Posted by Bippity10:

He's not a star but he's a legit backcourt presence. This should make our weakest non-Francis guard available in trade. A three guard rotation of Marbury, Collins and Crawford is a solid unit. Replace Nate with a ball distributing leadership vet(if available) that plays defense on the one and your backcourt goes from sideshow to very versatile. The mixture of those four would give you a defensive backcourt, an offensive one, one that can protect the ball, create one on one and have a good mix. Then you have two or three years to replace Marbs and can focus on the frontcourt.

In my mind, Nate does not fit and is better used in trade

Posted by bigbeast:

Posted by Bippity10:

He's not a star but he's a legit backcourt presence. This should make our weakest non-Francis guard available in trade. A three guard rotation of Marbury, Collins and Crawford is a solid unit. Replace Nate with a ball distributing leadership vet(if available) that plays defense on the one and your backcourt goes from sideshow to very versatile. The mixture of those four would give you a defensive backcourt, an offensive one, one that can protect the ball, create one on one and have a good mix. Then you have two or three years to replace Marbs and can focus on the frontcourt.

In my mind, Nate does not fit and is better used in trade

Very good points here Bip. I think Mardys emergence has at the very lease solidified our back-up pg need and eventually/hopefully through fine-tunning could turn out to be a solid starter by the time Marb contract runs out. The backcourt that we have in place, while versatile, still lacks the consistant shooter that we desperately need. Theres still a spot open on the wing for a shooter and Mardys emergance may have swung Isiahs focus from a shooting guard to a shooting small forward.

If you could find a dead eye shooter that also plays defense on the one, and can distribute that would be idea. Unfortunately there aren't too many available. I think we may end up seeing our shooters coming in at SF and then a dead-eye Steve Kerr type off the bench. That means guys like JJ and Frye become expendable.

Posted by franco12:


I'd be most happy with a backcourt that featured Mardy, Stephon, Crawford & Nate- preferably starting Mardy & Marbs with Crawford only getting burn if he's hot and Nate getting time if he's effective changing the pace of play.

Posted by nixluva:

I don't see why we have to be so reluctant to admit that Collins shows all the signs of someone who can be a VERY good player in this league. He's capable of doing things that few PG's are doing. He's a STRONG defender and can guard the 1, 2 and 3 position. He rebounds great for a guard. He's been gaining confidence in his jumper and really I dont know why people keep saying he CAN'T shoot. That's not true at all. He just needs to keep working in order to make it more consistent, but remember that Kidd is just now really becoming a more reliable shooter. I don't think it's gonna take Collins long at all to get his shooting % up. I think he's well on his way. It seems to me that most of his problems were a lack of confidence and he has a hitch in his stroke. He just needs to refine his stroke and get LOTS of reps this summer.

You can see that he knows how to use his body against defenders and his handle it better than it looked early in the season. Exactly what is it that he hasn't shown us so far? If i'm Isiah that guy gets a LOT of minutes next year. Isiah made the right choice when you see how Balkman and Collins are developing. They give us the defenders we SORELY needed.

Posted by TMS:

why do i get the feeling that if Isiah is going to make any type of significant trade this offseason, it will involve the guys on this team that i don't want to be traded - D Lee, Balkman & Mardy.

Posted by TMS:

why do i get the feeling that if Isiah is going to make any type of significant trade this offseason, it will involve the guys on this team that i don't want to be traded - D Lee, Balkman & Mardy.