It wasn't you. @BBert hinted above that Stotts was the reason for butters being soft. I disagree completely. You'd think someone who grew up like Meyers did would have more mental toughness.
Classic nature vs nurture argument. Perhaps he was just born soft, and no amount of toughness training could correct it.
I think you nailed it. He picked up late and never really developed a mental toughness to compete against pro type low post players. Im thinking the only reason he got into round ball was because of his height and potential payday. He doesn't strike me as having the grit/passion needed as a youngster to spring board into an NBA caliber player. He's doing his development now over the last 6 years.
We’re pretty much praying one of Bieber or Biggie work out. Great strategy for a team with playoff aspirations
I'm just going to say it... I don't think Meyers is that terrible of an option to play back up minutes at either post position. Sure he's clueless on D but he stretches the floor and keeps people honest on O. Biggie didn't impress me or anyone else in Summer League but that is what it is. SL is rarely indicative of the regular season or playoffs. I'm sure Swanigan can give us ten to fifteen minutes a game grinding on the block. I'm not saying that these two are world beaters, I'm saying that our front court isn't weak. We have a Western Conference Playoff caliber front court. Don't sleep on the three man rotation of Nurk, Zach and Chief.
I'm pretty sure trading two of our bigs for a soft, overpaid, injury prone stretch-4 who plays ZERO defense isn't going to help our lack of depth up front. Anderson isn't even a good scorer anymore. His scoring the last 3 years has gone from 17.0 to 13.6 to 9.3 ppg. The guy has Chris Paul and James Harden setting him up and he can't even average 10 ppg (when he's actually healthy enough to play). You know who else averaged 9.3 ppg last season? Al-Farouq Aminu, that's who. And, Aminu actually plays defense, too. Honestly, I wouldn't trade Aminu straight up for Ryan Anderson - even if they made the same salary. They don't. Anderson makes $21 million a year. Aminu makes $7 million. Dumb trade. BNM
Anderson averages are down because his attempts are down. His shooting efficiency this year were actually a career best. He’s a better player than Aminu in a vacuum. Way more efficient offensively, and not as much of a liability on defense as some assume. His win shares the last two seasons have been 5.2 and 4.8. Aminus 1.9 and 4.2. Anderson also fits what Stotts wants to do offensively a lot better than Aminu. The contract is whatever since we’d have to match salaries anyway, and turns into an expiring after this season. That being said, I’d still pass.
For a player over 30, I'm not really concerned about what he did two years ago (other that for spotting the inevitable downward trends). Last year, Aminu came close to Anderson in total WS. Aminu is still under 30 and trending up. Anderson is over 30 and trending down. And yes, Anderson is a negative defender. He has been his entire career. Aminu is a positive defender, and has been his entire career. We've already added a lot of 3-point shooting to the roster. I'd prefer to keep Aminu and his cheap, expiring contract, over Anderson with two years and $42 million left on his deal. The proposed trade would have us taking on and extra $3 million in salary this year and an extra $10 million next year - plus nearly 3x that amount in tax penalties. That's a lot of money for a lateral (at best) move. We have other players who can shoot the 3 (and frankly, Aminu wasn't that far behind Anderson last year), but we don't have a lot of guys who can guard the 3 and 4 spots as well as Aminu can. BNM
What are you talking about two years ago? I just said Anderson is coming off his most efficient shooting season. Your proof of a downward trend was to bring up his PPG average, which is about as basic as it gets. Anderson isnt over 30 either. A better argument would be his durability. But to say hes getting worse as a scorer/shooter just isnt backed up by anything meaningful.
I was referring to your comment comparing Anderson's WS to Aminu's WS over the last two seasons: Really? How hard is it to look this stuff up? Born:May 6, 1988 (Age: 30-095d) You mean like I did in my original reply? BNM
I'd only be willing to trade Turner for Anderson. We take on about $2M more in salary - but we get someone who is a better fit for Terry's coaching style.
Given the title of this thread, this makes a LOT more sense than @BigGameDamian's trade of Aminu and Leonard for Anderson. I'm not an Anderson fan, but it better balances the roster and Anderson and Turner both have two years left on their current deals. Not sure why HOU would do it though. Turner seems like an even worse fit in D'Antoni's system (42.3 FGA/G) than he does in Stotts' system (28.1 3FGA/G). BNM
Thank you for proving that he’s not over 30. Good job. He’ll be 31 in the final year of his contract. Age is hardly an issue, especially when his numbers don’t show a drop as you’ve poorly attempted to suggest. Only issue I’d have are the injuries, but that was hardly the basis of your argument.
