Another year of Murphy, nice.

Sometimes in sports it's the year after everyone jumps on a team to shine when it all comes together. I'm not writing everyone off yet. Even if it doesn't the thing I like is that we have trade deadline pieces to dish off. If you can't trade a guy in the off season it doesn't mean that the guy is untradeable. It just means that teams aren't desperate enough. Let's just wait and see.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">C: Foyle lacks quickness, can block shots, lacks a mean streak. Not very dependable scorer. Doesn't enforce the paint. No defensive leadership on the floor. Not very situationally aware outside of defense. Poor hands, poor jumping ability, poor ability to establish position right away. Has no real strong post defense.</div>

That's a lot of "no"s and "lack"s and "poor"s lol

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AlleyOop:</div><div class="quote_post">That's a lot of "no"s and "lack"s and "poor"s lol</div>

Well he's a crappy starting center. He's not even as good as Kwame Brown or Michael Olowakandi.

 

Just gonna focus on one thing-Monta has the basic PG tools. He showed me a few times he want's to feed guys-thaat on the run he can see the open man and deliver a good pass. His core understanding of how the game of basketball works is excellent for a young player-he's much more a natural PG than Fisher ever was.

I have no illusion that we are entering a championship season. I'd rather just put some faith in Monta,show him the basics and let him play the point in games-starting early.
If we must have McLeod,Barea,Bynum or ? to help,so it's not making Monta learn too much at once-okay-but this is a year to improve all our assets-and Monta is a main one. If at season's end they say we lost 5-10 games because the kiddie corps got so many minutes-fine...don't care--because the NEXT year we WIN an extra 5-10 because we accelerated development.

 

I'm hoping Monta Ellis becomes good enough to take over Baron's job.

Maybe we could move Baron/Dunleavy/Foyle alltogether, get a vet small forward, upgrade Ellis to starter, promote Ike, keep Murphy, promote whichever center is the best starter.

We can now throw Murphy money at Ike or Ellis or maybe a little bit more if they are indeed stars.

Jrich, Ike, Ellis would be the "star" players, we get two other role players whether it be Biedrins/POB or some small forward draft or sf from a trade.

but then again I'm getting way ahead of myself and what these rookies haven't shown yet. Ellis to Baron may be what Pietrus is to Jrich. I think Ike will be very very solid anchor in the paint and not as bad on D as some would think. He could be a very good rebounder and shotblocker.

 

I'd say the evaluations of Foyle-on D,are too harsh. On offense his unpredictablity in a catch + pass role is a major negative. He's above a 50% fg guy-though some of his misses are dreadful- those are once-twice a month-of less consequence than someone going 0-6 from 3. Other centers who don't score much can generally catch a pass,relay it. That Adonal does not do well at that is his biggest negative. Olowokandi? Olowokandi is a slacker half the time,soft on either end. Easy to beat when he's on D. Most of the Euro centers in the league are no better than Foyle on D. Add Blount,Curry,and Adonals better on D than at least 7-8 starters and about even with a couple more. He does play good post D,not great but above average. Even a guy like Shaq has to work to score on Foyle. Foyle's not real speedy-but does run fast as he's able-so he gets back on D sooner that most.
If we wait till next summer to trade him...it's not a big deal UNLESS Monty is around awhile and allowed to play Foyle minutes we NEED to invest in Biedrens-Taft_O'Bryant.

In 5 years if they get the perfect chance to develop-perform...How good are Beans-Cheesecake and Baby Back gonna be? They MAY all 3 be damn good,with any or all being better than any C we had in a L O N G time. That we have 3 such guys is like having 3 raffle tickets instead of 1...improves the odds a lot...and in this case-the raffle tickets that don't win-still have value.

Murphy was an untapped resource until late Jan. Murphy had an especially bad game against Brand and the Clips. 2 nights later in the rematch-Murphy outrebounded Brand 20-9. A couple days later-staying inside-staying on Dirk- Murphy was 22/14 while Dirk was 18/6...Murphy won the matchup-no question--and he played GOOD DEFENSE. Why- Monty made an adjustment so he COULD. He was never unwilling or unable. He backed that up a few nights later Murphy vs Zach Randolph,Zach being a load in the paint-but Murph held him to 7 pts and 4 boards (5 fouls in about 25 min for ZR) Murphy? 11 points but a season high 21 boards. on 2/2/06 and 2/4/06 the matchups---KG and Duncan and it don't get tougher. Murphy scored 20 and 22. KG scored 15 and Duncan 16...murphy did get outrebounded slightly-but at least earned a draw. If you hold KG and Duncan to 16 or less.....you CAN play D. If you Beat or break even matched with Duncan-KG-Dirk-Zack-Brand....you got some game.

