Chad Ford's Latest Chat Wrap mentioned something interesting

[4ho5ive]

On ESPN.

JSJ: Chad, with Odom's struggles and the LAKERS hole at their starting SF spot, is there a chance we see them move Lamar (& his expiring contract) for a better fit at the 3 spot like Gerald Wallace, Mike Miller, or Tayshaun Prince? The LAKERS need a better defensive presence to go up against the Pierces & Artests of the league and would still have Powell & Radmanovic coming off the bench in the front court.

SportsNation Chad Ford: They could have Gerald Wallace in a heartbeat. Probably ditto for Mike Miller who's unhappy in Minnesota. Shawn Marion is still another legit option. Personally, I think Laker fans are panicking a bit. They are the best team in the West, even with this mini-slump

WHATTTT?

http://proxy.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=24263

[Basti]

why are you surprised? given our record and the usual ignorance by the mainstream media towards us I'm not that surprised to read such BS

[Worm Guts]

Who says it's ignorance? Not many players would be content to be playing on a 4-23 team. It's very possible Mike Miller is unhappy here.

[Devilzsidewalk]

read between the lines here folks

he's trying to say: Miller to the Lakers, Odom to the Bocats, Wallace to the Wolves

[shrink]

I read this on another board, and didn't think it worthy of bringing over here. I think this "Miller is unhappy" is just another assumption from an ESPN correspondent who wants to improve the best, and most influential teams.

Could Miller be unhappy? Well, I'm sure no one is thrilled right now being on that team. Has anyone seen any evidence of this? Well, he seems to be the most active player on the team, and I was impressed that even when he was injured, in street clothes, he jumped into every on-court huddle. This was from a chat, not a researched piece of work, and its not the first time that Ford has considered the Wolves to be a farm club for the Lakers ("KG owns a house in Malibu, therefore expect him to be a Laker!").

I don't put any credibility into this at all.

[invno1]

I would love to have have Odom's huge expiring if Lakers are interested in Miller & Minnesota would be wise to get as far under the cap as possible. I like Crash but he prolly isnt the guy to put the fans in the seats and bring the crowd to thier feet. Timberwolves need a some flashy talent Glass dont really bring it.

[Devilzsidewalk]

but I don't want cap space, I want a good player that'll be apart of the future, and honestly, if you're gonna play Love/Jefferson, than you need a defensive SF who can help out inside, and Gerald Wallace fits that to a T. Plus he rebounds and he can slash too.

I really want Wallace a lot on the Wolves.

[invno1]

I rember Williams giving boston all kinds of troubles in the playoffs and it will take money to sign him if there is a possibilty there I like Marvin he has a very nice game. Crash is interesting, the only games i have seen him play in he looked out of control falling finishing drives....Wolves are gonna need to be as far under as possible...What if say just a seniaro Al Jefferson was considered for say a jeff dreen Russell Westbrook ..just and example Timberwolves might need to be able to give a trade exception to make it work. that is where i see big time value in Odoms expiring or maybe enable McHale to package up something at draft for either like Curry & Thabeet or Hardin & Thabeet ...taking on Crash kinda limits Timberwolves flex. I dont know anything just an idea

[Devilzsidewalk]

Westbrook and Green could be awesome as far as making us a great defensive team if we got Thabeet in the draft, but Love/Thabeet seems like the end of our inside scoring days. Al is the one star we have, I'd trade anybody else before him.

I'd love a great defensive PG like Westbrook, but I'd like him with Al. We could also use an athletic SF with some all around skills and a big time SG who can slash and shoot. Doesn't have to be Kobe, but a Ginobili-esque player would be great. Has to have good slashing skills though, I don't think a straight up shooter like Ray Allen or Redd is the answer.

If Wolves can get Rubio (hope he comes out) or Harden, that'd be the dream for me.

But I think SF is a big hole, and if they don't pick one up in trade, then they have to look SF in the draft, hopefully that Miami pick comes into play and they can pick up James or Clark if they're lucky. But if they could land a SF in a trade, then they can get a nice athletic PG in the draft, like Collison or Lawson, which is much more likely w/ the Miami pick than Clark or James.

