Orlando Sentinel: mentions the Rox trading SF for TM

No way in hell do I want Payton on this team. No way.... That would be like picking up malone.

 

Whomever gets Livingston will get one heck of a PG!

Descriptors: size, smart, smooth, poise, controlled.

----
Shaun Livingston
Birthdate: 9/11/85
NBA Position: Point Guard
College: Duke
Class: HS Senior
Ht: 6-7
Wt: 175
Hometown: Peoria, IL
High School: Peoria Central

Strengths: The first thing you notice is his size. He towers over almost all point guards. Shawn's height allows him to not only shoot over smaller point guards, but he also has the ability to see the passing lanes clearer. Combine that with great ball handling and good basketball knowledge and you have a great point guard. Shawn is extremely smooth and shows good command and poise on the court...Been known to make some very difficult passes look very easy...a nice overall talent

Weaknesses: Needs to add some strength... Must be more careful with the ball and trust his teammates more...His shot has improved over the last year, but still needs more consistency. Mechanics need some work...Sometimes prone to having the ball stolen because he stays to high, needs to get lower.

Notes: His height will really intrigue many teams….good potential

-Savneet Singh

Give him 30 pounds and he can throw out all the hoards of recruiting mail that he's received. David Stern would swim up the Illinois River to personally grab this magician with a ball. He will not blow by you with blinding speed, but his basketball IQ is so high he can maneuver around defenders using his wonderful sleight of hand, deft changes in speed and long and fluid strides. A wonderful athlete he can crash the boards wonderfully from the guard spot. With his great vertical leap and long arms, he will snatch rebounds out of midair only to glide up the court, flowing through defenders to eventually lay the ball into the hands of a teammate for an easy bucket after he's looked off the any defenders. He still needs the aforementioned added size to his slender frame, which is expected to come with time. His outside jump shot is erratic at times and sometimes he is too unselfish to a fault.

-Frank Rusnak

 

Hm, well how does Kobe constantly make those clutch shots in the playoffs even while drawing the attention of an entire team?
T-mac is afterall, the most talented, well rounded, consistent and skilled 2 gaurd next to Kobe.

 

so this is the next magic johnson?

 

He's likely the 3rd pick. Until the ping balls, that's the Wizards.

Let's see....draft picks don't count until signed...Kwame and Stackhouse make about $11.5 m....

 

Hopefully, he'll become the next Shaun Livingston (He'll be himself). Just like Yao is the next "Yao." Not Hakeem, Jabbar or Walton.

 

Okafor? I doubt JVG favors rookies. I think JVG is looking for veteran help or at least players who've had some years of experience and have proven that they can play at this level.

I'd hate it if we picked up players past their prime like Payton or Malone. There is no way picking up those types of players will help this organisation in the long run. Sure, they may be a good influence and bring some experience / teach some of the players about veteran leadership etc, but we have guys like mark jackson and jim jackson for that already.

PLEASE do not pick up any more aged players. The organisation's slogan is BE BIG, THINK BIG. If they really were thinking outside the square (i.e. focusing on the bigger picture), they'd be thinking dynasty not championships. A championship will be nice, but a dynasty will be great. Our dynasty starts with Francis & Yao as our core. They may not seem like winners yet after getting ousted in 5 games in their first postseason, but hey, they played a lakers dynasty themselves and pushed them to the limit 4 out of the 5 games. KG took 7 years to get past the first round, somehow I doubt it'd take us that long. Look at the Twolves now, they're 2 games from advancing to the Western Semis.

Tmac would be nice, but I'd really hate to see Steve go. Also, Tmac and his chronic back spasms is a worry. LJ? Pippen? They had similar problems. Although Pippen was able to last longer in the league.

 

EDIT : I meant West Finals.

 

Kobe is not going to play with TMac because he basically wants to prove to everyone that hes the next jordan by taking a team on which he is the only star and win a finals.

Next, would people please stop using real gm to tell us about these dumb trades. It only makes yall look stupid.

 

Nothing is more stupid than someone considering their own OPINION to be the consensus opinion.

Don't call anyone stupid or dumb. Just the fact that the person who posted it doesn't think it's dumb automatically guarantees that there are other people who don't think it's dumb either.

