Team Needs...What are they, what do fans think?

[KingInExile]

Stealing the idea from CellarDoor for a team needs thread, this thread will serve as a repository for what poster’s believe the needs of their team are. The intent is for this thread to be a resource for posters when they are developing trade ideas; the hope being that unrealistic ideas are minimized. The original idea from CellarDoor was:

Someone representing each team would start a thread for their team (Shrink- Minn, Euch-NJ, DCash-LA, Me-Chicago, whatever) and we can outline some initial information. For instance: Chicago needs to clean up it's rotation with an eye towards 2010. We would like to move Nocioni to make time for Thabo. We feel like we're thin at the C position and wouldn't mind a true C to back Noah, and we want to surround Rose with finishers. We have a TE worth about 5m, but we won't use it to take us into the LuxTax, and KP stole our second rounders for the forseeable future.

Instead of having individual threads for each team, let’s just use this one thread. Below are links to each team’s page on RealGM along with links to each team’s forum. Use these as resources for additional information. The next post in this thread will have a summary of needs for all teams based on poster input. As posters describe their team’s needs, I will paste the needs in that post. The rest of this thread can be used to discuss what posters think the needs are.

Not sure if this will really work or not, but it is at least worth a shot.

Atlantic
Boston Celtics: Team Page | Team Forum
New Jersey Nets: Team Page | Team Forum
New York Knicks: Team Page | Team Forum
Philadelphia 76ers: Team Page | Team Forum
Toronto Raptors: Team Page | Team Forum

Central
Chicago Bulls: Team Page | Team Forum
Cleveland Cavaliers: Team Page | Team Forum
Detroit Pistons: Team Page | Team Forum
Indiana Pacers: Team Page | Team Forum
Milwaukee Bucks: Team Page | Team Forum

Southeast
Atlanta Hawks: Team Page | Team Forum
Charlotte Bobcats: Team Page | Team Forum
Miami Heat: Team Page | Team Forum
Orlando Magic: Team Page | Team Forum
Washington Wizards: Team Page | Team Forum

Southwest
Dallas Mavericks: Team Page | Team Forum
Houston Rockets: Team Page | Team Forum
Memphis Grizzlies: Team Page | Team Forum
New Orleans Hornets: Team Page | Team Forum
San Antonio Spurs: Team Page | Team Forum

Northwest
Denver Nuggets: Team Page | Team Forum
Minnesota Timberwolves: Team Page | Team Forum
Oklahoma City Thunder: Team Page | Team Forum
Portland Trail Blazers: Team Page | Team Forum
Utah Jazz: Team Page | Team Forum

Pacific
Golden State Warriors: Team Page | Team Forum
Los Angeles Clippers: Team Page | Team Forum
Los Angeles Lakers: Team Page | Team Forum
Phoenix Suns: Team Page | Team Forum
Sacramento Kings: Team Page | Team Forum

[KingInExile]

Needs as identified by fans:

Atlantic
Boston Celtics:

New Jersey Nets:
ecuhus1981 on Thu Sep 18, 2008 7:56 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17321330#p17321330

New York Knicks:
#1knickfan on Sat Sep 13, 2008 1:39 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17299254#p17299254
additional opinion
ws26 on Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:07 am
viewtopic.php?p=17301560#p17301560

Philadelphia 76ers:
youngcrev on Sun Sep 14, 2008 4:23 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17303380#p17303380

Toronto Raptors:
cdel00 on Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:08 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17319102#p17319102
Rooster on Mon Nov 10, 2008 12:03 am
viewtopic.php?p=17644400#p17644400


Central
Chicago Bulls:
Friend_Of_Haley on Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:14 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17579357#p17579357
NZB2323 on Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:13 am
viewtopic.php?p=17513132#p17513132

Cleveland Cavaliers:
RevMan26 on Thu Feb 12, 2009 10:32 pm
viewtopic.php?p=18581744#p18581744

Detroit Pistons:
Cowology updated on Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:22 am
viewtopic.php?p=18255110#p18255110

Indiana Pacers:
Gremz on Mon Dec 01, 2008 7:34 am
viewtopic.php?p=17855245#p17855245

Milwaukee Bucks:

Southeast
Atlanta Hawks:
Harry10 on Tue Sep 23, 2008 6:06 am
viewtopic.php?p=17336827#p17336827

Charlotte Bobcats:
chrbal on Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:38 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17425158#p17425158

Miami Heat:
BBallFreak on Thu Feb 19, 2009 5:06 am
viewtopic.php?p=18668853#p18668853

Orlando Magic:
eyriq on Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:51 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17431994#p17431994

Washington Wizards:
nate33 on Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:04 am
viewtopic.php?p=17855404#p17855404

Northwest
Denver Nuggets:
JBuisness21 on Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:15 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17303914#p17303914
additional opinion
The Rebel on Mon Sep 22, 2008 7:31 am
viewtopic.php?p=17332781#p17332781

Minnesota Timberwolves:
shrink on Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:28 am
viewtopic.php?p=17322530#p17322530

Oklahoma City Thunder:
djthesonicsfan on Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:41 am
viewtopic.php?p=17326858#p17326858

Portland Trail Blazers:
trk on Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:52 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17321753#p17321753

Utah Jazz:
loserX on Wed Sep 17, 2008 9:06 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17316946#p17316946
additional opinion
jazzfan1971 on Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:20 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17328649#p17328649


Southwest
Dallas Mavericks:
JES12 on Fri Oct 24, 2008 1:42 am
viewtopic.php?p=17498635#p17498635

Houston Rockets:
by OtisThorpe on Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:26 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17473876#p17473876

