**Okafor/Beasly Is Our ONLY Option**

[THFM]

I will list each issue on why these two players are our only option in the off season.

Okafor/Beasly: They are the only TRUE PF in the market. Okafor, Dalembert, and Dwight Howard are the only 3 Centers in the East that average a double double. Which brings to my next point, Okafor is playing out of postion with the bobcats, hence his numbers. He is really a PF. If Okafor plays with a team that has a good Center like Dalembert he will flourish. Same goes with Beasly he is a true PF with a good inside, outside game and has TONS of potential. Yes Okafor has had injury problems but who hasn't? He hasn't had a major surgery like Oden or Amare and you don't see the Suns/Blazers getting rid of them. Okafor has had some minor injuries and he will get through them.

Josh Smith: Josh Smith is NOT PF. This team needs a low post presence and he isn't one. He doesn't have a nice jumper or any good back to the basket moves. This team is STACKED with SF's and we dont' need another one playing out of postion. Smith's game doesn't help us anway, he doesnt' open the floor for Iggy or make Sammy better. Magic Johnson played Center in the finals, but that doesn't mean his a Center. Smith will be on the worst mistakes this team makes.

Kobe/Lebron/Wade: They are players who some of are saying to wait for and sign with our money and not to overpay this summer. Honestly NONE of these players ever expressed interest in coming to Philly nor will they. Wade's contract will be up in 3 years, by that time Shaq's contract will be off the books, and they will have a lot of cap and I'm sure MORE people would want to go to Miami then come to Philly and play with Wade. Lebron said he will go to New York no matter what the sitution is becasue that was his dream unless he won a ring with the Cavs. Not to mention the crappy managment job the Cavs have done. Kobe will be too old to sign to nice contract when the other two become a free agent. Honestly if we hold the money no FA is going to want to come to Philly when they can go to Miami.

Iggy: It's funny how so many people are not happy with Iggy's play this season. Let's see. Iggy is NOT a top three draft pick. He was never claimed to be a franchise player. Nobody ever said he was an offensive beast. Yet these are all of his goals right now. For being put in all three of those situtions he is doing very well. He is a top 50 player in PER and is averaging 19 PPG. I was expecting 22 but one bucket shouldn't change my mind that much. Not only that this is his FIRST FULL season taking the lead role of a team we need to give him time. He wasn't drafted to take over this team. He should get his 57-60 million. I don't want to hear Kevin Martin took 52. He took 52 becasue Bibby and Artest are on that team, and he is the future but for now he isn't expected to lead them to glory.

In the end Okafor/Beasly are on our only hope. We need them to really help this team. There won't be that many good PF's in the next couple years, so what do we do then? Nobody thought Boozer would BE THIS GOOD and Jazz threw TONS of money on him with his problem with Cavs. It sounds almost like Okafor's situion. I'm telling you Okafor/Beasly!

[ankle420breaker]

so basically what your saying is Okafor is our only hope.

[SendEm]

Beasley is a Small Forward...

[ankle420breaker]

we aren't getting Beasley

[THFM]

Beasley is a Small Forward...

Yes, but his game can be done while playing PF. His back to the basket and mid range game are far supieror to Josh Smith. Josh Smith CAN'T be utilized as a PF while Beasly can.

[UptownPhilly]

Okafor is not anyone's hope. When the Magic took Dwight Howard with the #1 pick in 2004, I didn't understand why. Now I do.

[The Guilty Party]

This isn't a whole lot different than your "It Finally Hit Me..." thread except now you've added Okafor as an acceptable option.

If I think about it... two weeks ago, you said we ONLY had one option and now that number has doubled. At this rate, you might create a thread at the end of the season that states that we ONLY have 7 options this summer.

As for your dramatic case posted above, if Beasley is somehow still an option and a RESTRICTED free agent is still an option (two unlikely additions that aren't likely to happen)... where's Amare?

[dbodner]

Okafor/Beasly: They are the only TRUE PF in the market.

Griffin, if he declares (which I'm told is about 50/50 at this point).

[The Guilty Party]

I know his stock has dropped a little bit but what about DeAndre Jordan?? These options just continue to grow.

[SendEm]

I know his stock has dropped a little bit but what about DeAndre Jordan?? These options just continue to grow.

