Rotation overall

[Fencer reregistered]

I don't think it's just a question of Perk vs. Sheed starting; there are other rotation issues as well.

For example, if Rondo and one of Ray/Paul are off the floor at the same time, it might make more sense for Paul to stay in, because he's more of a rebounder and creator than Ray.

Sheed might be needed more with the reserves due to his scoring.

If Davis is the #4 big and getting minutes, do you play him with Perk or Sheed? Defensively, if it's not Perk, you can always have one big, strong body.

When Eddie is in for Ray, you don't want to be have your shotblocking be weak. That goes double if the reserve SF is Ray again (and hence implicitly Eddie). But the same is true when gamblin' Rajon is in.

Do you ever play Sheed, KG, and Perk together? Why not?

And so on ...

[GreenDreamer]

I am praying that our roster is significantly different when the season begins. Trader Danny better get going.

[Fencer reregistered]

We have 4 guys who have had multiple all-star appearances each and aren't decrepit, and 2 other starters who probably have all-star appearances in their futures, plus a couple of reserves who can shoot. That calls for tweaking, not wholesale further revision.

[GreenDreamer]

We have 4 guys who have had multiple all-star appearances each and aren't decrepit, and 2 other starters who probably have all-star appearances in their futures, plus a couple of reserves who can shoot. That calls for tweaking, not wholesale further revision.

We have 5 really good to great starters

We have one great resreve big

We have one other good reserve big (as of now, but that could change)

We have another halfway deecnt big with concussion issues who can't play the 3.

We have one undersized shoot guard who can't dribble but who can hit the three (when he can actually get them off)

We have young players who really aren't that good.

So that means that all of our depth at the 4 and 5 spots, and the one guy who provides depth at the other three positions is substandard at doing so, because he's too little to guard two and can't handle well enough to run the point. That is NOT good.

[SichtingLives]

bonsai,

It's interesting that you list Walker before the cutoff.....just curious, are you that sure he will be a solid contributor this season or beyond? I'd say it's worth a shot but I think he's just as expendable as the rest if the right deal comes along.

I'm not disagreeing with your point, the bench still needs to be adjusted....and I do believe that retaining Davis would be a good start towards making that happen....it seems that 2nd unit guards (particularly SG's) are the easiest to acquire of any position throughout the league. We were woeful finding a SF to back Pierce a year ago, hopefully Bill is ready to step in, but who knows yet. As long as we have solid depth at the 4/5, I'm confident with what we can do this year, as well as the moves we will be able to pull off. It's a heckuva lot better situation than desperately looking for a legit 5 to round out your bigs come February/March.

EDIT* - not sure why your post was pulled, it was there when I responded

[Slartibartfast]

We have 4 guys who have had multiple all-star appearances each and aren't decrepit, and 2 other starters who probably have all-star appearances in their futures, plus a couple of reserves who can shoot. That calls for tweaking, not wholesale further revision.

We have 5 really good to great starters

We have one great resreve big

We have one other good reserve big (as of now, but that could change)

We have another halfway deecnt big with concussion issues who can't play the 3.

We have one undersized shoot guard who can't dribble but who can hit the three (when he can actually get them off)

We have young players who really aren't that good.

So that means that all of our depth at the 4 and 5 spots, and the one guy who provides depth at the other three positions is substandard at doing so, because he's too little to guard two and can't handle well enough to run the point. That is NOT good.

GreenDreamer, I think you are discounting Eddie House a bit too much. He's going to be streaky, and he can be taken out of the game by a dedicated defender; these weaknesses make him ineffective as the 6th man Boston needed him to be in the playoffs. He is still a rotation quality player. He's a poor but energetic defender, a hustling rebounder and a smart player. I think he makes a fine 8th man. With Sheed in the fold as the 6th man, we really just need a solid wing to be our 7th.

I'm just going to make the leap and assume we sign Hill. This is what our rotation would look like:
Point Guards: Rondo (36), House (12)
Shooting Guards: Ray (30) Pierce (10) TA (5) House (3)
Small Forwards: Pierce (25) Hill (23)
Power Forwards: KG (30) Sheed (10) Hill (5) Scal (3)
Centers: Perk (28) Sheed (20)

That's a practical 8-man rotation with bit parts for TA and Scal that increase depending on the weakness of the opponent. Pruitt, Walker and Giddens will occasionally get some play on extended home stands. Of course there are injury depth issues that need to be addressed, but I think we're very close to have our main rotation set.

