Al Harrington wants out, what do ya'll think?

[UCFknight84]

He reportedly doesnt wanna play for Don Nelson anymore, I think he would fit nicely on the perimeter with Dwight in the post. He's got a great outside shot. But is he worth trading for Hedo, probably not.

[AgEnT50]

I'm def open to it. . .but not trading HEDO for him

[DiplomaticMagic]

I saw the headline, and I knew this was going to be a topic on here soon.

I wouldn't do it. I know Nelson is an idiot, but Al sometimes just look like an idiot out there.

[orl1724]

I think most people specially on this forum overate Hedo a lot! If we ever want Lewis to play like the guy we are paying we need him to start at the 3. The only way to do it is by getting a PF. Al Harrington seems like a perfect fit, he can shoot 3s and still rebound and play somewhat solid defense. He is also not too bad of a passer.

Dwight
Al
Lewis
MP
Meer

is better than

Dwight
Lewis
Hedo
MP
Nelson

[spinedoc]

I saw the headline, and I knew this was going to be a topic on here soon.

I wouldn't do it. I know Nelson is an idiot, but Al sometimes just look like an idiot out there.

I thought the same thing. I would definitely do this, and of course it would take Hedo to do it too. We aren't going to get him for loose ends. We need a pf, and he's a bit of a tweener, but definitely more of a pf with his style of play. Plus it puts Hedo out west, vs say Miami for Haslem. Its a no brainer for me, there just isn't that much out there that is or could be available for us in a trade. I'd jump at this one.

[Optimus_Steel]

No I wont do a Hedo for Harrington trade. Our weaknesses, Harrington does not fix.

[glennathan]

I said it early in the off-season about possibly looking at Monta Ellis or Al Harrington. I got burned bad for it. For obvious reasons we are not going to get Ellis and I would love to have Harrington here. He could go out on the perimiter and guard bigs like Dirk and Bosh who have an outside shot. He would be a solid PF that would give us the opportunity to bring Rashard back to the SF position where he belongs. I am all about giving up Hedo, Bogans, Rights to Fran to get Harrington in here. (I did it and it works financially for us. Here is the trade number per the trade checker plus gives us a chance to cleanup the logjam at the 2 - Trade ID #4791110 )

for anyone who wants to read the article here it is.

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wireta ... for_trade/

[Bensational]

i'd really like to study the times that the lineup on court looks like this:

Dwight
Battie
Lewis
Pietrus/Hedo/whoever
Nelson

just to see if Lewis suddenly becomes Kobe Bryant or something. the way you guys talk about him, you'd think he has some amazing transformation the moment he begins play SF....

and as far as getting the "value" out of Lewis' contract, by playing him at his natural position, is it considered value if he gives us 3-4ppg more, whilst we lose out on all of Hedo's apg? and would the forward replacing Hedo give us the outside shot that Hedo has, which keeps defenses honest??

seriously, the whole "we're paying Lewis lots, we need to get value out of that contract" is a lame argument unless you're talking about adjusting the entire lineup to make up for the loss of Hedo. Chris Webber aint in his prime, and i don't know of many other PF's that are goin around dropping the dimes that Hedo does. Lewis certainly doesn't. Pietrus can't make up for that. Nelson has been inconsistent his whole career.

Lewis does just fine at PF. he just needs to learn to maximise his game there and become more aggressive, which is what he says he's done over the offseason.

[magicmamma]

i'd really like to study the times that the lineup on court looks like this:

Dwight
Battie
Lewis
Pietrus/Hedo/whoever
Nelson

just to see if Lewis suddenly becomes Kobe Bryant or something. the way you guys talk about him, you'd think he has some amazing transformation the moment he begins play SF....

and as far as getting the "value" out of Lewis' contract, by playing him at his natural position, is it considered value if he gives us 3-4ppg more, whilst we lose out on all of Hedo's apg? and would the forward replacing Hedo give us the outside shot that Hedo has, which keeps defenses honest??

seriously, the whole "we're paying Lewis lots, we need to get value out of that contract" is a lame argument unless you're talking about adjusting the entire lineup to make up for the loss of Hedo. Chris Webber aint in his prime, and i don't know of many other PF's that are goin around dropping the dimes that Hedo does. Lewis certainly doesn't. Pietrus can't make up for that. Nelson has been inconsistent his whole career.

