John Denton gets released from Florida today

[NEM]

yes it does solve a problem for us. stan will not change his coaching style. people need to get that into their heads. lewis will be the starting 4 next season. end of story. therefore battier would be perfect for this team. he doesnt require many shots, but when he is open he will knock it down. he is a knock down shooter and an all defensive 1st teamer. great locker room guy. we have a NEED for a back up pg?? last time i checked, AJ was doing just fine as our back up. he looks goofy, but is a good back up. so in the end we need a 3rd stringer, which we will probably get out of SL (robinson, pargo, chase, etc). the need for a back up center can not be addressed with this trade because they have 1 center and thats yao. they need a center, and we will not be keeping gortat to play 15 mpg for 7 million dollars. thats just asinine, when we could get the same production out of a guy we can pay the VM to (ratliff). trust me 3 points and 3 boards is not that hard to replace

And who said that definitively? Show me some irrefutable evidence that we will still play small ball and get "pwned" by bigger teams. Also, we are not making the best use of Lewis's post-up skills by playing him at the 4. If Lewis starts at the 3 he WILL be more effective (like he was with Seattle) possessing both an outside and inside game! I guess Stan's coaching style is good enough to beat the Cavs but not good enough to beat the Lakers and the Celtics (now with Rasheed and a healthy KG). UGGHH

you want evidence? his last 2 years here. how about his stint with miami when he used odom as the primary ball handler, and basically played haslem at the 5? i mean his entire coaching career has been coaching that style, so why change it now? rashard would be horrible at the 3. he is not quick enough to play the 3 on defense, and on offense, with our team position dont exist unless your name is dwight howard. since we have 4 shooters on the court at all times, positions dont matter. so just cause jameer brings the ball up the court he's a PG? then lebron is the best PG in the league. VC can bring the ball up. just cause lewis doenst get 8+ rebounds every game he's not a PF? no, the fact of the matter is lewis IS the pf whether you, me , or anyone else likes it or not. the sooner we get that through our heads, the sooner we will start seeing that we need a small forward on this team instead of lewis, which brings me to shane battier, the perfect player for our system as he is versatile. he can guard 2, 3, and 4 on defense. he's 6'9'' and around 240 to 245 lbs, a legitimate PF size

[BurningBridges]

you want evidence? his last 2 years here. how about his stint with miami when he used odom as the primary ball handler, and basically played haslem at the 5? i mean his entire coaching career has been coaching that style, so why change it now? rashard would be horrible at the 3. he is not quick enough to play the 3 on defense, and on offense, with our team position dont exist unless your name is dwight howard. since we have 4 shooters on the court at all times, positions dont matter. so just cause jameer brings the ball up the court he's a PG? then lebron is the best PG in the league. VC can bring the ball up. just cause lewis doenst get 8+ rebounds every game he's not a PF? no, the fact of the matter is lewis IS the pf whether you, me , or anyone else likes it or not. the sooner we get that through our heads, the sooner we will start seeing that we need a small forward on this team instead of lewis, which brings me to shane battier, the perfect player for our system as he is versatile. he can guard 2, 3, and 4 on defense. he's 6'9'' and around 240 to 245 lbs, a legitimate PF size

We saw that POSITIONS DO MATTER, ESPECIALLY ON THE DEFENSIVE END. Rashard got manhandled by Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

If our starting lineup would have been C:Howard, PF:Battie, SF:Lews, SG: Hedo, PG: Alston with AJ instead of "I haven't played in 4 months" Jammer to backup Alston, I guarantee the Finals would have been a more competitive series and we would not have seen two blowout Laker wins.

I don't mind playing Lewis at the 4 against teams like the Cavs, but Stan has got to be willing to be flexible and change the lineup accordingly....If we face BIGGER teams like the Celtics and Lakers, we match up better with them if we have a bigger lineup and a legit PF. Enough said.

