How do Price and Bev compare with %s on open shots? There is an interesting write-up (http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2015/8/17/9163673/ronnie-price-a-film-study) that shows what Price brings to the table: hustle, steady hand with the ball, veteran presence. But even the most optimistic analysis on him doesn't peg him as a good shooter. I'd imagine he will get good looks on the Suns this year, so we can see if your theory holds. But I'm a bit skeptical. Bev, on the other hand, has come out guns blazing. He's really brought a lot of energy to the team and is burying his threes consistently. I don't believe that Price, even at his best, is capable of bringing the energy and range that Bev has for our team. Let's just hope that Lawson integrates well enough so that Bev does become expendable for a deal like this. Adding Anderson and Tucker would be niiiiice and may be worth the downgrade from Bev to Price, but only if Lawson figures it out.
You guys are focusing on the wrong stretch 4. If NOP and PHX are going to make a Morris/Anderson swap, we need to go after Teletovic. Good shooter, experienced player with some passion, and he's on an expiring contract. Not just that, but his $5.5 million contract is easy to trade for. Thing is.....you have to accept this would be a rental. Very little chance the Rockets could give him the contract he will be looking for next summer. So TJones and KJ for Teletovic and Cleveland's 2016 1st. Playoff Rotation Beverley / Lawson Harden Ariza DMo / Teletovic Howard / Capela Still need a big-time sharpshooter off the bench.
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So I think technically Markieff, Terry to Pelicans KJ, Jones and Dekker to Suns Anderson to Rockets, we sign two D-league players shortly after (Smith, Cummings?)
If I thought we weren't going to have any other point guard solution besides Price I might be a little more hesitant here. But I'm confident either Lawson gets it going or we pull a trade using his expiring deal for another vet PG. JET is perfectly capable of knocking down looks as well. Bev's calling card is his D. I know he's knocking down shots right now but he's going to regress to the mean. And the problem is Bev's defense has really taken a hit over the last year. It's only been the last 2-3 games that he's showing some defensive spark. I'd rather clear Bev's deal off the books. Don't want to see him get dinged again and become just dead weight on our cap. Without him playing the D he played in the last half of the 2014 season, he's simply just another point guard out there. We can get a ton of guys to knock down shots. So, I'm not concerned about replacing Bev's on-court contributions. And we need to get his salary dumped anyways. And we also need to move under the luxury tax. The deal I suggested, gets within less than $300,000 out of the tax. One more move involving Lawson or McDaniels or both and we're out.
This would have to wait until Jan 15 due to Brewer & Bev's contracts. I doubt Markieff and Anderson are available that long. Moreover, we need Beverly.
Im sure the Clippers would love sending Smith to the same team that came back on them from a 3-1 series lead and extremely embarrassing playoff exit LOL.
There's a million years til 1/15. And, BTW in today's NBA, do you really trade a 'good' contract for an expiring? Bev or Iman, for example - - which contract is better/worse, why? RA is an expiring who the Pels wouldn't trade before, has said he doesn't like playing with Dwight...hmm, bad contract to receive back? Or if he can make the difference this season is he worth a trade? JET has a no-trade factor in his contract. OK, who sez no: Love/Moz - - Dwight/TJo?
IF Bev is healthy, I'm fine with him in his current role. As you noted, his defense has been better these last few games (maybe the injuries were affecting him earlier in the season) and if his minutes stay in the mid-20s, I'm confident he can be an average to slightly above average shooter. The issues on this team have been 5-fold: 1) Integrating Lawson - I still think this is going to happen. He's looked better in spurts recently, but he's still not quite there. 2) TJones - I could accept that he's not a good shooter or facilitator. What is not acceptable is his lack of defensive awareness. You put Harden and TJones on the court together and you've got too many lapses for the other 3 guys to cover. It's been blown assignment after blown assignment for him. 3) Dwight sitting back to backs - This seems like it will be fixed soon. We clearly need to keep a tight limit on Dwight's minutes, but not having him has probably cost us a game or two already. 4) DMo missing the first quarter of the season - It's not just his offense. DMo is one of a handful of players on this team that knows where to be on defense. He's also a guy that can run the offense in spurts. 5) Bumbling Brewer - I don't know what the issue here is. It seems like a combination of teams being smarter in denying the fast break and Brewer just not finishing. I do think DMo is very important to Brewer's production in the half court....ie DMo's ability to find the cutter. I think we're slowly going to see many of these issues resolved. Lawson will figure out his niche, TJones will be traded or eased out of the rotation with the return of DMo, Dwight will play back to backs but in limited minutes (thanks to DMo), and Brewer will either start finishing around the rim or be forced out in favor of better shooting from Thornton and Terry. In short, the issues on this team have been a lack of spacing on offense and a lack of awareness on defense.
We're going to have to move some contracts out before the end of the season. We need more wiggle room for next summer. And besides this team as currently constructed is simply not good enough. Everybody knows it. We've got to make moves. Because we are a worse team than last year's overachieving bunch. We are worse in every phase of the game, defense, rebounding, shooting, finishing, ball handling. We can't beat GSW, SAS, CLE, or OKC. And truth be told we're gonna struggle to get past MEM, LAC, and UTA in a 7-game series. So we gotta get ready for this summer and next season and in the process we gotta make moves that will possibly give us a better chance of winning this season. We need at least 3 rotation players to replace Brewer, Terrence, and Beverley with at least one starting caliber player (either 1,3, or 4) and one big capable of pushing Capela down to #4 in our big man rotation. Gotta be bold.
<blockquote class="twitter-video" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Markieff Morris tries to change sides of the lane between free throws, gets told to stop. Does it again, gets T <a href="https://t.co/8anQ8HUI6M">pic.twitter.com/8anQ8HUI6M</a></p>— The Cauldron (@TheCauldron) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheCauldron/status/672970595223535617">December 5, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This. Ryan Anderson is not perfect. However he is a volume three point shooter that hits a high %, he hits his free throws and doesn't turn the ball over...... all three are huge issues for the Rockets. He also is a good mid range shooter, he shoots 58% in the area between 16 feet and 3.
Funny thing is Anderson already played with Howard and that 2010-2011 , 2012 magic team were caught in any set backs because of it..
