You can never have enough 3-pt shooting on a team where you have a Dwight Howard. We already have good perimeter defenders in Parsons, Garcia, Beverley, and possibly Jones as well. We have no consistent 3-pt shooting in our power forward and point guard positions. Harden will be the one making plays with Dwight on that pick and roll most of the time so you have your small forward, power forward, and point guard spacing the floor. Parsons is your only reliable shooter in that scenario.
Of course you can never have 'enough' of something, but whenever you add something, you generally are missing out on something else, short of having Lebron James. We don't have great perimeter defenders -- we have alright ones. I mean, we need a clutch defender in clutch times. We don't have solid perimeter defense, come on now. And no consistent 3 pt shooting from our PF position is true, but not from our PG position. Lin shot 38% from 3 pt range in the later half of the season, and Bev shot almost 38% the whole season, so... I'm not even saying we don't need a person who can spread the floor at the 4...but LMA can do that, and Ersan definitely can (though I'd take KLove over Ersan of course). Stop arguing straw men here. My point was, KLove's strong points happen to be not where our weaknesses are but where we have a surplus of abilities...yet he's not very good at what we need. The perfect 4 in my mind is someone who can defend well, esp. the perimeter, is a great weak side blocker and can stretch the floor at least as much as David West can. Oh and be athletic. Imagine Josh Smith w/ better bball IQ, essentially.
In short, your ideal/perfect 4 does not exist. Josh Smith's negatives overpower his assets(esp on this team/roster) and worse, it would cost you $13-14mil/year on your salary cap. Kevin Love is a pipe dream and he's just that good. You never say no to a franchise-changing talent like that. Heck, we'd be extremely lucky to get him in the first place. More than the monster numbers he puts up (pts and rebs total is 2nd to none), his intangibles (motor,competitive nature,basketball IQ etc.) and killer instinct is such a rare commodity in this league. If you're worried so much about perimeter and weakside defense, you can get that from role players. But there is only ONE player in this league who can put up 26 and 13 or 20 and 15 and also average close to 40% from 3's.
I think the question of this thread is whether someone like Ilyasova is enough of an upgrade to be considered not gutting the team. For a Lin centered package, I think it's a no brainer. For a Asik centered package, I still do it, but it is a little tougher. For LMA, Love or Horford type player, we're not even having the conversation... of course you do it. TJones and DMo may develop, and maybe even into near all-star level type guys. But we're not in 3 year time horizon mode anymore. As for Ilyasova, man is he right there in the middle. I'd have to just go with Morey on this one. All the advanced stats, though, seem to indicate he's a player DM would like. Great PER, solid efficiency, solid per 36 stats, surprisingly high win share, young, good ft shooter, solid contract, playoff experience, GREAT THREE POINT SHOOTER AT THE PF, much much much better rebounder at the PF than you'd think on a per 36 basis. The 2 question marks for me are: (i) how is he defensively. even if active and understanding the schemes, is he enough of a "presence" in the middle, and (ii) why has he never played more than 27.6 mpg. EDIT: the more I think about, the more I think Ilyasova is a no brainer as well. His per 36 stats in virtually every category is better than Ryan Anderson, and he's getting paid a little less. Particularly he rebounded at a 11.5 and 9.3 pace per 36 the last 2 years, compared to Anderson's 8.6 and 7.5. That's a willingness to play a little "bigger" to me. He's also meaningfully better than Anderson on a steals and block per 36 basis. Again, he's better virtually across the board. He doesn't score quite as much, but is efficient. Their TS% are more or less the same, but Ilyasova is actually a better shooter... it's just his ratio of 3's to 2's is nowhere near what Anderson's is. Half of Anderson's shots are 3's (8 a game). Only a quarter of Ilyasova's are (just under 4 a game). All of those things to me point to a better fit. He can play that outside game, but is also better at playing inside as well. Granted, I don't watch a ton of Bucks games, but from what I do he seems to be a smart kid, good hustle, etc. I'd like a move for this guy.
