If you could have any player in the NBA to complement Yao and Steve, who would fit?

I think Garnett in an ideal world because he can pass, handle the ball and shoot, in addition to being a great rebounder. More realistically, Lamar Odom would be perfect but the Clippers are notoriously uninterested in sign and trades. This off season they need to find someone who can feed Yao in the post.

 

Why is that funny? I mean in an ideal situation, why not Garnett? I know that they can't get him but I think if I could have a player whose game would complement Yao's the best, it would be Garnett. Garnett strikes me as a bigger Pippen(similar skills)- i.e. a great player but one more suited to being the second option. Observe his failure to get to the 2nd round and his seeming unwillingness to take over at the end of games. His game is not back to the basket so he won't take low post space from Yao but he is a big man who can make teams pay for doubling Yao and get lots of boards. Odom is a poor man's Garnett with less rebounding. If Odom is motivated he can be a top ten guy in the NBA, he's that skilled and JVG has a good track record with hard to coach players(Sprewell, Ewing).

 

If he was a top 5 player (I'm not saying he isn't) why have the wolves never gotten to the second round? I think he would feel more comfortable with a co-star. He wouldn't really be the second option, more like 1b after 1a(Yao). Besides, I'm talking about his game complementing Yao's. Even if Garnett was half as good as he is, his game would still complement Yao's. That was my topic because I thought it would be fun to speculate on unrealistic team-ups openly instead of making them seem like trade rumors(all the Brand talk).

 

yeah you are probably right but I really like Yao (and Garnett but not to the same extent).

 

I agree with the guard defense but there are a lot of guards out there that can be found, not as many big men. Yao and Garnett on the interior would cover up alot of crappy defense by guards. Anyway, that is just theoretical.

To improve the backcourt D a good pick up would be Kevin Ollie, he can play PG defense and with Posey being able to guard the other teams best wing player, backcourt D wouldn't be a huge problem next year.

 

I also agree that it is way too soon to give up on Griffin, I think JVG will be able to get more out of him than Rudy could. That's why I was so distressed by that rumor of Eddie for Eric Snow. WTF? How does that help the rox down the road when they're ready to win the title in 2-3 years?

 

Garnett has talent around him but I don't feel like getting into that now.


I would make that trade for Brand in a second. Brand is only 24, he can play another 10-12 years. Mobley is good but I don't really think he would be a huge loss. Griffin may become a good player, but Brand is already a very good player who provides great interior D.

The question is, would the Clips make that deal. The only way I see them making it is if Brand threatens to take their tender and walk next year for no compensation. But even then they may prefer having the cap space to having Cat and Eddie although their salaries aren't unreasonable.

You can always find an OK swingman in free agency (piatkowski, lenard, gill, newble, pippen).