This is a bad bad bad bad team!

[Nicholasp27]

again, zach randolph

Portland is not a great team...not a contender

but even so, they made zach earn his PT...he did

if Smooth is the next Nique, then he'll earn his PT...AW/AH or not

[Teeareess]

I disagree. Smith's a lot more raw than Zach was coming out. He's gonna have to get out there and make mistakes before he can really contribute.

[Diesel]

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Bringing in a top quality PG wouldn't be so bad, because he's going to get everyone involved. But bringing in a high dollar center would. You'd have Walker leading the team, this guy or AH being #2 option, and so on to the #3 spot. As we add yet ANOTHER post player, you'll have 90% of our offense (or more) spread across these three guys; and with Walker's penchant for the outside, shots are also going to be taken away from the two spot. If we keep Walker, it means we are going for W's and building around HIM.

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Looking at the lay of the land... well before we do that, let me ask you this question... What if the C we were talking about was Shaq? If we were bringing in Shaq, would it still be Bad??

Anyway, back to reality.

Looking at the lay of the land, there are no High Dollar Cs that will be up for bid for the next 3 yrs save Curry. That's why guys like Foyle and dude in Boston got paid so well. The day of the dominant C is going to have to wait on Ogden. So, I suppose we will spend money on a guy who can play C (but really is not a C) like Swift or K. Brown or even Nene... Would that be so bad?

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Losing out on Smooth means exactly what I'm saying here. We are willing to go with the veteran guys, the established players, and we are not building through the draft or entrusting the future to the guys we plucked from there - especially if we're bringing in another high profile talent to couple with AH and AW. Knowing how BK likes to build through the draft, I'd say he's going to trade AW regardless.

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Nobody is suggesting benching Smooth entirely? I say you don't run out and give Smooth a starting position and bench the guys like Walker/Harrington. Believe me, if Smooth Shows 1 inkling that he can be the next Nique or the next VC, then we will start to look at trades for Walker to make our team better so that we can play Smooth More... BUT, we shouldn't do that kind of thing without the talent and Ability being shown. Potential is what got us to draft Smooth... Potential is not enough to make Smooth a starter.

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What sense does it make for a lottery team, who's wins or losses are pretty much meaningless, to draft a guy, whom they wholly expect to become the future of the franchise...or at least EVALUATE and see if he can become that player...what sense does it make for them to bench this guy? None at all. That only makes sense if you have a winning team.

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First of all, your problem isn't at this point and how Smooth is played, your problem is us trying to be more than a lottery team again? That means you have a problem with the Harrington/Walker trades.

I don't. The big picture is that we have a deal with Walker. He makes our team look good, we put him in a good position to get a good contract. Harrington may be a keeper. The bottom line is that with 20 million dollars to spend, you don't go out with rookies who are bound to lose. We are following the Utah plan. Utah put themselves in a position to win some games last yr and almost got into the playoffs. The result was that when FAcy rolled around, players wanted to play for them. They got Boozer and Sorry joker from Detroit, but they were well mentioned for Qrich/Kmart too. The same fate could await us, except, we will be mentioned for a bigger FA class than last yr in a year where the draft will be weaker than this years.

[Packfill]

I don't understand. By all accounts, Josh Smith is an 18 year old right out of high school who has not demonstrated an ability to start in the NBA. Very, very few people his age get to play yet alone start in the NBA.

Having two scorers takes alot of pressure of the rookies and allows them to get comfortable on the floor without being the focus of the defense. Chill and Smooth will benefit from this - Chill as a starting at shooting guard and Smith as a reserve forward (even if Walker and Harrington average 38 minutes a night each that leaves 20 minutes for Smooth, which is more then enough for him to get his feet wet). If either rookie is ready for more then they can go out an earn it like anybody else.

[Wretch]

[Employee8]

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I don't. The big picture is that we have a deal with Walker. He makes our team look good, we put him in a good position to get a good contract.

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Exactly. Of course, if you're more along Wretch's thinking, it would be a good contract with another team.....but anyway...

[Wretch]

If we brought in a C of that quality, I think the answer would be obvious. As would the full tilt of what we would be - a contending team. No longer would there be any questions about what kind of team we are.

I don't think it would be so bad, as long as you're not adding to the picture. See, that's where I'm going with this. When you start adding capable players to a roster, you change the dynamics of a team. You go from a team with guys who are learning to play, that might be something one day...to a team that can all of a sudden compete. Bring in a Kwame or a Curry, and you've got young guys like Harrington who are still learning the game and where they fit into it. For developing players around them or behind them, I think that works better than having such a capable guy on the floor (like Walker) with the supporting cast that we have.

And again, I'm not talking about starting anybody. I'm talking about getting guys into a game when it matters. Smith isn't learning anything by dunking on Doleac or Milicic. Chill has no choice but to be a complimentary player as long as he's deferring to Walker and Harrington.

To tell the truth, I'm not entirely worried about that either. I'm simply more interested in grooming our own prospects, making sure we don't hinder their growth...and getting value out of the assets that we have. I was elated with the Harrington trade, but I felt that the Walker trade was a bit overboard and that it changed the direction that we were taking.

Even if we don't go out there to lose. Put it all out there...make a push, bring in the guys to surround Walker with...let him and AH light up the scoreboard. If it doesn't work, then we're back at square one and are no more attractive to FA's than we were a year ago. Until we have proven talents locked up, who are a certainty in our future (the guys in Utah and Denver were), then it'll be the same story every year.