With all the trade rumors circulating (David Lee) I've been thinking again about many of our discussions about consolidation and addition by subtraction. It seems like we've been seeing the growing pains more and more of a team with too much young talent at multiple positions this season. We debated this over the summer and the beginning of training camp, but I think it needs to be revisited. Currently, the two positions with the biggest issues are point guard and small forward. This is no secret. We have a plethora of young talent at point guard (Bayless and Sergio) and small forward (Outlaw, Batum, Webster). Those two positions are giving us headaches on defense though, and we've seen a lack of consistency from both on offense (IE Sergio, Outlaw, and Batum). The way I see it, we need to move at least one point guard and one small forward off this team. Things are cut and dried with Roy and Rudy as the two shooting guards and with Oden and Joel as the two centers. I would love to see that kind of consistency at the point guard and small forward spots. Power forward could stand to be upgraded at the backup spot as well. Let's look at our young talent to figure out who would be the best candidates to be moved: Bayless Extremely talented young player. Not really a pure point guard, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Blake isn't a pure point guard either, and he plays the best basketball with Roy atm. Bayless would have more value than Sergio, however, if we chose to move one of them. Sergio Also talented, but not the physical specimen that Bayless is. Better passer. I value Sergio more for his relationship with Rudy than his actual overall talent. I'm very curious about what kind of effect trading Sergio would have on Rudy. On the one hand, it might be bad if he lost his best friend on the team, but on the other Sergio could be extremely cancerous if he were to see his playing time dwindle. I'm on the fence here. Batum I love this kid's defense. His offense is still kind of rough and I wish he would attack the rim more. He has really good athleticism and he could easily fill a boxscore if he played more minutes. I just think this kid needs time and he could easily be our small forward of the future. He has a nice stroke too. I think he's the complete package and I would hate to see him traded. He's one of the few guys I would put down as close to untouchable. Outlaw I'd say right now Travis is one of the leading candidates (at least on this board anyway) to be traded. We love him when he's on, but we hate him when he's off. He's extremely inconsistent in virtually every facet of his game. He has the ability to play small forward and power forward, but he's a very poor rebounder so his ability to play both positions is somewhat moot. He can play decent defense, but he's prone to mental lapses, especially when he's guarding three point shooters. Even though he can take and make big time shots, he's also the guy who will make the dumb pass or leave Ray Allen open for a three to win the game. I think he is one guy who needs to be moved. Webster We haven't seen much from this kid yet, especially since his season has yet to start with all his injuries. I have always been enticed by Martell because of his athleticism and his ability to shoot the ball. One thing that's really nice about having Webster on the team is that he can swing between the shooting guard spot and the small forward position, which would have really made things easier with Roy out. This is something Travis can not do. I'm worried we're seeing a trend with his feet though. If the right trade came along for Martell I would definitely consider it. Right now, I'd say the only one of those five who I would say is close to untouchable is Batum. I think if we added a veteran player at the point guard spot and the small forward spot, we're a serious contender. It would also clear things up considerably in our rotation. Here are my proposals Caron Butler http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...17~2750~2015~1705&teams=27~27~27~22&te=&cash= Hinrich and Gooden http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...=1994~454~1711~1981&teams=4~4~22~22&te=&cash= Our rotation looks like this: Hinrich/Sergio Roy/Rudy Butler/Webster/Batum Aldridge/Gooden/Frye Oden/Przybilla We lose Outlaw, Blake, and Bayless. We gain clarity at the point guard with Hinrich as the present and Sergio as the future. We still have a bit of a logjam at small forward, but this gives Batum some more time to develop, with Butler as the clear starter and Webster backing him up. Webster sticks around because he can swing to the shooting guard spot if either Roy and Rudy goes down. We add Gooden as the physical rebounder at the backup four spot too. Anyway, just my two cents
one thing that i realized is that we can trade for a high salary player in his 30's ala jamison, and in a couple years, we would have HIS salary as a large expiring. wash and repeat.
