ESPN insider makes up a trade: Abdur-Rahim for Rice and E. Griffin

Great points. If the trade did go down that is exactly how I would like to see the team as well (Yao, SAR, A Griffin, Pike, Francis - with Taylor, Mobley off the bench). I might be a bit concerned about Pike guarding starting 2 guards in the West but I am hoping that JVG can bring a solid TEAM DEFENSE to the team to mask any one on one deficencies.

But having Mobley and Taylor coming off the bench would be a HUGE spark for the team! Having Pike starting with Yao would be nice and you get the feeling that Yao and SAR would work well with Yao in the high post and SAR in the low blocks.

 

McDavid and Carter are very good friends. Carter based his decission to sell the Mavericks to Ross Perot Jr., largely on the pretense that David McDavid would purchase a minority stake in the team and be the front man. McDavid did purchase a minority stake in the Mavs but afte representing the Mavs in the lottery drawing Perot pushed him out of the picture. Carter would have sold the Mavs to McDavid in 96 if McDavid could have afforded the team but he could not.

Although McDavid can now afford a NBA team he still does not have the type of cash that Mark Cuban has. When Cuban bought the Mavs from Ross Perot he had 3 billion to operate with because of the sell of broadcast.com. I don't know what kind of cash flow that McDavid brings to the Hawks but if he could not afford the Mavs in 96 then I think it is safe to assume that he does not bring anywhere close to the type of cash reserves that Mark Cuban has. Cuban was very clear from day one that his checkbook was open and he would spend what ever it took to make the Mavs a championship team. There is no question that McDavid will be much more conservative with his money than Cuban. Couple that one fact with the fact that McDavid is a very close friend to Don Carter and I think it is fair to assume that his ownership style will come much closer to resembling Carter than it will to resembling Cuban.


BTW if I had a choice of SAR or Antoine Walker then I choose SAR with out thinking twice about it.

 

So, McDavid will be terrible for Hawks? White guys who can't play + cheap contracts? For sake of Atlanta I hope his friendship with Carter does not mean his ownership style would be.

As for SAR v Walker -- depends on who has to go to bring them in. SAR, to me, is a 3 and Walker is a 4 with handles who will get room for Yao to operate in the paint.

 

If you think Eddie Griffin is the key to future championships for the Rockets we are in serious trouble

 

Duece,

Good point on Pike. However, I'm hoping his hustle and JVG's team defense will overcome lack of quickness.

 

Me too!

 

Slow down a bit. I never said he would be terrible for the Hawks. I just said that his style of ownership would more than likely closely resemble that of Don Carter. Carter was pretty successfull early on actually putting some damn good teams on the floor in the 80's. Just don't expect the free spending style of Mark Cuban with the Hawks.

As far as SAR I agree that in the west he is more of a 3 in my mind. I just have a personal preference for SAR over Walker. I have never liked Walker.

 

Imagine if you had uttered that phrase two years ago.

 

It's a great deal if Abdur-Rahim is willing to accept a complimentary role -- playing James Worthy to Stevie's Magic and Yao's Kareem.

But is there any substance to this trade, or is it just something Chad Ford made up?

 

crash,

McDavid has said he will be a very active owner. I agree he doesn't have as much money as Cuban so can't be that crazy, but he has gone on record in Atlanta saying that he would shake all sorts of things up.

Perhaps his eyes are bigger than his wallet (although you can be active and not a high spender).

 

I'm sorry, as much as Atlanta wants to get rid of SAR because of his high salary and somewhat questionable abilities to carry a team, they aren't gonna let us rip them off with Moochie and MoT. NEXT.

 

Carter's early Mav success was due to Ted Stepian being his
b!t@h!!! Those Dallas-Cavs trades were gawdoffall, except for the Mavs. That was how he 'built' those early successes.

He also built his drafts on slow, earthbound white guys.

Carter was a joke as an owner.

