(01-20-2025, 03:11 AM)DL2RimRocker Wrote: I agree Jones would be a huge risk and NO (and us) would be better off waiting until the off season.
But if there was a decent chance of Jones being fully healthy come PO time, what do you think about this deal?
Gafford/Grimes/OMax/Pick(s)
for
Jones/J. Green/Theis
IMO, easy no. Cartilage tears are problematic IIUC because they leave the future possibility of bone-on-bone and they are hard to truly heal. It can linger. From what I hear, HJ is done for the season, and his recovery time is murky.
I also don't think the Mavs would do a TDL trade that finds them essentially accomplishing "shuffling the deck" on their backups. You probably don't gain enough in talent (if anything) to overcome the loss in understanding the DAL system and how they fit in it. I'm not interested in going backwards this season.
One more issue. Even if we liked it, that trade adds about 3.4M to NO payroll, which would never fly, because they are only a bit over the tax line and almost certain to be looking for a trade to subtract some salary and get under it. (I think we will see either Ingram or McCollum as their central outgoing piece.)
If we are just piggybacking the general idea of J Green into the HJ mix, fwiw Green-Hardy is a trade match (almost identical), and in some ways that swap as a standalone might make sense if the teams want to swap offense for defense. Green will be UFA this summer with no Bird rights, so that has to be considered.