[GreenDreamer]

We have 4 guys who have had multiple all-star appearances each and aren't decrepit, and 2 other starters who probably have all-star appearances in their futures, plus a couple of reserves who can shoot. That calls for tweaking, not wholesale further revision.

We have 5 really good to great starters

We have one great resreve big

We have one other good reserve big (as of now, but that could change)

We have another halfway deecnt big with concussion issues who can't play the 3.

We have one undersized shoot guard who can't dribble but who can hit the three (when he can actually get them off)

We have young players who really aren't that good.

So that means that all of our depth at the 4 and 5 spots, and the one guy who provides depth at the other three positions is substandard at doing so, because he's too little to guard two and can't handle well enough to run the point. That is NOT good.

GreenDreamer, I think you are discounting Eddie House a bit too much. He's going to be streaky, and he can be taken out of the game by a dedicated defender; these weaknesses make him ineffective as the 6th man Boston needed him to be in the playoffs. He is still a rotation quality player. He's a poor but energetic defender, a hustling rebounder and a smart player. I think he makes a fine 8th man. With Sheed in the fold as the 6th man, we really just need a solid wing to be our 7th.

I'm just going to make the leap and assume we sign Hill. This is what our rotation would look like:
Point Guards: Rondo (36), House (12)
Shooting Guards: Ray (30) Pierce (10) TA (5) House (3)
Small Forwards: Pierce (25) Hill (23)
Power Forwards: KG (30) Sheed (10) Hill (5) Scal (3)
Centers: Perk (28) Sheed (20)

That's a practical 8-man rotation with bit parts for TA and Scal that increase depending on the weakness of the opponent. Pruitt, Walker and Giddens will occasionally get some play on extended home stands. Of course there are injury depth issues that need to be addressed, but I think we're very close to have our main rotation set.

His contract is all that I care about at this point, Slart. If he was making the vet minimum, that would be one thing, especially if we had viable backups at the one through three spots. That isn't the case. Paul, Ray and KG's contracts put an immense starin on this organization, and that means that guys like Eddie cannot be kept around when they are a liability in teh role of primary backup. It just cannot be tolerated. 4th guard behind a really good combo guard? Sure. As THE combo guard? Absolutely not.

[PPAW4Life]

Even with the Sheed signing, I don't believe we are necessarily better than we were in 2007-2008.

Sheed basically replaces Powe.

We are still missing Posey, PJ, and Sam. (Scal, TA, Pruitt are not viable replacements).

We may lose Baby, for nothing.

I think we are still depending too highly on our starting 5 and all we have left on the bench for certain is House/Sheed.

[Fencer reregistered]

It all depends on whether ownership pays up.

If they keep Davis, it becomes realistic to play Sheed at the 3 as needed. With that, Perk/KG/Pierce/Sheed/Davis can take all minutes at both forward spots and center (when healthy, of course).

House is never going to be confused with Ginobili or even Ben Gordon, but he'll do fine as a backup 2.

So all that's needed is a backup PG, and injury depth at the 5, and perhaps also beyond Walker at the 3.

I call fixing that tweaking.

[aboubata]

Even with the Sheed signing, I don't believe we are necessarily better than we were in 2007-2008.

Sheed basically replaces Powe.

We are still missing Posey, PJ, and Sam. (Scal, TA, Pruitt are not viable replacements).

We may lose Baby, for nothing.

I think we are still depending too highly on our starting 5 and all we have left on the bench for certain is House/Sheed.

I think Sheed replaces Powe and PJ combined.

If healthy I am happy going to the playoffs with sheed KG and Perk

DA can't make trades until FA settles and we figure out what we get.

[amaj10]

Even with the Sheed signing, I don't believe we are necessarily better than we were in 2007-2008.

Sheed basically replaces Powe.

We are still missing Posey, PJ, and Sam. (Scal, TA, Pruitt are not viable replacements).

We may lose Baby, for nothing.

I think we are still depending too highly on our starting 5 and all we have left on the bench for certain is House/Sheed.

I think Sheed replaces Powe and PJ combined.

If healthy I am happy going to the playoffs with sheed KG and Perk

DA can't make trades until FA settles and we figure out what we get.

And don't forget how much better Baby is if we are able to keep him, which I think we will.

[aboubata]

I think big baby will be able staying but lets face it there are 96 minutes on the 4 and 5, Sheed, Perk and KG could should log 30 minutes each and I am fine with Scal taking those 6 minutes.

If Grant Hill comes in then we will still need a "proven" backup for 1 and 2. It can't be eddie house, House should be used like Kerr was used by the spurs in 2003, he was in for a scoring punch. Either jump start scoring or at end of quarters, halfs or games.