In April,Murphy was in 8 games...attempted a total of 7 3's. So much for the myth he wants to hang out on the perimeter.
If you compare the first half of the season and the second half 2 things are real significant..things you need to know. First half-Murphy had over TWICE as many 3 pt attempts per game. First half 9 rbd average-second half-11 rebound average. By seasons end most of the complaints about Murphy or his game-somewhat accurate in November-had been answered. The absolutes of Murphy IS a preimeter guy....CAN"T defend,were no longer valid by the end. FACTS proved otherwise.

I'd even bet it's very possible to make Murphy a high post CENTER,a real effective relay passer from around the FT line,as well as a deadly shot at that range. I want Monty to CHALLENGE players-not bog them down or put limits on them. I'd tell Ike,we want you to score 20,get 8 boards,a couple of blocks-and we can make that happen. MP? we want you to be THE feared defensive wing in the game. We want you to attack on offense (but be wary of a whistle happy ref) Dun...Think MIDRANGE,be a high % guy from 10-20 ft,Get the ball into Ike and Andy and Troy. Baron....dust off your uptempo game-we want to run 'em into the ground.

 

Murphy is solid. I just think he's as good as he's going to get. We can't ask him to be an all-star big man that can shoot and take guys off the dribble and pass it and score inside. Let's put it this way. On a playoff team with Murphy as your power forward, we better hope that we have a damn good center on offense and defense. We've drafted two projects that will probably be mid-level centers at best. Also, on Murphy's defense, he didn't do enough to effect the game. His job is to help defend the basket and that's great he can play defense on Tim Duncan, but he wasn't helping out at the rim. And even when he puts up good numbers, we still lose more games than we win. This is a small sample size, but when he was out of the lineup with an injury and we went with Diogu and other guys that can shoot, play team D, move the ball, score some inside, we did a good job on D, rebounded okay, and managed to win the game by holding the other team to 40% fg. Then when he gets inserted back into the lineup we start allowing all kinds of field goals again. Plus, without a reliable inside game or the ability to get by defenders more times than he settles for jumpers, he just takes away the roles from the perimeter. If our center has no offense, then we need somebody like Ike who has a post game and a midrange game to take over at PF. Murphy playing center would not work IMO because he's not a good defender on the basket and he'll just get other people in foul trouble trying to save a layup or a dunk.

Foyle = garbage as starter. I can't really argue anything positive for this guy because he told his agent he wanted $$$ and now we're stuck with him for a year or two while floating dangerously close to luxury tax. I'm just glad he has an option year on him. Might be good for teams that need to buy some time with a two year deal backup center. If one looks up the things a starting center should do, he hardly does anything now that his jumping ability is shot, he's lost his quickness, his hands are worse than ever, and he still plays like a rook when it comes to offensive awareness. Plus, he doesn't help the transition game with the way he moves and the way he bobbles offensive rebounds out ahead to start the other team's fastbreak.

We've tried Ike n' Murphy and it doesn't work because neither are switchable from PF to C. Sometimes PF and C have to switch to cover different sides of the baskets or come out on a big man perimeter shooter. We've tried Foyle and Ike and I think it just has the same problems as Foyle + Murphy because while Ike is posting up what does Foyle do? He can't catch.

The only matchup I like is Biedrins + Ike but Biedrins can't stay out of foul trouble. The reason I like Biedrins is because even though he's no midrange or perimeter shooter, he has hands to catch whatever last second pass Ike might dump on him or he can collect the offensive miss from either Ike or one of our other perimeter guys. Plus Biedrins and Ike both play defense and have great hands and some nice finesse around the basket. I think both can dribble and have enough footwork to run plays if Biedrins were to matchup well against the center or wind up in the post against the power forward. Ike can then spread the floor with his deep 20 footer.

Hopefully Montgomery tries this out because we've sucked as long as we've had poor defense and no passing on the interior to relay back out. Murphy has never been one to play enough all-around D to be a good power forward or pass the ball and score some inside or take guys off the dribble without ending up shooting horribly. So it makes him an even worse candidate for center because passing, defense, inside scoring are things centers are supposed to do. If Foyle doesn't do it, will Murphy? All the playoff big men emulate something that all good centers have whether its at the power forward position or the actual center position. Foyle/Murphy tandem lacks the ability to set the tone on both ends of the floor and it's why we get beat by teams that have a good PF/C.

It's why Minnesota can't win, because Garnett is more SF than he is PF and Blount/Olowakandi sucks, and now they lack a true point guard. So I guess good point about Olowakandi, but I think he's still better than Foyle.

If we get the right pieces (Baron at pg is one, Ike Diogu in the paint who should be able to play both running game and halfcourt game. Diogu can emulate some center at PF position but can't easily play the center position itself)
Biedrins at center would add to our chances at putbacks, offensive rebounds, shotblocks, and defensive rebounds. Plus, he's a decent passer and can catch almost anything even at high speeds at point blank range. I like his post scoring against 6'9 power forwards or centers.