Until he "learns"? How long has he been in the league now? Lateral quickness and hand-eye coordination can't be learned.
<sigh>, Seriously! I remember debating the Jason Kapono contract FFS. Can you imagine if Kapono received 80% of his potential max contract?
I do not understand what they were thinking when they targeted Anderson. I especially don't understand why they gave him a 20 million a year contract. Yes.. I know a lot of people are saying that "NBA contracts are changing". And yes, that is true. But that doesn't excuse a bad contract. Anderson's 20 million this year is about 21% of the 94 million salary cap. No matter how ridiculous other player's contracts have been, tying up nearly 21% of your cap in a player isn't a good move unless he is a star kind of player. Looking at our team last year, it was clear we had 3 huge needs. Defense, a second playmaker besides Harden, and shooting. IMO in that order. I understand signing Nene. We needed depth at the Center position. I was cautiously optimistic about Gordon. He could provide shooting and some playmaking, although I was worried about his injury history. But Anderson basically only provides shooting. Which we needed, but not at the expense of defense- especially how bad his defense is. And especially when we hired an offense first coach, we are watching the defense slipping of the best defender left on our roster (Ariza), and our superstar is so publicly known for not being a great defender. All of those things made Anderson seem like a really bad fit.
Ryan Anderson makes sense as a guy who can come off the bench and hit a few 3's but as a starter it all too often backfires because he's just too terrible when it comes to everything other than shooting. Ryan Anderson's contract is the type of contract that an amnesty is built for.
Our roster back then had Dwight before Dwight started becoming whiny, dramatic and was actually a dominant rim protector and rebounder. It had Ariza who's defense had started to slip some compared to his time in LA and first stint in Houston but was still a very good defender. And it had Beverley back when we though Bev was going to be one of the best defensive PG's in the league. I didn't really want him then either because I think he gives up too many other things but I could at least understand why some people would. Now, our roster includes Capela, who is still promising and developing but he isn't as good of a defender or rebounder as Dwight was. It has Arias who's defense has declined even more to the point of being maybe an average or slightly above average defender instead of a lockdown guy. We have realized that Bev, when healthy, is a high energy and pesky guy but not necessarily a great shut down guy. It made less sense now than when people were clamoring for him then. But that didn't stop us from giving him a huge raise.
Anderson was a great complimentary player when he was paired up with significant defensive presence in Dwight and Davis. When you don't have either his lack of defensive discipline is exposed. I didn't really get to watch yesterdays game much but I know Dwight AND Milsap had pretty good games against our front court. Who do we have at the PF and C positions? Capela => still learning how to play as starting C, help side defense is still lacking Nene => Good C but at risk for nagging injuries so minutes are limited to save him for as many games as possible Anderson => Skills as stretch for are only as good as his complimentary front court teammate Harrell => Shows great effort but still lacks ability to defend and Wiltjer ... Rookie, showed offensive moves in the preseason When we finally get to signing a HEALTHY Dmo, we might be able to shore up the defensive side of our front court a little bit, but our team is only going to go as far as Capela develops this year. If he continues to grow and becomes a more capable defender we'll be fine with Anderson at the PF. If not...
He's been close to what I expected. 12 and 6, shooting 42% on 2.5 made 3's per game. What were you guys expecting? I think his scoring average to go up 2 or 3 points as the season goes on, but besides that he's delivered.
Well he's been what I expected, but I expected him to not be worth anywhere near the laughably ridiculous contract the Rockets gave him.
People make it seem like we went into the summer like "f*** Durant, give me Ryan Anderson baby!!" lol I would have passed on Anderson at this price, but not by a lot. I would be happy if he were making $17m. $3m is nothing to bicker about given he was the best option available to us so whatever. He's opening up the floor and giving us exactly the (lack of) defense and rebounding I expected. I would have preferred we sign DMo and give Harrell more minutes, but I feel like we will get equal value for Anderson this summer if needed. We can also add a pick, Capela and/or KJ for a top tier talent. Who knows, maybe the Kings.
What we should've done was to tank, keep our draft pick, and use that pick plus Brewer and Beasley to get a legit two-way player that could shoot and defend, this sign Gordon, and wait.
I don't know why fans are upset about this. He can't guard 5's. We knew this. He can't play much defence. Again we knew this. The biggest question is why are we asking him to? Anderson is a stretch 4, that is also known as an overglorified/paid Matt Bullard. If we somehow find a way to replace Capella with Dominant Big man in the paint we might be ok. Our front court needs more help than any position at this point. Definitely more of a concern than looking for someone to replace an old Ariza.
