http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-110106 Some notables: [rquoter] Carl Landry, Kings -- Wasn't he good last season? We didn't imagine that, right? Landry was so insanely productive off the bench for Houston last season that he was a strong contender for the Sixth Man award, but a trade to Sacramento seems to have set him back. Landry isn't scoring at nearly the efficient clip he achieved with the Rockets, and because he offers little on the boards he needs to score to be a viable starter. The concern here is that Landry is 27, and short power forwards have a history of peaking early. I can't imagine the dropoff is as severe as Landry's numbers say, but the one thing that's absolutely certain is he's costing himself some serious wampum in his walk year. ... Anthony Randolph, New York -- Yes, he's still on the team, although you could forgive Knicks fans if they'd forgotten this detail over the past month or so. Randolph has a lot of skills, but what do you do with him? He can handle the ball very well for his size, but he's not a point guard and he doesn't shoot well enough or make good enough decisions to trust him to orchestrate. He's an incredible shot-blocker, but his lack of strength and fuzzy focus don't necessarily make him a plus at the defensive end. Between those shortcomings and a few brutal cameos, Randolph has been banished to the end of New York's bench. He's played only 105 minutes and shot just 28.6 percent. Randolph is only 21 and his physical skills remain impressive, so it's likely he'll be traded this year and allowed to develop further for a lottery team. Nonetheless, this season has been a significant step backward after two fairly promising campaigns in Golden State. ... Every Hornets wing player -- Guys, if you want Chris Paul to stay you're gonna have to do better than this. New Orleans got Marco Belinelli, Willie Green and Trevor Ariza to shore up the wing positions, and that seemed to be working during the team's surprise 8-0 start. But look now and it's the same tired story. Only three players on the entire Hornets roster have a PER above 12 -- Paul, David West and Emeka Okafor. That's pathetic. The wing players? Eccch. Belinelli has a league-average TS% and brings absolutely nothing else to the table. Ariza, who is owed nearly $22 million in the three seasons after this one, is shooting 38.1 percent overall and 25.7 percent on 3s. This is with the best point guard in basketball setting them up, mind you; one shudders to think how bad they'd be without all the open looks Paul gets them. It's not like replacing them with one of the backups will help either. Green had a hot start to the season but has been miserable of late; his PER is 9.24 thanks to his usual routine of shooting lots of long 2s while hardly ever drawing fouls. Jarrett Jack, imported in part because he could play in the same backcourt with Paul, is shooting 34.8 percent as a Hornet. And second-year pro Marcus Thornton, who hasn't been able to stay on the court because of his defense, has also regressed offensively -- he's shooting 39.3 percent after a torrid rookie campaign. ... New Jersey's offseason -- I mentioned Lopez above, but Jersey's newcomers have mostly been crushing disappointments, accounting for the Nets' underwhelming 10-25 mark. Travis Outlaw is the main culprit, shooting just .379 and playing phantom D while soaking up 32 minutes a game that could otherwise be put to productive use. He's on the first year of a five-year, $35 million deal that already looks like dead weight, but I'll caution (and I'm not the first to mention this) that he's played more effectively in the past as a smallball 4, and could move into that role if the Nets ever get a Melo deal done. But there are others. Troy Murphy is still in the league, I swear, but you wouldn't know it from watching a Nets game. New Jersey's insistence on keeping him in cold storage remains one of 2010-11's most baffling subplots. Look deeper, and Johan Petro, Anthony Morrow and Jordan Farmar haven't wowed anybody either. ... Corey Maggette, Milwaukee -- A litany of factors contributed to Milwaukee's disappointing start, but by far the most important has been Maggette's inability to fix what ails the team's offense. The Bucks were the league's worst team at getting to the line a year ago, so the thought was that acquiring human foul magnet Maggette would dramatically improve the offense. Well, Maggette is drawing fouls -- but the Bucks still have the league's worst offense. And it's largely because Maggette has been so bad in other respects. Shooting just 40.4 percent from the floor and turning it over at a