not true! we gots flexibility -- soon it'll be summertime, when DM's supposed to get horny at the free agency casino
i'll let kwame get back to you on his own, but one major change i think you should add with respect to GS is the coaching staff
So hiring Steve Kerr and signing Shaun Livingston qualifies as "wholesale changes" but Houston bringing in 7 new players is viewed as doing nothing? Interesting take.
I was waiting for Kwame da Clown to show up this year. I figured last week vs. Sacramento & his pal Rudy would be his coming out party, but we all know how that turned out when James ****ing Harden showed him what a real clutch player looked like and how you should actually play in the last 2 minutes.
From a basketball standpoint, I think Rondo is actually a good fit for the Mavs. Prob swap out Ellis for a more pure shooter and then you're set.
I agree, and I think this means a few things. 1. Execs are really worried about his longevity, and his injury history. this was not a trade for the championship vintage Rondo, for sure. 2. Execs are really worried about his shooting (since that's more important than ever in the league, especially 3-pt shooting). 3. Execs realize that the best career win-share comparisons to him are not the all-time great point guards, but actually: Paul Pressey, Kevin Martin, Mike Conley, Jim Paxson and Phil Chenier. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/r/rondora01.html In this light, the price was about right. I would really, really be worried if I was Coach C or Monta Ellis. Will be interesting to watch. Also, I think Rondo will be *really* understanding of pretty-boy behavior. [borat]pause, pause... NOT![/borat]
Yes I am. I'm glad you're not taking issue with the fact that Dallas has made significant changes in becoming a title contender since the end of last season and the other fact that Maury has had virtually no post-season success since arriving in Houston and becoming GM outside of one playoff series victory. I'm also going to assume you agree with the Rockets being the 6th best team in the West behind the others I mentioned and facing another 1st rd exit unless upgrades and changes are made. GSW could have been content with Mark Jackson since he had success and took the team to the playoffs and even won a playoff series, but they realized he wasn't the one who was going to be able to put them over the top. They brought in a whole new coaching staff, which is pretty significant. This has proven to be an upgrade. They also solidified their already deep bench with proven veteran talent in Barbosa and Livingston who can excel because they won't be asked to do too much, but the coaching staff changes alone warranted my initial comment. LAC added a legit C that can start for many teams in Hawes and a PG with championship experience in Farmar. Given the trash they had on their bench outside of Crawford (none of those outgoing guys really played well for the Clips), those are relatively significant upgrades in solidifying their rotation. Same with Memphis...bringing in Vince Carter was a solid move that will pay dividends going forward. Udrih was signed as FA in Feb., while technically outside the scope of the time-frame, he only played 10 games for them last year and is now providing them with a legit backup pg with championship experience. Something Kalathes couldn't do for that team. Again, solidifying a strong rotation much like Dallas, GSW, and LAC. The Rockets may have made changes...Although I have Ariza rated slightly better than Parsons, you can argue that's a wash, which only leaves Terry and Big Papa. The rest of those guys are trash. Comparatively speaking, those are not as significant as the ones the other teams made and/or what I would classify as upgrades. The Rockets currently don't have a strong rotation and lack quality depth, which is why the starters all played over 40 mins in the game at Denver (granted it went to OT), but that caused the loss yesterday to NOP. As it currently stands, the Rockets have the weakest bench in the NBA. I believe it's the lowest scoring bench in the entire league. They need quality depth instead of obsessing over "flexibility" as D12 gets older and older. They also can upgrade their coaching staff like LAC did a few years ago and GSW did last year even though both of the previous staffs won a lot during regular season. Memphis, in their eyes, felt that they upgraded their staff too last season despite the success of the previous staff. Hope that clarifies things for you. The actual term I used was "wholesale upgrades." Maybe some would consider that an exaggeration or maybe not, but I was speaking in comparative terms, which I believe justifies the strong statement. And yes, revamping an entire coaching staff and bringing in two solid role players in solidifying a strong rotation is much more significant than a washed up Jason Terry, an inconsistent Euro, and a bunch of scrubs. You have a pretty sad and pathetic existence if you were waiting for me to "show up" this year even though I've always been here. Lol, I also didn't know you were a Maury apologist. It explains a lot. I'm not sure what your random comment has to do with anything, but last night was pretty embarrassing at home against a team missing two key starters in Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans. They're definitely a sensitive bunch, but the truth will one day set them free, especially when the Rockets might end up with the 6th seed in the West and face another 1st rd elimination in the playoffs. That's if Harden and Howard don't get run into the ground first.
