Lets say Brandon Roy misses a huge chunk of the season with knee surgery how could Cho keep this teams Playoff hopes afloat? Wesley Matthews showed last year that he's a capable starter. As sporadic as his role has been this year it's not surprising he's looked less than impressive. With a more defined role and minutes will only do him good. What I think Cho should do is actually do something with our exp. contracts and target a PG who can shoot. I was thinking someone like Devin Harris and then I looked at his career 3pt% and it's ugly: 30%! - Monta Ellis is also a career 30% shooter from deep. PG: SG: Matthews SF: Batum PF: Aldridge C: Camby We can still be a very good team!
Yeah, that hole at point guard is a problem. If we could get a good, smart point guard, we'd still be in very solid shape. Something like this: PG: Andre Miller SG: Wes Matthews SF: Nic Batum PF: LaMarcus Aldridge C: Marcus Camby (or Greg Oden in the future) Now, don't ask me how we get an Andre Miller-caliber point guard without giving up any starters, but that's what Cho is paid for.
IMO, if we can not advance in the playoffs this season, we should deal Miller, JPEC and Camby to fill some positions, namely the positions we've needed for years...backup PF and a starting PG of the Future. Get younger (BUT WITH TALENT) and push the timetable back a bit. Merely "making" the playoffs is useless. Feed Aldridge as the primary focus offensively.
Not really. Shooting is supposed to be one of Matthew's strengths, and it's definitely one of Batum's. Two shooters in the starting lineup is plenty. Andre Miller would be the only slasher in the group, unless/until Batum becomes more regularly aggressive.
My concern isn't that we will have some guys who can start and compete. I think my biggest concerns for the team right now is depth. Right now Roy plays minutes at the 2 and 3. Batum's only backup for the most part is Mathews. So if Mathews gets switched to SG, who backs up Batum? We start heading towards that line where we really have no true backup at the 4, no true backup at the 3, and the front line starts getting smaller. As for the playoffs, I still believe the teams battling for that 7th and 8th spot aren't really scary, the playoffs are still most likely a reality for the team. Houston has been struggling. Denver just got their ass totally kicked in a way that might send them into a death spiral. Hell, at least we didn't have our best player on the floor and get 54 points dropped on us in 1 quarter by Indianapolis of all teams.
Cunningham is a perfectly serviceable backup, who could swing between the 3/4 (yes, the dreaded 'tweener, but a 'tweener is not a big deal for a reserve, since you're mixing and matching so much anyway). Sure, losing the team's two best players (Roy and Oden) and a good player (Przybilla) weakens the depth, but it's not a disaster situation on the bench, IMO.
That would never happen, Portland would never trade him for our expiring contracts, he's too valuable to them with Roy looking hobbled. I suppose they might think about it if we offered to do a one-for-one swap of Dre' for Andre, but that seems like kind of a lateral move at best.
Talk about the perfect team for Miller to be PG on. What is it with the shooter thing with fans.... Rudy off the bench, or starting, we are fine with one of the smartest playmakers in the game running the show. Aldridge, Batum, Matthews and Rudy are all shooters. That's plenty.
I think we're fine at guard. (Well, could be better, but still better than a lot of teams.) Where we're thin is up front. I want Przybilla back ASAP. And maybe target a scorer like Antawn Jamison, who is not happy coming off the bench in Cleveland. In fact, damn Cleveland and their stubborn refusal to tank! They should be giving us Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao AND Antawn Jamison, for pennies on the dollar. (Waiting for the first person to point out that Jerryd Bayless would be really useful if Roy's out...)
Matthews is a 16% 3 pt shooter this year. I'm just happy that he remembered that he is supposed to play defense last night.
As I said, it's supposed to be one of his strengths. That was part of his profile. It's one of the reasons why some people wanted him to push Miller out of the starting lineup. He's been shooting poorly this season, but he's generally been sucking. The premise of the OP was that Matthews starts to play better, so it seems reasonable to assume (in that eventuality) that his shooting would bounce back too. If Matthews continues to suck, Portland's in trouble.
Actually, he's 0.179 3FG% this season on 5 - 28 shooting. Last season he was at 0.382 (better than Martell Webster - 0.373) on 63 - 165. You tell me which is the more significant sample size. BNM
On a very small sample size. He's the guy Matthews replaced in the rotation and the 3-point shot was Martell's best offenseive weapon. If Matthews can shoot the 3 better than Webster (like he did last season) and also bring better defense, passing and ballhandling, that sounds like an upgrade to me. BNM
If we want a solid shooting guard to replace Brandon Roy (if he's injured, that is, not to trade Roy for, of course), Rip Hamilton's very available.
