i agree on trading alston and keeping luther. i PRAY for alston/1strounder for haslem, but i lose sleeping if we lost luther. what user fnn describes sounds alot like what last season was like with luther. spot up 3pt shooting and speed, but not much else. he never has impressed me much with his ballhandling/court vision department, and i think the team may not allocate him the same kind of opportunities (shots, touches, mins) as last year's thin roster. james, tmac, battier, francis, novak all SHOULD be reliable 3pt threats. im not saying they all will, but they have proven capable and i think it would be reasonable to expect those spot up, and open 3pt shots to fall. you could also argue that brooks shows potential to be a shooter, though i would rather have him running and running and running and running.
I'd only trade Head if we got someone like Camby in return. Alston should be traded in a package where we give 2 or 3 players and get a decent forward with an expiring contract.
We have JL3 who will probably net us a second rounder and cash. Even though Rafer as infuriated me incessanlty on the court,he remains easily movable in a deal w/others for a nice rotation player at the minimum.Unless a big deal goes down,a 4. Any deal involving Luther COULD net us a solid starter as we could package players and/or a pick It would seem though that Luther will blossom under Adelman.Sure he can shoot lights out,but the dude was chained down by Van Gundy.Open court hoops brings out the best in Head's game....and having a lot of talent around him.He can play at a high level with the best and is clutch to boot.The guy proved it in college and we'll see it this year if we keep him.
I think head is a dime a dozen type player. He's a 2 in a 1 body without the ability to blow by bigger players or create his own shot which makes him a liability. As much as people dislike rafer, he played way better than head in the playoffs. I think with james and francis back, both are expendable. get someone likie atl to take rafer for a 2nd rd pick and take the salary. Get head traded for anything really. If you break down the roster, i cant see head getting off the bench.
Sure he had a bad playoffs,looked horrible,but it seemed like Luther was on a leash or just not being used properly as we haven't had the personnell until now to insert him into a real offense where he should be.We were shorthanded on quality depth but JVG still capped Luther as far as I'm concerned. That said,I deal him in the right trade,but the guy has value and if I don't get the right return he sticks around as far as I'm concerned. Yeah he looks like the classic tweener right now,but I see Rick fitting him into our offense pretty well sans trade.
Just being able to shoot like he does makes him invaluable on a championship contender. And while he hasn't had the best handles in the world,I see him "improving" there now as the court is opened up and he's not asked to play the 1.Head should have a long career. He might be undersized slightly at the two,but the jury is still out in my mind whether he'll be a solid rotation player or perhaps even a starter eventually somewhere,probably not here though.Luther's going to cash in on that shooting abilty over time.That alone with his athleticim assures him a spot in a somedody's rotation for a long time. I also see the argument on playing the %'s,putting him in a deal for a piece now while we make several runs,but we can always do that at the deadline while waiting to see what happens with Luther this year under Rick.
Think about the future, if Bonzi and Steve leave next year, we will be our major researve SG, researve SF, and starting PG? And I think a Francis-Alston-Brooks PG roster is a better and safer one than Francis-James-Brooks. So I like to keep both of them. But if we can get a STARTING PF out of them, I have no problem to trade both of them. If we only trade them for cap-relief, I'd rather trade James.
that's absolutely ridiculous. don't mask luther's obvious shortcomings by blaming them on van gundy. that's like saying matt bullard wasn't more of a slasher because rudy t had hakeem clogging the lane. i'd rather keep head(barely) because up until the playoffs he was a fantastic shooter and he's younger and cheaper than rafer. i think we can comfortably trade both but we HAVE to trade one of em. these guys can talk all they want about chemistry and just wanting to win, but they're professional athletes and egos are going to get in the way if the backcourt remains exactly like it is. there needs to be some relief.
trade rafer. keep luther. luther is more clutch. i know he didnt do well in the playoffs but 44% from the 3 pt line is very good
If it's to get someone like Haslem, then trade both but if it had to be one or the other on someone not worth both, I would trade Rafer because Head gives a threat from behind the arc.
player apologists cant honestly evaluate a guys strengths and weaknesses. side note: it will be interesting to see how much luther improves this offseason. from his rookie year to last he really did improve a great deal when it came to ball handling and attacking the basket (relatively)...he went from horrible to just poor.
Talking about a complete contradiction. What's the use of keeping Luther if he can't be clutch, let alone perform in the playoffs?
hands are tied with Rafer so get out of his contract Luther = Chris Burke trade him there is a good trade out there for him while his value is high Snyder you keep, he will replace Bonzi next season (2008-2009) in the rotation
was it not his first playoffs? he is going into his third yr. im sure he would have done better agains gs if we got that far. he has hit many clutch shots so i think he could be valuable. by the way....in game 7 against utah....luther made 2 buckets in 15 mins. it took rafer only 45 mins to make 3 shots
