NBA Rumors Chat With Steve Kyler 9/8/11

HOOPSWORLD Publisher Steve Kyler will hold his weekly chat at 4:30pm EST on Thursdays. Drop in your questions regarding NBA trades, the NBA Draft, roster moves or questions about your team.

  1. Shad

    Is this a good trade? Utah sends Bell and AJ to the bobcats for Diaw and Augustine. This would give the jazz two additional expiring contracts to add to Miles and Memos.

    • Steve Kyler

      Welcome in everyone… I hope the week has been good to you. Just some heads up I may not chat next week as I head to Las Vegas for the Impact Basketball CTS series… I’ll do my best to make it happen, but really no promises on that. Lots of questions in the Que, so let’s get after them.

      Al Jefferson?… No it’s not a good deal. Boris is not a player. He is a contract, when his deal is up I think he’s out of the NBA.

      Al Jefferson, even with his shortcomings is an 18 point 9-10 rebound big. There is no scenario in which you trade that kind of production for a stiff like Diaw.

      The Jazz are not in dump salary mode, they have a young core they are trying to build around.

  2. Eric

    Hey Steve

    What are your thoughts on the future prospect of the Raptors?

    What is the trade value of Bargnani?

    How high do we draft in 2012? If we got Barnes and maybe dealt Bargnani for Kabongo, would that take us a legit future contender status? Jonas V. could have been a great find.

    Thanks!
    E

    • Steve Kyler

      I am big on Toronto, but not this year… they are still very young.

      Hard to say what Bargs is worth, because he is owed a ton of money. Once we understand what the labor deal will look like, it’s easier to understand what’s overpriced and what isn’t. If the cap stays near the level its at $9.2 million for 21 points and 5 rebounds a game isn’t crazy. There are worse deals with less production. 21 points and 5 rebounds

      In the cap drops radically, then $9.2 means something else. 21 points and 5 rebounds

      As for the Draft – are you asking me to predict — Not sure Toronto is a playoff team, so that means somewhere between 9 and 14.

  3. Mark

    What moves will the Warriors make once the lockout ends? Will they trade Biedrins for cap space and make a run at a big man like Nene, Gasol or Jordan? Or will they look to trade Monta for a post player? How about Monta for Gortat and Pietrus?

    • Steve Kyler

      again… we have to get a labor deal.Would the W’s like to trade Beins? Sure… but his deal is massively prohibitive.No one is taking Beins for capspace… he’s not even close to good enough for that to be a consideration. For the Warriors to move him, they’d have to take on salary not shed it.I have been told that use a deal returns an elite level talent, the Warriors are not moving Monta. So don’t think about him as a trade chip, at least not coming into the season.As for Monta for Gortat/MP… thats exactly the kind of deal the Warriors won’t do with Monta. It would have to increase their talent, not decrease and thats exactly what your deal would be trading one good player for two average players.

  4. Ali

    Dont get me wrong, I enjoy the new make over but where is the chat archives and story archives. Personally I would love to see you guys go back to the simple way because I come home from a long days work and personally its frustrating seeing complications at work then come home to see another”espn” without subscription.

  5. Ali

    Then again I understand its business, trying to get more fans to your site. But why not minor changes instead of going drag queen. One thing in life that stuck out clearly during interviews was it doesn’t matter how fancy you dress, how good your resume looks, but how your attitude and personality stuck out plain and simple. So what I’m trying to say is the old hw beats this new one like lebron beats scalanrini 1 on 1

    • Steve Kyler

      Not sure I get the question… if you are asking me why we needed to change the site?

      There were a lot of reasons… some physical… some technical… some financial.

      When we moved HOOPSWORLD to the old platform, it was a huge upgrade… there were things we agreed to design wise that were much larger than we could handle… like Player pages for instance… we just don’t have the man power to maintain 450 player page as they should.

      We liked the idea of Team landing pages, however as hard as we tried, there were some teams we covered better than others and it was an inconsistent product.

      Technically the architecture of the old system was flawed… It was brutally time consuming and as my guys will tell you it was not efficient and wasted a lot of time.

