i can't believe people still think walker is worth something. the heat would have been better off if they never signed him. Considering they won it all, it's hard to say what that means...but i have no doubts saying it.
As the primary scorer, yes. But on the Rockets (and Miami), he is the 3rd option. He's still an upgrade to Juwan and Stro. With him on our team, we were playoff contenders last season. Without him, Miami loses this series. Bash him all you want but results are results.
Did you watch the game last night? Without Walker on the court, Miami loses that game. How does that translate into "they're better off without him." Everybody hates Walker but it's just girly emotional baggage. Everybody, take your PMS pills and give me some rational thought. Walker is garbage. (Are you PMSing?) Walker shoots a low % of 3pt shots and hurts his team. (Rational) Heat better off without him. (PMSing!)
He was a good fit for Miami. Their window with Shaq is closing, so they needed established veterans who still have a bit left in the tank. With Wade and Shaq, Walker's urge to jack up garbage would be curtailed. I'd like to think that T-Mac will be healthy enough for our window to remain open longer. Unless you have a real shot to win it all (which we clearly did not last year), it makes more sense to try to get younger talent to maximize the number of years the window can stay open. The Stro gamble did not pay off, but I liked the principle behind the acquisition.
Hell no. If this series reaffirmed anything, it's the fact that Walker is absolute garbage. I can't believe I actually wanted him this offseason. You're right, he was huge last night, especially on the boards, but then he started to kill them (along with GP) with his horrible shot selection as Dallas made their last run. Riley made the right move and pulled him for either Haslem or Posey. Antoine Walker is absolutely terrible. He can't shoot, yet insists on shooting. He can't drive, yet insists on driving. It was so terrible watching him time and time again in this series, wildly drive into the lane and throw up an airball layup. Thank God we didn't trade for him at that price. Stromile can atleast be dealt at $5mill/yr.
I like how if someone doesn't see Walker in your point of view, we're PMSing. Walker helped for a stretch run and it was more Posey's play that got them over the top. When it countedm Posey made key DEFENSIVE plays and made clutch 3s from the corner. Yesterday, Walker made a few key rebounds and helped in a stretched run, but most of the time, he would not stretch the court and his geometry needs a little help. Posey was an excellent shooter from his corner spot and that matches the game of a DWade, or in our case, a TMac. Sure, we could've used some scoring last year, but his soft defensive stance and inability to box out would've killed us. Yes, Walker gets rebounds, but believe me, he does NOT box out and does not hold his man very well defensively or under the boards. He jacks up 3s which could and should've killed Miami with those long rebounds to running teams. The Rockets guards would be tortured with those 3s he take. When a player like him takes so many 3s from the top of the arc, it only tells me one specific thing.... This guy would rather not run the full length of the court and play his SF/PF position correctly. He would not fit under our system and there's no way that the Rockets would do too well with his spacing and shot selection.
yada yada yada. I would be fine with a trade of Juwan for Walker. yada yada yada, but I wouldn't trade anything else we have for Walker because he makes $7 mill per year and that is too much salary to give up on our team for one guy who at best is a 6th man, especially with Juwan's salary still weighing on us. yada yada yada. The only way Walker makes us better is if we have Yao and TMac on the floor. And he still costs $7 million. yada yada yada. Flashback. I just remembered. You are the yada yada yada that tried to convince us that Juwan was a good PF for us and we played better with him on the floor than with Stro or Lil Chuckie. yada yada yada. Now you've found a more expensive Juwan Howard with a slightly better skill set. yada yada yada. You can respond emotionally or admit you are wrong. Or you can disappear like you did when we were discussing which PF should be getting the most minutes and who should be riding the bench. LOL, you funny man.
Howard and Walker's contributions to their teams during the regular season were almost identical (eerily close when you look at the totals, ratings, efficiency). Walker might have spaced the floor slightly better with his 3-pt threat, but spaced the floor for who? Our bench was loaded with guys wearing suits instead of jerseys and Howard has decent range himself. I certainly don't see how, with all the injuries this team had, that Walker would have made a significant difference over Howard. This team was lottery bound regardless.
