Azure's Offseason Plan

[azuresou1]

Posted on T&T board, but I'd like to see what the home crowd feels:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1321334

[PandaKidd]

I like the draft prospects, I like the idea of Melo, but dont think it will happen in a million years.

I like the aggressive idea of Monroe.

I like the idea of Pierce, but I see him going to another contender over us. Someone like OKC

If we do everything BUT get Melo, I think we will be in a good spot next year.

[theatlfan]

Some head-scratchers here IYAM:
- Don't see BOS biting on Lou. A team with Rondo and Bradley doesn't necessarily need another undersized G. Not saying that I don't think you can find someone to eat his contract for a 2nd - just that I don't think BOS is that team.
- Can't say I'm a huge fan of landing Melo. The team runs best when the ball is moving and we end up with 7-8 guys scoring in 2x digits. Melo may have matured some, but he's not an unselfish spread the ball around guy either. I wouldn't scream and holler if we landed him, but I wouldn't be too stoked about it either.
- Couldn't see Pierce coming in this scenario. All we'd have is the Room MLE which is actually < the taxpayer's MLE. If the sales pitch is "come here and play behind Melo for a shot at another ring" then several other teams can offer more $$ and a better opportunity to win.
- Just to be sure we're on the same page here: Hood isn't a SF - doesn't have the length. Not sure if that's what you're implying or not.
- As far as the end roster construction, I'd wonder where would any semblance of a D come from? We're left with Horford and Demarre as the only guys I'd consider as even consistently average defenders... maybe draftee Grant would be as well. I mean, if Demarre is out, then we're putting either Korver or Melo on the other team's #1 wing.

[azuresou1]

Fair points. My responses:

- I just used Boston because I think they need another ballhandler and they're looking for assets... maybe Milwaukee would be a better team. I'd also be willing to toss in Jenkins to clear Lou's contract, if someone was willing to roll the dice on him.
- The ball might stick a little in Melo's hands, but I think this would be BY FAR the most talented team he's ever played on... outside of the Olympics where he was the MVP of that team. Simply put I think Melo's been asked to do too much up to this point in his career in terms of creating offense. Here, we would mainly need to just be a finisher - with the occasional iso/post play when our offense is stalling.
- Pierce is a hard sell... and would only happen if we had already gotten Melo to commit to a discounted contract. However if we get Melo, the only teams that would offer a better chance to win would IMO be Miami, OKC, LAC, and SA.
- If Hood isn't an SF then what is he?

The big question in my mind would be our defense, where we would indeed be mediocre. We would be reliant on Bebe being an impact player right away, as well as our bench bigs out-playing the opposing bench bigs consistently.

[theatlfan]

^^ To further the conversation:
- I can't see Jenkins having positive trade value right now. Personally, I'm still high on him, but from an outsider's view, they see our GM dealing his 1st draft pick with us after serious back surgery. Perception is reality in these things and that kind of deal screams "dumping your former 1st instead of admitting that you're cutting him".
- I think you just proved my point on Pierce. I'd guess at least MIA and LAC would be willing to offer him their full MLE which means that they'd be offering more than we could. So, he gets more $$ and has a better chance to win... am I missing something?
- Hood is an SG all the way. He's been measured 5x and his wingspan has come in between 6'7.5" and 6'8" each time. This means that his wingspan is actually closer to Teague (6'7.5") and Schröder (6'7.75") than to Jenkins (6'8.5") and Korver (6'9"). I'm putting in a guess that Coach Bud wants his SF's to be in the 7' range to which Hood would fall well short. I don't see this as a huge knock to his draft prospects since he has the skills to be pretty good there, but yeah, he is strictly a SG.

I would be very, very hesitant to count on a rookie to be a lynchpin in any phase of the game. I just can't see banking ~$75M into Melo and basing the entire deck of cards on whether Nogueira can become an impact player right away. I mean if Nogueira gives Antic a good run for backup C minutes, then I'd think we should be very happy with him for his 1st year in the league. Expecting him to be a DPotY caliber guy as a 21 yo rookie just feels like we'd be asking waaaay too much.

