DerMarr, though a great athletic swingman, is definitely not what the Nugs need. He's like...a VERY poor man's Carmelo...and that's just redundancy. A deadeye shooter would probably have vaulted the Nugs into a championship contender, IMHO. I really loved Arthur Johnson in college and was one of the many who was surprised he wasn't taken in the first round. He should do well in limited minutes, and like you said, is a possible future starter. As for Nene...he isn't a bust yet, and I doubt that he can ever really be considered one. Sure he doesn't block too many shots/rebound too well, but that's all a matter of timing. He does have good hands (he has pretty impressive steal numbers for a big man) so as long as the Nugs work on his timing and positioning, the RPG/BPG should both go up. Not astronomically, but I do believe he can average around 1.8 BPG and 8.7 RPG given time. He also has the beginnings of a good post game; after all, footwork is the foundation and I do believe that he has some quick feet. I'd still start Camby, though. You never know when he's going to go down, so might as well milk him for all he's worth until the inevitable happens.
All right, I'm addressing everything in one post. Agreed. That said, it seems to be the team's philosophy to keep Camby's minutes limited to risk the potential. Every minute he's out there is another minute where he's cheating death. As for Kiki overpaying, at first glance it appears so. I can't get any official comments on it though. I know there are a LOT of incentives, we could be talking around $5 mil this year alone on stuff like "must play 70+ games" and "must play 30+ min a game". I honestly believe that if he meets all of the clauses we have in the contract and gets the full value, he's EASILY worth it. If not, I think we'll save some cash. That is a VERY good point. That said, I'm tired of having post up players that like to shoot from the perimeter mainly (Dice, Raef, Skita -- although he hasn't played ever). I want teams, when they come inside, to get the s**t knocked out of them. Nene and K-Mart will do exactly that. This is an exciting thing for the Nugs. Plus, Nene is MUCH better in the fastbreak offense (IMO) than Camby. Plus, I love Nene's potential. We KNOW what Marcus will give us (10 pts, 10 boards, 3 blks) in a great season. No one knows what Nene's ceiling is. Hey, some of the fans here are extreme homers for the Rockets, but I'm an extreme Nugs homer. I keep them in line and they do the same for me. Kind of a mutual b****-slapping. Nene has underperformed. I think even he'll admit that. If you add 2 or 3 rebounds per game to his stats from last year, we'd be pretty damn happy. That said, we want some more. I believe he gets along well with his teammates, the only thing I've heard is the fight with K-Mart and right now, that sounds like a one time thing only. Not as much national attention as Yao, but that's understandable. Basketball isn't as big in Brazil as it is in China and, well, Nene's not as good as Yao -- yet. He is pretty popular here though. I don't want people to think I'm putting DeMarr as a savior. He's not a great outside shooter (but he is one of the better ones on our team, sad but true), but he does give us offense off of the bench. We need that. Besides, we're getting a guy who was the 6th pick in the draft just 4 years ago for a non-guaranteed contract. INCREDIBLE reward to risk ratio there. At worst, DeMarr is a decent backup 2-guard for us. At best, he could be our starter. Arthur Johnson impressed me the one game I saw of his in person in college. I saw him on TV and he looked good, but it's amazing how strong he is. He was knocking David Harrison (a first rounder) around with ease down there. I LOVE our frontcourt depth. Everyone was b****ing and moaning about losing Chris Andersen, but he was one of the most overrated players in the league (and if you check my posts, I've been saying that for a LONG time). I was more worried about losing Michael Doleac. Elson's extended minutes anlong with Johnson now give us some great front-court depth. I honestly believe that Elson would be starting on a few teams in the league and he's our fourth best big man. Oh, and to everyone bashing the Nugs saying stuff like "no better than 7th", get ready. I'm not ready to put us in the elite, but we're easily in the same level as you guys. You have the big two (and not much else), but we have some serious studs on our team. I'd love to beat Minnesota for the division title and I think we have a shot. MN has to stay healthy and they have to stay young. Utah doesn't concern me nearly as much. The Nugs schedule this year is pretty rough. We have a few 5-game road trips on there that we're gonna have to stay strong to make it through. That'll be the interesting thing, how the team mentally does it.
