No Worries From Ainge (Herald Article)

[cordobes]

  so why cant we have a committee of guys to fill out a roster and each of them play a role in the success of this team?...or did we not do that last year?

No, we didn't do that last year.

Davis, Powe, Cassell, House, TAllen were buried for most of the post-season. When the matchups dictated so, they got some burn. House and Powe played well in certain matchups. But don't kid yourself. For 95% of the post-season, we had a 7 man rotation playing most of the minutes.

PP
KG
Ray
Rondo
Perk
Posey
PJ

Let's say the two-headed monster of House/Cassell at the back-up point was the 8th man.

  Last year Posey was so important because we had so many weak spots on the bench. What happened isn't the only scenario that can lead to a championship. A lot of the people who are pushing for Posey at any cost are fixated on the backup sf spot as the be all and end all of a team's bench. Last year we won the title with a great backup sf and garbage (or, if you prefer, a couple of pupu platters) for our backup center/pf and pg. What if we had a pupu platter at backup sf and a good backup center? What about a good backup pg? What about a decent backup sf (worse than Posey), but a better big than PJ and a better pg than House or Cassell? Won't those scenarios work?

Maybe. But who's a better backup pg than House or Cassell or a better big than PJ? There are lots of guys, I understand; but who can we sign in the FA market splitting the MLE for those 3 guys?

  I don't know enough about what salaries all of the FAs are looking for to answer that. But IMO the play we got at pg and c was at times decent but generally poor, so I don't see upgrading those spots as an insurmountable task.

Okay, don't care about the salaries then. Just give me names. Anthony Johnson as an upgrade over Cassell, maybe? Elson as an upgrade over PJ Brown?

  I just saw about a 10 page discussion about how well Corey Maggette would fair offensively on the Celtics. I think your opinion was something like "he'd probably do worse but I don't know for sure". Not that I'm criticizing, I pretty much agree with that, but I'm not going to start similar discussions about 2-3 other players. My opinion is that the backup pg and c play we got in the playoffs was very inconsistent and it would be easy to upgrade, especially considering that 2 of the players were close to AARP membership. If you think we can't do better than Cassell or PJ or House then I'm not going to get into a drawn out hypothetical argument about it.

  And, honestly, I mean no offense, but I've been around here long enough to know I could name Shaq as my backup center (if he was available) and someone here would state with absolute certainty that PJ was a better fit for our system.

Shaq would be a better starting center than Perkins. I never said that we can't do better than Cassel or PJ, so you're just putting words in my mouth. The point is: there are plenty of better backup centers and pgs than Cassell/House/PJ in the league. The problem is that they're not available, at least for what he can pay. Beno would be a fantastic backup PG, but he got a full-MLE/5 year contract. Ditto for Diop, for example.

So, if you're saying that we can improve the backups at those two positions so drastically that it would make up for the absence of Posey, the right and honest thing to do would be to look at the FA pool and mention some names. Otherwise, it's an absolutely inconsequential argument.

[bucknersrevenge]

Exactly. We have a good example in the Finals as well. Radmanovic, Walton and Ariza are a good SF rotation. Rad is a great shooter, Walton a great play-maker and  Ariza a great defender. But they don't do anything else and I bet Phil Jackson would rather dump 2 of them for a player like Posey.

I remember saying before the Finals that the Lakers bench was apparently better but in the end we would win the bench battle because Posey was the best all-around player and the most versatile one and we wouldn't be playing bench vs bench 5on5 games.

Well, we agree, but I'll go one further.  I'd bet that Jackson would willing dump all three (Spaceman, Jr., and Ariza) for Posey and sign a minimum guy (like, say, Matt Barnes) to fill the rest of the time.  This discussion all comes down to PT.  There are 240 minutes available per game.  Thats six 40 minute increments.  Assume for simplicity's sake the playoff starters play 40 minutes (not always true, I know, but bear with me, it does not change the argument).  If you have a strong 6th man who is a combo guy (can play two positions, be it the 1/2, the 2/3, the 3/4, or the 4/5) AND you have players like Garnett and Pierce who are starters who can play multiple positions, depending on match-ups, your 6th man can play the majority of the bench minutes (my guess is about 22, or what Posey average in the playoffs).  Of those 40 "bench" minutes, would you rather have Posey taking 22 and whatever rookies/min-level guys you have taking 18 (Powe, BBD, and House), or would you rather have Barnes, Ross, and the corpse of Anthony Johnson taking, say 36 of those minutes?

