Spurs should deal for Stromile Swift

[rag-time4]

and still a person the spurs probably cant acquire given their current contract situations. maybe as a free agent next offseason, but thats still a year off.

and even then, i still dont think hes worth investing much more than 2-4 mil per given his age (would be going on 30 with nearly a decade of tread already off the tires) and relative lack of production thus far: career 8 and 5 guy on 20 mpg, ast/to well below 1 (0.4), less than stellar 4.5 pf per36.

kids a bust. well, thats not fair. hes not a kid anymore, and hes at least somewhat serviceable. just like kwame. or darko. or perkins. just older, and not showing any marked improvement over the last 3 years...

He hasn't been given much opportunity to play over the last 3 years, but he has shown improvement if you have watched closely (which you have to do, due to his lack of opportunity).

Check out this and this

Swift's assist to turnover ratio is low, but that's because 1)he sets lots of screens, which sometimes result in offensive fouls/turnovers 2)he doesn't get a lot of offensive touches 3)he's such a good finisher himself that he often looks to score before looking to set up teammates.

Sorry that because most of Stromile's fans are really into hip-hop culture and therefore the assists that he does get are rarely included in youtube vids, but there are a couple in this vid.

Stromile is a good passer and playmaker but is such a good scorer himself that he needs much more touches before he's going to spread the ball around a whole lot. I also question whether it's even been his role to be a distributor...? What if he's just doing what his coaches tell him to do in that regard?

Stromile's career high for shot attempts in a game is only 18, and he rarely gets into double digits. The big boys, like Kobe, Wade, McGrady all get 20+ or even 25+ shots on a regular basis so it's understandable that they feel more comfortable and secure in being distributors as well as finishers.

[ss1986v2]

i just dont buy most of that, epecially when it relates to his passing skills. hes gotten offensive touches. hes averaged more attempts per game (6.8) than a player like rasho (6.5), but rasho posts an ast/to slightly above one (1.05). a diminishing kurt thomas has averaged 5.5 attempts per game over the last 3 season, still sports a 1.08 ast/to, and about all hes done over that time is set screens (what seems like multiple screens every offensive set), so i dont buy the "he sets screens" argument at all.

he loses out to guys like perkins (0.69), darko (0.66), kwame (0.75), chandler (0.57), haywood (0.55), maxiell (0.47), milsap (0.79), and a litany of other 20-25 minute role players and players known for their lack of handles. heck, hes bordering on nazr numbers (0.40 vs 0.37). and thats not even touching on the good passing bigs out there, like oberto (1.86 this year, 1.28 career), turiaf (1.78 this year, 1.52 career), or miller (1.61 this year, 1.80 career).

but while i say "passing bigs", thats not what im really comparing swift to. it isnt passing ability so much as being able to keep the TOs down and simply being a sound passer, something swift has yet to do once over the course of a season in his career. swift will never be used in a distribution role like miller is, but he doesnt even reach the mark set by players with similar roles on other teams. and thats the issue.

hes turnover prone (worse career TOper36 than nazr or kwame), and a less than average passer. period.

and none of that touches on his less than stellar rebounding numbers, his foul rate, his age and injuries (how much tread is left on those tires?), or his contract status (we cant get him this year). but ive already spent enough time on this to go into any of that.

[rag-time4]

i just dont buy most of that, epecially when it relates to his passing skills. hes gotten offensive touches. hes averaged more attempts per game (6. than a player like rasho (6.5), but rasho posts an ast/to slightly above one (1.05). a diminishing kurt thomas has averaged 5.5 attempts per game over the last 3 season, still sports a 1.08 ast/to, and about all hes done over that time is set screens (what seems like multiple screens every offensive set), so i dont buy the "he sets screens" argument at all.

he loses out to guys like perkins (0.69), darko (0.66), kwame (0.75), chandler (0.57), haywood (0.55), maxiell (0.47), milsap (0.79), and a litany of other 20-25 minute role players and players known for their lack of handles. heck, hes bordering on nazr numbers (0.40 vs 0.37). and thats not even touching on the good passing bigs out there, like oberto (1.86 this year, 1.28 career), turiaf (1.78 this year, 1.52 career), or miller (1.61 this year, 1.80 career).

but while i say "passing bigs", thats not what im really comparing swift to. it isnt passing ability so much as being able to keep the TOs down and simply being a sound passer, something swift has yet to do once over the course of a season in his career. swift will never be used in a distribution role like miller is, but he doesnt even reach the mark set by players with similar roles on other teams. and thats the issue.

hes turnover prone (worse career TOper36 than nazr or kwame), and a less than average passer. period.

and none of that touches on his less than stellar rebounding numbers, his foul rate, his age and injuries (how much tread is left on those tires?), or his contract status (we cant get him this year). but ive already spent enough time on this to go into any of that.

