BYRDMAN RULZ wrote:Maybe a couple of years ago, I may have been all over this trade. But he is an aging and recently oft injure former all star. This reaks of the trade the Bullets made for Mark Price. He is not the missing piece to a championship for the Wiz so I'll pass on Manu.
Dont get me wrong I love his game, when he is healthy he is almost impossible to guard. I still will pass though.
Maybe? a couple of years ago this trade would have been laughed out of the internet much less a legitimate offer being made by the front office.
Frankly i'm still shocked that many want to retain bench players in favor of signing a top 5 sg. I understand the caution over his injuries but really the risk is mitigated because we're only giving up 20mpg players. I mean, honestly if Nick Young, MIke James, and the #5 pick all mysteriously went down in a Simpsons-esque fashion (develop gigantism, tied up saving furniture from burning buildings, falling into a trans-dimensional wormhole, etc) would our squad next year win/lose any significant number of games? the difference is probably -2. However, if those guys fell into a wormhole and then we have Manu come in, even for 60 games, and play sg for us wouldn't we jump from a 45 win squad to a 55 win squad immediately on paper? Wouldn't that catapult us from being projected as 1-sround exiters to EC contenders?
and as for the part of "mentoring" - it's BS. keep in mind that Nick Young is a grown ass man. he's been playing basketball for many years now and have put in way more hours improving his game than all of us. there's nothing that Manu would tell him that HS coaches, college coaches, EJ, ET, and a myriad of assistants isn't already telling him - he fades away when he shoots, he doesn't rebound, and he tries to do too much at times (on offense. no such claim on defense) and needs to pass the ball around. These are things that even we as casual observers can tell immediately. It would just be a waste of Manu's breath to try and talk to Young.
I mean, Kwame was under the "tutelage" of Charles Oakley and developed any sort of Oakley in his game.
ps, this mentoring thing is nauseatingly perpetuated by the "Doing Work" documentary. Kobe portrayed himself as a player-coach always giving "tips" and "advice" during timeouts to his teammates - except he really doesn't say much. If i'm Gasol i'm just thinking "no sh**. i know. i'm paul mother-f****** gasol. i'm one of the greatest post-men in the game right now. really? you want me to get big and play in the paint? really? solid advice Kobe. How about getting me the damn ball instead of jacking up contested fadeaways you phony bastard. You sure are a chatty cathy when the cameras are on. When was the last time you said anything to Sasha much less joke around in Italian? He's freaking Slovenian."