      The old site was massively slow. That’s just not acceptable, and there was no way to fix that because the site was built on outdated tech.

      Financially, we were paying for things we did not use or need. As we looked at ways to make the site better, we also found economies of scale so it was no-brainer.

      As for the LeBron-Scal comment… funny… but the truth of the matter is the platform is so much better on so many fronts it’s not even funny. We’re still chasing small bugs, so things will continue to evolve. But the one thing I have learned in this business, if you are not evolving to meet the technology at hand you are one upgrade from obsolete. We have an infrastructure now that will help us deliver better content, faster and on more platforms.

      Thanks for the feedback.

  6. Raptorman

    If you were to keep one PF to develop for the Raptors who would it be: Bargnani or Ed Davis? Also if cap was lowered, what are some players that you see teams putting in the market to shed salary?

    • Steve Kyler

      On the Power Forward question, I think Ed Davis has a bigger NBA upside. I think at this point we know what Bargnani is, he could get a little better, but players heading into their sixth season are generally what they are going to be. Bargs is a nice player, but to think he’ll become the player the Raptors need him to be is likely out of reach… Could be more possible with Davis.

      Not sure a deal with a radically reduced salary cap gets agreed to… I think what you’ll see is a phased reduction meaning teams don’t have to write checks or cut players, but have two seasons to manage themselves out of bad cap positions.

  7. Javon

    Hi Steve, was just wondering where you think Nene ends up assuming we have a season (crossing my fingers). One dark horse I think are the New Jersey Nets, because they have the cap space, can put him at the 4 position, and NJ/NY has a huge Brazilian population which should be appealing.

    • Steve Kyler

      Still not sold Nene is leaving Denver, although it seems everyone else is… they should be able to pay him more than anyone else even under a new labor deal and that end of the day money talks. New Jersey could be an interesting suitor, but if NJ bites on Nene (bird in the hand) they would remove themselves from a possible Dwight Howard deal (bird in the bush).It sounds more and more likely that sign-and-trade deals will go away in the next labor deal which means to steal a star you will need room under the cap to do it. Don’t rule Houston out of the hunt for Nene either, they tried hard to get him at the deadline.

  8. Renee

    Best contender for Nash and Grant Hill? I hate that theyre on the Suns who arent going anywhere?

    • Steve Kyler

      Both are very happy in Phoenix… I have talked to Grant and he seemed to indicate it was either Phoenix or retirement, although I think if the right contender showed interest he’d consider it.On Nash, not sure where he ends up. I have said for some time that Phoenix will never get back in trade what they have in Nash. They won;t trade him unless he forces the issue.

  9. Roger

    Hey I was wondering if you guys are going to get updates for the Android market apps? For my non-iPhone it is stuck on previous news and chats and there has been no update, is there one in the making or tough luck now?

    • Steve Kyler

      We have run into a number of issues updating the Android version… its been crazy how many issues surfaced from a simple remap… However I am expecting a release version soon (hopefully today) and the good news is once that drops, updates will be available almost instantly.<br / An Update is coming for sure.

  10. h

    Do think we’ll see an amnesty clause (either one this summer or one that occurs every x amount of years)? I think it’s a great idea for both the players and owners. The owners have the option to clear their caps of a certain contract and improve their flexibility (and in some cases avoid the luxury tax); while the players get out their money and get to become free agents (where they get more money and the choice of team). Not only do teams like Orlando, LA, Dallas and all the teams with huge contracts get to dump those toxic deals, all the other teams see the FA pool expand by 10-20 players. Imagine Brandon Roy, Rip Hamilton, Haywood, Biedrins, Arenas or Turkoglu, Lewis and many others all being added to this FA class.

    • Steve Kyler

      No I do not think we’re see an amnesty clause. Amnesty is not a basketball tool. Fans keep saying how good for the roster it would be to shed contracts, forgetting that those contracts have to be paid off and replaced with other players. Teams won’t eat deals and the NBA is likely nixing luxury tax so there is no business reason to have an Amnesty… Combine the total value of the players you named and whats owed them on the balance of their deals, your talking hundreds of millions of dollars for what?.. it does not help the bottom line, in fact it takes it radically the other way.The last deal had Amnesty to help teams avoid tax on bad deals. There will be no Tax, so there does not need to be an Amnesty unless the cap ceiling is so low, which is not on the table at this point. It would make more economic sense to grandfather in a few deals than Amnesty them.