Memphis Grizzlies:
pardon_my_interruption on Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:47 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17387325#p17387325

New Orleans Hornets:

San Antonio Spurs:
the southern dandy on Sat Nov 15, 2008 6:29 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17704959#p17704959


Pacific
Golden State Warriors:
giberish on Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:52 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17561587#p17561587

Los Angeles Clippers:
TheNewEra on Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:19 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17530014#p17530014

Los Angeles Lakers:
dcash4 on Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:31 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17304331#p17304331

Phoenix Suns:
nba_addict on Sat Oct 11, 2008 7:15 am
viewtopic.php?p=17429030#p17429030

Sacramento Kings:
Bac2Basics on Sun Dec 14, 2008 4:26 pm
viewtopic.php?p=17992341#p17992341
Expanded discussion...Characterization of the Kings future thread on Kings Board

[#1knickfan]

I guess I'll go first since I spend the most time defending the Knicks on these boards. I'll let guys like Moocow and Luv Those Knicks correct me where they feel I need correcting.

First things first, I think that team needs need to be looked at in terms of long term and short term.

Longer term needs:

Ideally, the consensus around our forum would be to get significantly under the cap for the 2010 free agent class. I don't really care about it but most Knick fans do. I guess it gives them hope. I prefer to focus upon building a nucleus for a long term team. On the plus side, I think we have something of a decent nucleus already with Curry, Crawford, Chandler, Lee and Galinari. If Chandler and Galinari are as good as we hope and the other 3 guys improve under Diantoni's leadership we might have a chance at getting good faster than people think. That's important because we need to make sure Utah gets the least valuable first round pick possible in the 2010 draft. It will be painful to lose another lottery pick this decade. In any event all this is for naught unless we find a franchise point guard to tie it all together. I feel we passed one up when we selected Galinari instead of Augustin but its too late to do anything about that. Finally we need to transition into a Diantoni team.



Short term needs:
It is clear that the twin towers experiment will not work with Randolph and Curry and so that needs to be broken up soon. The team is unlikely to show much improvement while its still a part of the teams makeup and its potential for chemistry issues could cripple the season b4 it begins. Randolph has clearly been the target of Walsh so he should be dealt. That Memphis deal would be ideal in my opinion. Secondly, we need to see if Curry can work with Diantoni's system. Moocow, whose opinions I greatly respect, strongly believes he can. I think there must be some merit to his idea considering Phoenix was willing to add a dinosaur like Shaq to its team. Thirdly, we need to find out if Wilson Chandler's impressive play at the end of last season means he's the real deal or if it was just of flash of brilliance he will never repeat. Fourthly, we need to resolve the Marbury situation once and for all. We're keeping him around because we hope in a contract year he'll be at his best both on and off the court. He needs to be kept on a short leash so that he can be easily strangled with it if he starts acting up. If the Knicks are to attract the big name free agents in that 2010 pipe dream they cannot afford to be an embarrassment anymore so its very important for the locker room to be much more positive this season. And finally, we just need to get tougher defensively. We need other teams to know that there will not be any easy baskets against NY anymore so even though the vast majority of our players are mediocre defenders at best they need to work as a team to compensate for their individual weaknesses.

[ws26]

I agree with all that #1knicksfan and I love the idea. A few additional notes for the Knicks:

#1. Don't trade the Knicks "D'antoni guys" just because they played for him in the past. This means Barbosa and especially Diaw. Their contracts would put a dent in the long-term plans for the franchise while adding only meager success, since they do have several players who already fit that mold.

#2. The Knicks won't be trading anymore draft picks for a while. As #1knicksfan said, they owe their 2010 pick to Utah, which means they can't trade their '09 or '11 picks. So steer clear of that.

#3. The Knicks don't want to trade Marbury for a long-term contract. They will hold onto him and let his contract expire, freeing up a little cap room.

[youngcrev]

The Sixers could definitely still use some more 3 point shooting in their rotation.

With the additions of Elton Brand, Speights, Ratliff and Marshall this summer, Reggie Evans certainly becomes available.

Other than him, that pretty much just leaves Willie Green and a hurt Jason Smith in terms of trade pieces. I can't really see anyone else being moved at least until this team has had the chance to play together.

[JBuisness21]

ill do Denver

they definitley need to deal Iverson or Melo, pref AI cuz melo is young, AI is an expiring so he mayb attractive to teams who want to get under the cap now, or next summer S&T him or let him walk and use the space to sign key players or wait till 2010 summer and sign a star. there needs include a Starting PG, defensive oriented and pass first but is able to score, Rondo come to mind. we need a defenive C who can shoot Sheed is def a good fit but will b hard to get. we also need to try and trade away K-Mart mayb we cna do a cmaby like trade and get another trade exception then use both to acquire a superstar player. most likely the Nuggs will not make the playoffs this year unless they pull a major trade. next year mayb 8th seed depending on AI situation but by 2011 or 2012 then they will b in playoffs again led by Melo and player to b named later and by melos tenth year 2014 i say top 3 in West

[dockingsched]

Lakers

current outlook: The Lakers are one of the league's top title contenders. Last year they made the NBA finals without their starting center and limiting injuries to several role players. Early in the off-season Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said that he felt completely comfortable bringing back the current roster, “A lot of it’s going to depend on the progress we make with Sasha and Ronny,” Kupchak said. “I think we feel if we can bring those two players back, and we get Trevor [Ariza] and Andrew [Bynum] back, we’d be happy going into training camp with that group. If we run into a roadblock … then we’ll have to look in other directions."1 Turiaf since those comments left the team, with the Lakers swooping in to sign a replacement, former Clipper Josh Powell. Its clear that the Lakers intend to make their improvements internally, mostly through a healthy Andrew Bynum and to a lesser extent a health Walton and Ariza.

