I'm not too crazy about this Harrington for Ty Thomas move - I could learn to live with it but I don't love it. There's gotta be better moves Donnie can make than this, no? I don't know... TT's a great athlete who plays hard, plays with fire & passion (which I personally love in a player) and supplies a legit shot-blocking element but he's really a limited offense player. Compare him and Wilson Chandler. For all Chandler's shortcomings, I think he might be a better offensive player than this guy Thomas and not that far off in terms of athletic ability when fully healthy. Plus Chandler's even younger than Thomas and has been coming on of late (I haven't been watching all these games religiously anymore of late but I saw the whole game last night against Atlanta - it was the first time since last year I remember seeing Chandler dunking the ball more than once in a game). Chandler's development hasn't come along the way I expected and hoped for, but to me, he's still got more overall upside than Ty Thomas. It's debatable because Thomas is such a freak athlete and does bring some good things to the table but if it came down to Chandler or Thomas as a secondary young piece to build with, I feel Chandler's shown he has more ability...What do you do with Wilson after a move like this goes down? Forget all this trying to shoehorn him in at the 2 spot stuff, Willie's not a SG (among other things, I want them to find a legit, well-rounded young SG somewhere -- Hughes is a little over the hill now but look what a good two-way SG that passes the ball and scores can do for this offense)..I think you'd have to really look into dealing Chandler for something then, to alleviate the SF logjam. Maybe then a move like this makes a little more sense..I don't know man....
If we did this, we'd have to turn around and lock up this guy long-term otherwise the move's pointless (if they traded for this kid only to renounce him at the end of the year, just let Harrington come off the books then). What makes the most sense to you guys -- hopefully securing at least one big FA (provided we can't move Curry or JJ in time - if we can, then getting two of these 2010 FAs is a no-brainer and should prove much easier) and then:
a) lock up Ty Thomas long-term starting in the $6-7 mil. dollar range or settle on his QO for next year ($6,256,806)
b) don't do this trade with Chicago & give that type of money to David Lee
c) don't do this trade with Chicago & give that type of money to Al Harrington
I think I go b, a, c, in that order. Like some of you guys, Lee's defense irritates me as well, but I think for that type of money ($6-7 million dollars a year) Lee's overall production tells me that he's the best buy at that price. As a 2nd choice, Ty Thomas then makes some sense. I really like Harrington (he was unbelievable again last night, esp. in the first half) and actually think he's a better player than both Lee and Thomas but he's also a little older. Only reason I put him last out of these three options -- it doesn't make too much sense for a rebuilding team to focus on veteran talent over youth right now...
How do you guys feel??
12/5/2009 8:52 PM