Lewis does just fine at PF. he just needs to learn to maximise his game there and become more aggressive, which is what he says he's done over the offseason.

Well said. SVG likes the Shard-Hedo combo. Shard is happy playing PF now. His preseason play has been simply brilliant. We have Tony to come in when we need someone bigger. What problem are these people trying to fix by sending away the MIP?

[TheGlyde]

The problem of having Shard worn down by seasons end playing PF all year and not firing in the playoffs.

Vs the Pistons:
9-20 (0-4 from 3pt) Loss
6-21 (2-8 from 3pt) Loss
11-15 (5-6 from 3pt) Win
6-13 (2-4 from 3pt) Loss
4-13 (2-6 from 3pt) Loss

Simply put, we need a fresh and firing Lewis in the playoffs to win games.

I don't think its about 'getting value for Shard's contract' I think its about this team as currently constructed not being able to (IMO) win a championship.

Could we with a Lewis/Bruiser/Howard frontline? I don't know, but we may as well give it a shot.

We didn't sign Lewis to be a 3rd wheel, we didn't extend Nelson to defer to Hedo. Give these guys the jobs they were signed for and see if we can reach our potential. If we can't, then Otis overpaid for both and should be fired and we move on before Dwights best years are wasted.

Then you have to factor in the possibility of losing Hedo for nothing...

However, given all of the above reasoning as to why Ive been calling for Hedo to be moved, I value him more than Harrington and agree with prorl... I want a bruiser PF who will average more than 5rpg.

[Neon1]

Al Harrington would be one of the few PF's with the skills that SVG needs out of that position to be effective in this setup. That being said the above trade is FAR to much value to give up to get him, its very unnecesary.

I would consider trading a 2009 1st round pick Cook (3pt shooting expiring big, which is something Nellie likes.)and Battie for Harrington and Hendrix.

We can easily sign a free agent big to replace Battie. Hell we could even bring Dwayne Jones back.

I wouldnt give up the core. And you guys expecting Rashard to tranform into TMac because of a switch of positions will be very dissapointed. Offensively hes the same player regardless of SF/PF, But defensively hes 5x worse at the SF.

[spinedoc]

I have to disagree. I haven't heard anything about Lewis happy playing pf, or Stan liking the Hedo/Lewis combo . But I have heard them both say that Lewis is playing out of position and making sacrifices. I believe Stan is thinking of ways to get him more time at his natural position. It might not be through a trade like a lot of us would like, but at least getting another pf that can take more of the minutes up front for starters. Either way, they want to get him to play more sf. I'd just like to solidify it a little more than the organization probably.

I'm definitely in the camp that believes we aren't maximizing our investment in Lewis though. He doesn't play pf that well enough to get starters minutes there, so why do it and pay max dollars for it? He can stretch the defense later in games through mis-matches, but he doesn't hold up well against starters. I also disagree with the notion about losing all of Hedo's stats like that. The entire team will absorb them, as well as the new player replacing him. Also, they don't have to be mutually exclusive either. Its not like we need all of Hedo's assists, when we are getting more rebounds, blocked shots, and outlet passes that lead to fast break points. As one stat category goes up, the need to create stats in other places goes down. I guess I don't understand the need to replicate Hedo's numbers just because we trade him away.

[magicfanatic23]

I have said I'd be open to trading Hedo for a legit PF but not that package. Hedo, Bogans, Fran seems like a hell of a lot to give up for Harrington. I would like Al but not giving up that much. If it's a Hedo trade I would like maybe Hedo for Haslem or Wilcox and then use Bogans and Fran to get us more help at the PG position. Using 3 assets we have to acquire one who probably isn't better than Hedo and Bogans combined is dumb. This is just a knee jerk reaction to the headline. I like Harrington but not for all of this.

[golfreak]

I really like AH as the PF and having Lewis playing the SF.
While AH is not a true PF, hes the kind of PF that would fit perfectly with the Magic.
Good outside shooting, decent rebounder, and he has some meat on his bones to handle the bigger PF.
If Hedo was signed for longer than this season, I'd say NO.
But hes not and getting him resign might be difficult.
AH is signed for this and the next season and hes actually 1 yr younger than Hedo.
His salary is not that high either.~10mil.
Hedo+Bogan/Cook for AH is about right and the salaries match.
Don't see why GS would not make that deal.

