(Chron) Spurs-Mavericks shows Rockets their Blueprint

I think most of your suggestions are a bit far-reaching (Stro and Wesley can land us Maggette now? If you say so. Sign and trade for MJ with the assets we have on our team, without touching Stro or Wesley. I don't think so). But signing Woods might not be such a bad idea. Supposedly he was pretty close to Larry Brown, and might be ready to jump ship from the knicks. I like Rasual Butler because he's a solid and "what you see is what you get" defender/shooter, but Woods has that explosion and skill set that could be worth the risk to sign him.

 

If we were to work a S&T for Mike James, we'd still have the whole MLE.

 

Feigen is spot on...but the key here is to get a 4 with PROVEN shooting skills...I don't think Padgett qualifies. Gotta be someone like Tim Thomas, Keith Van Horn, etc. A guy you can park outside (doesn't necessarily have to be all the way to the line) and defenders will not think twice about leaving him to double down on Yao.

 

Who do we give up in the S&T though?

They would probably want Luther since we barely have any trade assets to begin with.

 

I think you have the right idea, just not the right personnel. Butler is another James Jones, not Raja Bell. And as impressive as Luther was in his rookie season, he does little for this team. Poor defender, undersized, not a playmaker and he cannot consistantly penetrate. I definitely think we need to package him with Swift or our trade exception to get someone who fits in alongside Yao and McGrady. We could do a sign-and-trade for James, Luther+exception. We could do Luther+Swift for Rashard Lewis, although I don't want to push McGrady to the 2 spot. At this point I would trade Luther for Greg Buckner or Trenton Hassell, as perimeter defenders are the #2 priority after shooting this offseason. Throw parts of the MLE at guys like Quinton Ross if all else fails.

Gay isn't going to be able to contribute right away, which takes out the possibility of Houston taking him. Roy and Redick would be much more effective in a half court offense right off the bat IMO.

My realistically ideal lineup for next season:

Alston / Roy / James
James / Roy / Frahm
Lewis / Bogans / Ross
McGrady / Howard / Hayes
Yao / Howard /

Somehow we are also going to have to find a Padgett like PF that will sign for nothing. Is Garrity still alive?

Crunch time lineup:

James
Ross
Lewis
McGrady
Yao

I'm giving Lewis' sorry defensive season the benefit of the doubt because he played on Seattle, we've all seen him play good defense against McGrady.

 

^^^ In this case Luther+Swift were traded for Lewis, James was signed with the LLE, Ross in a sign and trade for Wesley + our 2006 2nd round pick, which should be 31 or 32.

 

No LLE this year. We used it last year on Andersen.

 

MLE I meant.

 

We went with a 3 guard lineup against the Mavs because we had no semblance of a PF on our roster. I find it hard to believe in a series where our lack of a 3rd scorer was basically our downfall that JVG would have benched a healthy Howard in favor of this 3 guard lineup. Whether that would have been the right thing to do or not, I think is a different story but I doubt JVG would have given up on Howard unless it really, really wasn't working out.

San Antonio can make these adjustments against opponents like Dallas and others that create matchup problems, however that doesn't necessarily mean they will adjust their entire base offense/defense to do so. Its hard to imagine them going with these small lineups in the regular season next year except when they play these certain teams that create these matchup problems. I could be wrong, but I have a hard time seeing it happen.

Although i'm a JVG supporter for the most, I do agree that if he can't adapt and be successful with the teams he basically assembles himself then we should definitely get rid of him. This season its do or die for him.

 

Never one to pass on a chance to get a dig in on Juwan. I bet Bush's falling poll #'s are because Juwan is our starter at PF, huh?

 

Magloire is working on an expiring deal. And Mo Pete is working on an expiring deal. Both of those guys are going to leave town on their teams at the end of the season in all likelihood unless Toronto wants to up Mo Pete to about $8 mill per. Magloire doesn't want to stay in Milwaukee. He wants to go to Toronto. No team is going to give Milwaukee value for Magloire without reassurances that he is going to sign an extension.