[NEM]

you want evidence? his last 2 years here. how about his stint with miami when he used odom as the primary ball handler, and basically played haslem at the 5? i mean his entire coaching career has been coaching that style, so why change it now? rashard would be horrible at the 3. he is not quick enough to play the 3 on defense, and on offense, with our team position dont exist unless your name is dwight howard. since we have 4 shooters on the court at all times, positions dont matter. so just cause jameer brings the ball up the court he's a PG? then lebron is the best PG in the league. VC can bring the ball up. just cause lewis doenst get 8+ rebounds every game he's not a PF? no, the fact of the matter is lewis IS the pf whether you, me , or anyone else likes it or not. the sooner we get that through our heads, the sooner we will start seeing that we need a small forward on this team instead of lewis, which brings me to shane battier, the perfect player for our system as he is versatile. he can guard 2, 3, and 4 on defense. he's 6'9'' and around 240 to 245 lbs, a legitimate PF size

We saw that POSITIONS DO MATTER, ESPECIALLY ON THE DEFENSIVE END. Rashard got manhandled by Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

If our starting lineup would have been C:Howard, PF:Battie, SF:Lews, SG: Hedo, PG: Alston with AJ instead of "I haven't played in 4 months" Jammer to backup Alston, I guarantee the Finals would have been a more competitive series and we would not have seen two blowout Laker wins.

I don't mind playing Lewis at the 4 against teams like the Cavs, but Stan has got to be willing to be flexible and change the lineup accordingly....If we face BIGGER teams like the Celtics and Lakers, we match up better with them if we have a bigger lineup and a legit PF. Enough said.

lol that's stan's thing. im just saying how battier would fit in with what stan's trying to do.

also i said that positions dont matter on offense for us, and the only way they matter is on defense

since we have 4 shooters on the court at all times, positions dont matter

[Neon1]

We saw that POSITIONS DO MATTER, ESPECIALLY ON THE DEFENSIVE END. Rashard got manhandled by Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

If our starting lineup would have been C:Howard, PF:Battie, SF:Lews, SG: Hedo, PG: Alston with AJ instead of "I haven't played in 4 months" Jammer to backup Alston, I guarantee the Finals would have been a more competitive series and we would not have seen two blowout Laker wins.

Its not like Battie (or Gortat) WERE NOT available to play a ton more minutes against the Lakers, The fact of the matter is SVG DID NOT WANT OR PREFER to play them at the 4 instead of Rashard.

If SVG wanted or thought he would have been better off moving Rashard to the 4 he simply WOULD HAVE.

[KingRobb02]

Plus in the Vince Carter introductory press conference, Stan went on record as saying that he was happy to get Anderson because whenever we had to give Lewis a rest it basically killed our offense for a few minutes. I don't know if that was a swipe at Battie, but it is an indication that Stan plans a Lewis/Anderson combo at power forward. If you don't like the way Stan is using the players, you have to either give him players he will like or fire him.

[Big Aaron]

Such a shame. Hopefully one of the bigger outlets pick him up.

[magicfan1989]

I don't know why sooooo many people don't like the Sentinel.

Personally, I enjoy reading Bianchi's articles. I have no opinion of Brian Schmitz.

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

^ Seriously???

[magicfan1989]

^^I like the fact that Bianchi is outspoken and is sometimes funny

[PigsEatHam]

Bianchi is all right some of the times. Though he strikes me as a failed (for good reason) poet with all those rhyming couplets and limericks he writes. That, and his "Running off at the typewriter" Saturday column is a very dated gimmick, the equivalent of saying "Running off at the stone tablet and chisel."

Brian Schmitz's articles, at least the stuff he puts online, is hackwork and quite often riddled with typos and grammatical errors like split-infinitives. As a newsman, he should be able to write in near error-free English. I see tons of posts on this board that are better than the stuff he makes his living writing.

[craig01]

Too bad for Denton.

Just another indicator of how bad the newspaper business is.

Pretty soon you'll see about a total of 4 sportswriters covering sports for the Sentinel, Tampa Tribune and St Pete Times.

[MagicalMan]

Too bad. I enjoyed reading his articles. Hopefully he got a nice severance and will find a better job soon. ESPN would be nice.