http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/sports/article/81840


McGrady to Motor City?

And, speaking of major trade possibilities, there’s a blockbuster brewing in the NBA, too.

The Detroit Pistons, we hear, are making a big pitch to the Houston Rockets for perennial all-star Tracy McGrady.

Any guesses as to what we offered? I assume Billups is a part of the package.

Tayshaun is a bit redundant with Battier, so I'm guessing Sheed's the other fall guy, and possibly Maxiell as well.

Wow...I know TMac isn't that old but he prolly won't have that long of a career with all his injuries.

JoeD isn't going 'win now' mentality, is he?

I have to look up the length of his contract.

TMac's contract has 2 years left, after which we'll have max cap space to offer one of 2010's golden free agents.

Even in the worst case scenario, we wind up with a ton of cap space in the biggest free agency summer in 10 years.

I see no real downside here. TMac is probably the most gifted player that Joe can acquire.

McGrady is an elite level talent. He isn't a leader, but in a Piston uniform, he doesn't have to be.

I mean, is he going to cost us the 2009 championship if he fails? Nobody here thinks we're doing shit next season anyway. What's to lose?

2 years is nothing. I just didn't want him with 6 years left or something.

I came.

All the chips ------------>table.

Hopefully this isn't just based on that Hoopsworld story from yesterday.

For what it's worth, ASB's lackey seems to be taking this story as possible breaking news.

http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/


The outlet is based in Toronto, where McGrady started his career and spent his first three seasons playing. This could be one of the deals that Dumars has been working on.

Stay tuned.....

For what it's worth, ASB seems to be taking this story as possible breaking news.

http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/

Hate to rain on the party, but that's not A. Sherrod Blakely, dude.

For what it's worth, ASB seems to be taking this story as possible breaking news.

http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress/


That's ASB's lackey, Dial.

whoops. My bad.

I thought ASB was the only pistons writer working for MLive. What the fuck is a Dave Dial?

whoops. My bad.

I thought ASB was the only pistons writer working for MLive. What the fuck is a Dave Dial?


I think he's their tech guy....Guessing he replaced Emcow or whoever that cat was who hosted chats.

If I'm not mistaken, a Dave Dial is the sports version of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBGIQ7ZuuiU

So we are biting on Hoopsworld rumors and Blakely lackeys as big push?

So we are biting on Hoopsworld rumors and Blakely lackeys as big push?


and Canadians.

it isn't a hoopsworld rumor. It's a rumor out of a Canadian newspaper that ASB's lackey happened to read like the rest of us.

So if the trade is Billups and Sheed, who plays where? Does Tay start at Power Forward? We've lost our only post presence if we lose Sheed. Is it Dice, maybe?

Or is Joe D somehow only getting rid of one starter with this? I don't think Joe would get rid of all of our post, especially if he didn't draft a PF/C (that can play now).

there would certainly be a follow-up deal involving tayshaun or sheed, whoever we had left for Krstic, Okafor, etc. We'd need a center.

Scola would most likely be coming back to us in a TMac deal as well, since he makes the salaries match and Houston would have no real need for him with landry and sheed.

If we do make a TMac deal, we'd really be one halfway decent center away from being in position to make a tun in 2009. But we will need that.

Getting a semi-superstar on the team would be nice, but in all honesty I can't get too excited about adding a soft player with no leadership qualities to a team that's soft and has no real leadership.

On the plus side, it'd be nice to get a consistent scorer who can create his own shot and add a little excitement to this team.

when you shoot %50, and drop 40, 10 and 5 in your final game and you lose by 22, it isn't you that's soft, it's the team around you.

Garnett was soft before he went to Boston. So was Ray Allen. It's a silly label when you attach it to guys that averaged 30 a game in the playoffs simply because the 11 guys around them can't keep pace.

Maybe he won't turn it around on much better team like KG did, but he deserves the chance to prove he can be a winner with the right talent around him.

it isn't a hoopsworld rumor. It's a rumor out of a Canadian newspaper that ASB's lackey happened to read like the rest of us.

But how do you know that the Canuck story isn't based on the Hoopsworld thing? It happens all the time.

Here's that story again: http://www.wtfdetroit.com/forums/showpost.php?p=263934&postcount=473

Interesting. I'd rather have Carmelo than TMac though, since i have zero faith in him having more than one healthy season, if that. I do think though that if we are going to get a 'superstar' it pretty much has to be sort of "damaged goods", Carmelo has a knuckle-headed attitude, VC is soft and lazy, T-Mac has injury concerns, etc etc, because our guys don't have the trade value to get the undamaged ones.

