Scoot McGroot wrote:pacers33granger wrote:Scoot McGroot wrote:
I have a lot of trouble seeing his 4th year option being picked up before the season starts. Though, it's so cheap, it's hard not to pick it up. I'd think if we could get anything of value, he'd be dealt right now. Like, 2nd rounder.
I'd be kind of shocked if they didn't pick it up. We need someone on the wing who can defend and he's quite good at that. I'll be kind of annoyed if we don't just because we traded for Budinger. We can't rely on him to be healthy, he can't play the 2, and he's not very good when healthy anyways.
I wouldn't think it's because we traded for Budinger. I'd think it's because Solo played his value down in summer league, and still hasn't shown that he deserves minutes over Chase Budinger, and Budinger is technically 3rd string at SF in line for minutes. It's more that Solo has not shown enough to be a true rotation player long-term (from what he's shown, thus far).
Plus, oddly enough, that $2.3m 4th year option for Solo is the difference between a max contract in the summer of 2016 or not.
I'd disagree that he hasn't shown that he deserves minutes. He's shown to be a plus defender and that was after being thrown into the starting lineup last year and usually guarding the best wing. And I think we need a wing defender at the end of the rotation rather than a scorer whose not that great at scoring.
His offense sucks and it looks like it will never be anything at all, but his numbers last year aren't all that far off from Budinger's in his time with the Wolves. They're just 2% less on FGs and 3s and with 3 more attempts per game. And his other numbers are either the same or better, except for rebounding which is slightly worse and turnovers which are slightly higher. The rest of Hill's advanced stats (WS, BPM, VORP) are better as well.
I know that he looked very bad in summer league, but I think that was more about him trying to play a game he can't. Once he's an 8-12 mpg guy who is in there solely for defense and making the right play on offense (I think he does this well when he's not in attack mode) I think he will look just fine.
And I'd bet we could easily trade him next offseason if need be. If it takes a couple of 2nds to even do it so we can sign a max guy (which we'd have in place first), then it shouldn't be a problem at all.
