[The Star-Ledger]Houston has a surplus of PFs, all are underachieving and overpaid

Nets' GM now thinking much bigger
Sunday, December 19, 2004
BY DAVE D'ALESSANDRO
Star-Ledger Staff
TORONTO -- All Rod Thorn did was make his own job much harder, and he knows it.

The Nets president, who turned the league on its ear Friday by acquiring Vince Carter for three frontcourt players, is likely to spend the next few days attached to a phone. That is the price you pay for your own ingenuity, and the price you pay for plugging one hole and creating two.

"We have a size issue," Thorn said yesterday, "so the first thing we'll do is activate Jabari (Smith, currently disabled) Monday, and then we'll look and see what might be available to us."

He's preparing himself for a long, tedious and possibly futile look-see.

The first call Thorn makes will be to Dwight Manley, the agent for Karl Malone, just in case the future Hall of Famer has changed his mind about living in a place without cows and hogs in the immediate vicinity.

"I still don't think Karl is interested in playing in the East, unless it is Miami -- just from reports we've had from people," Thorn said. "But I'll have a conversation with Dwight Manley."

One possible long-term solution may be Philly's Sam Dalembert, who hasn't exactly hit it off with coach Jim O'Brien, though he is playing again. The former Seton Haller was asking for a massive contract (in the $70 million range) in August, only to find himself on the bench in October and out of the rotation in November. The Sixers have more than their share of huge contracts and may not have the appetite to add another.

Anyway, after Billy King says Dalembert isn't available for anything Thorn has to offer, he can always ask about Brian Skinner (first year of a four-year, $16 million deal) or Kenny Thomas, who are both attainable but overpriced.

A one-year stopgap target is Golden State's Clifford Robinson, whose expiring salary ($5.3 million) would be a match for the Nets' trade exception. At 37, he is no longer going to put up big numbers, but he remains one of the most underrated defensive players in the league.

Houston has a surplus of power forwards, though all of them are underachieving and overpaid.

(Idle thought: Wouldn't Eddie Griffin look terrific right now?)

So Thorn has no good options here, even though he has some assets -- numerous mid-round draft picks, plus trade exceptions valued at $10 million and $5 million -- that other teams may want.

But even he doubts he can get a starting-quality power forward for the price of a draft pick or two.

"Probably not at this time," Thorn said. "Not for a starter, I would doubt that. We'll have to see what's available, other than a contract that you don't want."

Welcome to the GM's world: One day you hit a home run, the next day you have to hit another just to make the first one worthwhile.

The Nets -- what's left of them, anyway -- assembled at Rhodes College gymnasium in Memphis yesterday morning, where they wondered how they were going to get through the rest of this trip with eight bodies and exactly three experienced bigs (Jason Collins, Nenad Krstic, Brian Scalabrine).

"It's a legitimate question," Lawrence Frank said somberly.

"You can bring in another big body. You can bring in somebody that's 7 feet, but is he going to be able to play worth a damn?" Richard Jefferson added. "Is he really going to be able to help you? Or is he just going to add to the average height on the bench? So, it's tough. Big men are not easy to come by."

http://www.nj.com/nets/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-2/110343673948070.xml

 

seems like it is very hard for us to trade Mo and Howard!!!!