There’s two seemingly different lines of thought going on here:
Is Iggy worth $15 million if he’s the piece that gets you to the finals and/or championship? Yes. Absolutely. If it gets you to that level, he’s worth it without question.
Is Iggy worth $15 million a year as a player? No. Not even close. He’s efficient, but that’s largely irrelevant because of his lack of scoring (he’s been under 10.5 ppg per 36 for more than half a decade). He’s still a great ballhandler, but his rebounding numbers in recent years were inflated by his role with the Warriors. His three point shot and free throwing are increasingly erratic. He’s 36 and it’s an old 36.
You can be both of those at the same time. Iggy is.
Funny thing about the trade is that I’ve largely seen Justice Winslow as Iggy-in-the-making. Take out this injury-riddled year. Here’s Iggy’s stats at age 20 and 21 comapred to Winslow’s stats from the l;ast two years, at age 21 and 22.
Code: Select all
MPG PPG RPG APG STL BLK FG% FT% 3P%
Iggy 35.2 10.7 5.8 3.1 1.7 0.7 .497 .750 .343
Winslow 27.2 10.1 5.4 3.2 0.9 0.4 .429 .631 .377
Lot of similarities. It would be smart for Miami to keep Winslow and develop him—except, like noted above, they’re trying to win the championship
now, not two years from now when Winslow could well be a 15-6-4 guy.
Getting back to us … I keep reading/hearing the front office wants a big/frontcourt player that can spread the court. Both Morris’ spend at least as much time as SF as they do at PF, and neither really play at C. I don’t know if that’s what we want … after all, we’ve got PG and Kawhi at SF/PF, and JaMychal and 2Pat at PF. Thing is, I don’t see JaMychal and2Pat as “bigs”—they’re 4s, not 4/5s.
So, yeah, the buyout market. Right off the bat, I’m thinking Shabazz Napier may get bought out or moved. The Nugs have Murray and Monte Morris (and PJ Dozier as their young, up and coming guy). Napier got hurt early and started the year off horribly, but has played at (better than) his normal level since coming back in December. He’s a good playmaker and a decent defender; he’s a classic backup PG. Exactly what we need. I’d be targeting him, big time.
As for the big … Vonleh (who I wanted) is with the Nugs now and he’ll help them, dammit. Who else … Omari Spellman? Thon Maker? Willy Hernangomez?
