I thought that AFTER Bosh snubbed us... We've done well. Avoiding the Parsons contract may not have been the best move for my heart but it was the best move for the team. Ariza at 8mil a year is a superb get. I think the starting 5 is close to what we had last year. The bench: Look, so far we're really missing Lin. We don't have that second playmaker and inconsistent as he was, he still got us a few wins. Aside from that, I really like the bench and value Morey's got them for. Daniels, Johnson are definitely upgrades on Jordan Hamilton and Garcia. Power forward was what it was plus some muscle and D in Adrien and Capella's an intriguing prospect. DMo (I'm a fanboy.) will improve I believe. And finally Dorsey. Look, he's no Asik but were you really expecting to have an Asik quality player on your bench? If anything Dorsey is the best Asik money you can get for that money. Add Papa potentially and I def think we have a shot at being better next post season. That's not taking into account the potential moves Morey will make from now to then.
So far we still have a worse roster than last season - maybe even significantly worse. I know we pretty much had to get rid of Lin and Asik - and we got some nice assets in return for Asik. But he still was the best backup center in the league and gave us 48 minutes of elite rim protection and rebounding. Dorsey? I don't know how much better he got, but I don't expect more than a hard working guy that is struggling with much taller opponents. Best case Chuck Hayes. A significant downgrade at backup C. Lin? He was inconsistent as hell, but he was our scoring threat of the bench as well as our second playmaker on the team. Right now we have neither of that on the team. And Canaan and Johnson are both young and unproven. Ariza? Nice replacement for Parsons. Better defense, worse at playmaking. Great fit next to Harden and Howard, but not one to pick up the slack when Harden has an off night or even is injured. Papa... looks like a good player, but hard to judge those euros. Basically we went from a team with one big weakness (no PF who effectively could defend the 4 and stretch the field) to a team with two big weaknesses (no playmaking asside from Harden plus the PF thing) and some minor ones (huge question marks at backup C and backup PG). If that is all we get this offseason, we are betting on a whole lot of unknowns (Dorsey, Papa..., Johnson, DMo). I could very well see us dropping to the 6-8 spot in the west. We desperately need at least one more real player (either a playmaker like Stephenson or a PF like Millsap).
Agreed. All sounds v sensible. The team as it stands is weaker on paper than it was last season. Maybe the coach can make the team greater than the sum of its parts. But not McHale :-(
Our pickups so far are mostly marginal role players who may or may not be part of the rotation. Hopefully one or two will have a breakout year, but you can't count on that happening. We have severely downgraded from one of the best second units on paper last year. A backup unit of, say, Canaan, Daniel, DMo and Dorsey will not strike fear in the hearts of opposing teams. The best pickup is Ariza, who is as good a stopgap measure for the SF void left by Parsons that we could've hope for, but we're still left with a HUGE question mark at the 4 spot. Relying on DMo or Jones to suddenly take a giant step forward in their development is a dangerous strategy IMO. But until Morey surprises us with another move, that's where we are.
Excellent post, but a note on Dorsey: He's nothing like Smith. Smith was an incredibly efficient post scorer, Dorsey has no post-game. Smith was lost defensively, Dorsey has been great at anchoring defenses over in Europe. He still has only shined for one year over there and that was 3 years ago while playing in an excellent system. Think of him as Howard except not even half as good. He's strong, athletic and undersized, can set picks, finish oops and get some point through bullying the opponent (which he won't be able to do in the NBA) and his defense is rugged and mostly reliable (but not as much in the NBA). It remains to be seen how he'll adjust after the overseas experience, but again, nothing like Juju.
if we can sign kyron papakacairboukasasaks? then i would be happier. i think i'll just call him papa or K-pop. Overall slightly better on D, but will these newly acquired play enough to make a big difference?
Seriously, after a few days, I'm actually happy Parsons is gone. Realistically, we could've done a lot worse for Asik so I'm happy about that too. Our draft was never in question, we did well. Troy Daniels, best signing so far and glad he didn't leave us for greener pastures. The Lin deal is pretty bad, giving up a first round pick and leaving us with Canaan and Nick Johnson? Only if we still make a move before the season starts for a great back-up, the PG position is very weak. Beverley is okay, but not that great at distributing and shooting is inconsistent. I'm not mad about it, because every game became a discussion about Jeremy and he was wildly inconsistent and I wanted him gone as fast as anyone but for the right price. Ariza is a very solid deal but since there are and were better players to be had for around that price, I'm torn on if I like it or not. Combine that with bringing in Dorsey on a guaranteed contract and still no veterans signed, who could be had for the same price or similar, it's pretty underwelming to say the least. In the end I am more mad that for the first time with Morey, I feel like he went about all of this the wrong way and is more worried about money than negotiating with potential role players. The non-signings piss me off more than the deal he has made. We'll see what he can do this year, but I doubt we'll be better at the end of the season.
It's actually worse than that. According to this, http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/140713jeremylin, it is a first AND second round pick. Bosh really screwed us.
