PistonPowered trade contest: Trading Rodney Stuckey (results)

The six semifinalists gave their proposal for trading Rodney Stuckey, and here are the results (unfortunately, nobody advanced to the final round via the commenting route)”

Don’t advance to next round

Josh Oetman

Denver gets Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, Jonas Jerebko, Anthony Morrow, and the rights to swap first round picks with Atlanta once in the next 3 years, but lottery protected.

Atlanta gets Will Bynum and a 2nd round pick from Detroit.

Detroit gets Andre Iguodala, Timofey Mozgov, and Anthony Randolph.

With this deal Denver would be acknowledging that the Iguodala trade didn’t really work. Well, Iggy’s per 36 numbers seem to indicate that is true. 14.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists just isn’t as good as advertised. Stuckey meanwhile is putting up 16.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per 36. Stuckey isn’t the defender that Iggy is and is a less efficient scorer, but he does give them a significant portion of what Iggy brings to the table. Plus we’d finally find out what Stuckey would look like in the kind of up temp offense he has wanted since coming in to the league. Denver also adds Maxiell who instantly becomes their best shooting big man. Jerebko happens to be their second best shooting big even with his problems this season, and he is also a young player that would look pretty good in that up tempo offense. Finally, Anthony Morrow is a knock down shooter going to a team with poor shooting and a coach that will know what to do with him. I like to think Denver is one of the teams smart enough to understand the value of Anthony Morrow, even if Atlanta has buried him this year. Add in the ability to potentially move up a couple spots in the draft and about $5 million in savings for next season, and they have a haul they can argue is strong enough after giving up so much for Iggy just this past off season. I know it seems a little strange to justify a trade to Denver based on helping their offense, but Denver’s offense isn’t as good as their point total suggests. They score a lot because they play at a high pace, but their half court offense leaves a lot to be desired. It’s hard to run teams out of the gym in the playoffs, so being able to stretch out the half court a bit would be pretty helpful. Currently Denver is giving Iggy and Chandler 55 minutes, with Iggy getting about 34 of those minutes. Denver should increase Chandler to 30 minutes, thereby limiting the defensive hit losing Iggy represents. Stuckey would then get about 25 minutes to do his thing.

Atlanta gets Bynum to fill in for Louis Williams, a 2nd round pick, and only moves down a handful of spots in the draft. As the standings sit today they are dropping from 19-24. I’d try to stick them with the Clippers 2nd rounder, but I’d be willing to use Detroit’s if that is what it took to get this done. This is much better for them than my proposed Bynum and a 2nd rounder for Morrow and a protected 1st round pick, but Denver really shouldn’t do this without Morrow which gives Atlanta some leverage. Besides, everyone in the comments seemed to think Atlanta was getting robbed before.

Detroit gets Anthony Randolph, an intriguing prospect to replace Jerebko.  Of course I am burying the lead. The real get is Iguodala, the best player involved in the trade. He represents a significant upgrade defensively and is not far removed from being an All Star. While not a good shooter by any stretch, he is still an upgrade over Stuckey. This is kind of a no brainer for Detroit actually as they just brought in a starter at one of the wing positions, and they didn’t cut that far into their cap space to do it. Iggy and Randolph will make roughly $18 million versus the $13 million Stuckey and JJ were set to make. If Detroit retains Calderon and adds a shooter or two, either via free agency or the draft, and all of a sudden they have a legitimate shot at the playoffs next season.

If Denver isn’t ready to pull the plug on the AI experiment just yet then this deal can’t happen. It also requires them to understand the value of Morrow, although I’d bet on Karl for that. I’m suggesting it anyways because it actually makes some sense for all parties involved, even though that suggests it might not be realistic.

Nikola Todorovic

Rodney Stuckey for Chris Kaman

Dallas could use another guard (Fisher experiment) and even though Stuckey’s shooting is horrible he is still well above league average at getting to the line (particularly among guards), and so is Collison. That gives Dallas opportunity to lose nothing in that aspect of the game when they rest Collison plus he’s simply better than Beaubois and Jones anmd change of scenery could be good for Rodney being that he’s ”unhappy”.

