Rip2137 wrote:The offense was run through Gasol and Randolph last year. As it is this year until Rudy breaks script and goes nuts.
Again, Gay had a pretty nice run last year. And Zach Randolph missed almost half the season.
Rudy's been a consistent 19 ppg scorer the last few years. His FG% is abysmal this year, but past year's have been comparable to other top scoring SFs.
Rip2137 wrote:Also, Al Horford is NOT a power forward no matter how much people want to ignore the evidence.
I respectfully disagree. But both Josh and AL are productive PFs.
ATLHawksfan21 wrote:It is laughable that some of you think Rudy is a better player than Josh and this is just on a strictly player comparison with no mention of Rudy's insane contract.
Rudy is a better scorer, which is his role as the SF on a team with Z-Bo and Baby Gasol.
Rudy's contract has only one more guaranteed season after this year. There is an additional player option year on the contract as well. He has a high salary, but with the length of the contract andthe fact that he'll still be in his prime for the duration, I wouldn't call it insane. I suspect it'll be comparable to whatever Josh signs this summer.
http://data.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/grizzlies.jsp ATLHawksfan21 wrote:I don't see why people are still looking to keep Horford over Josh either. Horford has shown me nothing this year. He is a below-average shotblocker for his size and position and he cant create his own shot. Don't get me wrong, I like Horford and his contract is reasonable, but Josh is clearly the better player of the two.
I have no problem admitting that Josh is a better player than AL. He has a higher ceiling, but he also has the lower floor. He shoots an awful FG%, consistently one of the worse among the starters. He leads the team in turnovers every year (I believe this is the 4th year in a row.) Also, even though Josh is the superior player, what does it say that their stats are almost identical. Josh avg 1 point more, but takes 3 extra attempts to get there while shooting 10% worse from the field. Horford is a better rebounder. Josh is a massively better shot blocker. Both guys avg 3+ assists per game, but Josh also avg 3 turnovers a game. Josh is more aggressive, but does not always play smart. AL has tidy stats, but is not much of a pure scorer. He does depend on ball movement and smart guard play to get the ball in good spots. Both have flaws defensively. Josh is quicker, but smaller/weaker. AL is big & strong, but can't block shots. Josh avg 1 more steal, but AL has a higher PER and FG%.
I'd say Josh is the better player, but both are pretty equal as far as production goes. My preference is based on intangibles that I don't believe Josh has. He still makes poor decisions, takes ill-advised shots, camps out at the three point line. But AL's ...timidness is frustrating at times, too. I'd love to see him get more shots considering his scoring avg has increased every single full season he's played. And since he always shoots over 50% from the field every single year.
Basically, which do you prefer: 16 pts & 9 rebs every game (on 52% shooting). Or 31 pts & 12 rebs one game, followed by 6 points and 5 rebs the next game. It all avg out to the same numbers. But one guy is more explosive and dynamic, the other is just more consistent.