on-court question marks: the most glaring question mark is the role of forward Lamar Odom. The pg position figures to be taken care of by Fisher and Farmar, with Jordan taking on more minutes than he did last year. The sg position has Kobe and Sasha. The starting big men will be Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, something that will allow the more finesse Gasol to play away from the basket, face up his opponents, and generally avoid the tough inside play he was criticized for lacking. At sf, Lamar Odom is expected to start, for how many minutes is unknown. The Lakers have several sf's including Odom, Ariza, Walton, and Radmanovic. Many believe that the coaching staff will move Odom to backup pf after starting the game at sf. This helps the depth upfront (Powell and Mihm are the primary backups), while also providing more minutes for the previously mentioned sf's. Odom's lack of consistent outside shot and lateral quickness are the main motivating factors for his unsteady role as the sf.

financial outlook: First and foremost is Andrew Bynum's impending contract extension. There have been reports that he will be demanding near max money, however, the Lakers can wait until next off-season to extend him. The Lakers are currently around 80 million dollars in payroll, a number that will most likely not get too much bigger. The most widely accepted outcome from the fan base is that the Lakers will let Lamar Odom walk away next off season, effectively using his money to pay Bynum. The Lakers' refusal to match Turiaf's offer sheet with the Warriors is evidence of the Lakers financial concerns.

trade proposals: Bryant, Gasol, Bynum, and Fisher are completely off limits. Fisher because of his personal situation, the other three for their value to the team. Recent signings that figure to be off limits for the first few months of the season include Vujacic, Yue, and Powell. Lamar Odom is the most common player included in trades, mostly because of his lack of fit at sf. Also, Lamar Odom's contract makes him a very difficult player to trade. A team valuing his talent will not give fair value because he will be a risk to leave or demand big money in the offseason. A team that values his expiring contract will not give enough talent in return to cover the Lakers' needs as a current title contender. For these reasons I do not see any realistic trade partners. Outside of Odom, Farmar figures to be the only real positive asset and he probably has more value to the lakers than other teams. Lakers will not pay other teams to acquire bad contracts (Radmanovic, Walton) because they simply don't have the assets and they are trying to win a title, not get under the cap. Any long term high priced player that the lakers acquire would have the be a perfect sf fit, otherwise there is little motivation for the Lakers to make a move. the ideal, and probably unattainable players, include t. prince, s. battier, c. butler, l. james, l. bird and m. jordan.

summary: lakers are comfortable going into the season with the current roster. letting odom walk and signing bynum will keep the lakers near the same payroll number. there does not appear to be any good trade partners.

[cgf]

I guess I'll go first since I spend the most time defending the Knicks on these boards. I'll let guys like Moocow and Luv Those Knicks correct me where they feel I need correcting.

First things first, I think that team needs need to be looked at in terms of long term and short term.

Longer term needs:

Ideally, the consensus around our forum would be to get significantly under the cap for the 2010 free agent class. I don't really care about it but most Knick fans do. I guess it gives them hope. I prefer to focus upon building a nucleus for a long term team. On the plus side, I think we have something of a decent nucleus already with Curry, Crawford, Chandler, Lee and Galinari. If Chandler and Galinari are as good as we hope and the other 3 guys improve under Diantoni's leadership we might have a chance at getting good faster than people think. That's important because we need to make sure Utah gets the least valuable first round pick possible in the 2010 draft. It will be painful to lose another lottery pick this decade. In any event all this is for naught unless we find a franchise point guard to tie it all together. I feel we passed one up when we selected Galinari instead of Augustin but its too late to do anything about that. Finally we need to transition into a Diantoni team.

As a knicks fan I don't see how you can consider Curry a part of any nucleus with positive words attached to it. Long term he's just not a fit, he doesn't care enough about the game to actually improve and fit a role in this system, moving curry should be almost as important as moving ZBo, with 7 million dollars of cap space being the only thing in curry's favor.

Craw is paid way too much if we intend to bring in a major FA in 2010, he'll put up numbers and improve, but he's too much of an iso SG to really live up to his contract under D'Antoni. I could see him having a carreer year this year, but that doesn't mean he'll be worth anywhere close to 10 mill per for us when we're building our team around Gallo, Chandler, Lee and the 2009 pick.

Speaking of Lee a lot of knicks fans are split on him because some think that in this system he'll be able to man the center spot well enough, others such as myself just aren't buying Lee as a starting NBA center even if his jumper comes along as expected due to his poor man to man defense and equally unimpressive help D. Of course he can improve in this area, but I can't picture him guarding a prototypical NBA center man on man. So My contingent believes if 2010 really is the goal that the team can not afford to re-sign him at the 9-10 mill per he's reported to want as he won't be able to start at PF for us, his ideal position. So many of us see trading Lee as a very real and ideal solution and if the knicks can get a lottery pick in return it should be a deal Walsh pounces on.

