To the people who are saying "No" because Antoine "can't produce" on Minnesota - it's Minnesota. There is no cohesiveness to that team. I'm sure Antoine isn't too motivated there.
To the guys that say Toine takes too many bad shots - how easy people forget just how important he was to Miami's Finals run just 2 years ago.... Shots aren't ill-advised if they are limited and more importantly, if they go in.
To the people who are saying "No" because "we already have a bunch of undersized PFs" - that would presupposes that 2 of those 3 guys might be moved elsewhere (Scal, BBD, Powe). I for one truly believes Toine is more versatile and could consistently be more effective than any of those 3, and we could probably get more size/strength elsewhere (a la in the mold of Perk, Garbajosa).
Thought it would go without saying that the Antoine move would be one of many, but apparently it wasn't as obvious as I had thought.
-Tell Jefferson (21 / 11 and 1.5 blocks, 50%) that you can't produce in Minny
Tell Randy Wittman(Minny's head coach) to start playing Antoine again instead of keeping him on the bench as an expensive courtside spectator. Give him a bigger role in the offense so he CAN produce... All of this won't happen 'cause Big Al, rightly so, is getting 70% of the touches with Gomes getting 20% and the rest of the team 10%.
-I'm pretty sure we just won the title by employing an entire roster of super competitive players who would kill themselves for ANY team. Pierce, Allen, Garnett, Posey, even Scal, etc. have never taken seasons off because they were unmotivated by being on bad teawms.
Walker didn't take the season off when he averaged 22/10/8 for a BAD Atlanta team. He didn't take the season off when he was in Minny...He busted his azz but was ultimately phased out 'cause of the youth movement. For all of his faults, one thing I'm surprised that you're alluding is that Walker did not play his hardest when he was on the floor. THAT is the one thing that is FACT....anything else is debatable.
-.363% from the field, .530% free throws, 45.5 true shooting...the shots are not going in
No, they're not. But think of it in this context...How was it that he was more successful in making the shots go in when he was in Miami but his shots didn't in Minny? I'd say it was not a very cohesive,
WELL-COACHED team he was on. They were a bunch of young players still feeling their way in the NBA. Plus, their coach is a Nitwit and a Moron with an IQ of Toine's original Jersey Number.
-If by "more versatile" you mean "can brick it from close AND far away," well, i'm sure we could have powe or bbd do that too.
No, smart-azz. By "more versatile", it means he can play multiple positions on the court, bring the ball up like a Point-Forward, post-up in the low-block and rebound(when he feels like it) like a Power-Forward(without the Power..lol), pass the ball like a Point-Guard, and of course....Shoot the Four..err, Three.
-Better than Powe? let's see, in 33% more minutes than Powe got this year:
8pts, 3.6 rbs, .363 shooting, .530 foul shots, 8.2 shots per game
Powe:
7.9 pts, 4.1 rbs, .570 shooting, .710 foul shots, 4.8 shots per game
So, in significantly less time, with nearly half the shot attempts, powe equaled walker's scoring, outrebounded him (remember these are "power" forwards here) and did so with incredibly more efficiency. I'm guessing you don't like PER because it wouldn't capture the "intangibles" of someone like antoine, but the difference is staggering: 20.97 to 11.39.
Oh, and don't forget this number: $687,456 or $8,329,640
Well Powe's shooting percentage SHOULD BE BETTER...after all, he had freakin' THREE POSSIBLE HOF-CALIBER SUPERSTARS to play off of where he would be left alone down low for an easy inside pass for a dunk or a rebound/putback. What did Toine have? One ALLSTAR-in-the-making in Big Al and a bunch of unproven players(or in Bassy's case, a proven UN-Proven player) who don't know how to play effectively together. Toine has had to(when he got the PT) force the issue on offense when his teammates kept passing the ball around and refusing to shoot, among other things.
And as far as comparing salaries go, Powe is a CAREER Roleplayer and if he's lucky, he'll crack the 1-2 million range down the road. Toine was an Allstar and got Allstar money....and then another GM thought to take Walker at a big price to help him win a title....I'd say that guy got a return on his investment, wouldn't you?
He actually had similar production to BBD. so walker produced about as well as an overweight rookie. yay.
I hope that "Overweight Rookie" enjoyed the Meal-ticket FREE RIDE he got to a Championship. Toine at least EARNED His Championship in '06; something that BBD can never say(but of course that's because his mouth would be full of krispy cremes...*BURP*).
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Topic: Dare I say it...Antoine? (Read 28041 times)