[Bensational]

I have to disagree. I haven't heard anything about Lewis happy playing pf, or Stan liking the Hedo/Lewis combo . But I have heard them both say that Lewis is playing out of position and making sacrifices. I believe Stan is thinking of ways to get him more time at his natural position. It might not be through a trade like a lot of us would like, but at least getting another pf that can take more of the minutes up front for starters. Either way, they want to get him to play more sf. I'd just like to solidify it a little more than the organization probably.

I'm definitely in the camp that believes we aren't maximizing our investment in Lewis though. He doesn't play pf that well enough to get starters minutes there, so why do it and pay max dollars for it? He can stretch the defense later in games through mis-matches, but he doesn't hold up well against starters. I also disagree with the notion about losing all of Hedo's stats like that. The entire team will absorb them, as well as the new player replacing him. Also, they don't have to be mutually exclusive either. Its not like we need all of Hedo's assists, when we are getting more rebounds, blocked shots, and outlet passes that lead to fast break points. As one stat category goes up, the need to create stats in other places goes down. I guess I don't understand the need to replicate Hedo's numbers just because we trade him away.

it's not about replacing his numbers, but replacing his role. he's our primary facilitator on offense. right now he's the guy who finds Dwight the most for open shots. why give that up?

removing Hedo and replacing him with a bruising PF would help on D, but we'd need that PF to be able to spread the defense when on offense so Dwight has room to move. at least until Dwight becomes enough of a beast he can take 2 men at a time

i think Nelson could run a team just fine, but only if it was constructed a different way. the system SVG runs isn't really conducive to a PG making the assist that counts. it takes a few passes until they find the shot they want. that means the team NEEDS another playmaker. if Pietrus or Lewis could distribute it wouldn't be a problem.

i figure, like Glyde says, the team is constructed a certain way right now. we know what's working, so let's ride it as far as we can. Lewis is young enough that if in 2- 3 years we're not winning playing this style we can still change tack and try something different.

i don't believe we should make a martyr of the team simply because Otis gave out bad contracts though. if Dwight was earning $2mil a season and Battie was earning $20mil a season, i wouldn't be demanding Dwight defer to Bat-man.

[Catledge]

Maybe I'm just drinking the SVG koolaid too much, but I think the system we are running now is the best for maximizing Dwight's production at both ends, which I care about a lot more than maximizing Shard's production.

I think this group will get better just with Jameer and Dwight's continued development and Shard's increased comfort at the 4. I also think that Shard's play against the Pistons had at least as much to do with Detroit being good defensively and the whole team feeling the playoff pressure than with him physically breaking down. The suggestion that he suddenly ran out of gas between the first and second rounds strikes me as a little far fetched, and even so, Battie's return to the rotation and Gortat's increased playing time (fingers crossed that he earns it) should give Lews an extra 3-4 minutes of rest per game.

[Last Guardian]

You won't see an improvement in the team unless you get a superstar PF. Other than that, you can't ever convince me that a PF like Harrington or Haslem would be able to produce more than Lewis does at the position.

And Hedo continues to be disrespected. His skillset is twice that of Harringtons. You don't give up production and talent just to get a guy who is more natural at a certain position. Thats bad management.

[EasternMagic]

Yes i do that. Come on guys, I know we love hedo but this moves shard to the three and yes he would be better at that position, and harington is a fitting 4 for this team, and we get rid of bogans and fran which in my mind is a plus. Harrington makes this team better, that being said this trade would never happen so whatever

[Tommy Udo 6]

No more than a couple hours after Al Harrington demanded a trade out of Golden State, the Bulls and Warriors had discussions about a trade that would send him to Chicago. The Bulls likely would send one of their many guards to the Warriors. Many scenarios have been thrown out, but apparently the Warriors are most interested in Kirk Hinrich and Thabo Sefolosha. If Sefolosha would be in the deal someone with a larger contract would have to be included. The Warriors have talked to many other teams as well and it’s possible they could wait a while and see what happens before they make a move. It is only talk at this point, but it is interesting to see the Bulls are still willing to shake things up with opening tip to the season being tonight.

From our top insider on Bulls Forum

http://www.rumorpress.net/

[laVal03]

don't get me wrong, I like Al Harrington but hes pretty much a sf as well...he does rebound better than Shard but we would lose Hedo's playmaking.

I'd rather do this than lose Hedo for nothing....he's probably the closest to fair value that we can get