Short term needs:
It is clear that the twin towers experiment will not work with Randolph and Curry and so that needs to be broken up soon. The team is unlikely to show much improvement while its still a part of the teams makeup and its potential for chemistry issues could cripple the season b4 it begins. Randolph has clearly been the target of Walsh so he should be dealt. That Memphis deal would be ideal in my opinion. Secondly, we need to see if Curry can work with Diantoni's system. Moocow, whose opinions I greatly respect, strongly believes he can. I think there must be some merit to his idea considering Phoenix was willing to add a dinosaur like Shaq to its team. Thirdly, we need to find out if Wilson Chandler's impressive play at the end of last season means he's the real deal or if it was just of flash of brilliance he will never repeat. Fourthly, we need to resolve the Marbury situation once and for all. We're keeping him around because we hope in a contract year he'll be at his best both on and off the court. He needs to be kept on a short leash so that he can be easily strangled with it if he starts acting up. If the Knicks are to attract the big name free agents in that 2010 pipe dream they cannot afford to be an embarrassment anymore so its very important for the locker room to be much more positive this season. And finally, we just need to get tougher defensively. We need other teams to know that there will not be any easy baskets against NY anymore so even though the vast majority of our players are mediocre defenders at best they need to work as a team to compensate for their individual weaknesses.

If Curry isn't in the best shape of his life by TC he just won't be able to survive running with this team for more than 20-25 minutes, hopefully the zbo for marko and darko goes through so we can actually have an post defender on our team, and one that'll eat 20-25 of the minutes at center that curry spends catching his breath is just ideal. That said if a deal comes along where we trade curry for a player who isn't a complete waste of a roster space and expires by 2010 Walsh would likely give it a lot of thought.

[#1knickfan]

Of course I completely disagree with you on almost every point. You are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too pessimistic.

[loserX]

I'll take a run at the Jazz...but as always opinions are going to differ and I'd never claim to speak for everyone. Jazz fans who disagree with me should absolutely speak their mind!

SHORT TERM OUTLOOK
The Jazz have a good strong team...have finished in the upper bracket of the tough Western Conference two years running, and are one of the league's youngest team. In order to take the next step, the Jazz need

(1) Consistency. There has been trouble getting all players firing on all cylinders at the same time, sometimes due to injury, sometimes due to lapses in effort. Some of this will hopefully change as a result of on-court maturation and the guidance of their venerable coaching staff. The team might also benefit in trade from some veteran players...they are NOT looking for projects, prospects or picks at this stage in the team's development.

(2) Interior defence. Unfortunately, the team's best interior defender starts at small forward. The Jazz could definitely use someone to play inside, preferably at C. In my opinion, this player does not need to be an all-star, or even a starter...just someone who can play legitimate minutes behind Okur. Jeff Foster, Kurt Thomas, Etan Thomas are examples. (Note: as always, Jerry Sloan's demanding character and system require that the player have a reasonably high level of "basketball IQ". The Kwame Browns and Stromile Swifts of the league need not apply.)

LONG TERM OUTLOOK
Well, here's the thing...nobody really knows. Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver all could opt out of their contracts, and Paul Millsap will be a restricted free agent. Ownership has declared that they do not want to pay the luxury tax next year, which means some tough choices may have to be made.

School of thought #1: Pre-emptively trade Boozer. One possibility is to trade Boozer for whatever we can in order to avoid losing him for nothing in the offseason. Unless the Jazz completely fall apart this season, I do not see this happening.

School of thought #2: Trade Kirilenko, get cap relief. Another possibility is to attempt to move Andrei Kirilenko in a deal that includes expiring contracts, so the Jazz can allocate that money to other players this offseason. Certainly an option, but a risky one...Kirilenko may be Boozer's replacement at starting PF if Boozer walks. If Kirilenko is traded and Boozer leaves anyway, the team is in big trouble.

School of thought #3: Wait it out. Without knowing for sure what Boozer, Okur and Korver are going to do, it's very difficult to plan properly. In this scenario, the Jazz just play the season out and try to do as well as they possibly can, and deal with the fallout next summer. I honestly think this is the most likely event in the real world.

[cdel00]

Raptors by consensus:

Our biggest need is a slashing 2 who can play defense. I can see our offense getting quite stagnant this year, after losing our two best slashers (arguably, of course, in Ford and Delfino), and we weren't a good slashing team last year either.

We can trade some three point shooting (Parker/Kapono are top 5 in the league) to get it. We already have Calderon and Bargnani who seem to be untouchable/untradable, and can shoot enough three's for us.

An offensive player who can break the defense down. Last year we had TJ, but it would help if we had a SG who can play alongside Calderon. We often struggle for offense when the opposing D clamps down on D, and that's when we have seen TJ and Calderon at their most shot happy. Luckily, Calderon, Parker, Kapono, and Moon have bailed us out of quite a few late shot clock situations with their desperation threes. We can't keep counting on those - especially in the playoffs.

I think everyone will have the same answer.

A legit and athletic SF/SG. Something we haven't had since Vince Carter (been so long). Mike James was that 20ppg guy, but he was a PG.

As corny as it sounds, hopefully Hassan does some slashing this year.

1. Go to - wing player with some athleticism.

Yeah, no question, we need an athletic slashing wing. Now that we've got JO, though, I don't think he needs to be a 20 ppg guy. Somewhere in the teens with a handful of rebounds would be more than enough for me. Oh, and of course, he must play defense.

[ecuhus1981]

New Jersey Nets

Crossroads. Limbo. Holding Pattern. However you want to frame it, the Nets are currently wedged between the most successful extended period in their history, and waiting for a hope and a prayer in 2010. Not only is it the year in which the Nets are preparing to aggressively pursue FAs with a max offer, but it is also the time that our new arena is set to open in Brooklyn.

Devin Harris was not the first choice as a rebuilding piece for NJ President Thorn and GM Vandeweghe in the blockbuster Kidd trade. But with the team's new adoption of the dribble-drive motion offense, a system especially suited to Devin's strengths, it seems as though he is here to stay. Behind him is Keyon Dooling, a veteran combo guard who's made his mark with defense and the midrange shot. If you combined both of them, you'd have about two-thirds of a pure PG, and half of a reliable 3-point shot. So, finding a young 3rd ball-handler with those skills would be nice.