Kaman didn’t sound too happy either talking about his role couple of weeks ago (similar to Rodney in this scenario), it might be easier for him to accept bench role in Detroit being that there’s some history between the two or maybe he has no problem coming off the bench and there’s something else that bothers him in Dallas. More importantly he is also on an expiring contract, and Dumars would probably be interested in him during free agency anyway so another test run plus cap relief.

Lindsey Adams

Detroit sends Stuckey and Jerebko to Minnesota for Andrei Kirilenko.

Detroit gets a savvy vet, who can immediately step into the starting SF spot and provide the energy and shot-blocking that the first units been missing. Although he is old, he has a PER of 18.2 and a great motor that should mesh very well with Calderon’s game.
Stuckey and Jerebko get a chance at a fresh start on a young Minnesota team with holes at SG and SF.

Keith Walter

The first issue is to find comparable players to judge value. What I decided to look for are relatively inefficient scorers that are poor outside shooters, play a guard spot, and haven’t generally played on good teams. Salary was also taken into account, as market should determine value to some degree. 3 useful comparisons are Demar DeRozan, Tyreke Evans, and Raymond Felton. All shoot poorly, are inefficient overall, and have (or will soon in Evans case) make similar salaries (7.5-10 million per year). Evans and Felton are also combo guards -  better at different positions in different ways (mostly offense-defense).

Felton, given his age and career arc, is the best to use for trade value. Felton landed a 7.5 per year, two year deal in his 5th year. Felton (like all of these players are likely to going forward) received less in his next contract after the promise of "potential" wore off. He had his best season the first year after signing his contract (as did Stuckey), and was dealt the very next year. Felton, while on his 7.5 million dollar per year contract was dealt (along with Rudy Fernandez and cap fodder Petteri Koppenen) for Andre Miller and the 26th pick in the draft. Breaking down that trade we see that Fernadez was coming off the worst season of his career and his outside shot (his only real value) wasn’t translating to the NBA. Thus Felton and a broken shooter were worth an old but effective backup PG and the 26th pick in the draft. Assuming we can roughly say Stuckey is worth as much as Felton, Detroit should be able to return a late draft pick and a backup player.

The best deal that I believe could be pushed through would be Rodney Stuckey for Devin Harris and Atlanta’s first round pick. Harris has essentially become a combo guard in Atlanta with the development of Jeff Teague. Unfortunately, he’s not much good at it. His defense has left something to be desired for years now, and he’s been unable to recreate the magic of Lou Williams. Stuckey, meanwhile, is actually a solid defender at the 2, and if nothing else can consistently create his own shot. Atlanta has good players in Horford-Smith-Teague, but is consistently lacking that extra dimension of shot creation since Williams was moved. Stuckey solves that problem. He is just entering his prime, and it’s likely he can retain his last two years form (17+ PER, 55% TS) on a better team.

Harris could then take over the third guard role (needed as we’ve traded Bynum in the previous trade scenario) and expire at the end of the year, increasing our cap space even more (I am less worried about this while I am GM). The pick should likely end up in the 20s, which isn’t an ideal area for picking up talent, but gives us more flexibility for other trades, or just an opportunity to find more depth.

Advance to final round

Scott Carter

Detroit recieves= Beno Udrih and a 2013 2nd round pick

Milwaukee recieves= Rodney Stuckey

Jeremy Jenkins

Utah Receives: Rodney Stuckey

Detroit Receives: Mo Williams

The Jazz get a starting caliber guard to run the floor with their abundance of big men. Stuckey is still young and is under contract for next year as well which is key for them because they do not have another point guard under contract for next season. He is capable of running an up-tempo offense which Utah is looking to make a staple with young big men Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors.

The Pistons will receive a back up combo guard that is capable of running the offense off the bench. But the big prize is Williams’ expiring contract that will give them $8.5 million dollars more cap room to try and sign more quality free agents in the off-season.

(Both Stuckey and Williams make a base salary of $8.5 million a year)