[Worm Guts]

Westbrook and Green could be awesome as far as making us a great defensive team if we got Thabeet in the draft, but Love/Thabeet seems like the end of our inside scoring days. Al is the one star we have, I'd trade anybody else before him.

Al is a better scorer inside than Love, alot better, but he doesn't have great efficiency for a big man and he can't pass out of double teams. Without those two benefits, inside scoring isn't that important.

[Devilzsidewalk]

Westbrook and Green could be awesome as far as making us a great defensive team if we got Thabeet in the draft, but Love/Thabeet seems like the end of our inside scoring days. Al is the one star we have, I'd trade anybody else before him.

Al is a better scorer inside than Love, alot better, but he doesn't have great efficiency for a big man and he can't pass out of double teams. Without those two benefits, inside scoring isn't that important.

he's still pretty damn good, especially for being 23 years old.
Fg% is better than Bosh, Dirk, Aldridge, and West,
Assist rate is better than Dwight Howard or Okafor,
Turnover rate is extremely low - lower than any starting PF or Center in the NBA except Aldridge and Jamison.
PER is higher than all PFs AND centers except Yao, D12, Dirk, Duncan, and Boozer
6th in the NBA in blocks

be nice if he'd improve his passing, rebounding, and endurance, but that should be yet to come - he's 23. He's gonna be a top 5 big man for sure, I wouldn't trade him right now. Love can be a great compliment once he gets comfortable with his passing and outside shooting, but he's not close to being ready to give the offense Al gives. Probably never will.

[Calinks]

Although it's a small part of the equation, another reason why Al doesn't have slightly better assist numbers is because nobody on this team can hit a shot worth a damn. If he was playing on a good perimeter shooting team then he might be a slighter more effective passer. Maybe more willing too.

[Worm Guts]

Westbrook and Green could be awesome as far as making us a great defensive team if we got Thabeet in the draft, but Love/Thabeet seems like the end of our inside scoring days. Al is the one star we have, I'd trade anybody else before him.

Al is a better scorer inside than Love, alot better, but he doesn't have great efficiency for a big man and he can't pass out of double teams. Without those two benefits, inside scoring isn't that important.

he's still pretty damn good, especially for being 23 years old.
Fg% is better than Bosh, Dirk, Aldridge, and West,
Assist rate is better than Dwight Howard or Okafor,
Turnover rate is extremely low - lower than any starting PF or Center in the NBA except Aldridge and Jamison.
PER is higher than all PFs AND centers except Yao, D12, Dirk, Duncan, and Boozer
6th in the NBA in blocks

be nice if he'd improve his passing, rebounding, and endurance, but that should be yet to come - he's 23. He's gonna be a top 5 big man for sure, I wouldn't trade him right now. Love can be a great compliment once he gets comfortable with his passing and outside shooting, but he's not close to being ready to give the offense Al gives. Probably never will.

Bosh gets to the line twice as much as Al, Dirk gets to the line and shoots 3's. If you want to compare his offensive efficiency to Aldridge and West, that's fine but neither are great players.
When Jefferson shoots 55% ,gets to the line 11 times a game, and plays defense like Howard, I won't bust his chops for not passing.
Getting alot of blocks doesn't make you a good defensive player and Al Jefferson is not a good defensive player.
Love will never be the scorer Al is, but he might eventually be a better offensive player.

[casey]

FT shooting is one thing that I never hear people question Jefferson about. I just went and looked from 01-02 through 06-07 and Garnett was in the top 20 in FT attempts every year. Yet a lot of people complained about him not getting to the line enough. Jefferson was 30th last year and sits at 40th this year. And he plays inside a lot more compared to the mid range game of Garnett. He should be getting to the line a lot more than he does. He's certainly an efficient scorer, but won't get to that next level until he gets to the line.

[Worm Guts]

He's certainly an efficient scorer, but won't get to that next level until he gets to the line.

His efficiency is good, but it's not elite. And when I say efficiency, I basically mean points per shot.

