The Rebel wrote:skywalker33 wrote:The Rebel wrote:He literally says that Barton and Harris cannot get a deal done, because the Pelicans can get LeVert? I know LeVert had a solid playoff series, but the man cannot hold Barton's jock strap. LeVert is a chucker who plays average defense at best, and it is not like he is really young, the man is older than Harris.
While I'm not huge on LeVert either, have to disagree, I think he and Barton are comparable players on offense and LeVert is younger than The Thrill (also, less than ONE month older than Harris, c'mon that was weak) but Will is a more efficient, I'll give you that. However, LeVert IS coming up on his extension so Barton will be significantly cheaper so he does look like the better deal on the shorter term. I don't watch much BKN basketball so I can't speak about his defense but I can't say I see Barton as a stalwart either, I'll defer to your assessment there.
A few things.
In today's NBA teams put efficiency above anything when it comes to scorers, Barton while scoring less is considerably more efficient. They are comparable creating for others.
I cannot find a single defensive advanced stat that says that Levert is even close to Barton on defense despite being on a better defensive team. He allows a 1.8% higher overall shooting percentage than Barton as well. So that makes it pretty clear he is not nearly the on ball or team defender that Barton is.
I used Harris for the age comparison because nobody thinks of Harris as all that young anymore. Levert is going into his 5th year, he is a veteran at this point. People talk up Levert's potential, and I do not think he has near the potential as other's see.
One thing I did not bring up is that Levert actually has more injury problems than Barton and Harris these last 2 years he has missed more games than either of them.
So please tell me how Levert is so valuable?skywalker33 wrote:The Rebel wrote:Also if we have Barton, MPJ, and all the young guys why would we need a wing that can shoot? Especially if that wing is Gallo who has spent the last 3 years primarily at PF?
I'm on record advocating for Gallo, so we'll just have to disagree. The young guys, not one is really proven, although I agree there's potential. A veteran like Gallo does 3 things for us. 1) He brings firepower to the 2nd unit, we really can use a guy who can consistently 14-20pts. He brings a veteran presence, especially if Plumlee leaves. He can really show the young guys what they need to bring off the bench. 2) Even though he played mostly PF in OKC, he can fill in at either position should we have injuries and what team doesn't have some injuries. His versatility there would be yet another stabilizer. 3) Signing him keeps him away from other contenders (he is on record as saying he wants to play for a winner), having the Nuggets acquiring more talent while keeping it away from teams like LAL, MIA, MIL is very important.
If we could fill our other holes than I am fine bringing back Gallo. If Barton is happy to come off the bench or we trade for a replacement, and we can sign and trade Plumlee or Millsap for a good backup C, than I am perfectly happy with signing Gallo.
The issue is that we have no backup C, even if you wanted Bol to play there behind Jokic, what happens when Jokic is in foul trouble or god forbid injured? Bol missed the last half of the Gleague season due to injury, and that was while on a minute restriction. We are a team build around a Center, and we do not have a single backup that we can say we trust for 30 minutes in 1 game. We saw what happened to this team when Jokic was in foul trouble, and it was on both ends, Millsap and Jokic were the only ones who did well guarding Davis. 3 of the 4 teams in the conference finals had dominate bigs, Gallo to me is a luxury that we cannot afford unless we can figure out how to upgrade Plumlee.
I think Vonlah with an entire training camp could be the player we require at backup, wouldn't be beyond comprehension that he and Bol could give us more than Plumlee did, especially in the playoffs and at a better price. And I still am intrigued by Demarcus Cousins, he could give us some size to battle LAL with. His familiarity with Malone could get us a deal as well.
And you can't bring up LeVert's injury history w/o bringing up Barton's too, he missed all the playoffs this year and only played 43 games out of an entire year last year. I am all for getting value but it is hard to evaluate his worth from the Nuggets end w/o knowing how NBA Gm's see him.
