I agree with everything you said. But I understand PHX's hesitation. It's hard to make those type of moves mid-season when you are in the playoff hunt. It's kind of a slap in the face to your paying fans. It's much easier to justify moving a talented border-line All-star if you are losing lots of games, even though they have been slumping lately, they are a good team. As a rocket fan in 2012 I'd have been pissed if we Lowry for picks during the season even though we didn't make the playoffs. ** On a completely unrelated note, it would be kind of cool if teams could trade players "Bird Rights" for pending free agents on draft night only and only for future picks. That'd be an interesting wrinkle to the draft/free agency
Nonsense. Markieff Morris is a very good post-up player. He's 12th in the league in total points scored in the post this season (on a very good efficiency - 0.90 PPP, which is better than Lopez, Bosh, Vucevic, Monroe, Z-Bo, Pau, Davis, Dwight or Horford). Markieff's also one of the most clutch players in the league this year. He has the most field goals in the league (15 on .577 FG%) in one-possession games with 2 minutes or less remaining.
