Discussing Other Teams' Moves (Part IV)

Post #81 » by **LyricalRico** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 12:45 am

Well, Gordon gets about the same amount he turned down from Chicago last year so good for him. But I agree with the other sentiments that Detroit made a questionable decision here. Of course we're assuming that they intend on keeping Hamilton, which they might not (in which case the Gordon signing makes more sense).

At least they didn't overpay for Charlie V. He got basically MLE money, which is about the going rate for bigs who can score in double figures, especially young ones who may still be improving. And it still leaves them with a decent chunk to spend on a sub-MLE player who can be part of the rotation.

If they could turn Rip into a space-eating center, they could be decent. Chris Kaman?

Kaman/Kwame
Villanueva/Maxiell
Prince/Summers (will beat out Austin Daye for minutes)
Gordon/Afflalo
Stuckey/Bynum

That's a decent young lineup with an excellent defensive second unit. If Villanueva and Stuckey can take the next step as scorers, they could be a competitive team. They will still have a big chunk of cap space in 2010 and then in 2011 they'll have no problem extending Stuckey without paying the luxury tax.

Maybe you don't agree with who Dumars is spending money on, but he doesn't have a bad overall financial plan IMO.

Post #82 » by **LyricalRico** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 12:48 am

mhd wrote:I'm glad Charlie didn't go to Cleveland. He's the perfect fit for that team in a PF.

Agreed. Adding Villanueva as a scoring 4 would have made the Cavs the clear favorites to win the title and would have given them a young piece to possibly grow with LeBron. Him choosing Detroit instead just helped the rest of the contenders in the East.

Wizards2Lottery · Post #83 » by **Wizards2Lottery** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 12:49 am

What is wrong with Memphis?

Post #84 » by **LyricalRico** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 12:51 am

mhd wrote:WOW! Clips trade Randolph for Q. Richardson. Never thought they would get an expiring for Zach, but the Clips did it. They also saved a ton of cash.

I like the move for Memphis too. They will never sign a FA, so get a good PF in ZBo. Cleveland should have targetted Zach IMO.

Wait...didn't they turn down ZBo for an expiring just last week? I guess that was for somebody different. Anyway, it's great for LAC since they cut longterm salary and open the way for Blake to start from Day One. Memphis will still be bad so they're basically spending money for nothing. Oh well.

Wizards2Lottery · Post #85 » by **Wizards2Lottery** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:01 am

They turned down Darko for Zbo earlier.

yungal07 · Post #86 » by **yungal07** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:04 am

Detroit's moves sucked and make no sense whatsoever. Dumars went from a top flight GM to crap in a matter of a year.

I expect Rip to demand a trade soon.

Post #87 » by **LyricalRico** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:43 am

mhd wrote:Cavs are reportedly looking at Artest. Artest would be good at defending wing players, but he's a horrible outside shooter in terms of taking dumb shots. If I were Artest, I'd sign with Boston.

Artest really struggled to fit in with Yao and TMac when they were healthy in Houston. Why would things be any different in Cleveland with Shaq and LeBron? He's not what they need and would be a bad fit IMO. That being said - I hope they sign him.

MJG · Post #88 » by **MJG** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:54 am

Gilbert0Arenas wrote:What is wrong with Memphis?

They seem to exist purely to improve the other 29 franchises.

standupwiz · Post #89 » by **standupwiz** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 2:03 am

wouldn't stuckey/gordan be a small backcourt to start?

mhd · Post #90 » by **mhd** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 2:15 am

I posted this in the general forum. You think the Clippers could become a Lebron player in 2010 with the cap space they get with th Randolph trade? Honestly, that team would be the favs IMO with lebron at the helm a year from now.

PG: Davis/Taylor
SG: Gordon/
SF: Lebron/Thorton
PF: Griffin/
C: Kaman/Jordan

forthepeople · Post #91 » by **forthepeople** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 3:48 am

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4301414

I really hope the cavs don't get Ariza. While Gil might be using this summer to be more of a true PG, I know Lebron is trying to add that post game

. When they play Lebron at PF with shaq and ariza they are a scary defensive front court. I hope there are some quality guys left in the front court after this free agency grab settles down a bit.

mohammed10 · Post #92 » by **mohammed10** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 7:22 am

mhd wrote:WOW! Clips trade Randolph for Q. Richardson. Never thought they would get an expiring for Zach, but the Clips did it. They also saved a ton of cash.

