IC Cold Links: Pacers Learning About Troy Murphy's Trade Value And Life Without Jeff Foster
by Tom Lewis on Feb 2, 2010 6:40 AM EST
in News
32 comments
Mike Wells brings all kinds of glad tidings to Pacers fans in his latest Pacers Insider post.
First we learn that the dreams of Troy Murphy to Cleveland for Zydrunas Ilgauskas and his expiring contract haven't gone anywhere because the Pacers are asking for too many goodies.
The Pacers wanted the Cavaliers to give up forward J.J. Hickson, center Zydrunas Ilgauskas and multiple draft picks for Murphy, the source said.
Hey, I'm all for asking for the moon and I'm sure dealing from a position of strength has to be fun for Larry Bird and David Morway, but now that there's room for negotiation don't let it die. I'm assuming that's the case since there's still over two week before the trade deadline, so if the Cavs settle on Murphy and the Pacers get anything beyond Ziggy's contract, it will be worth it.
Next we learn that Jeff Foster is going to Los Angeles, although not in a trade but to see a back specialist.
Foster is not expected to play this season and is likely headed for surgery. John Hollinger mentioned this when discussing the Denver Nuggets and why they've abandoned their pursuit of Foster.
So what does this mean for the future of Foster?
Well, if all goes well and Foster returns fit to play next year he will be even more valuable considering his expiring contract. If not, and he ends up retiring this summer the Pacers could get some cap relief since he hasn't played since December. Larry Coon explains:
There is one exception whereby a player can continue to receive his salary, but the salary is not included in the team's team salary. This is when a player is forced to retire for medical reasons and a league-appointed physician confirms that he is medically unfit to continue playing. There is a waiting period of one year following the injury or illness before a team can apply for this salary cap relief. If the waiting period expires mid-season (on any date prior to the last day of the regular season), then the player's entire salary for that season is removed from the team's team salary. For example, in March 2003 the Knicks were allowed to remove Luc Longley's entire 2002-03 salary from their books (and since the luxury tax is based on the team salary as of the last day of the regular season, the Knicks avoided paying any tax on Longley's salary). This provision can also be used when a player dies while under contract.
Wells tops off all of this glorious news with a sprinkling of comments from Reggie Miller. While discussing the impact of the Gilbert Arenas suspension and shenanigans in Washington, ol' 31 reminds us how the Pacers continue to feel the impact of the brawl.
Yeah, we know.
A few more links of interest:
- Pacers plan to rely on small lineup
More from Mighty Mike on the Pacers intent to stay small. Danny Granger likes the lineup in certain situations but a heavy dose of power forwards doesn't seem to sit well with 33. -
Movie was eye-opening experience for Reggie
Bruno's latest Caught In The Web hits on Reggie's documentary, Freddie Lewis' number and Hansbrough's indefinite setback. - Report: Jeff Foster "Likely to Require" Surgery, Be Done for the Year
Jared Wade over at 8.9 shares his take on the Jeff Foster situation. - Raptors without Turkoglu and DeRozan for Indiana rematch
Sounds like good news, although after Sunday's game it appears that means more Sonny Weems and Antoine Wright. Uh oh. - Raptors' Johnson an eager pupil
Doug Smith reports on the solid development and play of late from Toronto's Amir Johnson. - Desperation time for Bird, Pacers as basketbrawl still lingers
Speaking of the brawl, Frank Therber shares his thoughts on the Pacers and finds them desperate to hit a home run in the upcoming draft.
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Come on Bird,
Don’t hold out too long on this Murphy trade. At this point I don’t even care if we get nothing other than salary cap relief. Just don’t piss them off, if the Cavs end up dealing Z somewhere else I’m gonna be upset.
agreed
cleveland is already 5.5 games up on the conference and have won 8 in a row. Im sure Murphy for Big Z sounds good to them but anything other than that I would think cleveland would give Indiana the big eff you and say “yea, we’ll be fine without murphy, you see we have this player named lebron james, perhaps you remember him from the billboards, and since we have lebron james we dont need to make moves that arent favorable to us, so no, you cant have hickson, you cant have our draft picks, however, you can have our out of shape european center that we have no use for whatsoever, and if you dont want him thats fine, theres plenty of teams out there that actually want cap relief due to the fact that this summer has the biggest and best free agency class in the history of the nba, so enjoy ur 20 wins this year and have a great day!”
If Youre not First, Youre Last
by drsuessrunner07 on Feb 2, 2010 9:49 AM EST up reply actions
I don't care if we get a ham sandwich along as cap relief comes with it.
Bird thinks Murph is a freaking superstar or something. Wake up Bird, this is reality calling ya….
Confucious say "He who dives for loose balls need proper fitting athletic cup!"
i agree one hundred percent as well. As a die hard pacer fan for many years, i would be very upset if we didn’t get a deal done here. One of the main problems we have right now is not only lack of talent, but we have a huge payroll with no wins coming out of it. Larry bird keeps talking about how he keeps hearing that the pacers should go out and “get this player and this player as well” but he keeps saying we just don’t have the money for that. Well i’d say this is the perfect oppurtunity to save a lot of money because the pacers are obviously one of the teams that have lost money in recent years. I’d say we ask for illgauskas and hickson and if they still say no, i would still take the illgauskas for murphy, we’re not winning any games anyways WITH murphy so what do we have to lose?