I think Dallas is probably the best fit among the contenders for Rondo. Improves their perimeter defense, pass first PG with lots of targets, and a great rebounder. The shooting is absolutely a problem though. The Celtics managed to over come it, but the other interesting factor will be Rondo's ball dominance. Some critics call Rondo a selfish assist man. He has great vision and gets lots of assists, but isn't willing to move the ball and make the right pass that might lead to someone else getting the assist. And we shall see how the Mavs offense works with a ball dominator that you can play 10 feet off of on the perimeter and hack intentionally for a free throw shooter who makes Dwight look like Steve Nash or Reggie Miller at the line. That's ignoring his recent injury history. On top of that, the Mavs really put all their eggs in the Tyson Chandler staying healthy basket, something he hasn't done in years. I don't think Rondo would fit with the Rockets at all playing with Harden. Ball dominator who can't shoot, playing with a shooting guard who prefers to dominate the ball. Beverly is a better fit, with Rondo level defense, comparable rebounding, and better shooting, in exchange for not being as good attacking or passing. Mavs are also going to tie up a max contract for Rondo this offseason assuming he resigns. He is going to be deadly with Tyson Chandler and Dirk, but we'll see how Parsons and Ellis fit in, but I'm not moving them up significantly in their chances to win it all from where they were prior to the trade until we see how it all meshes.
Current futures odds to win the NBA championship: San Antonio Spurs 9/2 Golden State Warriors 5/1 Dallas Mavericks 15/2 Oklahoma City Thunder 8/1 Memphis Grizzlies 12/1 Los Angeles Clippers 14/1 Houston Rockets 18/1 Rockets rated as 6th best team in the West http://sports.bovada.lv/sports-betting/basketball-futures.jsp
The Mavericks' starting point guard trio of Jameer Nelson (33 games), Devin Harris (three games) and J.J. Barea (one game) has ranked at the bottom of the league in several categories. On the other hand, Rajon Rondo leads the league with 10.8 assists per game. Mavs' PGs: Category- NBA Ranks PPG 7.4 - Last APG 4.3 - 28th FG pct. - Last
Yes Dallas has upgraded but it isn't enough to win a title and now they have very little flexibility to improve. Personally, I don't want to go that route. No I don't agree with that assessment. Exchanging Steve Blake and Jordan Crawford for Barbosa and Livingston isn't much of a change. Yes they replaced the coach but he was also a complete unknown quantity since he had zero experience. They are basically the same team that ended last season with a new coaching staff. Have you seen Hawes play this season? He hasn't been very good. Shooting 42% from the field and 33% from behind the arc, 4.3 reb/game and 1.2 assists. Hawes could start for many teams? Collinson IS starting for another team. You don't really think that Farmar is an improvement on Collison, do you? Do you truly think that the Clippers are better than last year? Again, have you seen Vince Carter play this season? He's has a 34% FG% and he's shooting 66% from the FT line for the season. That's going to offset losing Mike Miller and Davis? We played the starters over 40 minutes because we were missing our starting PF (Jones), two backup SFs (Papanikolaou, Garcia) and two backup PGs (Canaan and Terry). Remove 5 rotation players from any team in the NBA and their starters will play over 40 minutes in an overtime game. We don't have that weakest bench in the NBA. That title actually belongs to the Mavs now. The problem is that for much of the year our bench has been starting.
That's simply the odds that they have to give to people to bet on each team. If you want to contend that the Rockets are the 6th best team in the eyes of the general public then ok. What do you think the betting odds on the Nets was right after they acquired Pierce, KG and Joe Johnson?
They don't "have to give people" anything. Those futures odds are pretty good indicators of where teams stand in relation to competing for a title. If it's simply about public perception, OKC would've been 100-1 to win the title when they were sitting at the bottom of the West. But they were nowhere near that...the best you could get at an actual sportsbook was 12-1 and now they're rightfully at 7/1 or 8/1 at all places. Thanks for responding to my earlier, longer post but if you don't consider revamping an entire coaching staff and bringing in guys like Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams along with Steve Kerr who has front office experience to be a significant or wholesale upgrade over what they had before then we're not going to get anywhere. Feel free to bump this thread after the playoffs are over and we'll see whose assessments were correct.
Again, Dallas already had the best offense in the league. Why do you want to give the ball to a new guy who is useless on offense if he doesn't have the ball in his hands. The whole team will have to totally adjust to Rondo's style and retool their top rate offense. I am not saying that they will surely be worse. But that's a definite risk.
pg was easily their weakest position that they needed to address. look at all the pg's the real heavyweights in the west have and will have to go through in the playoffs. all are essentially all stars besides houston and dallas pg's.
rondo is so damnn overrated. he can't play off of the ball. how hard is it to average 10 assists when you have the ball 80% of the time on offense ? lol
If Rondo's defense has fallen as much as some posters have suggested, I'm no more worried about the Mavs than before the trade.
People keep saying that their PG position is the weakest. Sure. But weak in what? If they were weak, why have they been so good on offense? Nelson has been shooting .369 at 3 and having 2.4 TOs per 36 min. Harris has been shooting .412 at 3 and having 1.7 TOs per 36 min. Rondo has been shooting .250 at 3 and having 3.9 TOs per 36 min. The only thing Rondo is an upgrade on offense is assists. But why do they need more assists when they are already scoring so efficiently? Rondo will have trouble spacing the floor like Nelson and Harris do. And he is going to cough up more turnovers thereby decreasing their efficiency.