Before moving off Nogueira, I do wonder about roster size. The assumption I've been working off of is that we'd most like move on from Brand, Martin and Ayon; bring back Mack and Scott; and bring in our 2 1sts (Nogueira and #15 this year). That would be 14 players. Sure, we dump Lou and maybe Jenkins, but there really isn't the breathing room to do too much after singing Melo and Pierce.

Even so, the entire offseason comes down to whether you'd want to pin your hopes onto Melo's coattails. Every other move is relatively minor in comparison. I've been an advocate of acquiring a star level player (by hook or by crook as far as I'm concerned) and Melo definitely fits that bill. Personally, I've never been a big fan of his, but I could see why some would be very excited about his coming.

[myrak433]

Theatlfan wrote

Hood is an SG all the way. He's been measured 5x and his wingspan has come in between 6'7.5" and 6'8" each time. This means that his wingspan is actually closer to Teague (6'7.5") and Schröder (6'7.75") than to Jenkins (6'8.5") and Korver (6'9"). I'm putting in a guess that Coach Bud wants his SF's to be in the 7' range to which Hood would fall well short. I don't see this as a huge knock to his draft prospects since he has the skills to be pretty good there, but yeah, he is strictly a SG.

Not sure I agree with you here. I believe Hood is a SF. He is 6'8". there is no way his wingspan is 6'8". I looked it up but could not find any source saying what his measurments are. If you have a link please post it. Or I guess we will have to wait until the NBA combine to see. But he is two inches taller than Ronnie Brewer and I know that Ronnie Brewer plays SF in the NBA. So, I would think that Hood at SF...... he would be fine.

[theatlfan]

Not sure I agree with you here. I believe Hood is a SF. He is 6'8". there is no way his wingspan is 6'8". I looked it up but could not find any source saying what his measurments are. If you have a link please post it. Or I guess we will have to wait until the NBA combine to see. But he is two inches taller than Ronnie Brewer and I know that Ronnie Brewer plays SF in the NBA. So, I would think that Hood at SF...... he would be fine.

Link: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Rodney-Hood-5723/

For the "average human", wingspan = height (this is shown best in Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man). Someone with a wingspan even a couple of inches > his/her height would be considered to have long arms. For basketball players (and all athletes really), wingspan is specifically selected for even as much as height in basketball which is why there are some absolute freaks on the basketball court in this repect. I often wonder if literally 90% or more of the players in the league are sufferers of Marfan syndrome because of how ridiculously freaky this is.

For some reference, Brewer's height (w/o shoes) is a shade under 6'6", but his wingspan is 6'11.25". Link: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ronnie-Brewer-64/

As an aside, the site that both of the links above go to has a Measurements DB that is pretty complete going back to the early naughts. (There are some entries going further back, but the measurements aren't as complete.) Link: http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/

[MaceCase]

I likened Hood to Chandler Parsons for having a greater height than length ratio but of course Parsons is taller and his wingspan therefore greater too than what Hood has been measured with so far. Perhaps he can transition into a similar type of player but alas, until wee see otherwise at the combine this week, that is not ideal reach for a SF.

[SBM]

Hood is a SG because he rebounds as such. KD, Lebron, Melo, guys like that it is nothing for them to have double figure rebounding games. That even goes for Carroll and Marvin when he was here. Hood averaged only 4 rebounds a game in college at 6"8. That's a SG. Sorry that I am not going to argue with people claiming I am using one facet of his game to decide what position he plays.

[azuresou1]

The comparison I've seen is Shard, which looks fairly accurate to me, and Shard was a SF for the majority of his career. Hood's shortcomings in both wingspan and rebounding doesn't mean he's not a SF, unless you think he has adequate handles to run the 2.