That's why I mentioned the likes of FA's Mikki Moore and Allen Henderson. Although a long shot, Dan Gadzuric would also look good between Yao and TMac. With only the draft and the MLE, it will be tough but no impossible. You can bet someone someone will throw $ at Stro. The only reason I ever mention him is that he's unrestricted. We seem to have differing opinions of Swift. I watch him a bit 'cause he's among my favorites NBA players. Swift is having a down year and the Grizz's 2 platoon system limits his minutes. It's easily within reason to assume that Stro could stay on the floor 35 minutes without platooning. In which case his #'s this season would be: 16.4 ppg : 2.64 blocks/g : 7.5 rebs/game (2.46 ORebs) : 1 steal & 1 assist I don't feel I need to apologize to anyone for preferring that to Marc Jackson. Or about 90% of the available PF's this summer.
I actually don't mind 'Sto as you like to call him. People forget how young this guy is and under Gundy he may do well. I'd perfer a Bosh because we really need someone that complements Yao - is strong where Yao is weak (athleticism, toughness, and offensive rebounding), but necessarily where Yao is strong (blocks and points).
And with the 20th pick in the 2005 draft, the Houston Rockets select.................. Channing Frye out of Arizona. Seriously, if he's still on the board when we are up, there's a good chance we take him. He can do a little bit of everything and he's 6-11. What did ya'll expect, Sheldon Williams?? Speaking of Swift, another guy who's fell out of favor with their coach is Chris Wilcox. Since they already have quite a few PF, I think he could be had for our first this year. He just started getting more minutes this month, whereas before he was barely getting off the pine. A frontline of Yao and Wilcox would solidify the post for many years to come since they're about the same age.
I believe you. Draftnet says Channing Frye is comparable to Steven Hunter. We should keep an eye on him. Just depends on how many other teams are eyeing that guy too! What's interesting is that whether we get a guy that's a mid-range athletic type PF...or a tough bruiser PF. Either way it helps Yao. Arizona's Channing Frye blocks a shot by KU's Kirk Hinrich in the second half of the Jayhawks loss to the Wildcats on Jan. 25. Kansas led 44-24 in the first half before losing by 17 points Arizona's Channing Frye goes up for a slam during their practice at the RBC Center in Raleigh North Carolina. FRANCISCO MEDINA/Tucson Citizen What Swift (21 mpg) looses in outside shot. He gains in tenacity under the boards (not stats, but hustle points, i.e. dunks, block shots and defense). Fifth year player. What Bosh (37 mpg) lacks in toughness, he gains in outside range and better overall skill (ppg and rebounds). Second year player.
Getting Bosh and Swift would be great, but they're such longshots. I don't see Toronto letting Bosh go and I don't see Swift accepting a contract for less that 8mil a year. I think our best bet to get a young athletic 4 is to go after someone that has underachieved like Jonathan Bender or Kwame Brown and hope that a change of scenery will do them good.
Chris Bosh? Emeka Okafor? These guys will be stars and there is no way we can get them. End of discussion. Swift will cost a lot of money and he's not worth it. If we bring someone in who has an undeveloped upside, he better be reasonably priced. You can't compare Swift to Bosh. Swift isn't even a starter and this is his 5th year. This is just Bosh's 2nd year and he has already shown the ability to dominate. Bosh and Okafor are the type of guys you can maybe build a team around. Swift doesn't belong in the same conversation with them. At best he will be a good role player who will not earn 35 mins per game. When you extrapolate stats by 65% by increasing mins per game, that's a big stretch. If Swift played 35 mins per game this year, his pts, rebs & blocks would not increase by two-thirds. The extrapolation stuff may work for 10% or 15%, but not 65%. I haven't seen much of Chris Wilcox so I can't comment much. He seems kind of raw. Maybe a good fit. Oakley in his prime would be a great fit because of his defense, toughness, rebounding and ability to hit the mid-range jumper. But if he played today his salary wouldn't fit us. We need DEPTH at the PF; Juwon is fine as the starter if plays the way he did right before the injury. More than anything, we need a new starting point guard who knows the art of passing the ball to people (Yao!) where they want it. Would help if he either was a very good penetrator off the dribble or has a very good 3 point shot.
