As things are, I think Mo has the edge based on whether he is completely healed and back to form. Kenny will have to raise his defense, shooting, hustle, and control over his speed yet another notch to just force Rudy's hand. The only other factor is whether Les has any expressed concerns for unloading Mo's longterm salary, as long as Kenny keeps improving. Mo does offer more flexibility in trades. There are scores of vets out there that we cannot trade for with Kenny, but we could with Mo.
Come on, HP, it's right there before us...none of our current PFs will be here...we're trading for Garnett, of course. Where's Hottoddie? We need a 4-team trade to bring us Garnett.
Dude your style is cool. Keep posting. As far as the post, I don't have an opinion, but it was just fun to read.
HP: Yes you did not speak for me. My cat does and she says " the good mice live by the garage in the old tuna can". I've convinced myself that how we use Ming and which PF works better with him (rather than who works better with the Francis perimeter game) is what will drive the decision on which to trade, together with who returns the most value. Good point, and I agree. But a lot of experts put too much strength on Francis? ?perimeter game?. I know the conception is that he is all that on the perimeter (shooting or forcing defenders out to him) but his forte is the threat of piercing the hole ? at will. The movement last year was to threat and threat and then pull up and dish to the weakside. They actually ? I know I will hear it on this ? did not necessarily want Francis to score as he did or as much as he did ? but to threat and dish, carry and pull, involve others and then just pick his spots. Our failures at that scheme came from the poor execution of our forwards to consistently get (a) the weakside offense in position at the proper moment (timing) and the ability of the opposite defense to compensate quickly (defensive anticipation) and effectively to stymie our play. And, (b) the impatience of the ball carriers who hurried (Francis), dallied (Mooch) or failed to consider secondary targets (Cuttino). You can add in the loss of our trey threat (inconsistency, poor selection, inexplicably hurried choices, injuries) to completely eliminate what was supposed to be a promising season game plan right from the get-go. That in a nutshell closed down our main thrust using the perimeter to best advantage. Complete impotence as a sustained strategy by mid season. On picks ? our soft ?blocking/sliding pick? was actually as effective as I anticipated last year. It is also is one that allowed the refs to accept as legal, mainly because there was so little contact. (Let?s face it, most of them were moving picks and therefore illegal, but the lack of contact forced the refs to all but ignore them. David Stern?s edict ? ?Let?s keep the game moving, no unnecessary stops referees? .) It can be broken by defensive contact, but may even be defended much better by ignoring it all together, but I still think we will re-use it to effectiveness this year. Totally agree that any hard picks by Ming will kill him by December. Ugh! Ugly bruising ahead if Ming is put into that position. Actually he is a fairly good student of strategy, so they say, and his picks are the non-contact/moving/sliding soft type anyway. Drawing Napkins ? the biggest fear I have with Ming is that RT will be forced to ignore Ming?s singular natural ability and start to instill Hakeemesque movements/positions in his set plays. Ming does have some legs but not nearly as dainty a footwork as Hakeem at this stage. No - IMHO, the biggest asset that Ming has over and above his height is his keen eyes and his passing reactiveness to teammates movement within a scheme. He is supposed to be a coaches dream (excuse the pun) when it comes to athletic proprioception (aware of how our body is aligned with ourselves and teammates). Kinda like the skinny little brother of Arvynas Sabonis. Sees everything and knows where everyone is. In my mind Hakeem knew what he wanted to do on the floor from Day One (U of H), and spent a lot of time concentrating on how HE would actively participate in scoring when he had the ball. A natural progression in college ball a couple of decades or so ago. But Hakeem only became aware of how he fit into the whole team after the early losses/adjustments in his second NBA year. Ming has that perceptive ability now, but lacks Hakeem?s moves (of course) or even Hakeem?s early explosiveness. Rudy hopefully will see that. Anyway cheers to all. CBFC ? Sorry I left you off my ?favs list?, you know you?re right there with the rest. LOL
This thread has been like a heroin fix to a junkie. Thanks for the info from all the contributors. I'd love to see Oielpere and Doc posts more often during this off-season. Heck, I'd like to see y'all weigh in at least once a week to keep me from withdrawals. I can not wait for this season to begin! Go Rockets!
Okay, but everyone is going to hate you for forcing me to do this. For those that can't figure it out (& there will be some), this trade proposal is just a joke. It'll never happen, because one of two things would have to happen for Minnesota to trade Garnett. Either Minnesota would have to take back a lot of scrubs & maybe, one or two star players, or some team would have to gut itself just to get him. I chose the gut the team approach in this trade. It took some time to make the deal work, so enjoy it. Houston sends Rice/Nachbar/T-Mo/Collier to Minnesota. Houston sends Cato/KT to NY. Houston sends Taylor to Orlando. Minnesota sends Garnett to Houston. Minnesota sends Marc Jackson to Orlando. Minnesota sends Szczerbiak to NY. NY sends McDyess/Kurt Thomas to Minnesota. Orlando sends Miller to Houston. Orlando sends Hunter/Sasser to Minnesota. Orlando sends DeClerq/Ewing to NY. Throw in draft picks where necessary. Oh, yeah! Trade Accepted!!! Houston's new roster would be: C: Ming/Griffin/Willis PF: Griffin/Garnett SF: Garnett/Miller SG: Mobley/Miller/Torres/Maddox PG: Francis/Moochie/Brown We'd have to pick up a few FA's just to round out the roster. Imagine if Rashard would accept the mid-level exception. Our starting 5 could be Griffin/Garnett/Lewis/Mobley/Francis, with Ming/Willis/Moochie/Torres/Miller as our only decent backups. That's a real thin team, but the starters would be hard to beat. Ahhhhh, living in a fantasy world is so exciting. You guys should come join me every once in a while.
I used Minnesota, Milwaukee, and New York to help out my BS trade for Garnett....since I know it won't happen, alas, I won't post it. Just like when I was a kid...get someone else to do my dirty work for me.