Man, I wish we coulda gotten into that Sheed-Amare deal before the Shaq trade.

as long as we keep either rip or cb, im fine.

billups/dice/max for tmac and fillers would be good

Houston is loaded with PGs, so I just don't see Billups as being a part of this.

I know that Joe really likes Battier, so he could be in this phantom deal along with Rip.

I wouldn't touch Scola unless he gave assurances that he wasn't going to bail back to Europe (the Rockets are concerned about this too).

I suppose I can see this: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=294~530~1724~976~532&teams=10~10~10~8~8&te=&cash= but Joe would have to be committed to keeping Sheed for this to happen, I would think.

McGrady's health makes me nervous, but I know I'm not alone there.

Houston is loaded with PGs, so I just don't see Billups as being a part of this.


That's like saying we're loaded with power forwards, therefore we wouldn't want Elton Brand.

They have a long list of mediocre PGs. I'm sure they would demand Chauncey.

Rip's staying simply because he would fit so well next to TMac. Dealing him would put too much of the scoring burden on TMac, which would defeat the purpose.

Maybe, but they got very solid play out of Alston at a very reasonable price (less than the MLE).

How much of an upgrade is Billups over Alston? (Pistons homer bias aside, and yes, I know he won a Finals MVP)

They've got Alston wrapped up for two more years at $10m, do they see it as a positive to put $37m into Chauncey for only a year longer? (as he continues to decline)

I doubt it.

How much of an upgrade is Billups over Alston? (Pistons homer bias aside, and yes, I know he won a Finals MVP)


How much of an upgrade is Brand over Reggie Evans?

The Sixers have him on the cheap and got a very solid year out of him last year...

How much of an upgrade is Brand over Reggie Evans?

The Sixers have him on the cheap and got a very solid year out of him last year...

Tell me that you didn't just compare Reggie Evans' production to Elton Brand's.

Evan's 5 & 7 is not nearly as comparable to Brand's periennial 20 & 10 as Alston's 13 & 5 is to Billups 17 & 7.

You're reaching, K.

Kurt Thomas, you know he'd come here for a chance to start.

Yeah Kurt Thomas.. What a difference maker!

[/sarcasm]

i'd love our trainers to have the opportunity to work with mcgrady re: his back issues.

i would do a rip and sheed for mcgrady and scola deal in HEARTBEAT.

plug t-mac at SG and away we go. that is a great trade for us IMO.

T-Mac to Detroit deal not close to happening
by A. Sherrod Blakely
Friday July 11, 2008, 10:18 AM

LAS VEGAS -- And now, for the latest addition to the growing stack of untrue rumors regarding Detroit and possible trades.

A report out of Detroit indicated the Pistons were close to getting a deal done that would land them Houston's Tracy McGrady.

Sources I spoke with this morning confirmed that the story is not true. In fact, the two teams haven't had any type of talks with each other in quite some time. Last I checked, telepathic deals aren't allowed in the NBA.

Maybe this rumor was planted to get both sides talking again.

But the more I think about it, that doesn't make a lot of sense. The Pistons already have expressed interest in McGrady. Houston knows what players are available. There's not a whole lot of back-and-fourth talks that need to be had at this point.

As I wrote about earlier this week, Denver's Carmelo Anthony and McGrady are two players that Detroit have a lot of interest in. Their efforts to land Anthony didn't work, but that doesn't mean the two won't resume talks at a later time. The same goes for potential talks in the future with Houston about McGrady.

I'll continue to keep you abreast of how all this plays out. But as of 10:30 Friday morning, the Pistons are not close to trading for McGrady.

I will have some reports later on tonight following Detroit's first summer league game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

As I mentioned in my Cheikh Samb story for today, tonight's 8 p.m. game will be on NBA TV, or you can see its webcast on nba.com which will begin at 8:30 p.m.

:mccosky: knew this all along.

Notice that ASB comes strong like this before it's widely known that the deal is bogus, unlike McCosky that sounds like he knew all along, but couldn't tell us until it's common knowledge.

ASB is #1 in a weak, weak field of Pistons beat writers, IMO.

Glenn loves to kill hope.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that the Toronto story was just some hack getting carried away by reading an internet rumor someplace else (maybe Hoopsworld).

Here's what some Toronto fan wrote on another board:

You're definitely correct in not trusting this source.

