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#1: Management should not waste all their time trying to replace Rafer Alston. We need him, hes good. He doesnt shoot all that well, but he does everything else great. We struggle when he doesn't play. Lets face it, if we have no chance to get nash, billups, paul, deron, arenas, davis, bibby, a. miller, etc, then who else would you want besides rafer. Anyone who is better than Rafer at pg we have no chance of getting unless we give up t-mac or yao. that would be dumb.

#2: Make sure Luis Scola and Carl Landry are locked up long term. Yao, T-Mac, Scola, and Landry will be a 4-Headed monster next year and for many years to come

#3: Get rid of Luther Head. Trade him for any decent shooting guard who is taller than 6'5''. Luther is the worst player in the league.

#4: Get more "NBA" players. We have a considerable amount of scrubs on this team. (Head, Harris, Novak, Mutombo, Hayes, Bobby Jackson, Brooks). That is 7 players out of our 12 man playoff roster that are scrubs.

and finally....we need to make a big Splash. Im sick of mgmt taking chances on guys, then it not working out. One year we get stromile and derek anderson, it backfires. Then we get battier and bonzi, it doesnt work. then we get francis, james, and scola. it doesnt work. (although scola worked). Lets make a big splash. I know alot of your are going to torch me for this, but you know those players who play great in the regular season, but disappear in the playoffs? there are great regular season players, but thats a WHOLE lot different than a great Playoff player. Shane Battier is not a great playoff player. He never did anything in Memphis. tell me, these last two years against utah, how has he helped? he hasnt helped in scoring. he doesnt help our sorry rebounding. tell me this, which jazz player has his GREAT DEFENSE shutdown. Which jazz player did he ever take out of the game with his defense. All the Jazz players seemed to play good, battier finished 3rd in defense player of the year right? then why didnt he step up and shut somebody down in the playoffs? We need a big splash, and heres what we do....

#5: Trade Shane Battier (6.1 Million Dollars), Bobby Jackson (6.3 Million Dollars), and Luther Head (2 Million Dollars) for our 3rd scorer that we have been waiting on since T-Mac came to this team. Those 3 contracts add up to 14.4 Million. We can afford a guy to come in with a 14-15 million dollar contract. We can get a great player for these 3 contracts. Luther is young, no one knows he suxx except for us, battier was 3rd for defensive player of the year, he has value, and b-jax suxx but hes on the last year of his contract, and trading for him takes 6 million off somebodies book next year.

We can be a champion next year, lets just focus on the right things

Let's get out of the first round first.

TMACFORMVP wrote:Let's get out of the first round first.

Too late

Our problem is that this franchise has been so infatuated with utility guys who do one thing well but come at a quarter of the price of a better player. Battier is nice but he shouldn't be your third or fourth best player. Hayes, Novak, Head, etc.

Seriously, if we're going to do anything Les is going to have to pay for a title and I don't see it. We're more than just one player away unfortunately. We may be able to get out of the first round with a third scorer or legit pg but we'll need both to be in the conversation for a title. Face it Yao/Mcgrady will go down during the season. We're going to have to plan for it as if it will happen otherwise you're risking another wasted year if you don't protect yourself.

Rafer may be a keeper. We may have no choice in the matter. But ideally he comes off the bench. That's always been his natural position.

all those things i just mentioned should help us finally do that

I definitely agree that Battier needs to go. He's just a terrible offensive player, and a liability when he's out there. If we can get a Josh Howard or Corey Maggette in a sign and trade, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

If that doesn't work, then let's go for Artest in a S&T and get rid of Brooks too.

I'm a big Carl Landry fan, I love the kid, but I wouldn't let him be a deal breaker if it came down to it.

I'm probaby just down on him because he was terrible today in game 6, but he is one of the oldest rookies and has serious knee problems.

That said, him and Scola can learn to be a great 1-2 combination at PF, and I'd love to see him here for his entire career.

PurpleTestament wrote:Rafer may be a keeper. We may have no choice in the matter. But ideally he comes off the bench. That's always been his natural position.

