Great defense on that team. PF looks weak. I'd rather try for Okafor over Posey and that 1st needs to be unprotected.
Collison / Miller / Johnson Roy / Matthews / Williams Batum / Cunningham / Babbitt LMA / Camby / Pendergraph Oden / Okafor This is a start. Eventually Miller will not like taking a back-seat, so he gets moved (perhaps with Camby) by the trade deadline.
Collison/Roy/Batum/Aldridge/Oden + Miller/Matthews/Camby/Okafor looks like a damn good 9-man rotation to me. Also could be the most expensive 2nd unit in the league.
Miller would be the clear cut starter over Collison, but I'd wager they'd take steps to monitor his minutes and try to play him no more than around 30 per night. Ideally, if Miller is kept, you keep him around for the length of his contract, groom Collison (and Armon?) to be your eventual starter and take the cap savings when he expires. Camby isn't going anywhere this season either.
I know it seems like I'm harping on you about Bayless in every thread, but if Bayless behind Miller only gets 12 minutes a night, how much does Collison get?
Yup. Agreed. Miller should still be the starter and play the most minutes, but the depth should be leveraged to keep everyone fresh for the playoffs. And it's interesting...they want to dump Okafor so much that they (supposedly) toyed with dealing Paul. I wonder if Portland could get Collison for almost nothing (Rudy) if they took back Okafor. Portland gets a talented guard very cheaply in terms of talent and they get a good big man to boot. If Allen can bankroll it, that's free loot.
Probably about 18. I see the team looking to limit Miller's minutes somewhat and having a guy who can actually set up the offense and run a team would make it possible. I think Bayless would get about 12 (max) because the team would be forced to play Brandon at the point more when Miller sits. Edit: I should say 18 minimum, but probably closer to 22, with Miller given even more time to rest.
I question how much development Collison gets playing 18 MPG behind Miller. This guy is coming off a season where he played 28 MPG, so if we're serious about him being our PGOTF, I'd reckon we'd need to try and give him as much game experience as possible. I get the whole "mentor" thing behind Miller, but the most effective way to develop a player is still to play him, a lot. I'd rather see if we could try and hang onto Bayless and move Miller instead. I realize that may not be possible, but I don't feel comfortable giving up that much to bring in Collison, only to have him play 8th man minutes. (Because you know Andre ain't getting injured)
I like that idea a helluva lot more than taking back James Posey, that's for sure. But just how do you justify paying him 10 million+ per year to play behind LMA, Greg and Camby (because I think it's pretty clear he's the fourth best big man in that rotation)? It seems like something would have to give sooner or later (probably sooner).
You mentally separate the $10M in to $3M for our backup PF, and $7M for our Oden-injury-insurance policy.
You justify it by saying that Camby is a temp and in a season or two, you're looking at Oden/Aldridge/Okafor taking all the "large man minutes." In the short term, Oden and Camby are both injury risks and it's unlikely that everyone will stay healthy all season long. So everyone will likely get to play a significant amount.
As I understand it, the league's insurer can designate a few players each season as "uninsurable." They can only do it to something like 10 players league wide, but you would have to think Oden would be a candidate.
Joel, Rudy, Bayless and Cunningham for a a 6' 160 lb back up PG who's bio reads "perimeter shooting is a work in progress"........... Where are the homers on this thread?
I think it's too much. I would pull back Cunningham and Bayless and go for Rudy and Joel for Collison and Posey. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2675lmj --------------------- I think though they are talking about this one with Okafor though I think. And he shores up the PF/C swing man position nicely: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2ebs5ou You could then follow that up with this on September 14th: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=23zjlf4 PG: Miller/Collison/Johnson SG: Roy/Matthews/Williams SF: Batum/Butler/Babbit/Matthews PF: LMA/Okafor/Pendergraph C: Oden/Okafor/Ajinca Me likey.
Hi. I'm right here. He played behind Chris Paul, of course he'd be a back-up. He shot 40% from behind the arc, so he's progressing. (That is too much to give up IMO, just pointing out he is a solid PG)