1) Metro News is the tabloid-style paper given out free on the Southern Ontario GO Train commuting system - it's mainly blurbs pulled from wire stories and those fluff "Top 5 ___" articles.

LMAO @ :mccosky:




McGrady rumor has no legs

Posted by Chris McCosky on Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 1:09 PM

Since when does a one-sentence, non-sourced note from a non-NBA writer in a secondary publication up in Canada warrant such buzz? The Pistons and Rockets are not having on-going discussions about Tracy McGrady. There is no deal. Nothing is remotely close. Joe Dumars hasn't talked to the Rockets in several weeks and the Rockets have made it clear they have zero interest in trading T-Mac.

Dumars has talked to numerous teams, that's his job. He's trying to improve his team. He has made inquiries about McGrady. Nothing ever came of it and he hasn't gone back in over a month.

On a different note, I am happy that Jarvis Hayes has gotten another deal. He will sign a two-year deal with the Nets. He is one of the all-time good guys in this business. Had he been able to play defense even a little bit, he would have been here a whole lot longer.

He is one of the all-time good guys in this business. Had he been able to play defense even a little bit, he would have been here a whole lot longer.

That's great, right there.

I'm going to rip on Jarvis in just a second, but before I do, let's give him an undeserved comment -- he's one of the all-time good-guys... err... WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST PLAY SOME D, JARVIS?!

Report: Tracy McGrady interested in becoming a Piston


ESPN's Stephen A. Smith reported on ESPN late Tuesday night that he spoke with McGrady and that McGrady wouldn't mind a trade to Detroit.

Said Smith: "It's certainly not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. It's not as if Houston and Detroit has even talked yet. But is Detroit interested? Definitely.

"Is Tracy McGrady interested? Yes he is. I spoke to Tracy McGrady earlier. His basic thing is he's very happy in Houston but he wants to win. So whatever is a winning situation for him is something he is more than willing to entertain."

Smith said McGrady "has all the faith in the world" in Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars, but "if nothing happens he's not going to sneeze at remaining in Houston with Yao Ming either."

A team source told the Free Press this week that the Pistons are not “remotely” close to a deal for Houston Rockets superstar Tracy McGrady.

Metronews.ca, which is based in Toronto, said in an Internet report — but cited no sources — that the Pistons are "making a big push for McGrady."

The Pistons source downplayed the report, saying the Rockets are just one of many teams to whom the club has spoken about potential trades.

McGrady, a 6-foot-8 forward with 11 seasons under his belt, spent his first three seasons in Toronto. He averaged 21.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.9 assists last season for Houston.

Metronews.ca, which is based in Toronto, said in an Internet report — but cited no sources — that the Pistons are "making a big push for McGrady.

We were really ahead of the curve here by speculating that this was all based on that Hoopsworld story.

FC8YtD2CAfw

Cuts off before he can finish, unfortunately.

Oops. Commented on this in the Legit Trades thread, but KStat beat me to it. Oh well.

The problem is that deal isn't that great really. Billups and Tay for Tmac? Houston already has enough PG's. Plus I'm not sold on giving up two valuable starters for one often injured former star. I'd much rather do a Prince/Dyess for Tmac and some sort of 4/5 type of deal. Dyess would have to agree of course.

former star?

The guy averaged 27, 8 and 7 in the playoffs this year. He's easily worth any 2 starters on our team, sans maybe rip.

And how far has he gotten in the playoffs? The point is that he's not a proven winner like many other stars are.

I doubt Houston wants Prince and Battier together. I wonder if a 3 way with the Bucks would work. They would take Billups, Redd is a good sidekick to Yao (stretches the floor and Battier makes up for his poor defense). Bogut would be a good replacement for Sheed going to Houston. Someone work up a deal.

KG wasn't a proven winner before he went to boston, nor was Ray Allen.

It's a bullshit tag.

Rockets GM dismisses trade talk involving McGrady

07/16/2008

By CHRIS DUNCAN / Associated Press

Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said Wednesday that Tracy McGrady is happy in Houston and was surprised at how reports characterized his interest in being traded to Detroit.

Morey spoke a day after an ESPN reporter said McGrady had told him he would be interested in playing for the Pistons. Last week, a Canadian-based media outlet reported without citing sources that Detroit was making a run at the seven-time All-Star.

Morey said he talked to McGrady on Wednesday morning.

"He said he wanted to win and they (the media) ran with it," Morey said. "He said he's happy in Houston. He just was surprised how it all came out."

McGrady's agent, Arn Tellem, did not immediately return a phone message.

