Priority: Big Man

It´s good to hear Ainge talk like that, and I completely agree.

As much as this team needs a backup wing (and I´ve been saying this for one year now), with KG and Powe injured, a good backup Center is by far our top priority.

I would love

a) Nesterovic
b) Gortat
c) McDyess
d) Pachulia

In that order.

Although I´m not a friend of the plan to fill the bench through the draft, I totally trust AInge to find the diamond in the rough.

Ra (Wallace) would be an idea fit. He is a great and versatile defender and can stretch the floor offensively and possibly post up on occasion. But I am scared to death of his mental instability. So therefore, McDyess is my first choice.

Just say to to Rasho, Gortat, and Pachulia.

Obviously a big man is necessary but clearly this team suffered from the lack of a swing man who can defend at the 2 or 3. Grant Hill is a free agent and is looking for the elusive ring. Perhaps KG and Co. can persuade him to take a little less money and provide a much needed scoring threat off the bench.

Hopefully, McDyess was turned off enough by the disaster that was the post-Chauncey Pistons that his loyalty towards Detroit has faded. Seems like Danny’s always tried to get Dice and come up short, maybe this is the time. If he’ll play a little center, he’d be ideal.

Reading some stuff from Detroit, no way that ‘Sheed goes back, and people are even speculating that he might hang them up – they think he is D-U-N. Wondering if that’s the perception around the league, whether he’ll even get a full-MLE offer.

Regarding the others, Gortat obviously looked pretty good against us, he is restricted but Orlando has been one of the teams that wasn’t making a lot of money. I’m assuming Batman’s still under contract; if so, it would seem that Gortat might be a bit of a luxury for them, so MAYBE he’d be obtainable.

Of the rest, maybe Rasho or Zaza at the minimum; they’re NBA players, at least, which is more that we had with Mikki. Neither really gets you excited, though, especially on the defensive end. Neither is a better option, IMHO, than BBD.

That’s only if the other team wanted TA. My guess is not.

He might be the best defensive big man of the bunch. As long as we pick up a swing man for a little bench scoring and wing defense we don’t need much from him offensively. He’ll probly be one of the cheaper of the bunch too.

Any thoughts? What am I missing, because he looks like a great fit?

Gortat may be nice because it looks like he’s smart and will be able to score a little. McDyess? How tall is he? And what does he give us that we don’t already have from BBD or Powe (when he comes back)?

Are we just assuming that some crappy team is going to pay him starter money and he is going to walk?

Isn’t he pretty integral to the conversation here?

How does re-signing him affect this topic? Do we then simply target a legitimate back-up Center? If he walks, do we really need two bigs? Or a Big and Scals?

Interesting comments by Danny. Follow my logic here….Baby needs minutes to be effective. KG needs minutes because he’s KG. Perk needs minutes because he’s close to becoming an upper tier NBA starting Center if he’s not already there.

So if you agree with the above, and Danny says they need size, where does that leave Baby? He ain’t going to cut it as a 10-15 minute a game guy anymore — he won’t go for that and he’s not nearly as effective as when he gets starter minutes.

To me you go KG, Perk, Baby wiht all 3 getting major minutes and KG going to Center when Perk goes out. Scal is the fill in guy and you see what happens with Powe.

If you bring in a McDyess — Baby is gone – in my opinion, because there would be no minutes for him.

BABY : Resign him…but do NOT over-pay. With his lack of height, there will be no major bidding war for his services.

POWE : Let him go. Classy guy, but he`s short and his knees are not worth the risk at any price. We can`t afford short guys with a history of bad knees in the frontcourt.

SCAL : Let him go. He`s nothing more than a highly paid mascot.

Marbury : Don`t even think of bringing him back.

Moore : See Marbury.

T. Allen : If you can find a sucker, trade him for a low 2nd round pick.

His versatility at both front court positions is ideal. He can be KG’s primary backup allowing him to keep his minutes down and still has the length/toughness to play spot minutes at the 5 effectively.

This also allows us to play a re-signed Baby Davis primarily at Center where he matches up much better defensively. If KG is out, our starting lineup is a lot more solid with Dice at the 4 and Baby coming off the bench at the 5.

I’d prefer him to Rasheed, who no longer wants to play in the paint. Dice has the toughness we need down low.

I’d give Dice the MLE and look to send some expirings/youth (as Roy suggested) to Sac to bring in Nocioni (Scal,TA,GP,JrG/pick). We should still be able to re-sign Powe and Marbury to minimum deals as well.

Perk / Davis
KG / McDyess / Powe
PP / Nocioni
RA / House / Walker
Rondo / Marbury

This squad looks to me like a contender.

If they can get BBD at the right years/$ for what they see in him, then he becomes the primary backup big. And I’d see them look for a backup Center who can accept playing 5-10 minutes and spelling Perk. They’ll be fine playing KG and BBD together, since BBD will cover the low post guy from the other team anyways (just like Perk does) and he’ll use body girth to do an okay job of it. The backup center will need to play more minutes in the event Perk is injured, and Scal will be the “in case KG is not ready guy.” In this case Powe is probably gone, which would make me sad, but that’s business.

Otherwise – I think they’ll get Powe on the cheap and look for a more skilled played in the FA pool, ideally Rasheed Wallace, if they think he’ll fit in. Scal becomes the fourth big man, until/if Powe comes back. In this case they probably need a big stiff center still in case of a Perk injury.

i think we need to get brandon bass because he is young and he can shoot and he could really help the team out

The problem with a lot of those free agents is that the teams they are with will probably want to keep most of them…

Pachulia, Odem, Joe Smith, Boozer, and Anderson are ALL likely to stay with their teams.
Pachulia is a name I keep seeing and I don’t think the Hawks will allow him to leave. He is their energy source off the bench…he comes in and plays hard and is really crucial to their success.

The guy is a beast, blocks shots due to his freakish long arms, and would look nice in the second unit tearing down boards and defending.

The guy has talent. He might have been a little too unselfish trying to fit in and that may have impeded his contribution. However, he seems talented enough to back up the PG and SG spots. I think he’s worth a gamble for 1 year at some reasonable dollars. As long as his attitude is right, he might be the guy we need in the backcourt. I’m not sure I want to give up on Marbury just yet.