  11. Tyler

    Lets pretend you were Otis Smith. If you had to pick a package for Dwight Howard. What reasonable package would you accept?

    • Steve Kyler

      First… I won’t try and name names… that gets twisted in the blog/twitter world into Kyler says the Magic would do this and this for Dwight…But here is the thing to think about. Dwight Howard is the Magic franchise. If you are trading him, you have to either A.) Get a franchise in return or B.) Get the kinds of assets that can rebuild the franchise quickly. I don’t believe there is a scenario in which Otis Smith actively engages a trade involving Dwight that does not include a top five player returning to Orlando or the chance for a top five player inside the next 2 years either through massive cap space or great draft picks.I also don’t believe Otis Smith entertains a trade involving Dwight until Dwight says he won’t re-sign there.That has not happened yet, so I don’t think there is anything to speculate on yet. Hit me again at the trade deadline, we’ll know a lot more about what the landscape looks like then.

  12. devonte wilson

    how much harder would it be for the knicks to assembly a team through trades and free agency with the restrictions the NEW CBA might have and is it possible that they could add a few players during these periods that could bolster their line up?

    • Steve Kyler

      We don’t know what the new CBA restrictions will be, we’re all guessing on the details at this point. I think the Knicks core is set. You are not getting another marquee player. Now its about drafting smart complimentary players and picking up value priced veterans. Amar’e and Carmelo are the stars.

  13. devonte wilson

    nene, tyson chandler, carl landry, samuel dalembert, deandre jordon, aaron gray which one would be the best option for the knicks and why?

    • Steve Kyler

      All of these guys will command far more dollars than the Knicks can pay. so none of the above. If money were not a factor Nene and Tyson… they are the best defensive minded pros on the board and they can be productive without needing offensive touches. No scenario in which I let Sammy D on my squad. Aaron Gray is a possibility because he’d come cheap.

  14. jay watts

    When are you guys coming out with an app for blackberrys. You got andriods and iphones, and nothing for blackberrys. Huge fan of hoopsworld.

    • Steve Kyler

      Not in the plans at this point. We looked into Blackberry and we were not able to do in Blackberry what we could do with iPhone and Droid. The newest version of Blackberry can do things we want, but most Blackberry users are corporate users using older handsets, so until the majority of the handsets in the field are capable, there is no point in pushing out a Blackberry App only a handful of people can use. Its a situation we have on the long term development calendar but nothing slated for 2011…

  15. Ben

    Hello good sir. Who’s a better point guard? DJ auguestine or Brandon Jennings?

    • Steve Kyler

      For my money I’d take DJ Augustine… better floor leader, better distributor. BJ is a great scorer, but leadership is a huge weak point in his game. BJ is the better player… DJ is the better traditional point guard.

  16. devonte wilson

    what are the top 15 undrafted rookies?

    • Steve Kyler

      In no particular order:

      Alex Tyus: (Florida)
      Gilbert Brown: (Pittsburgh)
      Ben Hansbrough: (Notre Dame)
      Malcolm Thomas: (San Diego State)
      Rick Jackson: (Syracuse)
      Greg Smith: (Fresno State)
      Jereme Richmond: (Illinois)
      David Lighty: (Ohio State)
      Scotty Hopson: (Tennessee)
      Demetri McCamey: (Illinois)
      Julyan Stone: (UTEP)
      Jacob Pullen: (Kansas State)
      Brad Wanamaker: (Pittsburgh)
      Terrence Jennings: (Louisville)
      Xavier Silas: (Northern Illinois)

      Thanks for all the questions. I am out of time. I will do my best to get a chat in next week, but with the chaos of games in Vegas, I won’t have a lot of control. Make sure to follow me on Twitter (@stevekylerNBA).