Knightro wrote:
I know this is hard for you to hear, but Anthony Black - right now - is bad at basketball. He just doesn't impact winning much at all and as it presently stands, he doesn't bring much to the table offensively that fits with Franz and Paolo.
MAYBE both of those things will change in the future, but even if they do, I'm hard pressed to see him having a season anytime soon like the one Suggs just had last year which was 40% 3PT on 5+ attempts per game with all-NBA defense.
I like his potential, but I just don't think he's in a position right now to replace Suggs anytime soon.
Paolo projects to be an all-nba offensive talent, a Melo/Griffin/Webber hybrid player.
Franz projects to be an all-nba offensive talent, something like a Hill or Leonard.
Suggs projects to have what kind of upside at this point? Victor Oladipo? Latrell Sprewell? Stephen Jackson? What is his 3rd option upside, really?
We are paying Suggs 3rd option money. He's in his 4th year, improvement is going to start to level out. He's missed almost as many games this season as Franz, who had a major injury. I think its fair to consider Suggs injury prone. We probably need a better offensive player in Suggs' salary slot. His most adamant fans concede that he's better as a 3&D role-player. If that is true, he's already overpaid.
Suggs grades out as exactly the same archetype as Anthony Black. We can swap Suggs for an offensive minded 3rd option and still have AB as our key point of attack defender. AB is actually right on track developmentally to match Suggs current output, by my evaluation. It isn't AB replacing Suggs at his cap hit. It is a 3rd option replacing Suggs at his cap hit and AB replacing Suggs in the role Suggs is actually best suited for, at an appropriate market value.