 

Except Kobe, which is their primary target.

I'm pretty sure TMac doesn't want to go to a gutted PHX team. Amare is nice, but Yao is nicer.

 

Before calling others names, read it again ... your examples are not TRADES!

 

Where the hell did you get this idea? Even Jordan did not win anything without Pippen. Trust me, Kobe wants to win more than wants to be Mike ...

 

Kobe has had more than enough wins. Now he wants to be a
MVP of his own team and the league, i.e., like Mike.

 

Pho may not get Kobe, but what about Wallace and Camby? I'm pretty sure that Barbosa, TMac, Wallace, Stoudemire, Camby can make some noise in the west. Pho also gets a pg from Europe that is supposed to be the shiznit and they have the rook from the knick who has a lot of potential.

 

Pho would have no use for Camby or Sheed, they have Amare.

Rockets on the other hand, could really use Camby's service. Don't forget that Camby was an all-star under JVG, averaging like 14ppg 10rpg, while playing awsome D.

Camby said he won't be back if Jeff B. isn't the coach next year in Denver. But I think if JVG gave Marcus a call, we would have a good chance to get him.

 

Raven,

I guess this debate really comes down to Francis/filler to Magic for either

A. TMac or
B. #1(Okafur) and MLException (approx $6.9 mil, I think)

and GHill.

About McGrady,

He is unquestionably one of the top 2 shooting guards in the league, just a notch below Kobe because he doesn't have 3 rings. Or any rings.

As a fit with this team, I just don't see his presence solving any of our weaknesses. We would essentially be gutting the entire team to get him. He would replace Steve as the top scoring guard more-than-adequately, but who replaces Cat, Cato?

With Hill's and TMac's contracts on board, you can say goodbye to the exception, so we won't be signing anyone who can adequately fill our void at PG and PF, and worse, we have no impact draft picks in the foreseeable future. When Hill leaves, we can fill in, but until then the won-lost record could very easily stay in the 40-45 win range, which would accomplish essentially nothing.

About Okafur,

This deal would make more sense b/c Steve and Hill almost cancel each other out salary-wise. That means no other starters must be involved. If the Magic keep Tmac and take Steve, they won't want any other contracts anyway.

This team will then have the exception (since the total salary stayed about equal) to sign a viable replacement for Steve at PG. Not to mention Mobley is still solid at SG and Yao now has a twin tower in Okafur to rival any C/PF combo in recent history (think DavidRob and Duncan circa 1999).

Just look at the comparison of possible rosters:

Scenario A:

Yao
MoT/Spoon
JJ/Boki/Hill
McGrady/Piatkowski
Mike Wilks?

versus

Scenario B:

Yao/Cato
Okafur/MoT
JJ/Boki/Hill
Cat/Piatkowski
ESnow? BBarry? (or whoever with the exception, certainly better than Wilks though)

Comparison-

C - B wins hands down. Yao and Cato are definitely better than Yao and whoever else.

PF - B again hands down. Okafur and MoT would be lethal. MoT and Spoon would be toxic.

SF - Stays the same.

SG - A easily wins with TMac replacing Cat.

PG - B in a landslide. Francis has no backup as it is, so if he is moved another starter at PG becomes mandatory.

I think scenario B is clearly the better scenario. While Tmac would be a sexy replacement for Steve, the cost to get him would mean a severe decline in production at THREE other positions (C, PF, PG).

Besides, scoring guard is the least of our needs. We need a PF and a real PG, and Tmac is neither of those. Okafur and BBarry/ESnow, however, would solve our two biggest needs, and keeping Mobley at SG gives us a solid starting five. Unlike the first deal, which would leave us with 2 superstars, a solid SF, and a bunch of crap and dead cap space.

Nothing is more important than size out West, and a four man front court rotation of Yao/Cato/Okafur/MoT is hands down the best in the NBA. Not even Vlade/BMiller/CWebb/Songalia or BWallace/Okur/RWallace/ECampbell can match that foursome.

Okafur would be my choice.

 

soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo clasic

 

If you do SF an Mobes and Cato

For TMAC and HILL

The line up would be
PG
JJAX
McGrady
MoT
yao

hell it could be
McGrady
JJax
Hill
MoT
Yao

Rocket River