What if...

[Cash]

We had kept Eddie House all along, then we had drafted (and kept!) Rajon Rondo in 2006, and instead of selling #27, we'd traded down and grabbed Leon Powe? Then last year, traded Amare for KG, drafted Big Baby at #29, and used our MLE on James Posey and PJ Brown?

Honestly, there's better moves we could've made in "What if?" scenarios, but it's interesting to note how many of the current champs we had realistic shots at... some more realistic than others (we had House at one point, technically drafted Rondo, tried to trade for KG, & tried to sign PJ before we went to Skinner instead).

[nashill]

rondo cant shoot so that means dantoni wont trust this guy

Leon Powe? uhh cant shoot the ball also.

Big Baby? cant shoot the ball, too slow.. dantoni wont play him

so these guys are luckiest players in the nba for being not in suns uniform with dantoni as a coach.

[nevetsov]

D'Antoni played Shaq, so who knows.

Damn, you have to wonder about Rondo though.. 21/8/7/6 steals in the clincher.. I could care less if he can't shoot, at least he can say he's got a ring.. which is more than any of our guys. If I had to choose between being able to shoot, and winning championships, I know what i'd choose.

What if's make me sad.

[impulsenine]

21/8/7/6.

21/8/7/6.

Yeah, he TOTALLY SUCKS for not being able to hit that outside jumper.

If only I sucked that much at basketball! And for what!? So we could ditch Brian Grant's contract? Wow.

[flanpaw42]

i was all for keeping rondo when we drafted, but rondo would not have put up anything close to those numbers here. he started in boston by default and his deficiencies were covered by the big three.

i'm still a big fan of his but lets not play this what if game. it hasnt done us any good in the past.

[eastsidecrossover]

Its easy to get caught in the what if scheme. I think Rando would have been a decent backup, but that is it. Like some of said, he was their only option at point. A player like him who can play D, and knows to give the ball to 3 guys will do fine. He is athletic too, which helps. I think Powe, davis would not last long in this league if they were not on a team like boston. Their money is spent on 3 big contract guys.

Difference here guys is that they had no choice but to use their bench, and a coach willing to play them. I think Rondo and Perkins are good, solid role players that help the big 3. Then you get solid, defensive minded guys in Posey and Brown, who can hit the open shot, you have a great team. Package that with a coach that PREACHES defense, then you have a championship team. Also, they were a team, and unselfish. That is hard to find in the nba.

MD did not use his bench, even if some of these guys were on the bench, he would not have used them.

You can also say, what if the suns would have picked Iggy instead of signing Q, and resigned JJ for the 50 mil he was asking? This team would have looked a lot different. Maybe something like this. (even if you still traded Marion for shaq)

Nash, Barbs, Rondo
JJ, Bell, Barbs
Iggy, Hill, Tuck
Amare, TT
Shaq, Skinner, Pick

[cisco]

i was all for keeping rondo when we drafted, but rondo would not have put up anything close to those numbers here. he started in boston by default and his deficiencies were covered by the big three.

i'm still a big fan of his but lets not play this what if game. it hasnt done us any good in the past.

Actually, he started because he beat out Delonte West for the starting job, not by default. Oh, and he improved his shooting from about 41% in 2007 to 47% in 2008.

[rsavaj]

Man.

I hate that our FO(BC/D'Antoni/Sarver/Kerr/Griff) just made the most ridiculous decisions....

[Cash]

I think Powe, davis would not last long in this league if they were not on a team like boston.

It's too early to say for sure about Big Baby, especially because he might eat himself out of the league, but he looked pretty solid as a rookie. As for Powe, I saw him plenty last year on an abysmal team, and a fair amount this year on the best team in the league, and in both cases it was evident that the kid can play. He'd be a useful bench player for any team in the league.

[TASTIC]

^Agreed about both guys, Davis could be Traylor or he could be Oliver Miller (underrated because of his girth I feel - GREAT passer)

Powe looks like he could be decent scorer and rebounder if given the minutes too