Indiana continues search for PG (Update: Pacers sign Diener)

Foster has been a phenomenal rebounder, but his offense is slightly worse than Chuck's. Chuck's points do come a lot from putbacks or slashing to the basket, but I see that as more of a positive than a negative. Instead of taking another shot opportunity away from Yao or TMac, he gives the team another shot opportunity with an offensive board or an easy target heading to the basket.

You could be right that both Deke and Butler don't pan out, but I wouldn't bet against Deke now after all the years people have said he'd fade away and he didn't. I've also heard a lot of good things about Butler's potential as a center. If both Deke and Butler bust, which I doubt will happen, then I'd rather try to look for a backup C once the season is going. But right now I'm not willing to break up the team chemistry by shipping out a solid hustle player.

 

Head, JL3 & Sura for Foster is good. Deke will probably play 1 more season & Jeff can take over after that for 3 or 4 years. Butler can be gaining experience during that time to take over after that. He would only be 26 or 27 by then. That's why I think the Foster trade would solve our backup 4/5 problem for the next decade.

 

We shouldn't carry 4 centers.

 

If we can make a strong run for the championship It would be nice if Deke was here to get a ring. It would be a nice touch for his retirement. IMOH.

 

ya, resign deke is a must....now we have both a defensive backup and an offensive backup(butler).

 

I'm not sure if Chuck's offense is slightly worse than Foster's. They both play the same way offensively (doesn't demand the ball much), but I just think Foster finishes slightly better around the rim because he's almost half a foot taller than Chuck.

Although I agree that team chemistry is very important, I don't think it'd be hard at all for the Rockets to embrace and mesh with Foster. He seems like a man with manners on the court, plays smart by positioning himself at the right places at the right time, what's more is he averaged more than 3 offensive boards per game in the last 4 years while taking, on an average, less field goal attempts (less than 2.5fga). Who wouldn't love to play with a guy like that?

Anyways, I do think we should keep Deke & Butler though. Even if there's a glut in the front court, that's not a bad thing. On paper it might look like we're carrying 4 Centers, but two of them (Foster and Butler) can slide to the 4 spot. Assuming we trade away JL3, Head and Sura for Foster, you're looking at a starting lineup of:

PG: Alston
SG: Tmac
SF: Battier
PF: Foster
C: Yao

That looks extremely solid (as in championship run solid) to me. Even if we do trade away Hayes to get Foster, it would basically be a swap between Foster and Hayes (+ a few spare parts like JL3 or Sura).

 

I live in the Bay and watched Diegu play. Dude is not worth it. He doesn't rebound, and he plays no defense. He is a below the rim player as well, and he is pretty slow

 

Pacer fan here...

Jeff is actually a lot more athletic than you think. A few years back he and Jonathan Bender would have dunk-offs after practice, with both of them dunking from the free throw line. He also moves his feet very well on D. He gets most of his rebounds through being very quick to the ball and good anticipation.

His weaknesses are no jumpshot whatsoever and he's not quite strong enough to guard a very physical post player. He guards the finesse guys great though, even Tim Duncan.

The Pacers will probaly not be looking to trade him, but you never know since he's not a shooter and the new coach O'Brien loves shooters.

Rafer wouldn't help up much since we need an upgrade over Tinsley and not a lateral move.

Head is interesting as a backup since he is a better shooter than any of our backup guards.

 

I used to be a Pacers fan until our front office turned r****ded and helped the Warriors make the playoffs while we sucked.

Any other starting PG would be an upgrade from Tinsley. But last I heard, they were talkin to the Lakers about this trade:

-Jermaine O'Neal to the Lakers
--Kwame Brown, Andrew Bynum, and Javaris Crittenton to the Lakers.

Crittenton is a pretty capable young guard in my eyes, but maybe the Pacers would still want another veteran PG in Alston.

 

This could be our best chance of making a three way deal with Indiana and the Kings, where we end up with Artest. Artest would just love to come to Houston and play under Coach 'A' !

 

I know Artest is kinda hard to take seriously sometimes, but for what it's worth he's already said he wants to stay with the Kings for the rest of his career.

 

The Pacers signed Travis Deiner as backup PG.

3 years?

Dickau-lite?

 

Rafer for Foster, I would do. Hopefully the Pacers would do it too. They probably would want Head though, so we would have to do a 3 way or add more pieces.

I would do a sign and trade for Skinner with Milwaukee as well. I know they have Mo Williams re-signed, and they still have Atkins at PG, so they would probably want some Head as well to be backup to Redd.

Deke has been an amazing professional, but doesn't seem to suit Adelmans offense. Plus, we get younger and have a guy who we might actually like to have backing up Yao for more than one year.

 

1. Atkins signed with Denver

2. They want some Head as well???

 

If we can somehow acquire Foster for some combination of Rafer, Luther, and Lucas III (hell, I'd do it for all three of them, if possible), that would be awesome. I've felt for a while that Foster would be an ideal backup center for us.

 

I suspect problems resigning Deke, not much info from his camp about making a return. Its all positive on the Chuck Hayes front, and cloudy on the Mutombo front.

 

Hell no to this... We are giving up way to much just for foster... Not even worth it.

 

Do you know how many rebounds Foster grabs on a per minute basis.

 

this just in:

rafer/luther/hayes and two future conditional 1st rounders for jermaine o'neal and a 2nd rounder.


j/k...

...but might as well while we're at it.

 

depends on how much you miss