Lue Boston bound?

[ddb]

i doubt it. personally, i don't like the guy. hopefully they hold on on this guy

[GuyClinch]

Pete you keep saying that Sam matches up better against Billups but it's simply not true. Cassell is a negative, in a huge way, on the defensive end

Cassel's defense against bigger slower players is better then Rondo's IMHO.

http://www.82games.com/0708/07LAC3C.HTM

If you look at the numbers you see that Sam's PER AGAINST is right there with Rondo (both are at 16+ against) so despite your notions his defense is fine. If it was really a "HUGE NEGATIVE" it would show up in this statistic.

What is going on here is the "old guy" bias - IMHO. You see a guy get beat and you think that he can't defend anyone becaues he is too slow. That's just not true because much of defense is mental - things like positioning and knowing a players tendencies can really help.

That's why GP was able to bother Reggie Miller and the faster stronger TA was not.. Cassell would be a terrific option for this team. I am not worried about Rondo's minutes. He is going to be our PG for the next ten years I think.

What matters now is getting a championship in the Pierce/Garnett/RA era.
That has to be the focus and Cassell is a better choice then Lue. Lue however still would be a plus for this team as he could provide us with another ball handler.

Pete

[cfan79]

In that case Ray would probably be on Hamilton.

Who would bring up the ball if Ray and Tony are in the game? I just think it would be a real bad idea to bring in Lue. If we wanted a small point guard we would have went after Stoudemire more.

[sully00]

Pete what are talking about? PG is the Clippers 2nd worst position on both ends of the floor, and they don't even have a PF. While Sam's numbers are decent the Clippers are 6.6 points per 100 possessions better without him defensively. Seriously this is just a wrongheaded discussion, the Clippers are better defensively with Dickau or Knight than Sam. Beyond that Chauncey Billups owns Sam I Am head to head over the last couple of years.

Cassell is who he is. He is a smart veteran PG who excells in the half court, that is something we can use. He also isn't afraid of the big shot not that that is a real issue for this squad but if you are sitting someone down you don't need somebody who is going to second guess it in the crunch.

That said he is older than rocks and slow footed and easily would be the least effective defender in our rotation. While a guy like Lue can struggle against bigger guards you don't have to play a guy like Lue, and he excells against smaller quicker guards that can give House trouble. My concern is that while it would be nice to have Sam I Am in a half court game against a team like CLE he is going get killed by a guy like Gibson and when you are playing a game in the 80-90's everyone hoop counts especially ones not coming from LeBron.

Is it fair and does it make sense to bring Sam here and then not use him because he kills you defensively?

[humblebum]

To add to that Sully, everyone seems to ignore the fact that Sam CLEARLY thinks he's better than he really is. He'd probably expect to finish off most games with Rondo on the bench. He'd want to get up a decent number of shots all while playing piss poor defense. The C's don't do themselves any good if Cassell comes here thinking he's going to play a big time role and instead becomes a stop gap 10 minute per game type guy because of his limitations defensively. I don't think his ego could handle that type of humble pie. Rondo is the better player and he shouldn't have to worry about some half washed up old vet trying to eat into the minutes that Rondo has EARNED. If Sam can accept that Rondo is THE man then he's welcome aboard but something about that Clippers game against the C's a while back tells me that Sam doesn't handle shots to his ego very well...

[sully00]

I don't have concerns with Sam's ego and attitude in that sense, he has come off the bench in MINN and in LAC over the last 4 years. Usually the griping is from someone Sam has taken mins from not the other way. I just don't know that what we can offer him is fair. While people seem to think he is hungry for a championship I think he is hungry for one more contract.

In other spots and out West defense is going to be less of priority than it will be on a team that has built its season on defensive effectiveness. I think Sam would be more useful in DEN than BOS.

[Ballings7]

I think you guys should get Anthony Johnson instead, like somebody said. He's big enough to put on Billups, and is a decent, tough, veteran PG. Remember his days with Indiana?

[GuyClinch]

In other spots and out West defense is going to be less of priority than it will be on a team that has built its season on defensive effectiveness. I think Sam would be more useful in DEN than BOS

This team was built on the idea that three talented players and some roleplayers and young guys was a better idea then a team of rising "stars." It was built on the idea that sometimes young isn't necessarily "good."

The fact that they play good defense has to do more with Ainge's philosophy that teams can play defense if they WANT too. These players were not individually selected because of their defense but because of their overall talent level.

Sam Cassell - who is more talented then Anthony Johnson or Tyron Lue (I find it crazy that I am debating this) fits in just fine. Cassell would be a huge boon for this team.

How can you deny this? You watched the game last night right? Rondo is doing a bang up job at PG. But bam - foul trouble. In comes Eddie House and as much as House is swell as an outside gunner our offense kinda fell apart with him out there.

House is underrated as PG but he is far off from the Cassell level. And House will still play - he will get to snipe from the outside with Sam setting him up..

Pete