So, with that thought in mind, Toronto is sitting on the #5 pick in the draft. They may be able to get Gay or Roy or Carney right there to replace Mo Pete with. Now, they are looking at a lineup of Bosh, Villanueva, Gay/Roy, plus Calderon is their future at the point, and then you plug in Magloire in the middle and that's a pretty formidable lineup. They should be able to contend for a playoff spot with that group. Toronto needs a 5. Magloire is the obvious fit. I don't think they've really got a chance to get Joel Pryzbilla when Atl, Chicago, Charlotte and others are in the mix.

In Milwaukee, Bogut is the 5. You've got Gadzuric as the 4 coming in. If they face losing Magloire for nothing, you'd think they would be interested in Swift to run with T.J. Ford and Redd and clean up the mess. If not, he's a tradable asset. They could send him to NJ for players/picks or they could trade away Gadzuric or just run with a big man rotation of Bogut, Swift, Gadzuric. S&T Dwes to a 2 year $6 mill contract along with Swift.

This is one of those types of trades that could go down if:

1) Mike James lets Toronto he's signing elsewhere or they can S&T him to Houston, he isn't coming back. (I'd say from the way MJ is talking that is a definite possibility.)

2) Magloire lets Milwaukee know he isn't going to re-sign with them and wants out and he wants to to go Toronto. (Which is extremely logical.)

3) Mo Pete lets Toronto know he isn't going to re-sign with them except for obsene dollars. (Possible although he has given no indication yet.)

4) Toronto and Colangelo figure out that the best available 5 for their team long term would be Magloire signed to a reasonable contract since he wants to be there.

 

If you try to build your team based on the current rules, the NBA will just change the rules in a few years and you'll be screwed. This happened to the Rockets already with Francis/Mobley/Moochie. That's one of the things that sucks about the NBA.

 

The regular season doesn't matter. We'd certainly have the guys to run more "traditional" lineups in the regular season, and Yao and Mcgrady plus decent teammates would make this team a regular season monster. But it's the playoffs that count. Every single team in the western conference playoffs right now are trotting out smaller quicker lineups. That is absolutely the hurdle that this team needs to face if we are to have any real success.

And ronny, I also like Roy and would highly consider him for our pick. But Reddick. Hell no with our #8. Even if we drop to 10-11, I'd probably go with Carney, Splitter or Cedric Simmons.

But I think you're underestimating what Luther could do with some improvement. He's shown that he can be red hot from 3. He's been able to pull-up from mid-range behind a screen, and penetrate and finish along the baseline. And later on in the season he started incorporating a very nice tear drop.

The only thing he's missing from being a darn good offensive option is a better handle, and some confidence, consistency, and saavy at knowing when and how to attack the defense. With a little improvement, I think Luther can be a good option off the bench for scoring, or even a starting PG if he improves his dribbling enough.

Besides, I doubt we could land Lewis for Stro and Luther. Not to mention that Rashard must have guarded Tracy well in Orlando, because all I can remember is T-mac eating his lunch on both ends of the court as a Rocket.

 

If we do decide to go with Tmac at the 4, I'm not sure if we want a banger '3' that can rebound and probably defend (Bonzi, George, Caron Butler) or a shooting '3' that probably can't do much else (Mike Miller, Rashard Lewis). Matt Harpring would be a decent combination of both, if only he could extend that range of his.

Cuttino Mobley should not be ruled out, since he does provide the things we need from a 2 guard. Above average defense, good outside shooter, capable of slashing. Although his shot selection has been woeful again in the playoffs after a solid regular season.

There are a ton of options out there, almost all will work to an extent with a healthy Yao and TMac. One only hopes JVG can get the most out of his role players.

 

I am not sure but if Bush is a Juwan fan then he had it coming.

What I do know for sure is that Oakley just came up with an anti-Juwan theft system. No more