David Lee to Portland?

Lee is not the defensive player that Joel is, and is undersized at the C position. It worked last year because he was with the Knicks, it won't work on our team.

 

Are you baskeball challenged? Didn't you watch Channing Frye stink it up last year, basically being another outside shooter? If maybe you actually thought about your statement "He is not as good as Joel". Dude, very few people are as good as Joel defensivly. What we would be paying for is to upgrade, and stopping have to play dudes out of position.


Are you going to tell me that Lee would not be an upgrade over Frye? Or Outlaw getting thrown around like a stick man in a blender while trying to play PF int the paint?

 

Not at the contract Lee wants.

On a side note, I haven't see Lee a ton, but what I've seen, I really like. Can he be on the floor at the same time as LA and Oden/Pryz?

 

Are you telling me we are going to pay 10 million a year for someone who is going to play 12-15 minutes per game? LISTEN TO YOUR SELF.

You claim we need to stop having dudes play out of position, well guess what??!! Lee isn't a center, so if you want to try to find minutes for him, you're going to have to play him out of position. Great job.

 

Yes definitly. He is a hustle guy. He is all about garbage buckets.

 

If the Blazers are moving Joel in a package for somebody else then it starts to make a lot of sense, otherwise I just don't see the sense in signing Lee for that kind of scratch to only play 12-15 minutes a night at backup power forward. At this point I'm not sure I would just blindly assume KP has a master plan

 

Lee is a very productive player who doesn't need plays ran for him to be effective. He is a valuable asset and I'd be glad to add him to our team. He is a good teammate and won't complain about his role.

Could there be some PT issues if we add him? Sure it's possible. But if we have any injuries to a big man, which is a very plausible scenario for an extended amount of time, we can still chug along without missing a beat. If everyone is healthy, well then it's some friendly competition to see who is the most productive.

If there is a better option for cap space then sure Pritchard should consider it. But Lee may be the best asset available, adding him beats doing nothing.

 

This is what they're saying, although I wouldn't be thrilled giving all that cap away for a back up when there are two starter positions that need to be filled. Unless somehow Portland can swing a trade for both a SF and a PG, but that would cost Portland more than just a couple of pieces since we'll have to throw the lopsided contract advantage out the window with a Lee signing. Seriously, I can be happy with a more role player type back up PF through a trade.

Maybe there's a point guard effort going on in trade, but I suspect that if they're going after Lee it's because they won't make any more attempts for a SF.

 

This is all agent crap. I haven't heard ANYONE report that the Blazers are heavily pursuing him.
This is bull, we might have a bit of an interest, but we aren't seriously going after him.

 

This makes a lot of sense if Portland plans on bringing Greg off the bench and trading Joel. To be honest, while I believe Greg will some day be a good to great NBA center, maybe even an All-World talent, he isn't now. If we're looking to win now, this makes a lot of sense. Put LaMarcus at Center and David at PF.

I love Joel, but Lee is a superior player now and will be considerably better in the years to come as Joel ages.

David Lee is the best player available right now. We get him and we adjust.

 

Ugh, that is just horrid on defense.

 

Oden is already a superior player to Lee. His problem was staying on the floor. He had an 18+ PER last season, despite still recovering from injury. And he's a better defender. I have no doubt he'll be a significantly superior player to Lee next season.

Plus, Oden is a true center while Aldridge's best position is power forward. I definitely don't think that Portland should be acquiring Lee in order to bench Oden. If Portland gets Lee as "best talent available" and plans to make some trades down the line, so be it. But he should be a back-up until the front court backlog is relieved.

Also, I think Paul Milsap is the best player available now. But he creates the exact same issues.

 

Ramon Sessions, PLEASE.

Forget all this Lee talk. Portland has one of the most potent big men lineups in the league. I'd love to have a better backup PF, but our PG need is HUGE. Trout is a good contract, and so is Blake. Bayless could also go, if we got a REAL PG back (Sessions or DH).

Batum/Roy/Rudy/Webster as SFs are not superb answers - LAST YEAR. If Batum improves next year, he may be just fine.

iWatas

 

David Lee fits the team perfectly. I'd say he fits better than Joel, and that's really what we're talking about here.

Comparing Lee with other forwards and centers:

- Lee was 8th in the league in Win Shares, ahead of Lamarcus, and tied with Nene. Only Yao, Dirk, Dwight, and Pau were considerably better in this area. Timmy, Rashard, and Bosh were just a smidge ahead of him.

- Lee's PER was 19, which is 16th in the league for big men that play a large amount of minutes.

- Lee's a fantastic rebounder. His TRB% is 12th in the league for big men that play a large amount of minutes. And, he's particularly good at defensive rebounding, ranking 5th best in the league.

- Lastly, he's a reliable free-throw shooter.

 

The only reason to get Lee is to turn the cap space into a trading chip. Sign him, wait thirty days, then send him on. But the Knicks are going to try to sign-and-trade him. But then again, they don't want much back to stop the LeBron shenanigans.

What we should do is offer to take Jared Jefferies off their hands if they give us Gallinari. Then THEY can keep Lee.

 

Fascinating attempt to cherry-pick. At C one season, at PF another season.

He has an 18.5 PER for his career. Oden had an 18.1 PER last season, while recovering from surgery. So they're roughly equal in production. But Oden was the better defender. Both from observation and Defensive Rating. Lee's career DRtg is 108 (and it was 108 last season) and Oden's DRtg last season was 104.

So, in Oden's rookie season, recovering from injury, he was better when on the floor, taking into account production and defense. Lee was more valuable because he played more.

Next season, fully recovered from his surgery and with a proper off-season of conditioning, I think there's no question that Oden will be clearly better than Lee.

 

You aren't even factoring their defense. Oden is miles ahead as a defender.

 

I did mention their defense.