That's it, everybody. Our rebuilding phase is over. This team is set. We have arrived. We rose out of the ashes and zoomed to 54 wins, and we are now one of the elite teams in the league. This is a new phase, and all it's going to involve is some fine-tuning. It feels so good I have to pinch myself. Say good-bye to rebuilding, and hello to the playoffs. Thank you, Kevin Pritchard!
The Hornets are a cautionary tale of thinking getting HCA means the rebuild is over. They were the #2 seed last year and are already on the slide a season later. We still need a better backup PF and PG in the off season IMHO.
Can't see that happening with Portland. They're simply too stocked, with too many young players still on the rise.
It's been nearly a decade since we've been respectable. Now, all we need to do is tweak the roster a tad.
New Orleans is pretty seriously devoid of any depth outside of Paul and West, so i don't see a big step backward like they've had next year or in following years, but I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves saying "the roster is set." The playoffs are where you find out who you really are: where you are strongest, where you are weakest, etc. Make no mistake, playing the same team night after night (especially a defensive minded squad like Houston) will reveal flaws in your roster that regular season games just don't. This is why getting to the playoffs (win or lose) was so crucial this season, KP has some big decisions to make about where to consolidate this roster and what weaknesses will need addressed in the off-season.
No trades! We can win with this bunch. We have stars, role players, big men, shooters, defenders, depth at every position. Shaq knows a little about winning championships and he says we need to add nothing, that we already have it. I agree.
I'll say it again. We may have to do some tweaking, but the rebuilding phase is over. It worked!! We're a quality NBA team again.
That's not how it works. We have too many players on their rookie scale deal and not all can be retained ... even with Paul's deep pockets -- some/alot of these guys are NOT going to be satisfied playing 12-10th man and making 1-2 million a year when they know they have enough talent to play more minutes and make more money somewhere else (I don't care how successful the team is). Add Martell back into the mix and an already crowded roster gets even tighter in the battle for minutes. You really think Bayless is going to be happy rotting at the end of the bench for another year? How about Channing or Martell. Maybe Sergio and Nicolas will be cool with demotions to the 3rd spot on the depth chart? Ideally we should probably have about an 8-9 man rotation heading into next season with the balance of the roster rounded out with veteran role players and some late first round or second round draft picks for emergency depth, especially as LaMarcus, Brandon and Oden come up on big extensions. Say it with me Kingspeed: C-O-N-S-O-L-I-D-A-T-I-O-N
That's the mistake every other team makes. We have guys who have bought into the team concept. KP has been very careful to avoid getting anyone who won't. If a couple of fringe guys we barely use anyway can't outplay those ahead of them and have a problem with limited PT, then they'll be gone ala JJ. If it motivates them to become better players than the guys in front of them then they will get the PT they crave. I think Channing will be fine with limited minutes and some rings to wear. Jerryd, maybe not, but that's his loss if not. He can play more minutes on some team we beat every time we meet, and get no rings. Until someone goes down hurt, there's not going to be big minutes for those guys unless/until they get a lot more consistent. BAKE IT!
KP comes from the San Antonio school, and this is the model: get about 80% of your production out of 20% of your roster and fill the holes with a mix of veterans and youth. I know some people around here don't want to hear it, but it would be monstrously foolish to try and keep everyone, not just from a chemistry perspective (I don't care how good these guys are character-wise, they all want a chance to play and a chance to earn a living) but it would also cost upwards of 100 million+ a year to keep it all together and with the team still operating in the red and Paul Allen about 30% poorer today than he was six months ago. Let's assume Roy, Aldridge and Oden are the core and guys like Joel, Rudy, Travis and Batum are the second tier of guys you'd like to keep around. The first 3 are going to be max contract guys (or very close to it), the second group are all probably worth around the MLE (maybe a little more depending on the player) on the open market when their contracts come up, totaling around 75-80 million right there ... and you still have the point guard position to fill and no clear long term starter has yet emerged from the pack of three you've got on your current roster. I'm not trying to be a downer, but you've got your head in the clouds if you think A) this roster is going to remain as-is, and B) there aren't any holes left to fill.
Uh-huh. Let's see how this roster performs in the "2nd season", before we succumb to hubris. I'll go on record now as predicting that we get out-played at the SF and PG positions. If we lose anyone out of Joel/Oden/LMA, and have to play Frye significant minutes, we will get embarassed. Batum may fix the SF problem as early as next season....but the other 2 problems aren't going to go away until we make changes.
