Zack Lowe Piece on Pelicans and why I think Asik to New Orleans is inevitable

Fortunately Morey doesn't Kato'd like CD did.....

Rivers already has a contract.....

I didn't say trade Asik for Anderson and Rivers and then extend Rivers because he has upside. wtf? lol

I'm just saying he's a young player with NBA pedigree and could be a simple throw-in player in the deal.....why not?

Contrary to popular belief by a lot of ruhtards on this board....players can and do actually improve on their games from time to time.

Kids 20....the game is faster than college and clearly he wasn't ready but rarely does a rookie come in ready....he will adjust and improve, if not he'll fall off the map ala Bryce Drew.....either way....it's cost us nothing to take the flier and see.

He's on rookie scale so his contract is peanuts in comparison to most and if it doesn't work out like most of the 09'ers didn't, you trade him to someone else who still see's the "upside" for a pick at some point and keep it moving.

 

Austin Rivers had statistically one of the worst seasons for a rookie NBA player ever.

 

do not want...we've already done the flower forward thing before, notably mo-tay and patpat.....we need a 4 who foremost will box out his man and clog the lane on D......hitting 3's is gravy

 

I would welcome Anderson except for the fact that we already have two cheap and young PFs on the roster. Seriously, is it that bad to wait at least 1/2 a season before declaring them not worthy of the starting lineup? If either DMo or Jones blossom, we can use Asik on much more worthy goals, like getting a 3rd star.

 

I don't want to move asik for anderson because I'd rather have defense then offense right now. I think with the d keying in on james/chandler/D12 either t jones(hopefully) or d-mo can play well starting at the 4. Having said that you guys are overrating asik and I love his game but come on now..

 

Forget Anderson. We need to hold out for Kevin Love... If not this year, then next! Asik + Dmo/TJones + 1st round pick should be enough.

 

I think we could do this trade whenever we want... But are waiting out to see what other teams offer, or if they decide to try playing Asik and Howard together. Which I actually think could work. I'd start them together then stagger minutes for most of the game.

But yeah, I think unless someone comes in and offers us something better, I'd be fine with doing Asik for Anderson.

 

Exactly. May i add, if really one of DMo/TJ does blossom, Portland and Minnesota will compete against one another to be the first to have a hold of that package.

 

Ok there are a number of opinions being thrown around in this thread that I think are way off.

Y'all are way overrating Asik

Don't get me wrong. He was great, and I love him to death. If he leaves I will be sad. But he is not a top 5 center. He's a top 5 defensive center, sure, but not top 5 overall. I don't know where exactly he falls, but he is not a superstar by any stretch of the imagination.

Y'all are way underrating Ryan Anderson

This dude is good. He is one of the best (if not the best) shooting big men in the game. He is not a "flower forward". He's not a defensive presence by any means, but he does rebound. Over the course of his career his rebounds per 36 is 8.2. That is really good for a guy who spends a lot of time at the 3 point line. The Magic teams that he and Dwight were on were tops in the league defensively thanks to Dwight. We can afford to have a PF who is not a defensive stalwart.

Also, he is not overpaid. If anything I would say he and Asik both outperform their contracts handily. Anderson's PER the last 4 years? 18.1, 19.0, 21.2, 18.1 Notice his best years were when he was paired with Howard.

Finally, Y'all are overrating our offense from last year

We were a great fast-breaking team. Best in the league. Our half-court offense? Not so much. Adding Howard will do a lot to help that as Lin and Harden will have an elite PnR big man to run with, but that doesn't mean we couldn't use a guy like Anderson to stretch teams even further.

Now if we traded Asik for Anderson two things would need to happen. We would need to sign or draft good defensive back up. A Chuck Hayes if you will (actually, how about THE Chuck Hayes? Man would I love that...) to fill in when there's a bad defensive match-up for Anderson. Also, no matter who we trade Asik for we need to find someone to fill in for Dwight who won't let our interior defense completely go to the crapper. Watching Greg Smith fill in for Asik in the playoffs last year...*shudder*

All that said, I'm a supporter of the "wait and see" strategy. Start the year with Asik, see how Jones and Motie do. Perhaps one of them is ready right now for that job (I kind of doubt it) If not then Anderson would be a great choice. He gives us elite shooting and decent rebounding at an affordable rate. Having him instead of a max guy would make keeping Parsons easier while not plunging us into the tax, which we know that despite what Les says, he will avoid.

 

Can't edit but wanted to clarify.

I said Anderson may be the best shooting big man. I should reword that. I think of all the big men he may be the best shooter, though other shooting big men (like Love) are better.

The reason I support getting Anderson, though, is availability. Getting Love may be hard. I actually believe Minnesota may be the 7th or 8th team in the West this year. Starting lineup of Rubio, Martin, Budinger, Love, and Pekovic is solid...although porous defensively. If they start playing to their potential, Love may be more inclined to stay, not to mention a heck of a lot more expensive.

 

Laughed through nose and blew a booger onto my monitor when I read "Rivers"

 

I'd rather have an explosive scorer off the bench.

 

But I'd be fine with Asik for Anderson.

 

LOOOOOOL

 

As far as negotiations are concerned. 7 footers will always be tall, and a knackful rebounder (I don't know if knackful's a word) will always rebound. A shooter won't always hit their shots. Advantage Rockets.

And if the Rockets want to go small at the four spot, they already have the players that can stretch the floor. Advantage Rockets again.

The Pelicans need what can't be taught.

 

Rivers was much worse than any of those players. He hurt his team by playing more than Royce did my not showing up and his contract is much worse. If traded to Rockets, they would decline team option.

He didn't score well around rim. Didn't shoot well. Didn't get to free throw line. Doesn't rebound. Poor passer. Doesn't get a ton of steals or blocks. Doesn't keep man from scoring.

The only good quality about him is that he is good at making tough shots. Sad part is he places himself in positions for bad shots.

 

Perhaps NO doesn't want to trade Dwight's most complimentary player to their division rival, as this trade would make us so tough so stop

 

As in, Anderson is worth a lot more to us right now than Asik and NO knows it

 

Anderson is just a tall small forward, he doesn't have any power forward skills, and he's basically why the whole insult of a "stretch 4" being not a real power forward exists, tall guys without power forward skills. What skill does Anderson provides that can't be provided by someone who is shorter and hence paid a lot less? It's not like he has a post game, or rebound, or defense, or really anything that you actually want out of a power forward, he's just tall and he's great at moving off the ball but ultimately, nothing than an overpaid 6th man. We're paying minimum contracts to guys who are a cpl inches shorter, slightly worse shooters but are better defenders.

As for Asik, his skill set, elite defense and rebounding is extremely valuable, mainly because at the center spot, those skills are the most valuable, and its to the point where Tiago Splitter is paid more than he is. Is he a suprstar? no, no one thinks he should be paid $15-20m, but $11-12m would be about right. Meanwhile Anderson is a $5-6m 6th man being paid $8m, this nonsense of trading Asik for Anderson needs to stop.

 

So a guy who averages 19 and 7.5 per 36 is worth 5-6 million?

Ummm...