[Red2]

here's the thing- Wallace is 35 and KG is 33 (?) or 34. Neither of those guys is getting through the season without missing some games so having baby gives us great depth. the other thing is wllace is prone to having some terrible shooting nights so Baby will get plenty of opportunity to play. I think a second unit of baby, wallace,house and hopefully grant hill would be dynamite.

[PPAW4Life]

Is there any way Baby can play the 3?

Is he quick enough with his feet to guard on the perimeter?

[Hemingway]

No

We really could use Marbury this year. Hes really busting our balls though. I think it comes down to him wanting the LLE over the vet min. The kicker is that the money he will see is not that different but due to vet min contracts being paid in part by the league, the money we pay will be drasticly different.

That said if we really want to ensure another title this year why not do the following 3 things:
1. Get Baby back, no matter the cost
2. Suck it up and give Marbury the LLE
3. Suck it up and trade Scal and TA for Posey. We can probably get Scal back for the min

Perk/Sheed
KG/Baby
PP/Posey
RA/House
Rondo/Marbury

with Scal and the young players rounding out the bench. Its probably around 10 million bucks more to do this rather than et baby walk and only use the vet min but it probaby increases our chances by over 10%.

[17banners]

No

We really could use Marbury this year. Hes really busting our balls though. I think it comes down to him wanting the LLE over the vet min. The kicker is that the money he will see is not that different but due to vet min contracts being paid in part by the league, the money we pay will be drasticly different.

That said if we really want to ensure another title this year why not do the following 3 things:
1. Get Baby back, no matter the cost
2. Suck it up and give Marbury the LLE
3. Suck it up and trade Scal and TA for Posey. We can probably get Scal back for the min

Perk/Sheed
KG/Baby
PP/Posey
RA/House
Rondo/Marbury

with Scal and the young players rounding out the bench. Its probably around 10 million bucks more to do this rather than et baby walk and only use the vet min but it probaby increases our chances by over 10%.

I like that idea. If #1, #2, and #3 all happened, it would be the single-greatest off-season in recent memory. And, believe it or not, it's not entirely unrealistic. Just a matter of sucking it up and doing it.

[eris]

Is there any way Baby can play the 3?

Is he quick enough with his feet to guard on the perimeter?

If Baby was 240, then yes, he would be quick enough. He really does have quick feet. However, Baby is not going to get down to 270 much less 240.

[GreenDreamer]

No

We really could use Marbury this year. Hes really busting our balls though. I think it comes down to him wanting the LLE over the vet min. The kicker is that the money he will see is not that different but due to vet min contracts being paid in part by the league, the money we pay will be drasticly different.

That said if we really want to ensure another title this year why not do the following 3 things:
1. Get Baby back, no matter the cost
2. Suck it up and give Marbury the LLE
3. Suck it up and trade Scal and TA for Posey. We can probably get Scal back for the min

Perk/Sheed
KG/Baby
PP/Posey
RA/House
Rondo/Marbury

with Scal and the young players rounding out the bench. Its probably around 10 million bucks more to do this rather than et baby walk and only use the vet min but it probaby increases our chances by over 10%.

Man, probably the exact things that I would hate to see done.

1. With Sheed here, BBD is now most valuable as a trade chip. Considering that we could get something good back fro him in a trade, and we are thin at the 1-3 spots, why pay out a lot of money to keep a guy who is going to play 12 minutes a game? Maybe even less in the playoffs. Doesn't make sense. It is nice to have big man depth, but not when you have zero depth at other areas.

2. Marbury is not good, and he has shown his stripes by turning down the vet min deal. He THINKS he is a starter. He THINKS he is worth big money.That LLE can get us somebody much more useful than his deluded butt.

3. Posey's contract is horrible, and James is fading fast as a player. The Hornets really screwed up by doing what they did, and we shouldn't compound it by using up our cap space on James. He was going to be overpaid at 3 years, and we have already lost out on the first year of the deal, when he still hadd more to give. That means that we'd be paying the big money for the last two seasons of lesser ball. It is like getting together with that hot girl you really liked in high school, years later, when she has blown up like a balloon and has three kids in tow that she had with some bastard you hated. He had all of the fun, and you have to put up with all of the crap.

[GreenDreamer]

Is there any way Baby can play the 3?

Is he quick enough with his feet to guard on the perimeter?

If Baby was 240, then yes, he would be quick enough. He really does have quick feet. However, Baby is not going to get down to 270 much less 240.

If there is a 280lb and over league, then yes, Baby can play the three.