I like the move for Memphis too. They will never sign a FA, so get a good PF in ZBo. Cleveland should have targetted Zach IMO.

Finding a taker for Randolph is a coup for the Clippers. Now they don't have to trade away Kaman or Camby. Unfortunately for us Wiz fans, I think at this point we can assume Camby is no longer an option.

:roll:

Post #93 » by **LyricalRico** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 10:44 am

Somebody might be willing to pay Ariza MORE than the MLE?!?! :crazy:

Post #94 » by **miller31time** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 11:33 am

What the heck is Detroit doing? Blowing all of their money on two players who *might* make them the perennial 7th or 8th seed in the East?

And this is only going to piss Hamilton off - the player they just gave a huge contract to. Yeesh.

Post #95 » by **nate33** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 12:13 pm

Yup. Detroit is going to regret their choices big time. They were in the driver's seat. Detroit and Portland were the only good teams with cap room, and Detroit had the most room. They could have had the best free agents on the market. Millsap, Odom and Lee are all better than Villaneuva. And Gordon isn't worth $11M a year.

Detroit should have waited a bit longer. Memphis has already blown their cap space on Randolph. Portland is about to use their's on Turkaglu. That would leave Detroit as the only real player. They could have then offered $7M a year deals and likely found some takers since everybody else could only offer $5.5M. They would have ended up with 3 good players on good contracts.

fishercob · Post #96 » by **fishercob** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 12:55 pm

Seriously, a better option for Detroit would have been to do absolutely nothing, add another lotto pick and then spend their FA money next summer. Add this disaster to the Darko pick and the Billups trade and Joe Dumars looks like one of the worst GM's in the league!

I'm curious about Cleveland's pursuit of Artest and Ariza. They're both excellent players who will undoubtedly help the Cavs, but I wonder what their plans are defensively. Is Lebron going to guard PF's? If you play LBJ with Artest/Ariza + Shaq, Delonte and Mo, someone is guarding outside their comfort zone. I'm sure Artest/Ariza can gaurd some 4's, but they're not natural post defenders. If they add one of those guys (particularly Artest) and keep Varejao, I don't see them not winning a ring next year, but who knows.

Post #97 » by **nate33** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:07 pm

I read somewhere that the plan is to move Lebron to PF.

I've been saying they should do that for 2 years now. Lebron has the size and strength to guard all but the burliest PF's in the league. If you move him to PF on offense, no other PF in the league has any chance whatsoever to guard him. It would be a complete matchup nightmare, forcing other teams to go small. Then Cleveland can run them to death with Lebron in the open floor.

All they need is a quality SF who is quick enough and shoots well enough that other teams can't guard him with a PF. Either Artest or Ariza would work out fine.

fishercob · Post #98 » by **fishercob** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:21 pm

That's playing right into our hands. Lebron has no chance of scoring on Jamison!

Post #99 » by **LyricalRico** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 1:43 pm

^ I can understand them moving quickly on Villanueva since they had competition from the Cavs (not saying he was the guy they should have gone after, just that I can understand the timing). But NOBODY else wanted Gordon. They could easily have waited and gotten him for cheaper. Maybe they could have gotten 3 players for the same price they paid for just 2.

verbal8 · Post #100 » by **verbal8** » Thu Jul 2, 2009 2:17 pm

LyricalRico wrote:^ I can understand them moving quickly on Villanueva since they had competition from the Cavs (not saying he was the guy they should have gone after, just that I can understand the timing). But NOBODY else wanted Gordon. They could easily have waited and gotten him for cheaper. Maybe they could have gotten 3 players for the same price they paid for just 2.

Yeah the Villanueva deal seems reasonable, but the Gordon deal seems like they overpaid and were bidding against themselves.