What About (Almost) Standing Pat?

[Gideon]

Obviously, if you can get better, you take it... the thing is, I don't think we're getting offered Harden for Wes anytime soon. We potentially match up great with the league's best teams at 1-4-5 (+ a strong bench). If we traded Love, Rubio, or possibly D-Will/picks for a top-level wing (very likely the only way we could get one right now), then we'd have a wing who could "match up" much better with LeBron/KD... but at what cost?

Suggesting that you need a great wing to beat the Heat or OKC is like suggesting that the 90s Bulls could never beat Houston or NY because their weak centers were like bringing a knife to a gunfight vs. Ewing or Olajuwon... or that the 80s Lakers needed to upgrade at the 4 because Green & Rambis couldn't compete with McHale in the finals. When the Mavs beat both OKC and the Heat last year to win the title, they played Terry, Barea, Stevenson, and an aging Marion on the wings. Sheer idiocy worked out well for Dallas, I guess.

If the Heat play us a couple of years down the line, they might have to match up an aging Bosh/Haslem vs. a peaking Love/Pek and Chalmers vs. Rubio... are they bringing a knife to a gunfight? I doubt anybody would put it that way... different teams have different strengths.

I'm all for moves that help the team, and I already stated that we'll obviously make some minor tweaks, specifically including some sort of tinkering with our wing positions, but messing with our core right now (unless the resulting deal is super-sweet) seems like a big mistake to me.

Really? Are you serious?

I'm not saying we're as good as those teams in the comparison, obviously... I'm pointing out that you don't need to match up super-competitively at every position with your opponent to win, and that going overboard in an effort to do so would almost surely weaken us in other areas (probably to our detriment). The Bulls had weak centers and the Lakers had a below-average starting 4... these teams both had rivals with great players at those positions, yet still won many titles.

Last year Dallas beat both OKC and Miami without particularly strong wings. In fact, Dallas was strong at the 1,4, and 5, with an above-average bench... a similar model to our current core. Compare Love to Dirk, Pek to Chandler, and Rubio to Kidd (with D-Will possibly emerging as a Marion type) and we actually have a very young, very similar model to last year's champs... I feel pretty good about that. And before anybody gets on me about the comparison, I understand it's imprecise, that the player values and skill sets aren't exactly equal, etc. ... I do think it's worth thinking about, though.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I wouldn't like to get better wings... I want every player we can get that improves our team, but you just don't get good players for free very often. I'm advocating not making huge changes, looking at small improvements through free agency, the draft, or minor deals, and allowing our promising, young core to develop.

[lazfa199]

I don't want jj on the team after this year. Nothing personal he is a very likeable guy but he can't go out there by himself and play pg, he always needs to play with another pg guard to make up for his mistakes. I hope Beasley plays well to close out the season and comes back for next year, but it depends on his play coming off the bench and consistently carrying the scoring load when love is out.

[Esohny]

Obviously, if you can get better, you take it... the thing is, I don't think we're getting offered Harden for Wes anytime soon. We potentially match up great with the league's best teams at 1-4-5 (+ a strong bench). If we traded Love, Rubio, or possibly D-Will/picks for a top-level wing (very likely the only way we could get one right now), then we'd have a wing who could "match up" much better with LeBron/KD... but at what cost?

Suggesting that you need a great wing to beat the Heat or OKC is like suggesting that the 90s Bulls could never beat Houston or NY because their weak centers were like bringing a knife to a gunfight vs. Ewing or Olajuwon... or that the 80s Lakers needed to upgrade at the 4 because Green & Rambis couldn't compete with McHale in the finals. When the Mavs beat both OKC and the Heat last year to win the title, they played Terry, Barea, Stevenson, and an aging Marion on the wings. Sheer idiocy worked out well for Dallas, I guess.

If the Heat play us a couple of years down the line, they might have to match up an aging Bosh/Haslem vs. a peaking Love/Pek and Chalmers vs. Rubio... are they bringing a knife to a gunfight? I doubt anybody would put it that way... different teams have different strengths.

I'm all for moves that help the team, and I already stated that we'll obviously make some minor tweaks, specifically including some sort of tinkering with our wing positions, but messing with our core right now (unless the resulting deal is super-sweet) seems like a big mistake to me.

Really? Are you serious?

I'm not saying we're as good as those teams in the comparison, obviously... I'm pointing out that you don't need to match up super-competitively at every position with your opponent to win, and that going overboard in an effort to do so would almost surely weaken us in other areas (probably to our detriment). The Bulls had weak centers and the Lakers had a below-average starting 4... these teams both had rivals with great players at those positions, yet still won many titles.

Last year Dallas beat both OKC and Miami without particularly strong wings. In fact, Dallas was strong at the 1,4, and 5, with an above-average bench... a similar model to our current core. Compare Love to Dirk, Pek to Chandler, and Rubio to Kidd (with D-Will possibly emerging as a Marion type) and we actually have a very young, very similar model to last year's champs... I feel pretty good about that. And before anybody gets on me about the comparison, I understand it's imprecise, that the player values and skill sets aren't exactly equal, etc. ... I do think it's worth thinking about, though.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I wouldn't like to get better wings... I want every player we can get that improves our team, but you just don't get good players for free very often. I'm advocating not making huge changes, looking at small improvements through free agency, the draft, or minor deals, and allowing our promising, young core to develop.

Several of those teams had some of the greatest players in history of the game; they can get away with average performance from some players for that reason. And Dallas had a prime Dirk (also probably one of the greatest players in the history of the game) with above average players at most other positions, including the wing. Terry, Stevenson, and Marion last season weren't All-stars, but they sure look like it when compared to the garbage that the Wolves trot out.

[Saltine]

Yep, we need a legit wing player or two, Wes, Marty and Wayne are backups. Starting a couple decent vets instead of hoping for young guys to get their **** together may be a better solution.
If we pick up a proper small forward like Gerald Wallace and a real shooting guard like Ray Allen (MLE?), we'll do some damage in the playoffs. I doubt that's gonna happen, but maybe we'll get lucky. Or Beasley could find himself, perhaps Opium would help? He plays great when he isn't thinking...