All I can say about Swift is: Dude is a freak. Top 5 in the "most athletic players list". Maybe even the best of the bunch (mason, carter, richardson, stoudemire, bryant, james, mcgrady,smith). If we could only be so lucky to land him with the MLE. I think we could only get him thorugh a sign and trade. If I was an NBA player and have been paid a minimal salary for 5 years I would want milk every single dollar from the team I would sign with. I think he can get 10mill/year. Don't think Less will go for more
With simmons going for mucho dinero, I can't see Stro going for the MLE. The prospects of a sign and trade for stro or walker seems much more realistic in this high rent market. If we can pull off a sign and trade, we could split the MLE for a few decent role upgrades. Not the best case senario, but it could give us a much deeper bench for the playoffs. Platoon the gard positions with some low $$ additions, sign a decent back up for T-mac, trade a combination of wesley/sura/james for a PF (Sromile or Walker), resign Deke and JB, and we should be set for a good run.
Really like your post. I am one of those people who is not sold on Swift, but seeing the breakdown of what he did when he started makes me feel a little better. The stats do, however, show that he needs work on his defense and rebounding. These were the two main concerns I had about Swift, but I am surprised how much of a scorer he can be. I still don't think we have a chance in hell of landing him. JVG has is work cut out of him if he want to turn this guy into a stop-gap power forward, but I'm more optimistic about that possibility than before I read your post. Thanks.