mike dunleavy. the warriors are going to have a nightmare with their books when j-rich and murphy's extensions begin next season. the'd also be crazy to trade away pietrus given his potential and rookie contract. rox: juwan to nets nets: kristic to warriors gs: dunleavy to rockets
apostolic3, we were discussing Bosh/Swift or players like them. We can dream can't we? As GATER an others said we'll end up getting a mid-level PFs not one of the upper echelon PFs. We know that. We're just discussing the different styles (or at least I was) and what type skills they had. So, it's not end of discussion. Swifts downside is that he doesn't have that good a jump shot. He's kinda one dimensional. Although, I still love to have the guy on our team (or a player like him). Extrapolated stats or not. In reference to "the art of passing the ball to people (Yao!) where they want it." Having a pure PG would help the WHOLE team. Not just Yao. What's funny is that even with a guy like Nash Yao would still have a hard time holding on to the ball even when that pure PG passes the ball RIGHT TO HIS HANDS (Tmac to Yao...bonk. I call that, "Right were they wanted it"). So, most other PG wouldn't be good enough. He'd do the same as TMac does. Pass the ball right in Yao hands....bonk, turnover. Sometimes I ask myself...."Where do you want the ball next time Yao?" It's not like we've seen bad passes to Yao lately. He's been getting good passes. He's just not that good at holding on to the ball. He's too easy to front and has hands of stone. Yao is what he is. Even if we had a pure PG, Yao would get *all* the passes he wanted. That pure PG would have to work a lot more to make sure the pass wasn't too hard, but quick enough to not get stolen (Talk about fine tuning!). The whole team would sure benefit, though. I mean, think about it. We went from one of the worst passers in the game (Francis) to two of the better/accurate passers (TMac/Barry/Sura). And that's still not good enough for Yao? Talk about kid-gloves! Brevin Knight anyone!?
So if I do the math your way, Swift's stats can only be extrapolated by 2 or 3 minutes? (10-15% of 21 minutes). The extrapolation rate is much higher. Case in point is Swift's teammate Bonzi Wells who put up 15+ ppg in POR and puts up 10 ppg in MEM going from 31 mpg to 21 "platooned" mpg. The NBA is full of productivity rates that exceed 15%....Chris Anderson & Earl Boykins to name a few. While 65% may be excessive 15% is way too low. Now, I'm definitely not saying we can get Swift but you are totally undervaluing him. And here's why I believe this is the reason my assessment is closer to reality regardless of mpg extrapolation rates. I watched Swift closely againt DEN last night and here is something that struck me. There is not one player in the Grizzlies 10 man rotation that the defense has to always double. Not even Gasol draws a double team consistently. Why is this important? Because Swift and Lo Wright's defenders rarely to never leave them. And I think this is import whether we are evaluting Swift, Mikki Moore, Gadzuric, Wilcox or any other PF. Why I continue to prefer an athletic, shot blocking PF to an enforcer type is that the athletic PF is going to benefit greatly by the double teams sent at Yao and TMac. That is why Juwan got so many wide open weakside elbow J's. Now imagine an athletic PF on the weakside to address one of our Achilles Heels....offensive rebounds. Now posters have been known to quibble over stats for days but I'm totally convinced by my observations that Stromile Swift working on the weakside from Yao would have a huge upside in putbacks and ORebs. Defensively, there is as much upside of Swift over Howard as there is between Howard and Spoon. And I know you've noticed that defensive drop-off at PF since Juwan's injury, right? In conclusion, when we are evaluating PF solutions I think it's important to note whether the player we are evaluating is putting up good stats because his teammates draw doubles or because he has to work hard to get his own shots via rebounding, moving w/o the ball and running the floor well in transition.
I don't know how many games of Chris Bosh you've watched, but I can tell you that is extremely agressive and 'tough'. He is a franchise player, who Toronto will -by all means- keep. He's pretty much untouchable.
You make very good points and your opening statement supports my position a starting point guard who can pass (among other things) is what we need the most next year. I don't think Sura gets the ball to Yao very well. T-Mac and Barry have a natural flair for passing it inside that Sura doesn't have. If it was possible to count the number of catch and shoot, catch and dunk, catch and "one dribble then shoot" baskets that Yao has, it seems like 90% of those come from T-Mac or Barry. (I exaggerate for effect). For some reason, Yao's ability to hold on to rebounds and passes is very strongly linked to his concentration level. Lately, he's been holding rebounds and passes better. To your point, he will never have great hands but what he's doing right now isn't too bad. (The stretch he went through earlier this year was awful. Let's hope he's over that for good). GATER, sorry for not explaining myself well. I meant that if you increase Swift's minutes by 10-15%, his stats would likely go up the same amount. If you increase his minutes 65% from 21 to 35 per game, his stats would not go up the SAME AMOUNT. I didn't mean to imply his production increase would be capped to only 15%. My wild guess is his points and rebounds would go up 30-40% to 14 pts, 6 rebs. I have no doubt his blocked shots would shoot up significantly because, to me, that's his signature skill. We'll just have to disagree about how good Swift will be. Yep, he's good at offensive putbacks and running the floor. If he's really such a big upgade on defense over JH as you say, I want him on this team based on that alone. If he moves well without the ball, adds a reliable 15-18 jump shot and comes to play every game, he's a perfect fit.
