How much value does Joel Anthony have for you guys?

[diablerouge]

that's why joel should always come off the bench. you want to play him 30 minutes vs philly, boston, new york and 5 minutes vs orlando, lakers, dallas, chicago. he can be extremely valuable or totally worthless. i love him as the 4th big and hate him as a starter.

[Pimpwerx]

I'm not overstating Joel's importance at all. Sixers were killing Z with just athleticism. Look at the +/-. Who would be our other option, Damp? Pittman? Damp is as dead as Z, and Pittman doesn't know the defense yet. Bosh can't play starter minutes at center, so we absolutely needed Joel. His greatest asset is his quickness, and he erased a lot of mistakes. He doesn't get stats for them, but rotating quickly to pick up the slack is an essential part of our defense.

Look at the second half of Game4, and you'll see a team that clearly quit. Z and Bibby would start and concede a gang of points, then Joel would come in and we'd claw them back. Then the second half, Z starts again and concedes a gang of points, and repeat. Only reason any of those games were even close was Z. And the team just had enough of running around trying to cover that oversized goof.

I didn't even think it was a debate, because the game threads at that time painted Joel as the MVP of the series. How are you guys forgetting that so easily? The guy gets no respect outside our team, but you guys shouldn't be falling into that same trap. Without Joel, we don't get past the Sixers. You can say we have more talent than them, but we had more talent than Dallas too. In a game of X's and O's, you need to play team ball, and without Joel, our defense is porous and becomes a detriment. I wouldn't trade Joel away from the pile of beans some of you want. A poor-mans Joel made the lottery this year. Show the guy some respect. PEACE.

[DefenseWins]

Joel is great OFF THE BENCH. I didn't see his effectiveness when he started. When Rio and Joel came out, it was like the energy crew and Heat would steam roll whoever when they came in.

But when Joel started... it wasn't great. It mighth have to do with the match ups. Damp could have started IMO, or even Z. Joel could have been against the Mavs bench.

Also, honestly the stat line of

20-30 min and having 0's across the board with some blocks can be tolerable for so long. Despite having 3 players that are loaded on offense, at times they do need help. I just hope he works in the gym on his offense and rebounding. He can be such a threat if he develops his offensive/rebounding game.

It also would hurt the team when teams would just leave him out there and it'd be 4vs5. What happened to Joel's screens? Those were golden. Not his fault, but Heat shouldn't have stopped that.

[mikey1365]

He is strictly a situational player off the bench, not a starter or even regular rotation, but a situational rotation player. With that said the situation would be about 80% of the time because of the way the league is right now. I would say he has alot of value around the league right now, because he made alot of plays when everyone was watching and a very friendly contract.

Myself I would love to be able to pkg him and Chalmers in some type of sign and trade for Kirk Hinrich
assuming once we have bball again that that type of angle still exists

Troy Murphy, Dexter Pittman, Big Z
Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem,
Lebron James, Shane Battier(assuming there is a MLE)
Dwayne Wade, Mike Miller, Eddie House
Kirk Hinrich, Norris Cole,

THIS WOULD BE A VERY STRONG TEAM !!

Think about it how many big men are there anymore that are gonna beat you with there offensive game. So with Murphy creating great spacing, and he is a very good defensive rebounder. No he is not a shot blocker, but he still has a presence there to be a deterant. Alot will depend on Pittman and his development, he has to be servicable for 15 minutes a game, Murphy another 15 and Z getting some minutes if needed, remember we are still a running team with are strngth being our wing players. We are going to play alot of James Bosh Miller Wade Haslem together so you dont need big minutes from your bigs, ofcourse there will be those big front lines around the league where you will need more from them and in those spurts they will be able to

[twix2500]

@ Pimperwerx, you are really trippen on the Joel tip, and to validate this belief by saying we would of never gotten by 76ers if it wasnt for Joel, LOL!! C'Mon Son!!

[DefenseWins]

Troy Murphy was such a bust for Boston. I think he personally had the decision between Miami or Boston and at the time Boston was steam rolling Miami every time. I wanted him here because we needed some production, but WOW he is soft and no I do not want lol. We have our issues with softness already, don't need anymore.