[Devilzsidewalk]

you guys are arguing that he's not great in every facet of the game, I'm arguing that he's good enough and better than most and most definitely worth keeping apart of the core.

If Love breaks out and he and Jefferson don't work out together, then trade Al at the point, he's not going to get worse, his value is gonna continue to rise.

I think in 5 years, I'd say the only frontcourt player who's a lock to be better is Howard. The other competitors are Bosh, Oden, Bynum, Boozer and Stoudemire, but I don't think any of them are any more likely to be better than Jefferson than vice versa.

gonna be a top 5 bigman in the NBA

[Worm Guts]

you guys are arguing that he's not great in every facet of the game, I'm arguing that he's good enough and better than most and most definitely worth keeping apart of the core.

Al Jefferson is a good player, I'm not arguing that. Just that he's not good enough to labeled untouchable.

If Love breaks out and he and Jefferson don't work out together, then trade Al at the point, he's not going to get worse, his value is gonna continue to rise.

Part of his value is in his age and if the Wolves continue to suck, his value will go down just from being labeled as loser.

I think in 5 years, I'd say the only frontcourt player who's a lock to be better is Howard. The other competitors are Bosh, Oden, Bynum, Boozer and Stoudemire, but I don't think any of them are any more likely to be better than Jefferson than vice versa.

gonna be a top 5 bigman in the NBA

Others will come.

[Devilzsidewalk]

others will come, but will they be better in their early years than Al in his prime? That'd be a rare player. I don't think his value will go down if the Wolves continue to suck if he keeps improving in his game. Especially after people saw how great KG was on a good team, the word is out, the problem has been the front office. AL will get the benefit of the doubt.

I don't think he's untouchable, but I don't think a package of some random decent young players like Westbrook and Green is the answer. Teams full of solid talent don't go anywhere, you need some top 5 at their position guys, and Al has that potential. No team will trade an evidently superior player for him, so that leaves trading Al for packages of unknowns or decent guys. Wolves should take some chances, but not with Jefferson, that's way too reckless. Especially with the history of talent evaluation we have. Getting a player of Al's talent for KG is a pretty rare, most teams get garbage for their stars. He may not be a carry the team on his back kinda guy, but most aren't. KG wasn't. We need to work on surrounding him with proper talent like we did for KG in 1 out of the 10 years he was here. Except more often than 10% of his tenure.

He needs help on the glass, some defensive perimeter help, and a slasher. Wolves can potentially do that with the upcoming draft and possible trades and free agency, and development of Love and Brewer.

[TheFranchise21]

FT shooting is one thing that I never hear people question Jefferson about. I just went and looked from 01-02 through 06-07 and Garnett was in the top 20 in FT attempts every year. Yet a lot of people complained about him not getting to the line enough. Jefferson was 30th last year and sits at 40th this year. And he plays inside a lot more compared to the mid range game of Garnett. He should be getting to the line a lot more than he does. He's certainly an efficient scorer, but won't get to that next level until he gets to the line.

I attribute some of that to the fact that we suck so refs don't give us calls. At least when KG was here, we were somewhat relevant and KG got some of those "star" calls. Big Al definitely should be shooting more FTAs but he doesn't get the same treatment as KG.

[Zeitgeister]

FT shooting is one thing that I never hear people question Jefferson about. I just went and looked from 01-02 through 06-07 and Garnett was in the top 20 in FT attempts every year. Yet a lot of people complained about him not getting to the line enough. Jefferson was 30th last year and sits at 40th this year. And he plays inside a lot more compared to the mid range game of Garnett. He should be getting to the line a lot more than he does. He's certainly an efficient scorer, but won't get to that next level until he gets to the line.

I attribute some of that to the fact that we suck so refs don't give us calls. At least when KG was here, we were somewhat relevant and KG got some of those "star" calls. Big Al definitely should be shooting more FTAs but he doesn't get the same treatment as KG.

I don't agree with the star calls thing. Sure, he might get a few more calls to go his way, but its not like its preventing Kevin Love from drawing fouls. The problem is that Al doesn't try to draw contact, instead he tries to shimmy, and move his body around the defender that he has caught off balance.