One does it (Babbit) at a much higher level then the other (The Stache). You don't just trade Babbit to trade him, the most we could get from him at the moment is a second round pick which is essentially nothing. He is much better as a salary cap filler in a bigger trade then trading him just to trade him. He is off the books at the end of the year anyway so this desire to get him off our team is unwarranted.
The only person he'd compete with for time is probably Claver. And we haven't even seen him play against NBA players. I'd say it's sort of hard to pass judgement yet.
I wouldn't trade him for a 2nd, and I doubt anyone would give a 1st. If someone gives you a first for him, sure, you take it. Otherwise, I pass on the option, but play him and see how he develops.
So lose him for nothing? Because 2.9 Mil is not an option we are going to pick up. If we are simply going to relinquish his contract, if the decision is to simply let him go and let his salary fall off the books, why wouldn't you trade him and actually get some sort of prospect in return?
I don't see the point of trading him right now for a 2nd rounder, before the season has started, to see if any improvements have been made. I also don't think we should pick up his option before knowing. We still have the option to sign him with cap space, and sign an offer over cap space up to that 2.9. If he has somehow played himself to earn way more than that, so be it, let him go. Because he won't hold that value here. But there's the possibility he shows himself to be a really useful piece that has value right around the 3 million mark, and we can determine that and sign him after the season.
Do you think that if someone was going to offer something reasonably good in exchange for Babbitt, they would be stopped because they owe $3+M through July 2014? The only reason you would NOT offer the option is because you think that that 2.9M is going to be the holdup in offering someone a max deal. 4.4M for the next two years of Babbitt is only 2x the vet minimum, and people with his skillset make much more than that.
He has a "skillset?" Some of you vastly overrate him. He is worse than Sasha Pavlovich or Ronnie Price and is a light year behind Jared Jeffries.
All those are completely different players then Babbit. None of them can shoot the three very well and if Babbit can hit at a 40% clip this year then yes he has a skillset that is needed in the NBA. He is an average rebounder, poor defender, poor ball handler but he can shoot and those types of players are always needed. I don't get all this hate for Babbit, he isn't a very good NBA player and I doubt he develops really anymore then he already has but he has a very good skill that every team needs. 3 point specialist usually make more then Babbit too. I'll keep him around unless one of three things happens. 1) someone offers us a first for him 2) he is needed to even out a trade $$ wise 3) He punches LMA in the face. Hell even next year i'd keep him around for 7m over 3 as long as he ended the season over 42% from 3. I'd only sign him after we offer the Max to Harden/whatever big name player wants to play here.
Remember how good James Jones was for us off the bench a few years ago? Pretty much all he could do is shoot the 3.
You guys are nuts. BABBITT CAN'T SHOOT. James Jones was the best shooter I've seen besides Dale Ellis. No comparison. Babbitt will miss with certainty under any of these conditions: his defender is a starter, his defender cares, the game is before tank season, or the shot matters to the outcome of the game.
Probably so, but 1. Hopefully he isn't in against starters, 2. it's the NBA, 3. look at our roster, 4. ....see 3. Build him up early as a great shooter, then dump him on someone at th deadline as a guy who can stretch the floor in the playoffs.
He shot 43% from three point range last year with 100 attempts. That is impossible unless one is a very good shooter. Ed O.
And got injured a lot and hardly moved on the court. At least Babbitt moves inside the key and can attack the basket.
Marco Belinelli signed with the Bulls for $1.96M. He replaces Kyle Korver on the Bulls roster; Korver signed with Atlanta for $5M, which he also made the past two seasons with the Bulls.
I was thinking about the group of one-dimensional big man shooters (who are almost all white, but not necessarily), and Babbitt fits somewhere in the line of Scalabrines (vet min), Steve Novak (3.75M/yr), Matt Bonner (3.67M/yr), etc. He's not Ryan Anderson (8.5M/yr) or Rashard Lewis (making 2M/yr from MIA after a 7yr max).
I actually think you hang on to Babbitt and see how his next season pans out. I bet he'll get a lot more playing time than some people expect him to. Yahoo! shows Batum as the backup SG, and Babbitt as the backup SF. I expect they'll be on the court at the same time a lot. What exactly are the expectations for using MAX contract worth of cap space by letting him go? My guess is you'll need some of that space to keep Hickson, you'll still need a backup SG/SF type, depth at PG, etc. The point being that spreading the cap space around fills the team's need for quality depth. This offseason, you could have spent just $4M on an OJ Mayo who would even push for a starting job. The point also being that the LT penalties in the CBA are so harsh for most teams that contracts even as big as Batum's should be avoided.
Jones shot 44% from three during his one season in Portland, which was a career high for him and still is. He is a career 40% shooter from three. Coincidentally, Jones made exactly $2.9m during his one year as a Blazer.
Plus, Lillard is a drive and dish PG who will need good shooters on the floor to create space in the middle on penetration plays. That's Dallas Maverick basketball 101.