A huge difference between Swift and the players you compared him to is that unlike Rasho and Thomas, whose offensive role tends to be shooting perimeter shots... Swift will aggressively attack the basket.

Swift's style of play offensively is far more aggressive, so he's going to run the risk of turning the ball over more than a player like Rasho who usually doesn't look to aggressively intiate offense. Therefore, a higher percentage of Swift's touches become shots than the other big men you mentioned, because Swift is the most skilled and most explosive of all the bigs you listed and is the best able to create his own shots.

Swift has often been used in a distributor role like Brad Miller, in that he often gets the ball at the top of the key to initiate the offense. A difference between them though is that Swift looks to aggressively score himself, wheras Miller needs to pass the ball to superior finishers.

Also, the 'setting picks' point was only one point of many, it's a part of why Swift has more turnovers than assists. It's certainly not the whole reason, though, but that's not what I was saying anyway.

Your point that there are other bigs who set picks and have better Assist to turnover ratios is a good one, but again keep in mind there are other factors, such as style of play / aggressiveness.

Of course Kurt Thomas is gonna turn the ball over less if his playing style tends to revolve around shooting perimeter shots, while Stromile is much more aggressive and is able to attack the teeth of opposing defenses and still get his shot off / create a shot for himself.

[tosweet68]

OMG...give it up!!!!!! Are you Swift or his agent?????

Swift is NOT a high basketball IQ guy and he is not very motivated at actually playing up to his potential. I have watched him play over the years and he has far greater potential than he has ever shown which is why he is never given much of a chance with any of the multiple teams he has been on.

The Spurs cannot trade for him with just a pick of any kind so as has already been said. DOA.

[rag-time4]

OMG...give it up!!!!!! Are you Swift or his agent?????

Swift is NOT a high basketball IQ guy and he is not very motivated at actually playing up to his potential. I have watched him play over the years and he has far greater potential than he has ever shown which is why he is never given much of a chance with any of the multiple teams he has been on.

The Spurs cannot trade for him with just a pick of any kind so as has already been said. DOA.

I don't buy your assertion that "Swift is NOT a high basketball IQ guy" and I question the label itself.

Stromile showed in his season in Houston, for example, that he was more motivated in playing up to his potential than Juwan Howard was. Juwan Howard played in 80 games that season, yet only totaled 8 blocked shots. Juwan's poor defense was a major weakness for the Rockets all season, and Juwan was actually outperformed by Swift in terms of +/-, despite the fact that Howard was the starter over Swift and played more minutes with McGrady and Yao together than Swift did.

Why has Juwan never been motivated to work on his body so that he'll be athletic enough to block some shots and help his team defensively the way Stromile Swift does?

Players like Juwan Howard should never be seen as High IQ players, even though they are, because he embraces a style of play that is not effective, whereas Stromile is smart enough to embrace a style of play that is effective.

[chrbal]

Swift just doesn't fit the Spurs style ( i'll be honest, i only really read the 1st page). Even if they could deal for him, I just don't think it would work.

Spurs bigs could either stretch the floor or were bigger "take up space" guys. Nazr was at least a decent rebounder. The Spurs are a halfcourt team and that would pretty much make Swift useless.

Swift really doesn't excel at anything. 4.7 rebs a game and 1.2 blks a game, in 20.1 minutes ( for his career) really doesn't impress me. Its like 8 years later, you're still waiting for him to realize his potential.

If I was the Nets, I think I would offer Swift up for a "solid veteran" like the Knicks' Malik Rose. It just seems like, that if Swift doesn't play...it'll become a problem.

[Blame Rasho]

How are we going to trade for him... he has a big contract.

And yes... he does have a bad basketball iq. If he didn't, we would be a significantly better basketball player given that he has all the tools needed to succeed in the NBA.

[Blame Rasho]

The Spurs cannot trade for him with just a pick of any kind so as has already been said. DOA

We don't have 6.2 million dollars of free contracts just lying around just to trade...

Our biggest contract outside of the big three, is bowen and it is only 4 million dollars.

Swift can't be traded... end of story.

[rag-time4]

Swift just doesn't fit the Spurs style ( i'll be honest, i only really read the 1st page). Even if they could deal for him, I just don't think it would work.

Spurs bigs could either stretch the floor or were bigger "take up space" guys. Nazr was at least a decent rebounder. The Spurs are a halfcourt team and that would pretty much make Swift useless.

Swift really doesn't excel at anything. 4.7 rebs a game and 1.2 blks a game, in 20.1 minutes ( for his career) really doesn't impress me. Its like 8 years later, you're still waiting for him to realize his potential.

If I was the Nets, I think I would offer Swift up for a "solid veteran" like the Knicks' Malik Rose. It just seems like, that if Swift doesn't play...it'll become a problem.

From Swift's perspective, it's 8 years later, and he's still waiting for a real opportunity, since he's outplayed the guys ahead of him his whole career.