Thoughts on Greivis Vasquez?

Lin and Asik for Vasquez and Ryan Andersen

Decent PG and a Stretch 4

 

Asik and Davis are kind of redundant.

 

They're not going to take Lin and his much higher salary for basically the same production.

 

How you gonna fit Smith with Howard if you take Anderson?. Tell you the truth I like this packiage a lot better then Smith.

 

Yes, but they've been looking to play Davis at the 4 so lopez can play alongside him more.

 

Good player. Probably a bit undervalued. Big, skilled.

 

I totally forgot they have Jrue Holliday now.

 

We would have to give up something in order to get Vasquez. His contract is so cheap compared to Lin's.

 

The only thing that sticks out with me are his assist numbers. Other than that his numbers show he's pretty much a carbon copy of Lin but he turns it over even more and gets less steals.

 

Vasquez is exactly the kind of PG Morey would need on the other side of the deal if he's going to actually flip Lin. A cheap yet proven NBA starting PG.

Problem is it seems very unlikely you'd be able to convince New Orleans to do the trade while still clearing cap space. You'd probably need a 3rd team that wants Lin and has something to offer NO.

 

Vasquez is about the same as Lin offensively last year (but is a couple years older , also note, both him and LIn's offensive efficiency was way better than Jrue Holiday.)

however, his defensive number is utterly horrific, it's not just things like DrTG (where he scored a Nashian 0.7 ) it's actual on / off reflection too , the Pelicans already were terrible defensively last year (28th in defensive efficiency) and even in this context he managed the amazing feat of making them 4 points worse when he was on the floor (the Pelicans gave up 110 per 100 overall, 108 without him on the floor, 112 with him on the floor.)

Lin was sort of neutral defensively, maybe even a slight positive if you account that Beverley was a big plus defender. he has flaws defensively but that he gets a ton of steals makes up for a lot of it.


Offensively, Vasquez isn't a great shooter either, he's more of a passer than Lin, being very tall for the position he sees the floor well, but his passing rating doesn't really come out better than Lin either in 82games.

What Lin does a lot better than him is attacking the Rim, despite being tall, Vasquez suck at getting to and finishing at the rim, and thus also draws very few fouls.

In short, Lin's a better player in most likelihood, Vas seems like a solid backup PG though.

(also, this backup PG lead the league in assist, which should tell you how pointless that stat is in regards to actually scoring and winning basketball games.)

 

I think the not finishing game thing is made out to be more than an actual thing, you see Vogle and even Popovich finishing without Duncan / Hibbert in the game of their lives , if anyone draws the conclusion that imply Pop doesn't trust Duncan. or Duncan is finished they obviously will be laughed out of town and should just be permanently banned from talking basketball anyway. But With Lin it's somehow a thing when you get crazies on both end (one side claiming it's a conspiracy and the other claiming it's a sign of lack of ability) .

In short though, Lin didn't show enough defense ability (especially compared to Beverley in short spurts) and a relatively shaky (though improved) handle , which was the main reason we saw a bit of that, which is why I generally advocate that he needs to work on his handle more than anything this off season.

However, Vasquez is the exact same thing, only worse , his handle is roughly as bad. and if Lin wasn't a defensive wiz he sure looks like one relative to Vasquez.

At the end of the day, folks need to realize that at least 20 out of the 30 starting PG in this league all show varying degree of flaws often no less dramatic than Lin, and most ends up being paid around that figure once they get past their rookie deal anyway. Beverley has one major skill on him but generally lack what you would typically describe as basic core starting PG skills.