Can someone help me understand this deal? NO has a relatively dominant big man with lots of toughness and who works well with Chris Paul. They want to trade him (a true center) for a 3/4 tweener who has a similar game to David West and has had chemistry issues in the past. I hope it happens because I think it will accelerate our passing of NO as one of the teams of the future. Anyone want to argue why this makes sense for NO?
That would be stupid for the Hornets... Chandler has been great for them (when healthy). Maybe his injury is more serious than we thought? I'm having a hard time understanding that one.
I don't know. Maybe they like one of the free agents this summer and would really like to go after them. Or they feel Paul-to-Marion alley-oops would catch on. Hilton has been playing well for them. Not as good as Tyson obviously, but decent.
He did average 12 and 12 last year, and shot 62%. That's not too bad. Marion averaged 15 and 10 last year, but is 12 and 9 this year at a position that is more commonly available. Is Hilton Armstrong supposed to be good enough to replace Chandler? He's averaging 4.5 pts and 2.6 rebounds in about 15 minutes. Double that and he is 9 and 5--that is what I would call not dominant.
Interesting. You lose defense, but gain another type of defense. Is it possible if such a deal takes place that Peja hits the road? Or does he just become depth?
Marion was fantastic when he had a true PG throwing him the ball at the places where he was comfortable hitting it. NO is one of the only teams in the league that has this kind of a PG - and as nice as Tyson is - he is not the kind of player that will get you over the hump in the playoffs if you are forced to play traditional basketball - as great as CP3 is - one would argue that a traditional half-court game does not maximize his advantages over most players in the league as small-ball fast-speed ball would. My gut feeling is that as good as CP3 and as good as NOH were last year - they still were not a true championship contender - their only option to become championship contenders with the core they currently have is to consider trying to out-do the D'Antoni Suns and force people to play fast and adjust to them. NOH is currently only slightly faster, on pace, than Portland - they are actually 28th in the league which is ridiculous when you have someone that can make decisions and control the ball as well as CP3 does. This team needs to either get a dominant big man (which is going to be really hard to do) or go on the run. Playing Marion at the 4 and West at the 5 could be the way they go faster.
I saw that as well. Chandler was injured a lot this year, and was only averaging 8 and 7 i believe... maybe they think they can get mroe production from moving Armstrong to full time center (has been there a lot recently) and that putting Marion w/ Chris Paul would be great and bring back his production from the Phoenix days? Or maybe they are looking for cap relief? Who knows... I wouldn't do it if I were NO... I think Miami wants Boozer this off-season, so don't they need Marion to expire? A frontcourt of Boozer/Chandler w/ Haslem backing them up would be very nice... then Chalmers, Wade, Beasley and James Jones off the bench?
