'Zards Sign Jannero Pargo

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Pargo is a terrible player. He's worse than Price. But at least he's old and has no future.

Rationalizing idiotic moves of this kind seems equally idiotic to me. If you are not trying to make your team better with every move you make, what are you trying to do?

When I think of the opportunities we had this off-season to really focus this team on proven young talent, it makes me grind my teeth in frustration. Add that to a sub-par draft last year, and you have a team that was given a really great opportunity to turn itself into a contender -- not quite but almost the opportunity OKC had and took full advantage of -- but instead chose mediocrity.

Imagine this team, say in a year, w/ Wall, Beal, Kawhi Leonard and Kenneth Faried as 4 of its starters. With Nene the 5th starter. Imagine Landry Fields off the bench backing the 2-3. Or Kareem Rush. Even with Mack on board -- or maybe Chandler Parsons, a solid-looking backup player. Imagine Jae Crowder developing on the team, and another meaningful prospect taken #46 last year (O'Quinn? Denmon?). And still w/ Booker and Seraphin. That's the core we'd have wanted. And there's still plenty of room for veterans. Room for an Elton Brand, for a better backup point than pin the donkey got us (twice!), for Cartier Martin.

Too bad....

[hands11]

Seems a little weird to me that it took a Wall injury to sign someone like Pargo. He's nothing special, but I mean, he's going to be our best PG on the active roster opening night. Better than the guy we signed earlier in the summer. Oh well, better late than never I suppose.

I was hoping they would bring in a vet PG.

So now what. They now have 4 PGs once Wall comes back. Looks like AJ and Mack while have to battle it out.

[DCZards]

Imagine this team, say in a year, w/ Wall, Beal, Kawhi Leonard and Kenneth Faried as 4 of its starters. With Nene the 5th starter. Imagine Landry Fields off the bench backing the 2-3. Or Kareem Rush. Even with Mack on board -- or maybe Chandler Parsons, a solid-looking backup player. Imagine Jae Crowder developing on the team, and another meaningful prospect taken #46 last year (O'Quinn? Denmon?). And still w/ Booker and Seraphin. That's the core we'd have wanted. And there's still plenty of room for veterans. Room for an Elton Brand, for a better backup point than pin the donkey got us (twice!), for Cartier Martin.
....

Imagine living in the here and now...and not stressing over what might have been.

[hands11]

Sure. skepticism is warranted. Nevertheless seems to me the team benefits by having Wall learn how to attack a player like Price in practice, and again in absorbing defensive tips and tricks from him.

At the time we were expecting Price as deep bench player anyway, useful in defensive substitutions in end game situations or when a key opposing PG was ripping a hole in the squad and needed to be slowed down. I have no problem adding a cheap roleplayer like Price to a team that was looking to make its bones with stops that turn into a transition attack. We're banking on Wall, without him we have opportunity to land another lotto pick, with him Price wouldn''t have played much anyway.

And that goes along with the idea of bringing in vets to help teach the core which is a young team.

And with that, there was no guaranty Mack even made the final roster so they could always bring in another vet PG as they saw things in camp. EG always said they would be keeping their eye out for a player that fit. Once Wall was announced as injured to start the year, that elevated the need for that extra player.. So we have Pargo. Since the move happened quickly, we can assume they were eyeballing him already. We could have ended up with a Pargo anyway if Mack looked like crap. And when it is all said an done, we still may end up with Wall, Pargo and AJ. We will see. Maybe Mack has really improved over the summer.

[hands11]

All of those "offense does X while defense wins championships" sayings are wrong. It takes both. Always has, always will.

I think the reason you hear the saying is because too often players/teams focus more on offense. Our EFJ Wizards were a great example of that. Its like chicks dig the long ball thing. Most people want to be seen as a scorers and scorers get paid. There are more scorers then their are scorers and that are also great defenders.

Getting a top scorer to give that same amount of energy on defense isn't always easy. See Gilbert.

Ultimately the only thing that matters is team plus/minus against the other team while you are on the court. If your team scores more then the other team does, you win. That can be a high scoring game or a low scoring game. But come the playoffs, defenses tighten up and stop most the high scorers so you have to have that level of defense yourself. A solid defense is the core from which you expand better two way players and a go to player that can get it done in crunch time.

That is why they say defense wins championships

[hands11]

Imagine this team, say in a year, w/ Wall, Beal, Kawhi Leonard and Kenneth Faried as 4 of its starters. With Nene the 5th starter. Imagine Landry Fields off the bench backing the 2-3. Or Kareem Rush. Even with Mack on board -- or maybe Chandler Parsons, a solid-looking backup player. Imagine Jae Crowder developing on the team, and another meaningful prospect taken #46 last year (O'Quinn? Denmon?). And still w/ Booker and Seraphin. That's the core we'd have wanted. And there's still plenty of room for veterans. Room for an Elton Brand, for a better backup point than pin the donkey got us (twice!), for Cartier Martin.
....

Imagine living in the here and now...and not stressing over what might have been.

Its easy if you try.

[DCZards]

But come the playoffs, defenses tighten up and stop most the high scorers so you have to have that level of defense yourself. A solid defense is the core from which you expand better two way players and a go to player that can get it done in crunch time.

That is why they say defense wins championships

Yup, playoff ball and crunch time of tight games are where you see defense become a much bigger part of the formula for winning.

[truwizfan4evr]

So is Pargo feeling better now?

[payitforward]

Imagine this team, say in a year, w/ Wall, Beal, Kawhi Leonard and Kenneth Faried as 4 of its starters. With Nene the 5th starter. Imagine Landry Fields off the bench backing the 2-3. Or Kareem Rush. Even with Mack on board -- or maybe Chandler Parsons, a solid-looking backup player. Imagine Jae Crowder developing on the team, and another meaningful prospect taken #46 last year (O'Quinn? Denmon?). And still w/ Booker and Seraphin. That's the core we'd have wanted. And there's still plenty of room for veterans. Room for an Elton Brand, for a better backup point than pin the donkey got us (twice!), for Cartier Martin.
....

Imagine living in the here and now...and not stressing over what might have been.

Its easy if you try.

Stress? This is a game. Give peace a chance.

OTOH, imagine never learning from your mistakes. Who in the world would take us far? / a superstar? Well right you are!

[montestewart]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icv-VinpK9w[/youtube]