Nate is wearing him out, and you can't blame him too much. If we want Roy to have a long career than we need a vet scoring presence to take some pressure off of him. Yes, Rudy is a great, but he is still a rookie. Marty and Trav are great when on, but still inconsistent. Bayless could be that relief, but Nate won't play him and I am not fond of how he is being used when he is in. We have NO backup 4...Channing is the invisible man right now. We will not sign a free agent unless it is Kobe, but that has about a 5% chance of happening. We don't get contracts like the RLEC, we need to make something happen. This is not a knee jerk reaction or a push to get a better payoff seed. We need to take some pressure off of our dynamic duo. His contract sucks, but I'd love Antwan Jamison. It is not possible, but Rasheed Wallace would be such a great addition, but our fickle casual fan base would have a hippie uproar. Anyone else got any ideas?
He has LaMarcus. Sadly, that's all he has. And our other guards are pretty incompetent at giving the ball to LA.
I still say Nash. I don't care if his legs fall off next Christmas...the year playing with a veteran, stud playmaking PG would do this team wonders.
The help is actually pretty available it just needs to be utilized more. Cutters down the middle and backdoor cuts would get us a crazy amount of easy buckets. We hardly ever (if at all) run those plays though and depend on iso plays and contested jumpers. Since Brandon is easily the best at using the iso Nate runs him ragged on the play and we have to depend on it.
I think we already passed on 3 players who could have really helped. JRich just had 21 points tonight in a win over Orlando tonight. We've stood pat while Denver landed Billups and now has passed us by in the division standings. We didn't land Al Harrington who's absolutely been on fire since traded to the Knicks (38 points the other night). In terms of the names that are still available (according to rumors), I'd like to see Gerald Wallace, Shawn Marion or Raymond Felton on this squad. Not amazing names, but upgrades.
It seems daily I think more about good trade fits... My circle-of-non-homeristic-hope is starting to get a little smaller: (does not include LBJ, Bosh, etc.) Ranked how much I think they'd help us/ease of trade. In: Nash Welcome to the party: Redd, Butler On the cusp: Conley (if cheap), Kirilenko Last men out: Wallace, Battier Out: Kidd Not with a 10-foot pole: Bibby, Amare This changes daily as I watch more games.
Speaking of Felton, this is the first time I've seen Portland mentioned as a destination for him. ESPN Weekend Dime http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-081213-14 Sources say Charlotte remains highly confident that it can follow up the Richardson deal by finding a taker for versatile swingman Gerald Wallace, despite the prospect of three seasons at $9.5 million each left on Wallace's contract beyond this season. It's believed that teams interested in trying to pry Raymond Felton away from the Bobcats instead of Wallace -- Portland has been mentioned -- have to be willing to take back mothballed center Nazr Mohammed (owed a combined $13.4 million in 2009-2010 and 2010-11) thanks to Felton's improvement since being moved to shooting guard alongside rookie point guard D.J. Augustin. One source close to the situation said that new Bobcats coach Larry Brown had already been grinding on vets such as Richardson and Wallace, which has apparently fed into Brown's famed penchant for wanting to make changes.
LMA is great and still improving, but if these last 3 games tell us anything its that we do shitty when we have to put all our eggs in the Roy/Aldridge basket. We lack a defensive presence (G Wallace I see you baby!) and someone to be able to score. It may be a moot point if Nate doesn't know how to run an offense.
We don't need help. This is a good, deep team. We're not going to win the title this year, but that was NEVER going to happen, anyway. We need to just keep going the way we've been going and hope that we can stay healthy and keep improving... we'll do fine this year and better-than-fine into the future. Ed O.
Felton ... I ... Uhhh ... mmmm. I can't say that I've ever been a fan; he's not really a point guard and doesn't play very good defense, but I guess I can see how he could (sort of) work playing alongside of Brandon and our other guards. But, if I had to pick between he and Wallace I'd take Crash every day, all day and twice on Sundays. ... Felton? Really?
I think we need a good perimeter defender better than anything- which is why I'm willing to wait to see how Bayless pans out and how Batum/Webster develop. Next year- two free agents we can look at include Artest and Bibby (to hold the fort while Bayless develops)
Artest and Iverson are the only two 2009 free agents I don't want to see on this team. I still think Shawn Marion, Gerald Wallace or Corey Maggette are more likely. BTW Maggette is one of 90 NBA players that becomes eligible to be traded this Monday.
It's a good, not great, team. We are deep at SG and C with starting quality players. We are deep at PG and SF with bench quality players. We are thin at PF right about now. So never make a trade unless you expect to win a title? I don't buy that. If you are waiting for TO and Sergio to lead you to promised land, you will be waiting until the end of time.
I doubt he would accept a short-term deal. He, like Iverson, is going into his final big contract of his career. He's going to the team that offers him the most money for the longest length. It's more his personality than this on-court play that worries me.