higher rate than all but three small forwards, Maggette has barely been playable despite the fact he's drawing fouls at his usual prodigious rate and converting 81.3 percent from the stripe. One can't pin this on injuries either -- Maggette gets hurt every season and it never hurt his production before. Instead, the worry is that at age 31 he's lost some of the burst that made him such a fearsome penetrator. If so, the Bucks' offensive malaise will be a season-long storyline. ... Brendan Haywood, Dallas -- It's a tradition nearly as old as Texas itself: The Mavs overpaying for a second-tier center. Nonetheless, nobody could possibly have expected Haywood to perform this badly. On the first year of a six-year, $55 million deal that already looks nearly Dampierian in its excess, Haywood can barely get on the court after being beaten out by Tyson Chandler for the starting center gig. Never the most motivated performer, his incentives have clearly plummeted with the big payday. Haywood has shown little of the defensive prowess that made him a valued starter in Washington, while on offense he has five assists the entire season. A decent foul shooter in a former life, he's a pathetic 17-of-61 from the stripe this season and an increasing target of Hack-a-Haywood tactics from opponents. Don't worry, Mavs fans -- just half a decade more and you're free. ... [/rquoter] A lot of players there that the Rockets have traded away or who rumored to be a trade target that we ultimately didn't go after.
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Gotta add O.J Mayo to this list as 6th man....He never looks comfortable playin with Rudy Gay....Put him in a Bulls uniform and they are ready for takeoff
I dont understand how he's a dissappointment...Its not his fault people keep givin him starters minutes
It's a dead horse now, but when the Hornets started off 11-1, it was very obvious they were Fool's Gold because they relied on guys like Ariza and Belinelli to be serious contributors. Even their coach admitted they started off over their heads. Travis Outlaw is worth about 1/2 the $35 million he got from the Nets. What a stupid contract for one of the dumbest players in the NBA. I agree off the bench as a backup PF is his best role. I've never been on the Anthony Randolph bandwagon. But it's possible he could turn out to be a decent rotation player sometime in his career. I have serious doubts though. Maggette is a chemistry-killer on offense. The Bucks were a sorry offensive team last year. Even though he draws fouls, Maggette is disruptive to other players because he won't play in the flow of offense. The couple of games I watched the Bucks this season their offense was worse than last year, with or without Maggette. I don't think I was the only one who LOL'd when Cuban gave Haywood $55 million. But he might come in handy if Tyson Chandler goes down again. Haywood is one of those guys who can be very effective when he plays hard but I suspected his motivation would piddle out with a big guaranteed contract. His effort level has always varied a lot.
What do you think the odds are that we go after Landry on the cheap in the offseason? I feel like it's more of a "when" than "if" situation. The reason his numbers were so great in the 4th here is bc we have players that can space the floor with their ability to shoot, giving Landry room to work in the paint. Sac doesn't have the shooters that we do, and I feel like Landry could rejuvenate himself here. Any thoughts???
Did Morey actually sell high on Landry or was it the Tyreke effect on Landry? Ariza is exposed. It's interesting that Artest isn't playing well this season either. But looking back, I'd take Artest over Ariza. And I'd take Lee over both.
I could see it happening if his stock stays low, but we have some serious front court trading to do before we consider that. Scola and Hayes should both be strictly PF's, and Patterson as well against most teams. Hill really should be playing PF too. So we need to trade at a minimum two of Scola, Hayes, and Patterson IMO, and hopefully land a legit center in the process.
Since we don't have insider why didn't you just post the whole article? I was going to say how was Brook Lopez not mentioned but it looks like he was mentioned but wasn't posted in this thread.
Wheres the show of hands of people who said that the Lee trade was a salary dump and a talent downgrade? We need to go find the thread and call some folks out.
I don't think Landry could really be considered a "disappointment" knowing that he only makes like $3Mil a year. Averaging 12 and 5 while only getting 27 minutes of PT seems good enough to me.
