nixluva wrote:RonRon wrote:CrushAlot wrote:The only reason this is a smart move is because unlike Walsh, Grunwald didn't use a lottery pick, or a trade to acquire a guy that D'Antoni wouldn't play anyway. Berman refers to him as a starter and I think he is probably right. However, I don't understand the philosophy of signing the guy no one else wanted first.
I believe Walsh left because he at intentions of targeting a FA in the summer, added to our core. He knew he couldn't give up all those assets for Melo but his boss stepped in and messed up his whole plan, after failing to get 2 stars back with Amare. People still don't understand this. We either had to trade for Melo with limits, not trip our team for him, or look to add to the core and SIGN another FA. We loss all flexibility with that trade and it will haunt us because if this impatience that could have made us NBA Finals contenders
for 5-6 years with a good core and assets....
I do understand the point you're making, but I think you also have to consider that you NEVER know what will happen in the future and if you have a chance to lock up an Elite level Star to pair with the one you have, then you have to do it. One way or another we had to make sure Melo didn't go to the Nets, which I think he would've done. Melo is about his money 1st.
Even if we still had Gallo on the team it would still be a tough road to sign Paul with all these other teams in the Mix. There's no guarantee we'd have had the best offer either way. As for moving on without CP3, this team still has options. They could decide to use the midlevel exception (starting at $5 million), the bi-annual exception ($2 million), this year. They could also decide to keep all of their cap space for this summer and look to sign some solid players to sure up the roster. All is not lost if they miss out on CP3.
It comes down to we didn't have to trade for Melo, it wasn't a must do. With Melo and Amare, people are still pushing for a pure PG to distribute the ball to score. And people are again saying it is must do, its not. A must do is add defense, replace our depth with good players, and acquiring role players.
It's not about if how good Melo is, its about our cap situation and flexibility. Our worse case scenario if we waited till the summer, was getting a player like Nene. While, keeping players, assets, picks, that can be packaged for another player. We had to keep some of those pieces because even though they aren't in the same caliber as Melo, they are better than "role players." Walsh had a vision and plan how to rebuild this team, Dolan stepped in and screwed it up right before he was able to deliver.
We had a nice core to build around, with cap room, draft picks, and players that were assets.
This what could have been our worse case scenerio
Felton
Wilson Chandler
Gallo
Amare
?Tyson Chandler or Nene or Dalembert
MosGov
Shumpert
TD
Fields
AR
Shawne Williams
Turaif(amnesty to sign a legit center and keep Wilson Chandler)
and the exceptions to use.....
In the summer, we could go after Nash, Ray Allan, KG
With Felton gone,
Shumpert can use a year to develop his game and have Nash come in to mentor him for 1 or 2 years. After that I see lift off from him to being All Star status.
Shumpert will be better than Westbrook's first year, he is more complete, and overall skills than him at the Westbrook's rookie year.
With Gallo or Wilson Chandler extended, they could repackage them with 2 first round picks, and 1 more player could net you a very good player and possibly an All Star.
People forget Wilson Chandler and Gallo will continue to flourish, improve, and look even better with the addition of a center. Their value's will improve just like they did every year we had them. We just needed a Legit center to defend our paint. Especially with this shortened season, these players have developed chemistry with each other. They are young and have healthy legs to play this shortened season, the depth we had would be in our favor.
I think if in the 2nd half of this season, Shumpert's legs will come in handy with TD. If he can play the point, which i think he can,
@ 6'6 and his ability to penetrate and finish. Teams still have to worry about Melo and Amare. I want to see good ball movement, which we lacked last year after the trade. And even for spurts pre Melo. Felton can penetrate but not nearly as explosive, fast, and stronger than Iman.
Billups
TD both these combo guards, are going to have WIDE OPEN shots.
Fields
Shawne Williams
Walker will all have looks too, i hope they improved there range, consistent shot,
I don't like JJ more than 5minutes a game. We need a center to set good picks*size*, defense, shot blocking, and rebounding.
JJ can play some good defense at times, but he is a huge liability on the offensive end to even be considered to play major minutes.
As for JJ guarding Rhondo or those PG's he did last year, we have Shumpert this year, there is no way Shumpert can't defend and SCORE 10x better than JJ.
12/6/2011 10:54 PM