Yea...
Z for Muprhy is FINE in my book. I would love to see Cleveland throw in a number 1 or 2 draft pick. There number one is going to be at the end of the first round anyway, but maybe we snag a Dajuan Blair.
Question
Would you rather have Z and Hickson or Z and the 1st rounder? I’m torn on this and was wondering what other educated Pacer fans think.
I would want the pick. I’m not too high on Hickson, and I’m not sure he plays stellar D. The Pacers need an athletic defensive minded PF to work along Hibbert.
Plus, Hickson is LeBron’s boy, so I’m sure Cleveland won’t trade him now.
get the pick over the player
ill be the first to admit that i dont know a whole lot about hickson but I do like the fact that he’s still only 21. looking at this years draft though there are a lot of PF we can draft even in the late first round that I would take over Hickson, and thats if we dont use our first pick on a PF, i just have a bad feeling that hickson would be ike diugo version 2.0
If Youre not First, Youre Last
by drsuessrunner07 on Feb 2, 2010 11:35 AM EST up reply actions
Ditto on the Hickson thing...
I do not know much about him. But I would rather have him than the pick. Assume, conservatively, the Cavs end up with the 26th pick of the draft. Would you rather have that, or Hickson (19th pick 2008) with a few years under his belt? I think I would rather have Hickson. By no means is he accomplished, but he’s been through the transition already, and I’ve only read good things on him. From when I have watched him, I have been pretty impressed, he’s not a stiff, seems athletic.
by captain flitzy on Feb 2, 2010 12:29 PM EST up reply actions
Hickson
Is far more logical than an end of the round pick. I like Hickson a bit though, but I don’t think he’s valuable to Cleveland right now. He will be good when he grows, but Cleveland doesn’t need someone who is learning on the job. The Pacers could.
Besides, the last time the Pacers drafted an end of the round pick, it was David Harrison. I would MUCH rather have J.J. Hickson than David Harrison. End of story.
by goodlucksaturday on Feb 2, 2010 4:52 PM EST up reply actions
1st Rounder.
Hickson isn’t anything special. He’s not a player who would be starter quality on a contending team unless they have a LeBron level player.
Grab the pick
you rebuild through the draft anyone can tell you that. The draft is deep this year. Just look at how the Thunder/Sonics did it, they traded away veterans for picks and now look at them.
we might want to consider a future 1st rounder maybe a 2011 or 2012. Lebron might be gone by then and the pick is sure to have higher value.
Hickson!!!!!
The last guy picked 29th with any value was Josh Howard and that was 2003
Toney Douglas
DJ White
Arlando Tucker
Mardy Collins
Z and The Hick for the worst post player in the league would be a steal.
Speaking of,
I still think there is some value in DJ White. And wouldn’t it be a nice gesture if Bird went out and got us DJ for Josh McRoberts. Come on Bird! Do it!
Yeah this is a no brainer
Hickson holds tons of value and the 29th pick is a crapshoot at best. Hickson is a nice player and is still very young. The only thing I’m not too wild about is he is not very big. After being at the Pacers v. Cavs game the other week Hickson is not bigger than Danny and looks a lot like an athletic Hansbrough.
"My game’s like the Pythagorean Theorem. It ain’t got no answer." - Shaq
by bleedinblueandgold on Feb 2, 2010 3:13 PM EST up reply actions
I like Hickson as a player
But I was thinking that we could package our Cavs pick with something to possibly get a better player or trade the Cav’s pick for a future first rounder to a team that may be worse than the Cavs. For me, you have to factor in the flexibility of what you can do with the pick. However, if history is any indication, maybe we should just take the player and not worry about trades and what not.
White
Honestly, I like White. Nevermind he’s my favorite IU player in the past fifteen years, but I think he has value in the league as a DeJuan Blair type. An undersized PF with a knack for rebounding, but he also has a penchant for an offensive game. A swap for him and McRoberts is brilliant. I can’t figure out why he’s not getting any burn in Okie, he did exceptional at the end of last year for them. White for McRoberts is a great deal.
by goodlucksaturday on Feb 2, 2010 4:54 PM EST up reply actions
Honestly...
the Cavs really do need Murphy, for the first time in a while I am partially confident there is a deal that could actually go through.
I’d bet they’d rather have Jamison though. He’s a much better player. If they can make that deal, we’re sorta screwed. That’s especially why we need to take what we can get.
I'm not confident
Simply because we have Bird pulling the strings.
A real GM would have already dealt Foster last year, and had us already 2-3 years through the rebuilding process.
" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "
We can only hope...
… that Bird’s contract is not renewed – he’s certainly acting like a “lame duck”!
by FortWayneKarl on Feb 2, 2010 3:44 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I agree
Murph in Cleveland makes sense. He spreads the floor, and you know Cleveland is going to fall in love with the trailing Murph threes. They’ll gobble it up if he hits those shots in the postseason.
As for the deal, a straight Z for Murph swap is fine. I think a first rounder would be doable given where it will be (though Bird should try for a 2011 first over a 2010). If we can land Hickson, we do it. Immediately. Both? It doesn’t hurt to try for both, but don’t break the deal on both.
by goodlucksaturday on Feb 2, 2010 5:00 PM EST up reply actions
our espn.com hollinger playoff odds officially hit 0.0 today
sorry to ruin everyones day….
If Youre not First, Youre Last
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