There has been a lot of discussion about whether it is wise to try to trade a player at his peak value. Obviously, what we mean is his perceived peak since nobody really knows if the guy has reached his peak or not until it is over.

So, is it a good idea to trade a player when he has reached what is perceived to be his peak or a high point in his value? I say it is obviously a good idea any time you can get something of value that improves your team. It doesn't matter whether the guy is at his peak or his low, if you can upgrade the team then it makes sense to trade.

This came up mainly regarding Brooks but also applies to Martin and Scola. In fact, it might apply more to them than to Brooks since, because of his youth, Brooks may not have actually peaked out yet.

Is it a good idea to consider trades that include Brooks, Martin and Scola or should any of these three, our perceived "best" players, be untouchable?

I believe that the best trades every made by the Rockets were two that included shipping out better players and bigger stars than Brooks, Martin or Scola. I am referring to the trades of Ralph Sampson and Steve Francis. At the time of the trade, Ralph Sampson was a healthy Yao Ming. You could make comparisons between the Hakeem-Ralph situation and the current Brooks-Lowry situation. Today, some here argue that we need to keep both Brooks and Lowry to have tandem PGs. Back in the day, others thought we should keep both Hakeem and Sampson. Luckily, wiser heads prevailed and they shipped out Sampson while his value was at a peak. The result was a championship quality team.

More recently we had Steve "Franchise". Remember him? He was a lot better than Brooks, wasn't he? We sure unloaded him at the right time. We got Tmac and Juwan Howard, as I remember, for Steve Francis and Cutino Mobley. Francis and Mobley went to the dogs very quickly. Tmac was a superstar for a long period and Howard was very steady. 

Today we need to do the same thing. Brooks has a high perceived value in the NBA. He is over-valued (IMO) and it is time to cash in the chips with that guy. Let's unload him and get something we can use, like a center. 

I go further and suggest we do likewise with Martin and then, perhaps, even with Scola. They are both at their peaks. We are going nowhere with them. Let's build a future championship quality team.