That's not true. Rafer is an emotional player and is much more efficient starting than coming off the bench.

This should be an exciting offseason

If anything either of the two Nets players are easier to get then some of the names that were listed. The Nets are looking to rebuild, and are stacking up picks and cash for the future, I think most of us know what that reason is after the move the NY

But anyways, IMO Vince Carter is a pretty good option to land here, he would be a perfect fit on this team. Both cousins are at a point where they know what matters the most.

Baller 24 wrote:If anything either of the two Nets players are easier to get then some of the names that were listed. The Nets are looking to rebuild, and are stacking up picks and cash for the future, I think most of us know what that reason is after the move the NY

But anyways, IMO Vince Carter is a pretty good option to land here, he would be a perfect fit on this team. Both cousins are at a point where they know what matters the most.

His contract is what concerns me. But Carter would be a good fit with Tracy and he gives us a 3rd scorer we really need to be successful in the playoffs.

dream34 wrote:That's not true. Rafer is an emotional player and is much more efficient starting than coming off the bench.

Like I said we may have no choice in the matter but he's given us his best two-three month stretch as a Rocket. Kudos to him. However an upgrade at that spot would take this team to another level.

Let's not go crazy with the Rafer love. He's still mediocre at best, and extremely streaky.

Dinky Bits wrote:Let's not go crazy with the Rafer love. He's still mediocre, at best, and extremely streaky.

Yeah, I mean he did have his best year as a Rocket so some of us are going to respond emotionally to it but seriously Rafer should be coming off the bench. The last and only team he started for was a bad Toronto squad.

The Vince Carter idea is a good one. I think here is a list of players we could get for Battier, Head, and Bobby Jackson

Vince Carter
Josh Howard
Corey Maggette
Ron Artest
Richard Jefferson
Mike Miller
Stephen Jackson
Ben Gordon

Now of course I know alot of these guys on this list, it would probably take Battier, Head, Jackson, and a 1st Round Pick. But I would give up that pick for any of those players. we have t-mac and yao, and we are trying to win now. we got lucky last year and got two great rookies in scola and landry. we dont need a pick this year, id give it up to get a third scoring option like one of the guys on that list. Here is a rough draft of what next years team should look like....

Alston/?/Brooks
Our new 3rd scorer/?
T-Mac/?
Scola/Landry
Yao/?

The question marks we try to fill in with nba type players. not scrubs. we still have the MLE to work with.

the op said rafer should be gone because hes had his chance at the beginning of the season and now he wants to keep rafer. try to be consistent buddy.

myself, iggy, and roosk have all maintained a consistent attitude about skip. hes the best guy they have to do the pg duties but upgrades shouldnt be out of the question.

we need another ball handler. another guy with the brains and the ability to set up his teammates. rafer makes good passes but hes not good at creating offense. all we have for that right now is mcgrady.

BRING IN KIRK HINRICH! stop showing rafer so much love his shooting is still terrible and after he has one good game out of like 10 you all fall in love with him and then he goes and has another 2-10 performance

Here is a simple equation to prove rafer alston is the best pg we can get, and we should be happy with him and not waste our time trying to replace him.

The Equation: List every PG in the NBA thats better than Rafer. Next, circle every players name on that list that we could actually get without giving up T-Mac or Yao.

Exactly. We have the best possible pg we can get. no other pg is attainable without giving up one of our two stars

T-Mac is our top offensive option yet he still leads the team in assists wtf?

McGrady2Head wrote:Here is a simple equation to prove rafer alston is the best pg we can get, and we should be happy with him and not waste our time trying to replace him.

The Equation: List every PG in the NBA thats better than Rafer. Next, circle every players name on that list that we could actually get without giving up T-Mac or Yao.

Exactly. We have the best possible pg we can get. no other pg is attainable without giving up one of our two stars

Kirk Hinrich?

Rafer.............Hinrich
PPG: 13.1 .....11.5
RPG: 3.5 .......3.3
APG: 5.3 .......6.0
SPG: 1.3 .......1.2
FG%: 39.4 ....41.4

i dont think hinrich is much of an upgrade