As I watched the season and as the playoffs have unfolded, i see a slight flaw with the Batum / Wesley tandem. 1st off I think Wes would best be used as a 3D guy, a guy who focuses on defense and on offense is used to hit the open 3. Nic has the ability to be a much more potent offensive player than he is, without sacrificing his defensive focus. As it is Nic is too passive on offense which forces Wes to have to be more aggressive offensively. It causes our team to suffer on both ends of the floor IMO. I really like both players and both are glue guys. I am not sure what the solution is. We could just live with it, we could trade Nic for a more aggressive offensive player, or trade Wes for a more effective scoring sg. I will let Neil worry about it this summer, for now lets win the game tonight!
I do believe in improving the team, but can we really improve the team by taking away these two players. Would Lamarcus and Damien resign without them? This team has to sacrifice stats and money to stay together.
I'd like to see the same starting five next year, just with a better bench and another year of experience behind them.
If we didn't get out of the first round, I would have advocated a trade. Now, not so much. Guys like Igoudala and DeRozan would have been preferred. Guys along that train of thought.
Outside of LeBron all of the wings in the league have faults. Even the MVP Durant has poor shot selection, doesn't move the ball to open teammates when he is doubled, and is a lazy defender. Nic and Wes are significantly better then the average starter at their position. If you disagree then name 30 wings in the league who you'd prefer. Good luck. If we could somehow add a stud SF we could move Batum to SG but we'd still need a bench player and Matthews would be awesome in that role. Wes and Nic are worth more to us than to another team. The years of chemistry they have with Aldridge can't ever be matched by a new player, so I want to see them stay here for a while.
With a better bench, I think they can just as much if not more than than the 03 Piston team. The team has chemistry and if you get greedy and say we need to get better here. There is no certainty what the result of the chemistry would be.
I was thinking about this throughout the season, especially the lulls. Again, tonight, with it becoming apparent the Blazers weren't going any further, it came to mind again. I'm just going to throw out a hypothetical. I know the odds of doing it might be none, but just give this a thought. If you could trade some package of Batum, Wes and Lopez for Noah and spare parts, would you? I love this team and it's chemistry, but I also am not sure how much more upside there is as currently constructed. You have two star players. Would you deal two fan favorites for another star? If that deal became possible, I probably would do it. First, one of the issues I've noticed is, as good as Lopez is at offensive rebounding and protecting the rim, we have a problem defending the pick and roll and often leave opposing guards with wide open jumpers. Noah is better able to defend that while doing the things Lopez does well and he's also an excellent passer, which would ease the loss of Batum. The other thing, and I think it's been proven over the last 30 years or so, is, if you can get a third star, you can find ways to fill in the blanks. Decent vets will come at discount prices to play for a ring. I think LA and Lillard would stay if they had a third star. And, again, as much as I like Wes, Batum and Lopez, their on-court contributions can be more easily filled than the lack of a third star player. For instance, you could sign Luol Deng to step into the opening at the 3 potentially, so you have Lillard, Deng, LA and Noah in your starting lineup and just need to find a two-guard ... in that lineup, someone who can make open 3s and defend would be adequate. Again, just throwing it out there for consideration.
I think he sort of is who is at this point. So in short I'm not advocating wholesale changes to the roster, but this team probably has to do more than just add a backup 2/3 with a scorers mentality. My gut tells me that this team probably needs a two guard to start who isn't quite as limited as Wesley, who can handle the ball a little bit, shoot well and play more effective defense - in other words: some guy we can't afford.
This starting five isn't as good as that Pistons starting five, especially when you factor in defense. Wesley and Robin have limitations that are purely athletic and not something that can be "fixed." Lillard sort of reminds of Chauncey minus the defense and LaMarcus is like a more offensive minded version of 'Sheed, but not nearly the passer or defender he was on that championship team. It's not just a simple matter of plugging in a couple of middling bench players, they're close, but there's something missing from the starting five if their goal really is a championship.
Right now, I don't think either will improve a ton from this point. However, I think the most valuable thing about them is that they can switch on D so well and both offer such different defensive styles. Batum being the finesse gangly guy that bothers people w/length and Wes being physical. Having two complimentary defenders is a great luxury to have. I really would like to see our starters stick together and get a chance to grow a little more. I think a lot of our starters, while playing heavy minutes, what is overlooked is how much they have to do in their minutes on the floor. With a real PG on the roster, that can play next to Dame, his minutes aren't as strenuous. He could also feed Lamarcus and make his minutes a little lighter (doesn't need to create as much). With any decent scorers off the bench there is less of a strain on guys like Wes and Batum to be scorers off the bench and do so much. With a great defender off the bench neither need to carry the team on defense the whole time either.
Yeah, what's missing is rest. Because we don't have a bench and they had to play all the time. I think the starting five complement each other well and overall had a great year. It's bench, bench, bench. At the beginning of the year when we always had two bigs on the court I thought it really helped LA. After Joel went down that all went to shit because TRob is a PF and Meyers sucks. Number one goal this offseason should be to sign a quality backup center and hopefully keep Freeland and TRob as well. Mo will opt out and we'll need CJ or Barton to step up. I'm still very high on CJ and look forward to seeing him have a healthy training camp and preseason.
What we need, barring a good FA signing or trade, is for Stotts to play TRob, Freeland, Barton and CJ consistent minutes all season next year so they will be ready to contribute in the playoffs, even if it costs us some regular season wins. I don't think Stotts has the cajones, but maybe he'll surprise me.
I don't see how you improve off of Mathews or Batum unless it's a player you already have. Past GMs and Oshey traded away every conceivable first and second round pick for the near future and Barton and CJ deserve some of the playing time. If I would like to see anything its a defensive presence at PF/C and a pure point guard to open up Lillard's game.