Vince Carter, the oft-maligned de facto leader of this young squad, is coming off of one of his most efficient seasons. A nagging ankle injury limited his above-the-rim play throughout the '07-'08 season, but an offseason "cleaning-out" type surgery has reportedly returned HMHA. Chris Douglas-Roberts was a mid-2nd round steal in this year's draft, and should reap long-term dividends in the rotation. Journeymen Trenton Hassell and Maurice Ager don't figure to have a defined role on our team.

Bobby Simmons, if healthy, should get first crack at the starting SF position. His best days were all before a massive FA contract signed with the Bucks, but there is still hope for recovery. Eduardo Najera is a workhorse combo forward, and even without having played a game, has already established himself as a more vocal leader than either Carter or Harris. Jarvis Hayes replaces some of the marksmanship that the Nets had with Nachbar, and sad to say, is probably a better defender too.

Yi Jianlian has loads of potential for the Nets, both on and off the court. As an international celebrity at the ripe old age of 20 (24?), tapping into his talent and marketing is key for our FO moving forward. These previous three weeks have been his only rest away from basketball in the last four years, and Yi is hungry to show doubters that he can be an impact player. Last year's 1st-round pick Sean Williams surprised many with his defensive acuity, and was rewarded with a selection to the Rookie-Sophomore game. Ryan Anderson is an offensively talented face-up bigman, who will be a valuable contributor once he raises his defensive awareness.

Brook Lopez has the size, strength, length and talent you can't teach. Once considered a top-3 prospect in the draft, he fell to the Nets at 10, and may be better served with less pressure. Josh Boone made huge strides, and gained Coach Frank's trust last season as the steadiest frontcourt performer. So why isn't he starting? In a word, offense. Josh is extremely efficient as a cleanup guy, but will never be an offensive weapon. He will be the benefactor if either Yi or Brook doesn't hit the ground running in training camp, but for now, the Nets simply have too great a need for offense inside not to go with the Twin Towers. Stromile Swift has produced in limited opportunities, but with so many young bigmen to develop, is looking "from the outside in" at any PT at all.

Our frontcourt is overloaded and built to develop youth, rendering anything but a bigtime upgrade unnecessary. Vince Carter could be headed out to complete the rebuild, if he doesn't mesh with our youth. If so, we would seek a full-sized starting-caliber SG to take his place, who is pre-prime (25 and under) and can defend and shoot. A long-term SF is not an asset we seek, but placeholder over the next two years could be valuable.

[trk]

Portland

The Blazers are set at the SG, PF, and C positions. Brandon Roy is already an all-star, while LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden could become all-stars in the near future. Additionally, the Blazers have excellent backups at all of those positions with Rudy Fernandez at SG, Channing Frye at PF, and Joel Przybilla at center.

PG is a bit more of a question mark. Steve Blake is a reliable player who fits well with Roy (since he plays solid defense and can be a shooter off the ball when Roy decides to be a playmaker) and doesn’t make many mistakes, but he isn’t really good enough for most Blazers fans to be happy with him as the starter when the Blazers start contending for championships. However, I think most people would agree that he is good enough for now while we see if Bayless, Fernandez, or Rodriguez will be good enough to take the starting position away from him.

The biggest need at this point is probably at the SF position. Martell Webster is a young, improving player who has the potential to deliver what the Blazers need at that position (defense and outside shooting), but at the moment he just isn’t good enough for fans to be confident that he can be a starter on a championship team. Travis Outlaw is 2 years older, but he is still improving as well and most people would consider him a better player at the moment. However, he does not seem to be a good fit for what we need from our starting SF since his best skill (volume scoring) is already pretty well provided by other players in the lineup.

The Blazers are pretty happy with the roster they have now, so there isn’t a lot of pressure to make trades. If they do make a trade it would probably be to get a starting quality SF. The Blazers don’t need a star scorer at this position; they are looking for more of a “glue guy” type player who is excellent defensively. The Blazers do have an excess of talented young players, so they might be interested in a consolidation trade that sends out several mid-level Blazer players in return for a high-quality starter. They could also use Raef Lafrenz’s large expiring contract to match salaries and take on bad contracts if they have to.

The Blazers will also have lots of cap space in the 2009 off-season due to LaFrentz’s expiring and Francis’ contract coming off the books. If Darius Miles plays in 10 games next season, his contract will go back on the books and reduce the cap space some, but even then there should be a decent amount of cap space left over. If they can’t find a satisfactory solution to the SF position by the end of the season, they could address it by signing a free agent or by using the cap space in a trade during the off-season.

[shrink]

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

BACKGROUND: Over the last year, the Timberwolves have been the most active team in the NBA, and carry only four players that were on their team at the end of 2007, Randy Foye, Rashad McCants, Craig Smith and Mark Madsen. The Kevin Garnett trade allowed the Wolves their first chance to rebuild in eight years, and Kevin McHale cleared out the financial and attitude problems that they had taken on, hoping that "if this risky guy just plays out, we might give KG a chance at a ring." Gone are Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Trenton Hassell, Marko Jaric, Mike James, Antoine Walker, and Juwan Howard and Troy Hudson were bought out. The team now has only one bad contract (Brian Cardinal), plenty of youth, and the potential for four first round picks in next year's draft, so the future looks bright. The Timberwolves seem to be preparing for the 2010 Summer Free Agency, as Al Jefferson and Sebastian Telfair are the only two players with guaranteed contracts for 2010-11, though many of their young players like Randy Foye and Kevin Love are expected to still be here.