Morey said he had one conversation with the Pistons "a few weeks ago." He said he turned down preliminary offers, but wouldn't specify whether any of them involved McGrady.

"I don't want to say what was related," Morey said. "Whatever they offered, we said no to."

McGrady has two years left on his contract at more than $21 million next season and $23.2 million in 2009-10.

The 29-year-old McGrady averaged 21.6 points, 5.9 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game last season, helping Houston to a 55-27 record that included a 22-game winning streak.

The Rockets lost to Utah in the first round of the playoffs for the second consecutive year. McGrady is 0-7 in playoff series in his career.

KG wasn't a proven winner before he went to boston, nor was Ray Allen.

It's a bullshit tag.

And neither one of them took two all stars to get either (counting Prince for the sake of arguement with 2 of our starters).

Ray took an overpaid shooter, an average PG and a lotto pick.

KG took one all star caliber player (Al Jefferson), a young unproven player who was let go (Green), and 2 more young promising players (Gomes and Telfair).

Tmac's value should be somewhere in between those two (it would be equivelent to KG if he stayed healthy).

That should put it at one all star, one young promising player and a first rounder in my book.

...does your book include the salary cap?

Al Jefferson at his age and talent level plus $11 million in cap relief is a lot more value than any two of our starters.

Does it matter? If you include filler to match on our end, you include a cheaper player (or picks) on their end that is equivilent in value.

Just because he makes 20 mil doesn't mean we should throw in extra talent without compensation. In fact a bloated contract hurts his value.

Just because he makes 20 mil doesn't mean we should throw in extra talent without compensation. In fact a bloated contract hurts his value.


We have no trade filler.

Then you get a third team in the mix with expirings and send them cash or something. It's possible.

We only have to send them 16 mil for Tmac. Prince is 9.5, Amir is 3.67. S&T Herrmann for a couple mil and you are all set.

Will they do that? Probably not, but we can throw in picks. but the point is that you don't have to throw in talent because Tmac gets paid a lot.

That also fits my all star (almost), young promising player and a pick for him.

you can't sign and trade a player in a package with other players.

you can if you wait to make the trade. Like I said just get a 3rd team involved and send them Max for a pick (or send him to Houston). Or send Samb and AA. You are missing the point that we can definately do the deal without losing two starters (or Stuckey).

We'd be a little thin on the bench, but we could replace Max and Amir with PJ Brown for the MLE, and bring back Herrmann for the LLE (or someone else). Possibly Ratliff. It would be tricky to fill out the bench:

PG Billups/Stuckey/Bynum
SG RIP/Stuckey/AA
SF Tmac/Herrmann/AA
PF Dyess/Brown
C Sheed/Brown/Samb

Hopefully Sharpe would be ready to make the team and that would help a lot.

I assume Herrmann will go to Europe for more money than he will get to stay in the NBA.

PG Billups/Stuckey/Bynum
SG RIP/Stuckey/AA
SF Tmac/Herrmann/AA
PF Dyess/Brown
C Sheed/Brown/Samb



IMO, that roster probably wins 60 games and a championship, if T-Mac stays healthy.

All of these conflicting reports look like a big smokescreen for a deal that's being worked on. I just have a hunch that he'll be a Piston by August. Anyone else get that feeling, or am I alone?

i hope so too atti

:sas: on Tmac/Pistons

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3497322&categoryId=2459788&n8pe6c=1

Do me a favor - could you write down, word for word, what Smiff had to say? I would rather not listen to his voice.

Thanks in advance.

I also had a chance to talk with Rockets GM Daryl Morey. Keep in mind that this was Tuesday afternoon, a few hours before news of the Ron Artest deal broke. I give full props to the guy for keeping a gangster poker face when I brought trades up to him. He rolled his eyes when I brought up the T-Mac to Detroit stuff.

SLAM: How do you feel about your team right now?

Daryl Morey: We feel like this off-season we’re adding Yao Ming, basically. That doesn’t mean that we’re resting on what we’ve got. We’re constantly looking to upgrade, but we feel like we’ll make a strong push next year and we really need to figure out how to get out of the first round.

SLAM: What was going on with the T-Mac to Detroit rumors? Was it more Detroit coming to you guys? Was there any truth to it?

DM: I think, to me it feels very similar to when I was in Boston with Paul (Pierce). All those years there were rumors that we were trading him and we never were and it’s the same with Tracy, we’re not.

http://slamonline.com/online/2008/08/dynamic-nba/