I hope McDavid does a good job with his franchise (including dealing with Rox to Rox favor and betterment).

As to Walker, few seem to like the guy. I actually have learned to, but whattheheck do I know?

 

This already describes Cuttino Mobley, the guy everyone is always trying to run outta town.

 

SAR can certainly guard the likes of KG, Jamison/Dirk, Wells, Marion, Peja, Wally, etc, better than anyone on the current Rockets team. Luckily in the west there are not too many wicked quick scoring 3s--if we do face one Adrian Griffin I would think would be our best reponse, but generally SAR would improve our ability to match up against most WC teams defensively. Offensively and rebouding, it goes without saying how much SAR (career 47% shooter + 8.5 RPG, high FT shooter who draws fouls, shot adequate from 3 last year (35%) though he has been up and down) would improve us tremedously.

So EG and Rice for SAR? I'd say yes, but I don't think it would happen because Les didn't even want spend 5-6 mil on Posey the next few years.

How about SAR and Ratliff for Rice, EG, Cato & Mooch (or perhaps Boki if Atl demands him instead of Mooch)? I really like this one. Then you can start Theo at the 4 and SAR at the 3--we then have a much bigger and fairly athletic front line. Theo and Yao would provide one fine twin tower anchor in the middle (Cato just isn't skilled enough to play with Yao). You also still get Mo 25 MPG or so, and slide Theo to the C spot when Yao is resting.

I also like Ratliff for Cato and Mooch as a stand alone, or maybe for Cato and Boki, if in our judgement we really don't think much is going to ever come out of Boki. Maybe this has a greater chance to work for Les b/c he is the one trading LT contracts.

 

Oh, Mobley is our best guard defender along with our 3rd best offensive player (4th if we got SAR)--he is going to start for defensive reasons even if Pike imrpoves some line-ups offensively.

In sum, there is no way as long as Mobley is a Rocket he will not start, he is too good of player not start unless he played on the Lakers, Mavs or maybe Kings.

 

Maybe he didn't match Posey because he has his eye set on another player for the 3? I don't know if it'd be SAR, though.

 

Thank you very much, that's exactly what I said.

 

I like this lineup with one change

Start francis, griffin, rahim, cato, ming. Then have moochie, mobley, piat, taylor, cato as your primary 2nd team. Or slide mobley to 1 and go mobley, piat, nachbar, taylor, cato as your second team. Now that team could score.

 

I know about the reputation that Dallas had for drafting slow white guys but it just does not hold water. Certainly the Mavs took a shot with some like Jim Farmer and Bill Garnet, but take a look at the all-star list of players that was drafted by the Mavs in the 80’s.

1980 DRAFT
Kiki Vandeweghe

1981 DRAFT
Mark Aguirre
Rolando Blackman
Jay Vincent

1983 DRAFT
Dale Ellis
Derek Harper

1984 DRAFT
Sam Perkins

1985 DRAFT
Detlef Schrempf

1986 DRAFT
Roy Tarpley

The Mavs were screwed just as bad by unproductive black player, remember Samaki Walker, Doug Smith and Randy White? All were high first round draft picks that flopped just as bad as Farmer and Garnet. Jim Jackson, Jamal Mashburn and Jason Kidd were all picks of the Don Carter era as well and that little experiment was just as bad for the Mavs.

The Mavs were just hit with a rash of bad luck in the late 80’s that killed that franchise for the next decade. Roy Tarpley suspended for drugs, Fat Leaver blowing out his knee, Adrian Dantley refusing to show up in Dallas and then not performing when he did not performing to his standards, all of those things ruined the Mavericks, not the drafting of unproductive white guys.

Carter was very active in the organization and very visible here in Dallas, he just happened to let the GM and Coach make the basketball decisions. I assume McDavid will let his GM handle the basketball decisions as well.

 

How many of those pics were fleeced from the hapless Ted? Otherwise Carter would have been Sterling before Sterling.