TEAM NEEDS: With all of their youth, Minnesota is probably not expecting to make the play-offs this year, and its possible they may sit back and see what they have, and how it gels together. They are more emotionally invested in their lottery pick players than other teams, so I expect that other teams wouldn't want to overpay to get Randy Foye, Corey Brewer, and Kevin Love away from the Wolves. Owner Glen Taylor preached to the community that he would avoid character risk players, and I expect he'd only take one on in a very good deal. After all of the cost-cutting, the Wolves will probably also avoid contracts that are three years or over that affect their 2010 Free Agency.

The biggest need for the Wolves are a defensive center to pair with Al Jefferson, so he can play his more natural PF position. Depending on how their youth develops, this may not be an immediate need, as the Wolves may use their cap space to try to bring in a star center that can play both defense AND offense. I think they could use a 2nd-3rd string PG, since the only two players on the team right now that can play the point are Foye and Telfair, and an injury to either may be difficult to swallow (they since signed Kevin Ollie). An added plus would be to move Brian Cardinal's two-year deal, since there is probably no role for him here.

TRADABLES: After all of the trading they've done, the Wolves are probably limited in what they have to offer until they see how the team works together. However, they have several assets that other teams may find useful:

Rashad McCants ($2.6 mil): 15 PPG scorer off the bench last year who can score on the drive or from the three point line. McCants was out for over a year with microfracture surgery, and when he came back, he played over-aggressively, which created some friction between him and Coach Wittman. He is a great scorer regardless, and it will be interesting to see what he can do when he starts a season healthy.

Rodney Carney ($1.65 mil): A mystery right now, but great athleticism.

Picks: 2009 MIA (top 10 protected), 2009 Utah (Top 23 protected), 2009 Boston (Top 3 protected), two MIA 2nd's.

Cap Space: Expirings of Jason Collins ($6.2 mil), Calvin Booth ($1.14) and a TPE ($1.44)

On December 15th, two very tradable players on good contracts will also be available. Ryan Gomes (2 years guaranteed ave $3.8 mil) and Craig Smith (2 years guaranteed ave $2.4 mil). MIN has plenty of players who can play PF (Jefferson, Kevin Love, Gomes, Craig Smith, Madsen, Cardinal), so I think one, or both of these guys were picked up to be trade pieces.

Mike Miller(?): I don't think he will be traded, but I'm including him here because he's the most asked about Wolf from Trade Board posters. To outsiders (and myself before the trade), Mike Miller looked like a better fit on a team that's closer to the play-offs. He has a well-polished game, he's a vet (well, 27), and he has a vet salary (two years in the $9's). However, he fits the Wolves very well for three reasons. First, McHale opined that last year in his attempt to get the team young, he perhaps made it too young, and Miller is a smart vet with BB IQ, but only 27. Second, his position flexibility (and even willingness to be a sixth man!) helps the Wolves because they don't know which youth will develop, and which will fail. Third, Mike Miller wants to be a Timberwolf! Miller grew up in South Dakota, and trips to the big city of Minneapolis to see his favorite sports teams were the high points of his youth. The Wolves need skilled players that want to live in Minneapolis.

Current Roster:

Foye/Telfair
Corey Brewer/McCants
Mike Miller/Gomes/Carney
Kevin Love/Craig Smith/Cardinal/Madsen
Al Jefferson/Jason Collins/(Chris Richard?)/Booth

Contracts:

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages ... wolves.jsp

The Wolves may finally sit quietly for a while to see what they have, but McHale has been an active trader. If the Wolves do a big deal for a contract that runs 3-years or more, it will probably be a deal involving Mike Miller for a star center who they are willing to use cap space on now, and avoid competing in free agency down the road. MIN's more likely role though is to help facilitate a trade between two other teams, converting assets into pieces the other team is more willing to digest, such as Collins expiring, the TPE or picks.

[djthesonicsfan]

TFKAS (Team Formerly Known As Sonics)
Edited
8 January 2009
7 March 2009


Team needs:

- Time for Durant, Green & Westbrook to gain experience. Anyone who follows the game can see those three kids can play. And they're exactly the right kind of guys you'd want to develop a team around. For that Presti should be seriously recognized. But Green is only 22 years old. And Durant & Westbrook each just turned 20. Not even old enough to buy themselves a beer. The words "high ceiling" & "potential" are way overused. In the case of these three kids those words fit perfectly.

- Killer instinct to win close games. Durant has already won a bunch himself. Well ok... a few. The entire damn team has hardly won a bunch. In fact, they've lost loads of close games. It's been tough. Like watching starving lion cubs fumble around in the wilderness trying to figure out how to kill a beetle. It would have been a lot better if Ray Allen & Rashard Lewis had been teaching them. But they aren't. They'll still get there. It'll just take a longer. And might cost Scott Brooks his job eventually. Which is too bad because so far he's done a decent job of it.

- Divest themselves of the guys not committed to the team. Johan Petro has turned into Thabo Sefolosha... great. Chris Wilcox is gone, as is Joe Smith. Why the hell the Tyson Chandler deal fell through is anybody's guess but my guess is it had to do with finances. By that I mean Bennett realizing he's already got $16M going to Nenad Krstic. Too bad. Anyway, Mo Sene got cut... who can believe he hasn't been snatched up?! So that just leaves Earl Watson & Damien Wilkins left as next season's expiring contract trade fodder. Didn't include Chucky Atkins on the roster as my bet is he'll be let go over the summer as most his salary is not guaranteed. The big question is will Presti try to trade those expiring contracts for another legit player?

