Just my 2 cents on beefing up the frontline w/o getting carried away in stuff that's not reasonable --
Sign Cole Aldrich -- if we can get him for his minimum, great. Straight up steal. If not, say it requires a portion of the mini-MLE, I'd do that too. He's great value even at that price. Dude would be my starting C next year and a guy I'd feel pretty confident that I could get at least 10/10 and 3 blks per out of. And he didn't even look in tip top shape to me too btw. I think we could expect even a little more if he got himself back in top shape...If he gets an offer that we can't touch ($4mm or more per say), no problem, we turn the page. Offering this guy the starting C spot and 30 mins a night might get him to stay even if he gets slightly better offers somewhere else. Just again for the record -- we're ABSOLUTELY OUT OF OUR MINDS if we don't show any interest in bringing Cole Aldrich back. If Phil's not familiar with what he did for us, then someone needs to sit him down and show him the tape!
Sign Daniel Orton to back up Aldrich. He's on Washington's SL team and should've been on ours. Dude plays bigger than Jeremy Tyler, is younger, stronger and has more upside. Unlike Tyler, this guy's more of a legit C and feels more capable to me in the following categories: scoring, shooting, rebounding, clogging the lane, shot-blocking.
There's always C Marcus Cousin who's an active 7 footer who rebounds, runs the floor and possesses a real nice offensive game that features a dead-eye jump-shot out to about 20'. I know, this guy's beyond a longshot but I know he can play. I will never stop mentioning this guys name until he finally makes the NBA and is given a chance to show his stuff.
Sign Richard Howell as a backup 4 -- his game is identical to DeJuan Blair's. About the same size (Howell's an inch or 2 bigger), strong as an ox, very good rebounder and he's got a nice little offensive game around the basket out to about 15'. I like this guy to take over the K-Mart and/or Tyler roles.. He's DeJuan Blair with all his knee cartilage intact. Just as good a player as Trevor Booker, better imho, and he wouldn't cost as much.
Another thing I keep going back to is finding a way to get C Jeff Withey from New Orleans. I think this guy would be a great fit here. Big rim-protector who's young, agile and surprisingly skilled...Aldrich/Withey in the middle would be awesome. And if we could find a way to pry Withey and SF Luke Babbitt away from the Hornets in the same deal, all the better. I really like both players a lot. I feel Withey may be expendable now that they added Asik, plus they'd still have Alexis Ajinca around who has good upside...Coming up with a trade that makes sense for the Hornets is the problem. We have a glut of guards but so do they. Would they be interested in Cleanthony Early maybe? I like Early but if I could get them to do something like Early/a future 2nd rounder for Withey/Babbitt, I do that deal. I then turn around and sign 6'9" 220 SF Devin Ebanks to replace Early. Babbitt/Ebanks isn't Carmelo Anthony, I understand that, but it's 2 good young pieces to develop and grow at the SF position, just as good if not better than Early imho..
Again, our easiest/most realistic options for frontcourt impact: resign Cole Aldrich; sign Orton and Howell. All doable and realistic...
Up to me, all of our FA cap money (either the mini or full MLE, whichever we have available) would go to Jerryd Bayless and if need be, Cole Aldrich (something tells me this guy could still be had at his 5-yr vet minimum depending how we spoke to him and handled him -- i.e. promise to start, big minutes, to be taken care of better a year from now when we'll have cap room AND he'll have his early Bird rights, etc.. We'll see). I'd then piece together the rest smartly with minimum contracts (6'8" PF Rich Howell, maybe SF Devin Ebanks if I moved Early, maybe a Terrence Williams if I moved out some of our surplus 2Gs for something else that made sense, etc.).
7/1/2014 9:34 AM