I think Ariza showed us that when he plays with Martin he is in fact deserving of 25 minutes a game. He put up great numbers once that was done.
You want great numbers look up CBud after the all star break. 49% shooting 40% from 3pt range......much better than Trevor's..... They kept the better player. DD
Battier - Aging and Slowing down Cbud - still learning and defensively not going to get it done Jeffries - are you joking? Martin at the 3 - way undersized C Lee at the 3 - undersized You can play these guys at the 3 in some games but you try it against a team with a tall athletic 3 - or a guy like Ron Artest at the 3, and it's going to be a disaster.
Do you think starting Martin and Budinger is a long-term possibility? To me that looks like one of the weakest defensive wing tandems in the league.
For the person who said Lee would be upset with minutes I disagree 75% of that. I understand every player wants time to showcase themselves to get paid, this roster has shown that team is emphasized over individual, and having Lee and Martin as good friends goes a real long way. He may not get starter minutes every night but will get his in between the 2 guard spot and the 3. Plus he provides a huge insurance when/if Martin goes down with injury. I was a trevor supporter but this does provide a better well rounded team. I can't believe we have gone from having an enormous weakness at the 2 since Cat was traded to being stacked now. And to the person who said Jeffries was trash couldn't be more wrong. He proved that with us last year that he wasn't. He is overpaid but is no slouch and a solid role player.
Cbud mainly played against peoples second units. I would say Ariza could have done similar if he played with the second unit most of the time
battier- he looked fine shutting down tyreke last year. he's not slowing down..just missing yao. cbud- learning is good. that's why he's the backup. jeffries- he's an ok backup to a backup.
Agreed but barring injury they will not be out on the court together to often without defensive help. We do lack a solid swingman at the 3 but we already were that with Ariza. I love this team with a healthy Yao. Still not sure how we will manage against the lakers but we should provide our own mismatches for them on the offensive side of the ball.
Artest wouldn't really be a problem, KM and CL are much faster than him defensively and Artest's shooting sucks on O. Its rare in the league to have an SF who's lightning quick, really long and still able to score anywhere on the court, usually those guys are stars already and Ariza would struggle anyway.
I disagree with everything you said but your last statement. Your pretty much dead on with that except disaster is a bit much. There are ways to get around that but it will be a disadvantage for sure
I think they improve on D, especially with Yao, Kmart was decent early in his career he can get back to that, and CBud was a rookie, I think he gets better, so yeah, I could see that. DD
But that's only for one year. Battier is possibly gone and we will be completely without a starting small forward next season. I'd be surprised/disappointed if a trade is not made for a starting small forward before the end of the season.
Battier couldn't even finish the season - his knee isn't great, and neither is his ankles. His past season was by far mediocre and I think his best days are clearly behind him. Jeffries...he's not going to get PT at the 3. Not unless it's some weird team with a big slow guy playing that position. are you kidding me, you think Jeffries can even stay with most 3's in the league on defense - they would have a field day driving right past him or popping jumpers over him if he gave them the 4 feet he'd need to to close of their drive. Chase is one guy, but he's not a starter. And not ready. I just think people were disappointed with Ariza and it's always nice to toss the guy you know for the one you don't know.
Very true about the numbers, DD, but you should credit CXbby. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=191454&page=3&pp=20
I think ur overrating Battier. He's a great defender, but at this point cant play heavy minutes. Budinger is too much of liability on defense to play heavy minutes and Lee is too small. This move should've been made midseason after Ariza was given a chance to play w/ Yao.
I like the Lee trade. A couple of wrinkles to this trade that I don't think have been discussed enough here is: -Lee gives us an insurance plan against Martin's long term health. Ariza, for all his strengths proved pretty definitively that he could NOT be a wing creator...but injury prone Martin can. I don't think it's any coincidence that our two acquisitions this offseason have been guys who play the same position as Martin and Yao. With Chase's emergence, we had 3 true SFs and not enough minutes to go around so the trade fits a need positionally too. -We might have one of the strongest 2nd units in the game - and depending on how much Adelman wants to turn it on, they will be pretty stingy too. Lowry, Lee, Battier, Hill, and Chuck Wagon could all play in a 2nd unit that would lock down opposing teams' 2nd units. If he wanted a more fluid offensive group out there on the 2nd team then he could throw Lowry, Lee, Cbud, Hill, and Miller. -I love the guys who are always cutting and moving. Few teams do it because it takes really high IQ players but if done effectively, it's very hard to defend against a team like that. Can you imagine Houston making Lebron and Wade chase through screens all game after Martin and Lee? It really takes away a lot of the advantages of the opposing team having good on ball defenders and forces them to have good help defense units of which there are few in the league -The "bro factor" I think will be really helpful. To have buds like Martin and Lee on the same team is I think a good thing for an impressionable 24 yr old. Can you imagine if Lee fine tunes his game and turns into Martin 2.0(but with defensive skills?). ....all this is true in addition to the obvious financial savings.