- A couple of weeks ago I would've said a legit center. But I've heard enough from Nets fans, and I have learned to respect Presti's eye for talent, that I'm willing to suspend my "trade the farm for Kaman" campaign until we've had a good long look at Nenad Krstic. And so far so good. I think he's legit. Although I would have preferred Tyson Chandler no doubt.

- A legit starting two guard. With superior athleticism, size (6'5" or better), three ball range, high bball IQ & a desire to defend. Sounds a lot like Brandon Rush or Courtney Lee. Two guys I was pulling for with last year's second 1st. Also sounds a lot like James Harden. A likely pick with this year's 1st... if it's not Griffin. Or Rubio. Thabo Sefolosho has been great so far. He brings defensive intensity, rebounding & on the offensive end he contributes a lot like Ronnie Brewer. Not a great shooter. But an outstanding member of the rotation. As will be Kyle Weaver. Still, adding James Harden would be excellent.

Roster:

Sadly, this season is a not about winning games. See above. So the faithful find themselves looking forward to better days. Next season brings much more promise for a few reasons: (a) the kids will be that much more experienced, (b) the house cleaning will be almost done, (c) Presti has a boat load of draft picks & (d) Presti has about $30M in 2009 cap space. So ya, it's a lot funner to think about how they're going to get better than it is how bad they suck at the moment. Here's how things may turn out in June...

Scenario - Draft Griffin
Starters - Westbrook, Sefolosha, Durant, Griffin, Krstic
Rotation - Watson, Green, Weaver, Collison
Bench - Denver 1st, White, Wilkins

Green becomes the team's sixth man... a role in which he could thrive. Probably a point guard with the Denver pick.

Scenario - Draft Harden
Starters - Westbrook, Harden, Durant, Green, Krstic
Rotation - Weaver, Collison, Sefolosha, White
Bench - Denver 1st, Wilkins, Watson

I like what Harden brings to this lineup. As much for Harden's leadership & bball IQ as his on court talent. Could Weaver take over the role of backup PG? Still probably another point guard with the Denver pick... how about Eric Maynor? Maybe Serge Ibaka is asked join this roster as fifth big?

Scenario - Draft Rubio
Starters - Rubio, Westbrook, Durant, Green, Krstic
Rotation - Weaver, Collison, Sefolosha, White
Bench - Nuggets 1st, Watson, Wilkins

In this case it's likely that Westbrook slides over to the shooting guard spot & teams with Rubio to make a dynamite backcourt, even if they might be a little on the small side. But so what. Those two can play, which is way more important. Maybe Ibaka comes over in this scenario too?

Future Potential Transactions:

Looking forward, it appears Presti is well on his way towards building a young competitive team without having to add a free agent or trade (expirings or TPE). Accordingly, he can continue to interact with his GM colleagues from a position of strength.

Presti's free agent strategy will be largely dependant on how he makes out in the lottery. And how Krstic grades out at the end of the season. With the looming economic disaster he may just add a couple more rookies and let the expirings (Watson & Wilkins) expire as his kids grow up. Or he could go after Boozer or Millsap (just say no to Ben Gordon). Or he could use his capspace to pick up a legit starter in a TPE deal. There are a lot of possibilities. The only sure things are Durant, Westbrook & Green are not getting traded. And it'd have to be a major good deal for Presti to let go of this June's 1st pick if it's in the top three.

[jazzfan1971]

I'll take a run at the Jazz...but as always opinions are going to differ and I'd never claim to speak for everyone. Jazz fans who disagree with me should absolutely speak their mind!

SHORT TERM OUTLOOK
The Jazz have a good strong team...have finished in the upper bracket of the tough Western Conference two years running, and are one of the league's youngest team. In order to take the next step, the Jazz need

(1) Consistency. There has been trouble getting all players firing on all cylinders at the same time, sometimes due to injury, sometimes due to lapses in effort. Some of this will hopefully change as a result of on-court maturation and the guidance of their venerable coaching staff. The team might also benefit in trade from some veteran players...they are NOT looking for projects, prospects or picks at this stage in the team's development.

(2) Interior defence. Unfortunately, the team's best interior defender starts at small forward. The Jazz could definitely use someone to play inside, preferably at C. In my opinion, this player does not need to be an all-star, or even a starter...just someone who can play legitimate minutes behind Okur. Jeff Foster, Kurt Thomas, Etan Thomas are examples. (Note: as always, Jerry Sloan's demanding character and system require that the player have a reasonably high level of "basketball IQ". The Kwame Browns and Stromile Swifts of the league need not apply.)

LONG TERM OUTLOOK
Well, here's the thing...nobody really knows. Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Kyle Korver all could opt out of their contracts, and Paul Millsap will be a restricted free agent. Ownership has declared that they do not want to pay the luxury tax next year, which means some tough choices may have to be made.

School of thought #1: Pre-emptively trade Boozer. One possibility is to trade Boozer for whatever we can in order to avoid losing him for nothing in the offseason. Unless the Jazz completely fall apart this season, I do not see this happening.

School of thought #2: Trade Kirilenko, get cap relief. Another possibility is to attempt to move Andrei Kirilenko in a deal that includes expiring contracts, so the Jazz can allocate that money to other players this offseason. Certainly an option, but a risky one...Kirilenko may be Boozer's replacement at starting PF if Boozer walks. If Kirilenko is traded and Boozer leaves anyway, the team is in big trouble.

School of thought #3: Wait it out. Without knowing for sure what Boozer, Okur and Korver are going to do, it's very difficult to plan properly. In this scenario, the Jazz just play the season out and try to do as well as they possibly can, and deal with the fallout next summer. I honestly think this is the most likely event in the real world.

