Personally I think Sura, Wesley and James all are scapegoated much too much around here. Barry is the only guard who seems to have a free pass, and he made one of the dumbest passes of the playoffs (the behind the back one that was knocked a way and cost us an easy layup). Still, it was just 1 play, Barry had a hell of a run for us. So much seems to be forgotten of how much better we played with each of them on the floor, and overestimate how one series where they had to play three positions shows about them. I also agree with the premise JH going down was the key blow. I said after the MT trade if JH went down we were cooked, we were cooked the day his heart thing was announced. Getting by the Mavs would not have covered this up. Nonetheless, I probably think only 3 of the 4 vets (Sura, Wesley, James, Barry) returns. I also think DS would be a great asset (instead of Wesley or James in a S&T, or if a FA than Barry does not come back). Reasons discussed in other threads, I think DS just brings more overall than anyone except possibly Sura. I would like to see Sura play a lot more SG, or even SF, than PG.
i had know idea you were so close with the portland fans. you talk like he has no defense at all. whats your solution for the money we have?
I would like to get a attck the basket guy like G.Wallace or Patterson. Ideally , i would love to play harrington at the 3 and move Tracy back to the 2.
I talked to portland fans on realgm. My solution is this. Sign Deke to the LLE. Alot of people are forgetting we dont have his bird rights, so we cant go over the cap to sign. Sign Barry to the minimum. Start the season. After we start the season, see what our weaknesses are. Use our expiring contracts to get us another player or two according to what our weaknesses are. It would be ignorant to just bring players in that might not be needed. I really dont think we need mouse on this team.. At or before the deadline, those expiring will be worth way more than they are now. Look at Baron Davis, Vince Carter. We could grab somebody who is way more effective than Damon Stoudamire.. Tell me what is wrong with that plan????
not a damned thing. i have to agree there. thats a pretty good plan. it would be better to wait and see who we can get later.
Thank you. When ever in question ask this " What would the Spurs do".. I do it and it works everytime..
We're still top defensive team with Stoudamire. Sweet - is Tracy going to start scoring 60 a game? Career 6.6 APG ~ 8.7 per game when he played with Tracy. Link? The only thing that is obvious is the fact you don't like him ~ your arguments against him are opinionated and weak. ________ Stoudamire would make a fine addition to this team.
Why don't we have Deke's bird rights? He was traded to us, therefor, his bird rights goes along with his contract. Chicago doesn't have his bird rights. The Rockets do. Somebody enlighten me if I'm mistaken.
We might still be a top defensive team with Stoudamire. He will be the weak link. I'm not going to sugarcoat it like you are just because McGrady likes him. Stouds defense sucks. His nonexistent defense will hurt our team. BTW Stoud hardly played with McGrady and 99% of those assist werent to McGrady. So whats your plan? Bring in Stoudamire, forget about Deke, not sign Barry, and let Damon lead us to the championship. If we get Stoudamire, you can kiss Jon Barry good bye. I dont see how that does the Rockets any good. Then offer a vets min to Deke and hope he accepts it. I think Deke and Barry are going to help this team 100 times more than Stoud. Do you disagree with my plan?
I think the whole "Player X will be a defensive liability" arguement holds little water. We heard the same thing about Steve Francis, T-Mac, Bob Sura, Juwan Howard, or anyone else. JVG has proven that he can mold any set players to a top flight defensive team. And yeah I was always under the impression that we owned Deke's early bird rights .. anyone care to elaborate on this?
Early Bird Rights. Means we have an exception to sign him for 175% of last year's salary (Which is too much, around $7.53 million)
No, since he was bought out by New Jersey, he signed with New York for the 03-04 season. Then he played with us for the 04-05 season. That's only 2 years since changing teams as a free agent. For full Bird Rights, it has to be 3 years. Since it was just 2, it means Early Bird rights.
But this number wouldn't count against the cap correct? And we dont HAVE to escalate his salary. I always thought that the 175% escalation was to keep teams from signing a FA for one year, then re-signing him for an obscene amount of money the year after. I'm admittedly not a cap expert however.
dont make stuff up and expect me to believe it. i use my head and knowledge of the game to make my opinions, something you should try..
In the regular season it works, in the postseason it wont.. if that was the case we would have won last years playoffs.. Damons defense will get exposed in the playoffs.. It happens all the time with players.
OK, I get it. Stand pat, hope and pray we get the right player at the trade deadline. How many times in the past have a Baron Davis and Vince Carter been stolen at the trade deadline? Waiting for something like that to happen is like playing the lottery. If that isn't "ignorant", what is? Oh I see, some team out there is just waiting to give us the final piece to our puzzle in exchange for expiring contracts. I almost forgot, we will be the only team with expiring contracts to deal near the trade deadline. While we have the chance, we must try to put the best team we can on the floor. Hoping and praying we can find our starting PG at the trade deadline is the lamest thing you've said so far. This is quite a reach and is why your plan is flawed. Who said forget about Deke and don't sign Jon Barry? Nobody! Every post about Deke has been positive and the team wants both him and DS. Therefore, I doubt there is a problem with signing both. Barry has indicated the vet minimum may not be enough to bring him back. Nobody said DS would lead us to the championship. You are taking statements and stretching them beyond their meaning to the extreme. Some of us want him because he fits a needed role on the team. Is that hard to understand? T-Mac and Yao will lead the team to a championship and the other players will follow their lead. You obviously have a lot of very negative feelings about DS, which is your privilege. But that is driving your point more than logic, IMO.
Then your logic is flawed. We lost in the playoffs last year due to the inability to defend opposing guards. I'm not saying Damon is the answer to stop opposing PGs, but your boy Sura surely isn't. Damon should surely do much better at keeping Jason Terry in front of him, but to Sura's credit he was playing hurt.
Deke wants 3 mil a year. I remember reading that somewhere. Ill look for the link. If we offer him the LLE I am sure he will except.. Before we go offering somebody else the LLE, we kinda need to make sure Deke will sign for the minimum. As for Jon Barry, they wont bring him in because of the guard glut. If we add one more to that, it wont happen. His contract will be in the luxury tax. Your acting like making moves before or at the deadline is hard. In no way am I saying we will hit the lotto and get a Vince Carter or Baron Davis type of player. Personally I think we have enough stars on this team. There are other players that were traded like Arroyo, Wesley, Jim Jackson and to think that wont happen this year is ignorant.. Trades happen every year at the deadline and teams will be looking to get under the cap by trading for expirings. And the fact is if Damon had all these great qualities ya'll are expressing other teams would be trying to sign him and he would be looking for WAY more than the LLE. Damon is a shoot first PG, undersized, plays little defense, he has constant run ins with the law, he is partly responsible for the bad image of the Jailblazers, and IMO one of the cancers in the league. You might call those opinionated but I consider them facts.
Your logic sure doesnt look right.. He made 20/33 3 pointers He made 17/42 fg inside of three point land on a WAY worse average. This tells me he was more successful shooting 3's. Tell me how Sura had trouble with his penetration? The actual problem was stackhouse posting up wesley and yao having to guard howard, all because juwan was injured.
