will put them in LT hell when the try and re-sign him in 2019.
 
Favs has been really good so if the trade would have cost us Favs I’m not sure I 100% do it now.

Didn’t mean to rehash this just thought the article was relevant and it sounds like they consider Niko part of the core going forward. Again... re-signing cousins and not finding a taker for Hill will put them in LT hell when the try and re-sign him in 2019.
Cant they stretch Hill's contract? Besides, one year of luxury tax is probably acceptable for most teams.
 
Cant they stretch Hill's contract? Besides, one year of luxury tax is probably acceptable for most teams.

They will be in luxury tax two years in a row ( if they bring back Niko and DMC) and the team has ducked the tax before. They may just pay it but they were losing money already... adding another 30-40M to those loses is not ideal... they also need some help on the wing... read the article... it laid out the issue pretty well. If they didn’t sign cousins they could use the MLE to get help on the wing.

They could stretch hill, but like 27M over five years and losing a functional player isn’t ideal. They will stretch Ajinca and likely look to move Hill with their 2019 pick at some point next year... I think they will find a taker... it seems like he is similar to demarre Carroll last year.

IDK but they have hard decisions coming.
 
Favs has been really good so if the trade would have cost us Favs I’m not sure I 100% do it now.

Didn’t mean to rehash this just thought the article was relevant and it sounds like they consider Niko part of the core going forward. Again... re-signing cousins and not finding a taker for Hill will put them in LT hell when the try and re-sign him in 2019.
Yeah, I've mentioned before that I thought Niko would really put in to question bringing back Boogie. From February 2:
My prediction is that if Niko starts for NOP, he’ll average 20+ with them and they won’t be nearly as pressured to bring Boogie back at a high price.
Now, Mirotic didn't average 20+ with NOP (he averaged 14.6), but I had stated that if he started he'd average that. In his 11 starts for NOP in the regular season, he averaged 18.7 PPG. In the playoffs he's averaged 18.3 PPG while they swept the #3 seed.

#JustaHotStreak
 
Yeah, I've mentioned before that I thought Niko would really put in to question bringing back Boogie. From February 2:

Now, Mirotic didn't average 20+ with NOP (he averaged 14.6), but I had stated that if he started he'd average that. In his 11 starts for NOP in the regular season, he averaged 18.7 PPG. In the playoffs he's averaged 18.3 PPG while they swept the #3 seed.

#JustaHotStreak

We all know what happened with Niko and Portis... I do wonder if Mirotic will be less happy if DMC comes back and he is coming off the bench in a contract year.
 
We all know what happened with Niko and Portis... I do wonder if Mirotic will be less happy if DMC comes back and he is coming off the bench in a contract year.
Boogie to Boston for Hayward. Paul George to Boston for Hayward.
 
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