You can't be both efficient and inconsistent. Someone like Melo IS inconsistent, there would be moments where he looks better than LBJ, but there are also times when he goes 6-26 and costs his team the game. KMart is efficient and consistent, because if you average out his games he'll give you good points per shot taken.
Talent at the 1, 2, 3? I think a lot of people have homer in their blood. Remember, we are a .500 team. We obviously don't have the talent to win anything. Kevin Martin is the only player in those positions that would be a starter on 80% of other NBA teams. He is a high quality starter. Lowry is starting to come into his own, but Budinger is terribly inconsistent. We have all of these "assets" that don't get their fair share of minutes. If you can trade some of those assets for an all-star starter, you do it. Having a deep bench is great, but a having a good 6-12 when all you have is good 1-5 isn't going to help you. Danny Granger would be starting on any team in the NBA. He is a top 5 SF. You have to upgrade. Obviously bigs are not falling off of trees into our laps.
Granger would be a good fit in Houston. He, combined with Martin's scoring skills and Lowry's passing skills could be a killer. Scola with inside out combo w/ Granger would be great also. However, Pacers would ask much in return...
Bird: Players, not Vogel, to blame for Pacers' woes Sounds like a mess where they might not think holding onto Danny and his salary anymore is worth it. I hope Morey can pull off another Kevin Martin type acquisition this off season.
Next year, 2Pat will be ready to start, with Hayes as the backup PF. That makes Scola expendable. A Scola plus either CBud or TWill trade for Grainger would relieve the PF glut and balance the roster.
Hayes is going to continue to man the middle until Morey gets his hands on a capable center. I would rather have Roy Hibbert, a 7'2'' 24-yr-old averaging 13 and 7, than Danny Granger.
Even though he's a "two-way" player, I just don't get the feeling from I what I see, that he'll be as a good as Landry was.
Landry blew up mid-season into a key bench player. 2Pat is far cry from being that good or important to the team.
I like granger, but if you do granger, the team has to trade either martin or scola for salary reasons to have the money to get williams or howard. In a perfect world, the rockets would trade scola and sign a 6 mil type of sf like thaddeus young or someone like wilson chandler and have enough money to make a run at both williams and howard. Currently, the rockets are a poor team in games decided by 3 pts or less. This is because they dont have guys who can make shots under pressure. The francis led rockets were one of the worse, they traded for mcgrady and all that changed. They need a dual threat offensive guy like Williams who can not only set guys up late if need be, but he can also close games out by making shot and plays. If they prefer Granger and still want to be in the money game to get williams and howard, then they could trade martin for granger and re-sign lee at that smaller salary i was talking about. Either way, the lowry-martin-granger-scola-? lineup still doesnt have a late game closer and the team will win just enough to be a tease.
I agree with what you are saying, but I almost feel as if we would need all 5 of those guys (Lowry, Martin, Granger, Scola, and Howard) to be a legit contender. Out of all those guys we would still only have 1 legit all-star. Conclusion, we need a miracle to be contenders anytime soon.
I think you could swap out Scola for Patterson and still be alright. Scola's lack of defense as a big irritates me and he is due for a decline soon.
I agree or they could get a guy like Jason Thompson who is longer and a little further along than patterson and hill. Then you have the rotation of thompson-howard-patterson. There are multiple ways to move players around and get to the same results.