At least you gave a reasoned response rather than "he is garbage." They both played well but lets take a closer look: Points scored: Toine 14, Posey 6 Offensive rebounds: Toine, 3, Posey 0 Total rebounds: Toine 11, Posey 5 Assists: Toine 2, Posey 0 Blocks: Toine 1, Posey 0 Turnovers: Toine 0, Posey 3 Toine outplayed Posey in every statsitical category except Steals. Posey got 2 and Toine got 1. It is another example how people's emotional "feeling" about a player overshadow's the truth. Just admit it folks, Toine played well. He is an unorthodox player, yes, but Miami was better off WITH him on the team. 1. JVG was just quoted as saying you need to acquire offense and teach defense. 2. Toine got 11 boards. We are still DREAMING about having a PF to pull down those #'s.
Antoine Walker was traded for, making more than the MLE. I don't think we had a chance. I still wouldn't want him though.
I agree ...sorta. I'd trade Swift + TE for Toine if we could. All, I'm saying is there was a lot of Toine haters out there but yet everybody jumped on the Swift bandwagon. In hindsight, we would have been better off with Toine rather than Swift. Juwan is untradable. Sorta. I never said Juwan was a top notch PF. I said we could do WORSE ...ala Stromile. That being said, JVG was recently quoted as saying our biggest needs is SG, PG and backup SF. Funny, he never mentioned PF? Actually Toine is cheaper than Juwan and he is definately an upgrade to Juwan. Aren't you the one taking the position that if Miami had lost it would have been Toine's fault? What kind of rationale is that?
MLE is irrelevant since it was a sign and trade, right? He wasn't a FA, IIRC. So in theory we could have made a run at him but I have no idea if we were in the running. Toine would NOT be my ideal PF ...not even close. But you do the best you can when you have a chance. If we actually had a chance at Toine, then he would have been an improvement over what we currently have. Had we got him, we may have had a legit shot at the playoffs last season. That's all I'm saying. So if you are happier being in the lottery with the #8 pick, then more power to you. Personally, for all his faults, I beleive Toine would have helped us last season more than Stromile.
Completely agree. Miami won because of Wade. Walker made nice plays but screwed up at least equaly. The guy is in a false belief of himself. On the other hand, we could really use a guy like Posey when we had chance 2 years ago.
I like Posey too but Toine is more of an impact player in EVERY facet of the game. (Go back and read my post at 12:17 where I break it down). Plus Posey wanted similar $$$ to Toine. Like Miami, I'd rather have BOTH on my team but given the choice considering the $$$, I'll take Toine every day of the week.
Don't forget "the Shimmy"/"Walker Wiggle" It was funny watching him do it on the floor after he got fouled on the lay-up.
Walker made some big plays, but the guy just has too much of big ego that he only defers to Shaq. You think Anderson is a cancer, Walker is 2x of cancer as Anderson. Like I said, he made as many bad plays too. The guy was a prime time scorer in Boston. He still think he is. One has to absolutely hate hisshooting the trey. Old habits in Jim Obrien's system just wont die. When he drives I see him screw up the plays more than he makes it. There is a reason Reily put him on the bench when Posey was healthy. Posey is a hard worker that dont whine mcuh but does his job. Excellent defender. His shooting arch has got much better. He wasnt a good long range shooter when he was with us because he shot too flat. He has really improved. I thought he was asking slightly more than MLE, something like 6 mil.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/teams/stats?team=mia&seasonYear=2006&season=3&split=6 * took 5 more shots per game than shaq at 39.1% * took most 3 point shots of his team at 27.0% * shot 55.6% at free throw line * zero defense * 5.5 reb and 2.2 ast in 36.5 mins Yeah we really need Walker, only if you want JVG to kill himself so that we will have a chance to hire a new coach.
Please tell me if a player retires before the start of a season , is his cap space then available to his team to use the upcoming season?
