I'm still pissed we passed on Blair not once, not twice, but three times. "Injury Concerns." "He has no knees." Etc. Meanwhile, Blair's played in only 19 fewer games than Claver, Pendy and Cunningham combined. Putting up an 8/7 in less than 20 mpg behind Duncan (occasionally starting at C). 2nd-Team All-Rookie, and putting up the occasional 20/20. You know, what seemingly every 2nd-round draft pick does. Not like we needed big man talent, though, right? I mean, hell, we had Juwan Howard, Pendy, Dante, Joel, Marks, Barron, CJ... Oh yeah, and he signed a 4/3.8M contract. He costs less than Earl Barron.
It's feast or famine in these signings, either guys get way overpaid in many cases and a few who are at the end of the signings get scraps. I think we did very well on a value for da money ledger.
First, you're wrong about the less money part. Both players were signed for the minimum, but Evans has been in the league longer so gets a slightly higher salary. Not that it really matters the difference isn't that much. Second, who is better is debatable. Evans rebounds better, but that's all he does better than Smith. Both are mediocre, at best, defensively, but Smith is infinitely better on offense. He's a much better scorer and a better passer. Evens is one of the worst offensive players in the league. You literally are playing 4 on 5 on offense when he's in the game. Smith, on the other hand is a very effective low post scorer. If you look at the advanced stats for both players, both career and recent past, other than the rebound percentages, Smith has a clear advantage. There is a reason that in spite of his excellent rebound percentages, Reggie Evans has a career PER of only 11.6 compared to Smith's career PER of 16.4. Smith also blows Evans away in WS/48 ( career = 0.113 vs. 0.081, 2010-11 = 0.120 vs. 0.078). Finally, Smith is 3.5 years younger. And, the clincher for me is Evans has had major injuries the past two seasons that have limited him to 28 and 30 games. I'd much rather have the younger, healthy Smith than the old, injured Evans. BNM
I know about Evans. As a Sonic fan I watched his surprise rookie exhibition season. The undrafted sensation made the team, kept improving, and lasted 3 years under McMillan, becoming a starter at the end of that period, as I abandoned the team and switched allegiance to the Blazers. He weighs a lot more now. At the low sub forward spot, a specialist like Evans is better than a generalist like Craig Smith. The guy will be inserted into only certain situations, and not play across a spectrum of situations throughout the game. So it's better that he be great at 1 thing and lousy at the rest, than he be satisfactory at everything, more rounded like Smith. At the 4th forward (after Aldridge, Wallace, Batum), Evans would have helped us more. If 2 forwards get injured and the 4th guy has to start, then Smith is better. But for the expected niche at 4th forward, Evans would contribute more in selective minutes.
I disagree. The reason LaMarcus played so many minutes last season was lack of scoring on the second unit. With nobody else that could score, Nate often had to play Aldridge with the second unit. A guy like Smith, who can actually score, will let Nate play Aldridge fewer minutes, which will be huge with the compressed schedule. We need Aldridge rested and ready, not completely worn out, come play off time. Crawford, Batum and Smith will give the second unit a good combination of inside and perimeter scoring. With Evans, you wouldn't have any inside scoring on the second unit. It makes it a lot easier for defenses to clamp down on the perimeter when you don't have an iside scoring presence. BNM
Yeah, I see what you're saying. The signing's been made, so it doesn't matter now, so let's review it at the end of the season. One will have probably gotten injured, deciding who was the better signing.
Actually I would prefer they take the approach of playing him normal minutes at the beginning of a brutal stretch trying to assure wins and then taper him toward the end. I'm not saying tank, but if a game gets out of hand, they should sit him and let him rest and let the reserves play out the string. I get the feeling tons of teams are going to be forced to take this approach.
Snoop Dogg @SnoopDogg Pau gasol is soft as fucc we need to get his bitch ass on the 1st thing smoking hes a fuccn weanie. this is comn from laker fan #1...
Snoop Dogg @SnoopDogg Fucc gasol hes a bitch we need mark gasol this ones a punk bitch. We need a pointguard bynum ballen his ass off!
Even with Bynum beasting the Lakers look like they're bound for the lotto. Mettartest doesn't look like the same player. Definitely on the downside. Pau Gasol's lateral quickness looks like it's on the Arvydas Sabonis tier. No trade assets. They owe Gasol and Bryant $142m until 2014.
Steve Blake is the man when Kobe goes down. 20 points on 6 of 9 shooting. If they don't have Kobe or Bynum on Sunday, the Lakers are gonna be really fun to watch. If you hate the Lakers, that is.
Sounds like this is the year I may start watching their overhyped games! Which I've avoided for decades. My new 2nd most favorite team. (evil heh heh here)
New FIBA article has old info about Patty Mills. http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/12/olym/news/p/nid/50202/article.html It doesn't say that he's been outplaying Kenyon Martin on his same Chinese team. Their coach was fired over Martin's failure.
What a fucking idiot Snoop Dogg is. Pau Gasol is much better than Marc Gasol and Bynum until further notice. In fact he was just as good as Kobe the past couple of years. This d-bag seems to forget how injury prone Bynum is and how Gasol stepped up in the two Finals.