The knock on Swift is his attitude and work ethic. His coaching staff and teamates have called into question his desire to win. He would not play this season if he felt even the slightest bit of discomfort or pain because some believe he is wanting a FAT contract this offseason and he felt an injury would hurt his chances. I read that his teammates would joke on bus rides from and to games to check on "Stro" after the bus would hit a pothole or smack a curve to make sure he was allright. Now, he may just really want out or he may carry some of that me first attitude to where ever he signs. I think it's a little of both. On another note, Rebracca could be had for relatively cheap. He is solid from the floor, 7-0, and a good rebounder and defender. Most importantly, he will hit his shots, but is somewhat injury-prone.
One of the things that I noticed at mid-season was that JVG had implemented some type of risk assessment for his guards in relation to *when to pass the ball to Yao*, and *when to not*. For example, when we first got Barry, Westley, Sura (activated), and even TMac....I'd watch them *see* Yao open in the post and immediately pass it to him. This is good in concept, but bad in practice as a philosophy. Because it ignores all the other changing factors of the game: defensive rotations, athletic defenders vs non-athletic defenders, slower opponents vs faster opponents, fatigue, double-teams, concentration of Yao, etc... So, what was happening is that our guards would *see* that Yao was open and pass it to him regardless of all the other factors. The result? Turnovers and Yao frustrating himself. Over a 48 minute game, using the "When Yao is open *always* pass it to him" wasn't working. Not in the real world. Since then, this risk assessment seems to be used more strategically. We use Yao as a decoy and as a pivot for passing. Not only to just ask him to score in the post. The guards have some leeway in determining when to pass the ball to Yao based on risks (and their own passing ability too). That's why sometimes they wont pass *even when Yao is open.* They are trying to lessen the risk based on the conditions (and their own). We all know that passing the ball to Yao has to be an *exact science.* It has too be done very carefully with the proper conditions (no double team near by, early when Yao comes off the bench, when a defender is NOT fronting and when Yao has a match-up advantage...). These are things our guards think about now before passing the ball to him. As far as Swift. 14ppg would be fine with me. But I highly doubt that Swift would only average 6rpg with 35 minutes per game. Howard was getting around 35 mpg for most of his career and averaged 7 - 8 rpg. Swift, with his young athletic self could do at least 7rpg with 30ppg and 9 with 35 mpg. In Swift's 2nd year he averaged 6.3 rpg, with 26 mpg. Today he's getting 4.5 rpg with 21 mpg. That should tell you something about the extrapolation rate.
BUMP! What about Joe Smith? It looks as though the Bucks are moving towards rebuilding, and we have some expiring contracts coming up. Smith is a smart veteran who can rebound, play passable defense, and hit the midrange shot. I think he'd be a good fit at PF, he's really a very good role player. He's not too old, he'll be turning 30 this coming July. He'd probably only be a mild upgrade over Juwan, but an upgrade is an upgrade, and it would allow us to use the MLE elsewhere. It looks like the Lakers are going to be shopping Odom this summer. Sucks that we don't have anything to offer for him. Imagine a fast break off a Yao block, led by Jon Barry, with Wesley and T-Mac on the wings, Odom trailing... Take it Cuttino!
I'd take him. He reminds me a little bit of a how P.J. Brown used to play. Undersized PF (weight), but very active/quick jumper. Brown: 239lbs, 6'11" Smith: 225lbs, 6'10" Brown: 10/10 type player (34 mpg) Smith: 10/7 type player (30 mpg)
Joe Smith is a reasonable suggestion. I'm not sure how much of an upgrade over Howard he is though. He still has two years left on his contract at 6.3M & 6.8M. How about Zaza Pachulia from the Bucks. He is a 6-11 unrestricted free agent this summer. Nice rebounder. As a Euro I can only suspect he has some sort of outside game. I remember he played Yao tough. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3745/career
Regarding Joe Smith: Anybody that draws consideration as being the worst #1 pick ever, I really don't want anything to do with. ........unless their name is Kwame Brown.