He's a Center with very little skills. I like him but it will take him years to get to the level where Dalembert is right now. He's ONLY a Center prospect with no potential to be an NBA starting PF. As long as Dalembert is here, that would be a wasted draft pick because they'll never complement each other.

[Grenerd686]

-= original quote snipped =-



Josh Smith CAN'T be utilized as a PF while Beasly can.

I suppose Smith is not playing PF in Atlanta then. I thought he was plying PF for them, for the last couple of years.

[UptownPhilly]

Jordan shouldn't come out this year.

If there are no good PF's available in this draft. We should still draft BPA, whether it's Bayless, Batum, Collison, Budinger, Mayo, whoever.

[The Guilty Party]

I won't disagree with that so it looks like we're back down to 4 options for the PF spot. Some of the following options aren't great options but they are still options if all else fails. I imagine Stefanski will try to make a big splash in the free agent/trade waters this summer (see: Amare, Okafor, and Brand) but if that fails, he does have some players to fall back on that have some potential (some do not).

Ty Thomas? Amir Johnson? Shawn Marion? Brandan Wright? Charlie Villanueva? Channing Frye? Zach Randolph? Udonis Haslem? Chris Wilcox? Darrell Arthur? Al Harrington? Sean May? Drew Gooden? Ike Diogu?

[UptownPhilly]

Ty Thomas? Amir Johnson? Shawn Marion? Brandan Wright? Charlie Villanueva? Channing Frye? Zach Randolph? Udonis Haslem? Chris Wilcox? Darrell Arthur? Al Harrington? Sean May? Drew Gooden? Ike Diogu?

High Risk, High Reward
Randolph
CV(poor defense, good offense)

No
Marion
Haslem
Wilcox
Harrington
Gooden
May

Worth the Risk
TT
Amir
Wright(who I wanted the Sixers to draft in 07)
Frye(probably won't be a starter but could fit in our offense)
Diogu

Not sure about
Arthur

[The Guilty Party]

Hmmm... I think I more or less agree with you although I would probably swap Wilcox into the "Worth It" side of things and move Frye over to "Not Worth It".

Also, I don't know that Villanueva is "high risk" since he probably won't cost the team much in the form of assets or money.

[ankle420breaker]

I've been an advocate of bringing in Villanueva at the right cost for awhile now.

[Sandalf42]

I do think we need to nessecarily get the "next big thing" at PF.

If we could overall upgrade our team and get a quality PF (someone like Drew Gooden), I would be happy with that.

Remember, Jason Smith is still developing. Not saying he's our future super star, but he's definitly a somewhat big part of this team for the forseeable future.

As long as Reggie Evans ends up at the bottom of the depth chart (or not on it at all) I'll be happy.

[UptownPhilly]

Two More young guys that may be worth considering....Hakim Warrick, and Paul Milsap.

I'm not sure how the Gasol trade impacted Warrick's play, but if Memphis is still not very high on him he'd be worth trading for.

[ITK9]

[size=9]
Iggy: It's funny how so many people are not happy with Iggy's play this season. Let's see. Iggy is NOT a top three draft pick. He was never claimed to be a franchise player. Nobody ever said he was an offensive beast. Yet these are all of his goals right now. For being put in all three of those situtions he is doing very well. He is a top 50 player in PER and is averaging 19 PPG. I was expecting 22 but one bucket shouldn't change my mind that much. Not only that this is his FIRST FULL season taking the lead role of a team we need to give him time. He wasn't drafted to take over this team. He should get his 57-60 million. I don't want to hear Kevin Martin took 52. He took 52 becasue Bibby and Artest are on that team, and he is the future but for now he isn't expected to lead them to glory.

dude..everybody seems at least to be ok with iggy's play except that guy called sendEM who sees iggy as one of the worst basketball players on this EARTH

[The Guilty Party]

Milsap is an interesting name but I don't know that Utah will look to move him and if they did, I don't know that we have what Utah would want.

The more I think about it, I really do believe Reggie Evans needs to be traded for an expiring deal before the deadline. He's a nice player off of the bench but I think we'll be find the rest of the year switching Young and Smith from starting and coming off of the bench. If we acquire any of the guys listed above, they would become our starter and we already have our big man depth without Evans so he really needs to go.