I go with the former.  Barnes, Ross, and Johnson are not significant upgrades over Powe, BBD, and House if they are even upgrades at all (Barnes looked great two years ago, last year, not so much).  Posey is the most useful player in that scenerio, playing the most minutes.

poseys not gonna get 25 mpg again off the bench. maybe 17 at best. only reason posey got over 20 is because when perk got in trouble we had NOTHING behind him. guarantee danny rectifies that before training camp. whether you believe in giddens or not he will play spot minutes. were gonna pay 6mil a year for 15min of defense at the 3

As a coach, and considering our starters (if I was Doc), I'd rather have a bench of House, Posey, BBD/Powe over a bench of Johnson/Ross/Barnes and it's not even close. Are you aware that neither Ross nor Barnes can shoot the 3 therefore they can't provide spacing? It's a matter of flexibility. Ross is a better perimeter defender than Posey, but playing along Rondo he would cripple our offense. Barnes can guard small 4s or big SFs, but he's basically Posey without the range and the ability to guard smaller wingers. I mean, as a sum, they are probably better, but you can't play the "sum". It's not only a matter of minutes.

Oh, and how would you sign Ross, Barnes and Johnson with the MLE? Barnes alone will get the full-MLE or very close somewhere.

you assume that because ross doesnt shoot the 3 thats actually an issue. everybody knows this team had problems settling for the 3 WAY too often last year. and when paul came off the floor we often suffered because he was the only one that could attack the rim and get any fouls. theres nothing wrong with taking and hitting a nice 17fter vs a 3. i would definitely want house back. wed have andersen to back up perk. well have giddens and another fa defensive winger be it devean george, kirk snyder, miles or whomever else danny has eyes on. danny and doc wanna put more athletes on the court. also wants a team that doesnt have to live and die by the 3.
i hope this is directed at me because i never mentioned those names.

[BballTim]

That's not the point. You seem to think that the level of play we get at center, pf and pg are unimportant, and the play we get at backup sf and sg is life or death. Leaving Posey out of the discussion for a moment, if we can win with good backup play at sf and sg and bad backup play at pg and c, why can't we win with good backup play at pg and c and bad backup play at sf and sg?

You seem to think that the level of play we get from our 6th man is less important than the play that we'd get from guys lower in the rotation.

Who is this good backup SF we are going to sign if we don't pursue Posey?

  Why does the backup big have to have a lower place in the rotation than the backup sf? You seem to think that only the wing player can be the 6th man. Kevin McHale and Bill Walton might disagree. Try it like this, though. If you gave an nba gm a choice between a team with a great sf and a great sg or a team with a great pg and a great pf/c, which would he prefer?

[hpantazo]

Exactly. We have a good example in the Finals as well. Radmanovic, Walton and Ariza are a good SF rotation. Rad is a great shooter, Walton a great play-maker and  Ariza a great defender. But they don't do anything else and I bet Phil Jackson would rather dump 2 of them for a player like Posey.

I remember saying before the Finals that the Lakers bench was apparently better but in the end we would win the bench battle because Posey was the best all-around player and the most versatile one and we wouldn't be playing bench vs bench 5on5 games.

Well, we agree, but I'll go one further.  I'd bet that Jackson would willing dump all three (Spaceman, Jr., and Ariza) for Posey and sign a minimum guy (like, say, Matt Barnes) to fill the rest of the time.  This discussion all comes down to PT.  There are 240 minutes available per game.  Thats six 40 minute increments.  Assume for simplicity's sake the playoff starters play 40 minutes (not always true, I know, but bear with me, it does not change the argument).  If you have a strong 6th man who is a combo guy (can play two positions, be it the 1/2, the 2/3, the 3/4, or the 4/5) AND you have players like Garnett and Pierce who are starters who can play multiple positions, depending on match-ups, your 6th man can play the majority of the bench minutes (my guess is about 22, or what Posey average in the playoffs).  Of those 40 "bench" minutes, would you rather have Posey taking 22 and whatever rookies/min-level guys you have taking 18 (Powe, BBD, and House), or would you rather have Barnes, Ross, and the corpse of Anthony Johnson taking, say 36 of those minutes?

I go with the former.  Barnes, Ross, and Johnson are not significant upgrades over Powe, BBD, and House if they are even upgrades at all (Barnes looked great two years ago, last year, not so much).  Posey is the most useful player in that scenerio, playing the most minutes.

poseys not gonna get 25 mpg again off the bench. maybe 17 at best. only reason posey got over 20 is because when perk got in trouble we had NOTHING behind him. guarantee danny rectifies that before training camp. whether you believe in giddens or not he will play spot minutes. were gonna pay 6mil a year for 15min of defense at the 3

As a coach, and considering our starters (if I was Doc), I'd rather have a bench of House, Posey, BBD/Powe over a bench of Johnson/Ross/Barnes and it's not even close. Are you aware that neither Ross nor Barnes can shoot the 3 therefore they can't provide spacing? It's a matter of flexibility. Ross is a better perimeter defender than Posey, but playing along Rondo he would cripple our offense. Barnes can guard small 4s or big SFs, but he's basically Posey without the range and the ability to guard smaller wingers. I mean, as a sum, they are probably better, but you can't play the "sum". It's not only a matter of minutes.

