what would you do for Big Ben?

did you give any thought whether detroit would want that trade? it seems one-sided. rocs side but, it's rocs advantage so i like it. lol.

 

A 29 year old, two time defensive player of the year, who has also been the top rebounder in the league the last 2 years, who also only makes $5 mil per and anchors a team with the best record in the EC is pretty close to being untouchable.

Detroit laughs at us unless we start with a package that includes Steve or Yao. Even then, they might still laugh at us.

 

"what would you do for Big Ben? "

What would I do for him?
As long as he pays well...wash his cars,run errands,etc. Of course there would be limits to what I'd do. I don't go there,if you know what I mean.

 

ooohh, thats tough, i guess i would give up a klondike bar.

 

Steve Francis for Wallace plus cap filler.

 

While I agree that Ben Wallace might be the most ideal power forward in the league for this team, I just don't think acquiring him is feasible at the moment. I've read that Darko has no desire to play center though so the future in Detroit isn't looking so bright for Big Ben. If Darko becomes what he's expected to and he wants to be a power forward, and Ben Wallace doesn't want to play center (and we all know he doesn't). He may go elsewhere then. I still think this scenario is several years away though because Darko is just so young.

Right now though, I think Kenyon Martin is more attainable and I'd be more interested in that. However, I'm not sure that the Nets would have interest in Mo Taylor. And if Alonzo Mourning is healthy they certainly don't need Kelvin Cato. Jason Collins and Aaron Williams are great back ups already in place. But perhaps a three way deal could be worked out there.

However, since the question posed is what would I do for Big Ben I suppose I should answer that. I'd gladly give any combination of Mo, Cato, Eddie, Cat, a future #1 pick or really anyone else on the roster outside of Yao and Steve. I just don't think that at this time they'd be interested in anything the Rockets have to offer except for Yao and Steve and obviously that's out of the question.

 

Maybe someone recalls but it seems that espn insider had an article on this. If I recall, I think Detroit is somewhat concerned with the cap and the article was basically stating the Wallace's days in Detroit may be numbered.

Does anyone know about his salary structure and/or the number of years remaining under his current contract?

 

codell -
A slight exaggeration on your part... but close.

The first problem with getting Wallace in a Rockets uni is no one in their right mind would give up SF or YM for him and after that the attractiveness of our talent drops off drastically to a team with Okur, Darko, Corliss, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Billups, Chucky Atkins, Bobby Sura, Rebecca & Darvin Ham.

From a Rockets perspective, Wallace's one dimensional play (defense) is probably not the best PF to place next to Yao. Too easy to double off of Wallace.

 

What would I do for Big Ben? I would mow his yard every Sunday if he plays the 4 for the Rockets.

 

Sounds like BS. The Pistons have ~$52.9m committed for 2003-04 and ~$37.8 for 2004-05. Wallace makes Mobley money for 3 more years.

 

Gater,

Sometimes you have to exaggerate a lil to make a point.

And as always, I was presenting it more from Detroit's point of view than ours (someone has to be the devil's advocate).

Because Ben only makes $5 mil per, that means they would essentially have to give up him and 2 other players (like Atkins and Williamson) in order to match Steve's salary. Given that, and the fact that Billups had a pretty darn good year last season as their PG, I believe they would at least snicker at us when we ask for Wallace and 2 other players for Steve.

I don't see how that makes them a better team than they were last season.

Offering Yao for Wallace would still make them laugh because they would think that CD is losing it.

 

Why would they trade their best player in order to clear cap space?

 

GATOR / the cabbage:

I will try and find the article. I thought it was a bit crazy as well, but thats why I remember it. I think it came out shortly after they signed Darko. It may have been from one of the local Detroit papers.

(GATOR, I don't believe I said this was likely, I was just recalling this bizarre article and wondering if anyone else read it.)

 

Not quite like I remembered, but here it is.

Big Ben's Detroit days are numbered
By Terry Brown
NBA Insider
Tuesday, September 23
Updated: September 26
10:46 AM ET


Eventually, the fat lady does sing, Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy runs away and the undersized center for the Detroit Pistons -- the one with the big biceps and even bigger afro who led the league in rebounding for the past two seasons -- gets replaced.

Don't get me wrong. Ben Wallace will still be the Detroit Pistons' starting power forward when the season opens, but with the additions of Elden Campbell at center and Darko Milicic at forward, as well as the continued progress of Mehmet Okur and Zeljko Rebraca, Big Ben's days in Detroit are numbered.

But before we bid him a fond farewell, let's try to remember what he has done for this team after being thrown in alongside Chucky Atkins in the infamous sign-and-trade deal that sent Grant Hill to the Orlando Magic.

