Draft Picks / Free Agents / Trades; Let's talk targets

Who do you suggest...Cousins?

1) I'm not sure we could even get a 2nd round pick for Prince. His contract's awful. I guess there's a chance that a contender could be infatuated with him (maybe their GM doesn't watch much basketball??) and desperate enough to make a move though.

2) Mayo's an RFA, correct? Might be hard to get..

3) Smith strikes me as someone who will go wherever the money is greatest - and we may be the only team willing to give him a max deal.

4) Millsap - I don't like signing a max FA to be a backup. :/

Replacement?

In terms of what will stick, we're basically losing Monroe and getting Leonard. I like Leonard a lot, but I don't think that's equal value, and I think we could hold out for more if we decided that Monroe wasn't going to work out.

Dude...the Burke / Bynum comparision is absolutely ludicris (sp?). Bennett's not an option unless we move Monroe. And no, we don't have any starting NBA 2-guards.

Leonard-Millsap-Drummond would be a great frontcourt.

I thought I suggested Leonard...

There will be a lot of teams that can give him a max deal, Atlanta has the ability to give him more than anyone else, he's already said he wants to stay in Atlanta, and they only have barely on $25 million in contract commitments next year.

Playoffs?

We are currently 4.0 games out of the last playoff spot, which is currently inhabited by Boston, who is 14-16 (.467).


8) Boston (14-16)
______________
9) Philly (14-17) .5 games back
10) Orlando (12-19) 2.5 gb
11) Toronto (11-20) 3.5 gb
12) Detroit (12-22) 4.0 gb

There is really nobody behind us that can catch us.


Just as a thought experiment, let's say that all of the teams ahead of us continue to play at their current win rate. What do we have to do to overtake them?


Boston has the highest current win rate, so extrapolating their record out, we get

38-44


That means that Detroit would need to go 26-22 from here on out to catch them. (.542 bball). That is somewhere between the Bucks and the Nets quality wise.
We have 24 home games and 24 road games left, so no schedule advantage. We have played more games than any other team for some reason, so we do get some break in terms of frequency.

We have 4 games against the Bobcats unplayed. 2 against the Hornets. 2 more against the Wizards. Other than that though, I don't see any imbalances that would lead me to believe the worst is over.

It all comes down to whether our "real" lineup and rotation is capable of winning games at a slightly better than break even rate. Does 30 minutes of Drummond every night gets us there? Can Bynum/Daye/ and Villanueva continue to be the NBA's most productive bench? Will there be a game changing trade?


I figure the worst case is that this post jinxes the crap out of us and it improves our draft pick. The best case is that we are starting our season long equivalent of the 22 point 4th quarter comeback and we can find ourselves getting slaughtered by the Heat in the 1st round come May.


Of course, if BOS plays .500 ball or better from here on out, we are completely hosed. That is probably the most likely scenario.

I don't see the alien intervention happening.

Nice Scouting Video on Ben McClemore

Otto Porter, will remind you a lot of Tayshaun Prince

Why do they always have "defensive potential" instead of "defense" for their strengths?

potential = currently not good

Right, if you saw on a scouting report that a guy plays good defense and has offensive potential, you'd type cast him as a Kraktsov type. It would be understood that if you passed him the ball, he would probably not score.

Imagine a blind date where you buddy tells you that she has the potential to be attractive.

Detroit Pistons’ Bynum talking playoffs - The Daily Tribune

Now we're talking. Bynum is putting the tank in reverse people.

Me too. Who was the guy a few years back that apparently knew someone in the organization and would come with these crazy rumors he swore were from Joe D himself. Nothing ever panned out.