Posted by nixluva:
Isiah now has Zach, Curry and Lee as the heart of the team inside. What he does with the rest of the roster is where he'll either succeed or fail with this group. It's not about living with his mistakes as if he's just fumbling around. ALL GM's make mistakes, so to me that doesn't make him stand out as any worse. If he can get the right balance with the remaining players on the roster, this will be a successful build.
So you've got Zach, Curry & Lee. Then you have to find the right mix everywhere else. Which of the guys he's collected should be relied on to form the team he'll go to war with going forward? Right off the bat you have a group that we all seem to like as players that should remain. Balk, Mardy, Q, Chan & DNic. Then you've got guys like Jared and Nate that we're less sure about. Who knows about Morris at this point, but he doesn't hurt you to keep and see how he develops. Malik and James, we don't need, but they're here. Steph is OK for as long as he's here, but likely not part of our future, so i'm not really worried about him. Jamal could eventually take over for Steph at the point, but it depends on what he shows us this season. I don't have a problem with him being on the team at this point.
So then as a fan you have to decide, are you more concerned with winning this year or setting this team up to win for the next 5 years? It may be that the best move is not to make a deal for an immediate fix like Artest. Maybe it's best to stand pat and see what we've got. Maybe one or more of our young players will rise up to be what we need. If we wait and try to give the young guys a chance, then you can't complain if the team isn't a bigtime playoff team right away. All I know is that guys like Josh Howard, Devin Harris & Kevin Martin weren't guys that seemed like they were destined to be as good as they are, but you have to have the patience to go with a young talent to find out. Maybe we have some guys like them on the team already.
Since this is the direction I've going for a while now and goes back to my original point that at some point Isiah has to have a core group/player/couple to build around. His mistake in the past was just adding players to a roster and expecting the then current coach to make it work. There was no process behind it. There was no central figure or group to build out from. That first flurry of moves he made did very little for us in terms of building anything. It was made to create a buzz. There was little rhyme or reason to any of it. Noone was fooled, that Jalen, TT, MO group was not built to do anything but lose and it was ridiculous that we spent time arguing about it and calling people haters because of it.
Then he made a trade for Curry. Now I personally would not have made that trade, but looking at it as an objective and fair person I could not say, just because I didn't like the trade doesn't mean that it can't work. My opinion is independent from the possible realities of the trade. Now the only thing I expect Isiah to do is build around that acquisition. Even if he fails to bring a title, building around that player with a plan is enough for me to back my GM. So when I see him get a guy like Nichols to open up the outside, or a Lee to rebound, or a Balkman to defend(even though I wanted Marcus) it makes sense to me. But when I see a Steve Francis, I can't find a logical reason. Isiah needs to stay away from those types of moves.
Now he has Zach. Again, I wouldn't have made this trade but at least it makes some sense to me. You put a banger next to Curry that can go inside and out. Will they mesh? Their is strong evidence that they won't, but the jury is still out. It's up to them to make it happen and erase the doubts. Now the next question is what does Isiah do next. Looking at the roster it is obvious what we have to do. Since we are on an admitted 3-5 year plan(6-8 for Isiah) this is in no particular order:
PG: The facade needs to come to an end. Steph is not a leader and is on the downside of his career. In 3-5 years it will be worse. The time is now to phase him out. Stop half asseing and trying to eek out a few wins and start moving forward. Maybe Mardy is the guy. I don't think so, but maybe he is. But until he is we need to understand that with two post players, this is the most important position on the floor. We need a veteran to teach Mardy and need to target a young PG until we find the right one.
Perimeter Defense: With Curry and Zach in the frontcourt if the next acquisitions we make don't play perimeter defense than anyone defending the move is really kidding themselves. Unless they fill the next need
Dead Eye perimeter shooter: Not talking Jamal Crawford or Nate. I'm talking about a guy that can guard the two or the three and does not miss a shot. IF we also get that at the point than that's a bonus. But at any given time we should be able to put 2-3 dead eye shooters on the floor with Zach and Eddie that can make teams pay for doubling, and of those 3 positions 2 of them need to be able to defend well.
Shot Blocker: To clean up the mess Zach and Eddie will create. It would be great if you could somehow find that at the SF position but those are very few and far between.
If you do the above, and Eddie and Zach even give the slightest inkling towards playing defense and not just "trying" then you have a team that can truly compete. Until the team looks this way we will always be an also-ran. And if they don't work well together, guess what? We are building another core for the fourth time.
[Edited by - bippity10 on 08-08-2007 3:52 PM]