My ideal? Probably not -- but I liked JSmith a lot and didn't think his negatives overpowered his assets, esp. on our team. I was sad we didn't sign him, even for $13M. Not that sad because there are alternatives, but a bit sad. KLove's sort of a pipe dream, I agree, and he's good but we'll see how he works out after actually playing this upcoming season. Again, I'm saying KLove isn't the BEST we could get. I'd prefer Aldridge myself, but KLove's defense is just not a selling point for me. Rebounds and points will go down a lot for him once he's on our team (same for LMA). I put the two pretty close together, slight edge to LMA because I like that he could vary our game. This motor stuff and competitiveness...last time I checked, many other 4's in the league were that as well. As if LMA hasn't made super clutch shots? PFs I'd want are all sort of old -- David West, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett...Ibaka would be amazing too. That's just off the top of my head for players I'd choose over KLove (for the old ones, I meant if they were a bit younger still).
Landing either Aldridge or Love will be a huge win for us, to be perfectly honest with you. But if i had to choose 1, i'd go with with Kevin Love. Regarding Josh Smith, let's just agree to disagree. I was so relieved that we didn't trade for him. Anyway, my apologies if this thread got a bit sidetracked. You can all go back to discussing Ersan. By the way, i prefer Ryan Anderson over Ilyasova. That Anderson guy just scares the (bleep) out of me whenever he shoots. Feel like it will go in every time.
yeah, Ill-as-a-sofa is better than Under-sun.. but as for now, i prefer Parsons to be our stretch 4 with developing D-Mo and T-Jo..
The stats say Ilyasova is more dangerous. He's been a meaningfully better 3 point shooter the last 2 years. 12/13: 44.4% vs. 38.2% 11/12: 45.5% vs. 39.3% Can Ilyasova keep it up at a higher volume like Anderson shoots? Not sure. Ersan upped his 3's from 2.4 a game to 3.8 a game and his percentage did go down a tad, but still very solid. But as I noted, Ilysova seems to be the better all around player. More capable rebounder, better inside, better defender, etc.
To get it more on point, I'd prefer Ersan to Ryan. Ryan Anderson is a defensive liability. It seems you're really infatuated w/ 3 pt shooting -- hey, Ersan has a better 3 pt % than Ryan by a lot! Granted, Ryan takes a lot more 3's, but both take enough where the %'s are pretty fair approximations. TS% Ersan is better than Ryan, though I guess neither are particular defensive stalwarts.
Morey would like those type of numbers. I don't know man, it's just my gut telling me Ryan Anderson over Ersan Ilyasova. Again, i would rather leave Ilyasova open and take 10 threes than leave Anderson.
I will chime in a bit here. First, I always thought Smoove was never Plan A with Dwight. Morey would lose flexibility by adding Smoove with Dwight. He was always a Plan B; no Dwight, we have Smoove. Here was my analysis on that: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=7993225&postcount=144 Second, Illysova is a better player than Anderson, a lot better defender, better rebounder, and one of the best 3P shooters in the league, not just at PF position. For those who though we can acquire Illysova for cheap (Lin), it aint happening. Bucks considered Illysova as their future core by signing Illysova to a 5-year contract but unwillingly to commit long term w/ neither Ellis nor Jenning. This made Jenning quite bitter and made remarks about max contract and leaving the Bicks. I know he and Amir would be just as high on Morey radar as Love or Aldridge. Why? Again.....salary and flexibility! Both Amir and Illysova are not as good as LMA or Love, but they will cost only half as much (or less as in Amir case). Is Illysova or Amir worth more than half the player as Love or LMA? Most definitely! If we can somehow swing a 3-way trade by trading Asik with Raptors of Bucks (both have solid centers), we should jump on the deal! I believe this has always been part of Morey Plan A.
Give me an example. I've been trying to brainstorm on this all day, but I don't see any teams that would give a good PG for Asik, really. Unless it's Jrue Holiday, but New Orleans just traded for him.
This is my dream as well. I'd give up Lin, T Jones, that left-handed Greek kid, and another second rounder for Ilyasova. Sign Mo Williams and go to war. If we could acquire Ilyasova for some package including Lin but not including Asik, not only would he be a perfect fit but he would be a great trade asset along with Asik if Love or some other superstar that we wanted went on the trade market. And dont forget this, Ilyasova could be huge in helping calm down Asik and getting Asik to want to stay. Stay Omer.
I think the Bucks would do Ersan for Lin and it would make sense for both teams. We could still keep Asik as well. I know no one likes the idea on this board but id bet anything they'd give Jennings and Ersan for Lin and DMo/Jones as well. You could then make Jennings a sixth man like many want to do with Lin. And of course you add those two while still retaining Asik!
