The current roster is rather inexperienced, only Martin, Livingston and Sean Williams have more than 3 years of NBA experience. Martin is likely on his way out (and on the outs with the coach), the other two have largely nonguaranteed deals and probably will be either cut or traded. <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;} </style> <table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Name</th><th>Years</th></tr> <tr><td>Kevin Martin</td><td>8</td></tr> <tr><td>Shaun Livingstone</td><td>7</td></tr> <tr><td>Sean Williams</td><td>4</td></tr> <tr><td>Toney Douglas</td><td>3</td></tr> <tr><td>Jon Brockman</td><td>3</td></tr> <tr><td>The Mustache of Maturity</td><td>2</td></tr> <tr><td>Omer Asik</td><td>2</td></tr> <tr><td>Jeremy Lin</td><td>2</td></tr> <tr><td>Gary Forbes</td><td>2</td></tr> <tr><td>Marcus Morris</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>Jorts</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>JaJuan Johnson</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>Greg Smith</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>E'Twaun Moore</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>Diamon Simpson</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>Courtney Fortson</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>Chandler Parsons</td><td>1</td></tr> <tr><td>Terrence Jones</td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Royce White</td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Jeremy Lamb</td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Donatas Motiejunas</td><td>0</td></tr></table> McHale talked about needing a veteran voice among the players to show the young guys the way (and half-jokingly said it scares him for Patterson and Parsons to be "veteran leaders"). Morey, on the other hand spoke about any veteran player being on contracts that preserves flexibility (so, likely 1 year deals) and not likely to take too many minutes away from the younger guys (of course, this is assuming no Dwight Howard to Houston and the team does go with a "young core"). It seems that McHale (like all coaches) would prefer to have vets who can be relied on to play big minutes and help win games, but management is probably going to win out (as they tend to in these situations) . So, who are the (cheap) "veteran leader" types available? My nominee: Omer Asik's mentor, the White Mamba. Not only does he get Omer ready to play Dwight Howard, he is also popular with fans. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/V9_JlY7l8T0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The perfect scenario would be to get Iggy for Martin+. I like the way he motivated Turner these past two seasons. Plus, he can play both SG/SF successfully.
If Howard for whatever reason doesn't here, I can morey going after Pau (again ) with Martin, Ppat, Morris, and fillers.
Actually that would be a perfect trade. Gasol without Bynum is a 20/9 player and is level headed, dependable and team oriented. We would only be giving up players no one expects to be here after next summer. Unfortunately, with Gasol the team probably adds 8 games to the win column.
Why not Patterson? He was a leader at Kentucky. Also, i'm guessing White can be the leader in the future.
it has to be Kevin martin. If Martin is on his way out, it's because we've acquired Bizzaro. Though he might be half child, half diva, Howard can still lead by scoring 20 and grabbing 14 boards. =)
Why not just wait for next season's offseason? If we really need a veteran type this season, then Michael Redd or Jermaine O'Neal could be a decent pickup.