Last year in the playoffs, Wallace averaged an amazing 16.3 rebounds per game while no other Piston averaged more than 4.1. As a result, Detroit was outrebounded 43.2 to 39.1 and, despite having the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference, did not advance to the NBA Finals.

During that regular season, in which they won 50 games, Wallace averaged a league-best 15.4 rebounds per game. No other Piston could muster more than 4.7. As you can probably guess, Detroit was outrebounded 41.3 to 40.6.

Even the year before, when Wallace won his first rebounding title at 13.0 per game, not one of his teammates could grab more than 4.8 per game. Then, the team was being outrebounded 42.7 to 38.7.

The tradeoff, of course, was having one of the most anemic offenses in the league. The Pistons had to have Wallace in the middle as much as possible, because his rebounding and defense would keep them in the game. But over his seven- year career, he made it very clear that scoring was not high on his list of priorities. In 461 games, he never scored more than 20 points in a single game and averaged only 5.5.

And it was getting worse.

While his rebounding went up from 13 to 15.4 over the last two seasons, his scoring went down from 7.6 to 6.9.

But he was blocking so many shots and grabbing so many rebounds that we often couldn't see beyond all the awards he was earning as a two-time Defensive Player fo the Year and rebounding king. In fact, he was so good at those two things, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team and received five first-team votes.

But that didn't stop the Pistons from acquiring Campbell as a free agent over the summer. The 7-footer averaged 6.9 rebounds per game in his last full season in New Orleans and once averaged 9.4 per game when the Hornets were in Charlotte in 1999. Over his career, he's averaged 6.2 while spending some time at power forward with the Lakers. Also playing center for the Pistons will be the rapidly improving Okur, another 7-footer who went from averaging 3.6 points and 2.5 rebounds in 9.1 minutes during November to averaging 8.9 points and 7.2 rebounds in 30.3 minutes during April.

Backing them up will be yet another 7-footer in Rebraca who, despite being injured much of last season, has averaged 6.8 points and 3.7 rebounds per game in only 16 minutes of action. And we haven't even gotten to the 7-foot Milicic, who already has been anointed the franchise savior after being the second pick of the NBA Draft this year. Put him in at small forward or power forward. Just put him in.

So where does this all leave the 6-foot-9 Wallace?

Well, the Pistons averaged only 91.4 points per game last season. The only teams worse were the non-playoff Raptors, non-playoff Heat and non-playoff Nuggets. In fact, the non-playoff Cavs, Wizards and Sonics also scored more than Detroit. Their 3.7-point margin of victory was nice, but nowhere near Dallas' 7.8 or New Jersey's 5.3.

If the Pistons are going to get better, they're going to have to get bigger.

A frontline of three 7-footers would give Detroit better scoring, perhaps better team defense and certainly better overall rebounding numbers, even if it means taking down the tents and shutting down the circus.

 

Worst moniker ever!

 

Lets not get carried away here fella....Ben is great but we would be the one laughing if YAO or Steve was mentioned not them.......

Ben is a one sided phenom........no offensive skills at all and to be honest with you guys he probably will come available at some point now that Larry Brown runs that ship..........Larry hates one sided front court players.......he had Theo ratliff at the time when he was a great defensive presence in Philly and shipped him out...so...with Larry there its possible...the question is when

 

Larry Brown hates one sided front court players so much, that Dale Davis started almost every game for him when they were together in Indy and he gave up a starter (Ratliff) and a multi tooled offensive 6th man (Kukoc) to get Mutombo for a playoff run. BTW, the reason Ratliff was traded was because he had just had surgery and was going to be out up to 4 weeks and possibly the rest of the season.

And please explain to me how Detroit is a better team with Francis over Billups as their PG, without Ben Wallace. This is why I think they laugh. Francis is better than Billups, but not enough to justify getting rid of the best rebounder and defender in this league (Detroit hardly has anything close to the caliber of Ben to take his place).

Players like Wallace always have a place on a championship contender. Dennis Rodman, even with his nutcase antics, is a perfect example.

 

Stupid is what stupid does

 

I love Big Ben's game and attitude but he is probably not idea as a PF for the Rockets. You can only really have one player in the post on offense or it get really crowded. Yao is going to be in there down low, so the ideal PF needs to have a solid mid range shot. It would also be nice if he was a good offensive rebounder. Fortunately the Rockets have both of these skills on the roster already, unfortunately they happen to be in two different players.

If Eddie can improve his midrange jumper and his post deffense we are set.

If MoT can pick up his offensive (and defensive) rebounding we are set.

Two big ifs, I think Eddie should be able to improve on his two weaknesses and actually his midrange jumper just needs a little ark and it will be there. MoT is the hard one to figure because I can't see any reason why he isn't already a good rebounder.