School of thought #1971: Move Boozer for a Quality center. Include anyone but Deron to make it happen. Be it Bynum, Bogut, Kaman, or Okafor. Bring in someone that can score inside as well as block shots. Move the Knicks pick if necessary. Try to keep 2 of AK, Millsap, or Okur, preferably AK, then Okur, then Millsap. If this kind of trade is unavailable, hold out to next year and see what shakes out with sign and trade deals before making any panic moves.

[The Rebel]

Denver Nuggets

Team needs: The Nuggets need a starting quality Pg preferably young that can develop along with Melo and JR, they need the PG to be a pass first type that can slash and also hit the occasional outside shot. They are also in need of backup bigs that are on a decent contract and can fill the roles of one outside shooter and an inside scorer, they should be all around solid rotation players as the Nuggets have a bad injury history upfront.

Even if the Nuggets move one or two of their sg/sf they have no need to bring in more, as the are set there with melo, AI as starters and Jr waiting in the wings to take AIs slot and kleiza being a solid 6th man/ starter if need be, they also added Balkman and Weems both of whom they like.

Trade bait: at this time their biggest piece is AI who does not fit with Melo and does not seem to be in their long term plans, plus they have several pieces to replace him once he has moved on.

They will also move Kleiza in the right deal, but people need to be aware that they view him on or above the same level as Portland views Outlaw, and Atlanta views Williams people forget that he puts up comparable per minute numbers on a better team while fighting for minutes with JR being behind two all stars, he is far from a throw in and will not be traded as such.

Other than that they would like to move either KMart or Nene, but only in deals where they are getting a solid big or starting PG while saving money, as both are seen as to good to just give away at this point (in other words they like their crappy deals better then everybody elses crappy deals right now).

Both Atkins and Hunter are available as throw ins but only in trades that bring in upgrades for them.

Financial outlook: While the Nuggets have some big contracts on their players, moving camby this year as opposed to trying to dump him next year has freed up some money next offsesaon with the expiring contract of AI putting them with a cap of right around $61 million if they cut Atkins and drop the rights to AI, and resign Kleiza. With the $10+ million trade exception, the MLE, the LLE, and both draft picks the Nuggets are in a position to add 3-4 quality players within the next year who fit what they are looking for, all while staying under the projected tax and only losing AI and some end of the bench guys.

Summary: the Nuggets are only going to do deals that fit what they are looking for, which are quality players on decent contracts that can fill the roles they need filled. While they would like to move KMart or Nene they are not going to do so if it does not benefit the team, this year or next offseason. They have no inclination to wait for 2010 and want to rebuild this team around JR and Melo to contend over the next year, which considering they won 50 games last year while having 2 starters miss the entire season is entirely possible. So they are far from desperate.

[Harry10]

Atlanta Hawks

1. a defensive Center who will allow Horford to play some minutes at PF. Kwame Brown was $1M too expensive, so the Hawks had to settle for Randolph Morris. Morris is young and has the potential to be that guy, but as of now, he is not.

2. a 3pt shooting Point Guard, who is a decent athlete. Bibby gives the Hawks +9 points a game, but he also allows +9 points a game. because of Joe Johnson, Atlanta is one of the few NBA teams that doesn't need a PG with PG skills. Hopefully Acie Law will turn into that guy, but as of now, he is not and it is still a need, but maybe in the second half of the year Acie can take that role. this is also an area where Flip Murry can help out.

3. offensive wing player that can create for himself. this is not a responce to the Josh Childress lose, because Childress was not a player who could create for himself. the Hawks' offense becomes stagnant when Joe Johnson leaves the game and teams tend to pull away when ever Joe sits on the bench. Flip Murry was a great pick up for the Hawks, based on his pass, he seems like a player that can fill this role, in addition, with Bibby's, Speedy's, and Law's history of injuries, Murry will can also be a great PG insurance policy for the Hawks.

4. a better head coach. for years Hawks fans have watched this team try to play a grind it out, half court Detroit Pistons style of basketball and it has not worked. the Hawks are a team that is filled with athletes and this slow pace style hasn't worked out well, but last year is the first time we saw the Hawks finally play a fast pace, full court style of basketball, and it worked well against the Celtics. Althought Mike Woodson has been a horrible coach for year for the Hawks, we did see some brilliance from him in the last 6 out of 7 games the Hawks played last year. Hopefully Woodson can learn what he did in the Celtics series and carry it over to this year for the whole season.

[Patterns]

School of thought #1971: Move Boozer for a Quality center. Include anyone but Deron to make it happen. Be it Bynum, Bogut, Kaman, or Okafor. Bring in someone that can score inside as well as block shots. Move the Knicks pick if necessary. Try to keep 2 of AK, Millsap, or Okur, preferably AK, then Okur, then Millsap. If this kind of trade is unavailable, hold out to next year and see what shakes out with sign and trade deals before making any panic moves.

Bynum is off limits unless CPaul, Dwight or Lebron comes along.

Bogut and Okafor are probably off limits too, at least not for Boozer. Kaman, maybe but can you really be an elite team with Kaman?

The Jazz are in a little hole here. They don't look like they can win the championship with the Celtics, Lakers, Spurs, Hornets, and now the Hornets here. There is a good chance that they'll lose Boozer and AK for nothing and neither of them are playing particularly well and their values have dropped.

I see the Jazz signing Boozer to an extension while trading AK away in the near future.

[TheNewEra]

Interested if a clip fan would do a write up on us. Really don't have the patience to do a complete review like the others. Even if not a clip fan it would be cool to see some thought on a direction our team should work on.

This is a cool topic and would like to see one from every team so far so good.