With Landry uncertain to sign and Mutumbo's agent saying Deke won't settle for the vet minimum, makes me wonder how much help Yao will have during the season. I would hope that this team is not going to just rely on hayes and dorsey to come off the bench. When I look at the rosters for the Celtics, Lakers, Suns, and Spurs, it seems like they have a talented group of 7' players up front. Unless we want a repeat of Yao going down in the second half of the season, we need to add some bulk and height in the front court to allow Yao and Scola to rest.
The wuestion is who can help Yao...? Dorsey looks good and athletic but hes a rook. Whos the next big man on the roster? Hayes? No Way, we need a back up for sure even if we did have Tumbo.
ron can split time at between the 3 and 4 if need be. whatever minutes are left after that can easily go to hayes or dorsey. however, the one problem i ave with the assumption that neither deke or landry sign is this: deke may not sign for the min, but if landry and the rockets can't reach an agreement then they have money to give deke beyond the min.
Makes sense... but won't it be too late by the time Landry decides to play somewhere else? Whens the deadline to sign a player?
Luther Head for Sean Williams. They have too many bigs and we have a decent three pointer shooter they would be interested in.
Noway in hell would the Nets do that deal, the Nets where very high on Sean William last season since he was their only only legitimate inside presence on the defensive end, besides they just acquired Bobby Simmons and CDR, with Vince Carter still putting up big numbers you won't see them make that trade. For now if Deke doesn't come back I see us making roster spaces for Dorsey and Harris, and play with a small line up when Yao is in need of a breather. PG-Rafer SG-TMAC SF-Battier PF-Artest C-Dorsey The combination of great defensive players of Battier, Artest, and Dorsey will be more then enough to compensate for the lack of size while Yao is on the bench.
We will need a Deke replacement before the start of the upcoming season. Various names have been discussed in previous threads. I still expect something to be worked out with Deke before Oct 30,otherwise another player will be targeted with the veteran min as his replacement IMO. Dorsey,Scola,Hayes won't be enough.
I think scola can play the center pretty well for like 10 min agame, he showed it when yao went down.
Dorsey, Scola, Hayes.... Yes all these guys are good to play spot minutes at the 5 position, but what will happen if Yao misses time. We can't afford to play with 6'7-6'9 guys for the whole game without Yao. It may work for a game or two, but not 10+(just hope Yao doesn't miss that many). If we don't make a move to get a 7footer, we will need Deke.
Well here is my concern. The Lakers have Odom who is 6'10, Bynum 7' Gasol 7' and Radmonovic 6'10. The Celtics have PJ Brown 6'11, Garnet 7'0, Glen Davis 6'9, Scalabrine 6'9, Pollard 6'11, Perkins 6'11, Obryant 7'. We have an aging Deke, who if like last year is probably going to be kept on the bench until the second half of the season due to age, Scola who is 6'9, Yao 7'6, Hayes who is only 6'6, Landry 6'9 and Dorsey may have great hops and a great wingspan but he is only 6'8. I hope we get Landry back because I definitely loved what I saw from him last season but that is only if he's healthy. Yes Artest can man some time at the Pf spot but is he strong enough to guard the likes of Amare when we play the Suns who will play Shaq and Stoudamire at the same time. Yao can guard one of them but what happens when they put both of those guys on the court together. We may have some time to get someone but I really hope we don't wait until either Yao or Scola get injured. I think this issue is alot more important to fix rather than the pg situation which I believe is now fine because of the addition of Artest.
Bynum 7' Yao 7'6 Gasol 7' Scola 6'10 (check his measurements at his international clubs...) Odom 6'10 Battier 6'10 (check his combine results) Radmanovic 6'10 Novak 6'9 (seriously - is Radman a threat because of his height...) Garnett 7' Ming 7'6 O'Bryant 7' Scola 6'10 Perkins 6'10 Landry 6'9 Pollard and PJ are 110 years old like Mutombo - if their height counts, so does his... but I agree - we should be looking for a tall backup C who could play some minutes if required.
Couldn't agree more with the premise of this thread. We are good to go everywhere (assuming we re-sign Mandry) except for the 5 - can't count on Deke for anything. All in favor of getting someone on the cheap like Elson, or trading for Petro, as long as they are reasonably young, athletic and can rebound and clog the lane. Scoring is a bonus - we have plenty of scoring at other spots.
Elson wouldnt be a bad idea, if Moutombo decided to call it a day. i think fransisco elson can provide some of the defense left in dekes abscence, but he will surely be a upgrade on offense. also there is the opportunity of alternating dorsey and Scola for short spurts through that spot. Alston / Brooks McGrady/ Barry Battier/Artest Scola/Landr/Artest Yao/Elson/Dorsey
I don't think it's that big of a deal. We have several tall guards that create mismatches in our favor. We can put a team out there like Alston, T-mac, Artest, Landry(battier if cl doesn't re-sign), and Scola. That creates problems for oppossing defenses. You want the other team to adjust to you, so if you are beating them with quickness they will have to adjust. Besides, there's not to many dominate 7 footers in the west. Dominate being the key word, considering the 7 footers listed previously are not gonna kill you. I think we will get Deke signed though. He's got one year left in him, I doubt he wants to pack up and move again at this point. Landry I believe will sign. Hollinger has him listed now as one of the top free agents available now, but know mention of the knee issue. He also questions him getting big money based a half of season of decent numbers. My guess, he re-signs here knowing we will pay him more.
