Post#345 » by JMAC3 » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:13 am
At first, I was turned off by the trade because I thought Vonleh could be our X-factor when it came to becoming a contender. Also, knowing that Batum was in his final year of his contract scared me.
After giving it more thought I am excited about the trade and new team makeup and here is why....
For one, we are better team then yesterday. We added a legit two way player who can score the ball, adds three point shooting and a plus defender who guards 1-4. Is a great compliment to Kemba and MKG because of his mix of shooting and playmaking. And he adds another versatile player to our team. Also, we picked up a solid backup wing in Lamb.
Secondly, I was a fan of the Lance Stephenson signing because it was low risk high reward, Batum is essentially a better Lance. Batum is a good passer, good rebounder, good shooter, can play both wings and be the playmaker on offense. Only major differences are that Batum is a bigger, smarter and has done it longer so it is more likely going to happen again. Lance never quite put it all together and I think Batum has for several years, excluding his injury ridden season last year.
As far as what we lost...we traded Hendo and Noah, the second being more disappointing than the former. I think most of us were ready to move from Hendo and I wish him the best in Portland where he can be looked at for his strengths not his weaknesses. However, we never truly knew what we had in Vonleh, I think most of us were optimistic he could be a good player and an upgrade to Zeller. That may have been wishful thinking tho, Vonleh was a good player at IU(watch almost every hoosier game), but he was never amazing and definitely way behind where Zeller was. He has good tools, but struggles to use them in the game consistently.
Were we just hoping Vonleh was the answer, because we had no other choices?
Kemba, Zeller, and Biz seem pretty much what they are other than improving shooting year over year. MKG is the biggest upside guy we have, but is not a Star in the making. So I think many of us fantasized about Vonleh becoming a Bosh or Aldridge. But the all the wrong signs were there, He was not playing, slipped in the draft, and looked lost. How often do future stars struggle to find any minutes their rookie years (regardless of coaching). More times than not if you have the tools then you find yourself on the floor early and often (exceptions being Dirk and Nash). The news about him having a low BBIQ is not shocking to me, he could not find playing time and he slid in the draft last year after being a top 5 prospect. I think if he was better than Zeller Clifford would have played him and Maxiel playing ahead of him may have been our way of preserving his value by keeping him an unknown commodity.
Lastly, I think Cho is building a good team for past this year as well and this is not short sighted. Hawes and Lamb are both gonna be here for a few years. We have a ton of cap space coming into next offseason between Batum, Al, and Marvins contracts. We will have plenty of cash to resign Batum if he plays well and proves to be a valuable asset in the future. If not we still have a huge amount of capspace to sign other targets. However, it is usually easier to resign a free agent then to pluck him from his current team. I think trading for Batum gives us the inside lane in resigning him.
I think in conclusion Cho did a great job cashing in on an unknown prospect and a player he did not want to opt in exchange for a guy who when healthy is an all-star caliber player coming off a bad year. Batum is a great fit for us with his versatility, combo of shooting and passing, and he gives us a legit starter. I am excited for what tomorrow brings as far as more trades or seeing what we do with our draft pick.
