The only free agents this year that even come close to your pipe dream of a 6'8'' Courtney Lee are Wilson Chandler, and honorable mentions to a past prime Kirilenko and Mickael Pietrus.
are you serious? On offense, maybe, again maybe, chase can match Granger's production, but there is no way Bud will be the all around player that Granger is.
Granger would be damn good. Especially if Adelman returns. But he's not the answer. Not unless Yao somehow became healthy again. Otherwise, he's not the star this team needs.
I wasn’t suggesting it would be easy to find my “pipe dream” player but that doesn’t mean we go grab a guy who is making the money Granger is making just for the hell of it. He WILL take shots from Martin but he WON’T score the ball as efficiently. I’m also leery of a guy whose production starts declining when he should be entering his prime. It isn’t exactly like he joined the Lakers or Heat either. You start adding players that don’t address a real need and you end up with Brad Miller. No thanks.
Every title has been won by a team seeded No.3 or better in their conference in NBA History save 2. One by the 4th seeded Celtics in 1969 to finish their crazy dominance over the league, and one by the 6th seeded Rockets in 1995 led by one of the most dominant two-way players in the history of the game and one of the most underated swingmen in the the last 30 years. Notice that both of these teams and nearly every team that won the title as a 3rd seed had won a previous title recently. So no, ChampionshipS have not been won by teams seeded worse than the 4th seed, and especially not if you do not have dominant players and championship experience.
Entering his prime just like Martin. Every championship team needs a few veterans. Martin, Granger, Scola, and Hayes are the vets. The rest of the squad is made up of youngins. My biggest concern is obtaining Granger without giving up Lowry, Martin, Scola, Budinger, Patterson, Dragic, or Lee :grin: It does seem like Budinger would have to be the centerpiece with Hill and picks for this to go down.
You're right, every championship team needs veterans. But every championship team also needs superstars! Is Martin, Granger and Scola good enough to win you a championship? I don't see it.. Let's hope CBud can settle in around 15PPG for the rest of the year; right now I think he's a ways from being a centerpiece in a big trade like this. Hopefully the bump in PT will coincide with a big bump in trade value. Having such a deep team really hurt the value of our trading chips -- Budinger/Lee aren't going to be held to such high standards when they can only get 20MPG on a quasi-lottery team.
Rockets have the cap space if the Pacers seek a salary dump. Pacers have on contract for next season: Collison, Price, Stephenson Rush, Jones Granger, George, Posey (token fat guy w/. big contract collecting DNPs) Hansbrough Hibbert Granger + Stanko Barac for 2Pat + Hill+ TWill? Collison, Price, Stephenson Rush, TWill George, Jones, Posey Hansbrough, 2Pat Hibbert, Hill Lowry, Dragic Martin, Lee Granger, Budinger Scola, Hayes Barac, Miller, Thabeet
You forget our 7 foot imaginary center that we will eventually obtain. That with Lowry and the other solid pieces that are in place could contend in the declining western conference.
I would agree with you if Martin could create his own shot and score in crunch time. But, he can't. Granger at least gives us a closer in terms of being able to get his shot off anytime. You always would like to pair a dominant scorer with a defensive, off the ball scorer. For instance, Tmac with Battier. But, because Martin is a dominant scorer who can't create his own shot, we need a player who can assume the role. Of all the players in the league that are available and can do that, Granger is probably on the top of that list. You get him if you can and worry about team chemistry later.
I don't know if the Rockets would necessarily have enough cap space to both keep Chuck Hayes AND make a Granger trade without matching salaries. Also, that would likely close the option of re-signing Yao using Bird rights. But if the salary cap increases under the new CBA, this may be an option.
I never said he was a terrible defender...Comparing him directly to Kmart was a bad comparison on my part, but i think he'll be held back by the talent on this team at the 1,2,and 3 positions. He won't score as much and he's not an exceptional defender. He'd have more of Courtney Lee type impact and i don't think that's worth what he's making. If we're not getting a superstar, i think we're better off looking for a big.
If we can nab Granger for anything outside of Lowry/Kmart/Scola/Patterson, and we sign Nene in the offseason, we will be set. But the key to us being a good team is definitely a Centre that can play weakside defense, nothing else matters until we get one.
We're thin at SF, but do we really need another scorer? Getting a young Battier and a young Mutombo should be highest on our priority list.
