I honestly don't understand this resistance to bringing in Payton. I'm perfectly well aware of what happened in the playoffs. I also saw what he did in the regular season. His production was just fine across the board. His scoring, assists, turnover ratio, and percentages were right in line with what you would expect when you put him in that offense with 3 other marquee players. His precipitous decline in production is a result of the situation in LA wearing him down - it's not like he woke up one day and forgot how to play basketball. The bottom line is that he put himself in a terrible situation because he was blinded by the prospect of getting a ring. He chose to ignore the media circus, the complete lack of team chemistry, the offense that was completely antithetical to the way he has played throughout his career, and the lack of any sort of team effort on defense that could help him overcome his slowing on that side of the ball. It was definitely his mistake, and I'm not trying to make him out to be a sympathetic character. But I think anyone who believes that he isn't a more capable point than the Eric Snows of the world is deeply mistaken. Just go look at Payton's regular season numbers from last year. I mean honestly look at them. Now add them mentally to what T-Mac, Jimmy, Juwan and Yao bring to the table. Factor in that it's an offensive system that isn't an anchor to Payton's style. It's not Seattle, but it's sure as hell not the triangle, either. Add the notion of team defense, where Payton is not left on an island. If you can honsetly say that it's not worth one year for 5mil - that long-term contracts for a bunch of career scrubs and backups is a better option - then I don't think we're analyzing the same game. If you just dislike him out of hatred for the Sonics, that's fine. I'm on board with that. I'm not personally hung up on it, but I certainly understand why others would be. But on basketball merits alone, we'd be unbelievably fortunate to start this transistion with GP at the helm.
If i remember correctly, one championship year, we lost some games on purpose to avoid Seattle in the first round...
You would rather have Eric Snow and his brutal 5 year deal over Gary Payton and his one year deal? Cleveland's likely going ot keep McInnis, Seattle won't give up Daniels apparently, and Hudson is returning to Minnesota. So it's Payton or James. Heck yeah I would take James! I'd rather the Rocks pulled off a deal for Van Exel, but Payton would be solid as well.
For whatever it's worth, just thought I would remind everyone that it was Fisher who outplayed Payton last year, not the other way around. I found a near-consensus among NBA 'experts' that the team was much better overall with Fisher on the floor. During the Finals everyone was clamoring at Phil to start Fisher because Payton had become such a liability. Do you really want a guy who would pull that type of s#!t in the Finals? Isn't the construction of this team supposed to be about surrounding Yao and Tmac with smart, high-character role players like JJackson? If you want to see the best that this team can become...and to truly maximize the greatness of Yao and Tmac...you cannot add a malcontent like Payton while ignoring a true TEAMMATE like Fisher (or others) because of contract differences.
I don't know if this has been posted anywhere but here is something I found on another site: GP to Houston??? Personally, I'd rather have Fisher or Hudson but both look like they are headed elsewhere. What about Damon Jones or Eric Snow?
At that moment in time seattle was obviously the superior team, just like the pistons are the superior team at this moment in time even though the lakers have defeated them before. if you expect your lineup to perform timelessly, why dont we spend the MLE on hakeem and glyde?
He's also ridiculously injury-prone. There is no wy on this planet I would take an injury-prone PG with a huge contract over a PG who had one down year and a one year deal.
Fisher was also playing in a system he was more accustomed to then Payton. What were Payton's numbers, a little over 14 ppg, 5.5 assists per game, over 4 rebounds per game? Heck yeah I would take that!
Here's Payton's numbers for last year: 14.6 ppg, 5.5 apg, 4.2 rpg, 1.8 to, 47.1% from the field, 33.3% from 3pt range, 71.4% from the freethrow line. People act like the guy was a pathetic shell that couldn't do anything, the guy put up some VERY productive numbers. I would take those numbers on the Rockets anyday. Yeah he had some problems with the Lakers, but then, who hasn't had problems with Phil Jackson? Payton, Kobe, Rice, Richmond, Phil Jackson always seems to run people the wrong way. And that Lakers team was never dedicated to defense, it was just horrible last year. Maybe Payton could have a bounce back year for the Rocks. The Rockets shouldn't go crazy trying to get him, but don't write him off just because he played on one of the Rockets old rival teams.
I will do Spoon for GP trade in a heartbeat. GP is still better than any pg we currently have. 1-year contract is barely any commitment. We have to use the TE somehow, and it seems more and more difficult to do so.
You know, I wonder if the Lakers would take Spoon. They need another role-playing big man. But the TE, when does it expire? It has to be expiring soon so might as well use it for something! If Payton had a 2 year deal or more I could understand, but one year deal for nothing. I think it would be worth it.
How about Pike+$2M TE for GP and then we still have a shot at getting Battie for the TE left. Lakers will likely bite, because they know how good a shooter Pike was, and they need good shooters more than ever. And you know why we like that deal.
I agree. The longer we hold on to it, the harder it will be to use it. Teams are throwing ridiculous amounts of money around and might not be willing to take the TE since they would be so far over the cap it would be useless.
Can I say something, if we are not talking about MJ, SF, Shaq, KG, J-Kid...please DO NOT use Abbreviations!!!! Took me heck a while to figure out who the heck is GP!!!! yeah he was good before, but not now, so stop using abbreviations on mediocre players please.... why dont we start talking about AB, CD and RF, or maybe even PP... ohoh maybe WW
Uh...GP is actually a very well known nickname for Gary Payton. Hell, there are shoes called Nike GPs named for him.