Oh, and how would you sign Ross, Barnes and Johnson with the MLE? Barnes alone will get the full-MLE or very close somewhere.

you assume that because ross doesnt shoot the 3 thats actually an issue. everybody knows this team had problems settling for the 3 WAY too often last year. and when paul came off the floor we often suffered because he was the only one that could attack the rim and get any fouls. theres nothing wrong with taking and hitting a nice 17fter vs a 3. i would definitely want house back. wed have andersen to back up perk. well have giddens and another fa defensive winger be it devean george, kirk snyder, miles or whomever else danny has eyes on. danny and doc wanna put more athletes on the court. also wants a team that doesnt have to live and die by the 3.
i hope this is directed at me because i never mentioned those names.

It is an issue of spreading the floor on offense and giving guys like kg room to operate. If a player can't hit the three but instead takes 17ft shots, then you are not making the defense come out as far and thus not spreading the floor as much, which allows poor defenders to look really good like LA did when they played off Rondo. Posey was huge for us in that respect in the playoffs, huge!

[bucknersrevenge]

Exactly. We have a good example in the Finals as well. Radmanovic, Walton and Ariza are a good SF rotation. Rad is a great shooter, Walton a great play-maker and  Ariza a great defender. But they don't do anything else and I bet Phil Jackson would rather dump 2 of them for a player like Posey.

I remember saying before the Finals that the Lakers bench was apparently better but in the end we would win the bench battle because Posey was the best all-around player and the most versatile one and we wouldn't be playing bench vs bench 5on5 games.

Well, we agree, but I'll go one further.  I'd bet that Jackson would willing dump all three (Spaceman, Jr., and Ariza) for Posey and sign a minimum guy (like, say, Matt Barnes) to fill the rest of the time.  This discussion all comes down to PT.  There are 240 minutes available per game.  Thats six 40 minute increments.  Assume for simplicity's sake the playoff starters play 40 minutes (not always true, I know, but bear with me, it does not change the argument).  If you have a strong 6th man who is a combo guy (can play two positions, be it the 1/2, the 2/3, the 3/4, or the 4/5) AND you have players like Garnett and Pierce who are starters who can play multiple positions, depending on match-ups, your 6th man can play the majority of the bench minutes (my guess is about 22, or what Posey average in the playoffs).  Of those 40 "bench" minutes, would you rather have Posey taking 22 and whatever rookies/min-level guys you have taking 18 (Powe, BBD, and House), or would you rather have Barnes, Ross, and the corpse of Anthony Johnson taking, say 36 of those minutes?

I go with the former.  Barnes, Ross, and Johnson are not significant upgrades over Powe, BBD, and House if they are even upgrades at all (Barnes looked great two years ago, last year, not so much).  Posey is the most useful player in that scenerio, playing the most minutes.

poseys not gonna get 25 mpg again off the bench. maybe 17 at best. only reason posey got over 20 is because when perk got in trouble we had NOTHING behind him. guarantee danny rectifies that before training camp. whether you believe in giddens or not he will play spot minutes. were gonna pay 6mil a year for 15min of defense at the 3

As a coach, and considering our starters (if I was Doc), I'd rather have a bench of House, Posey, BBD/Powe over a bench of Johnson/Ross/Barnes and it's not even close. Are you aware that neither Ross nor Barnes can shoot the 3 therefore they can't provide spacing? It's a matter of flexibility. Ross is a better perimeter defender than Posey, but playing along Rondo he would cripple our offense. Barnes can guard small 4s or big SFs, but he's basically Posey without the range and the ability to guard smaller wingers. I mean, as a sum, they are probably better, but you can't play the "sum". It's not only a matter of minutes.

Oh, and how would you sign Ross, Barnes and Johnson with the MLE? Barnes alone will get the full-MLE or very close somewhere.

i hope this isnt directed at me because i never mentioned those names. i would sign maybe one of those names to go with andersen, maybe johnson or house and giddens of course.

you assume that because ross doesnt shoot the 3 thats actually an issue. everybody knows this team had problems settling for the 3 WAY too often last year. and when paul came off the floor we often suffered because he was the only one that could attack the rim and get any fouls. theres nothing wrong with taking and hitting a nice 17fter vs a 3. i would definitely want house back. wed have andersen to back up perk. well have giddens and another fa defensive winger be it devean george, kirk snyder, miles or whomever else danny has eyes on. danny and doc wanna put more athletes on the court. also wants a team that doesnt have to live and die by the 3.

[BballTim]

  so why cant we have a committee of guys to fill out a roster and each of them play a role in the success of this team?...or did we not do that last year?

No, we didn't do that last year.

Davis, Powe, Cassell, House, TAllen were buried for most of the post-season. When the matchups dictated so, they got some burn. House and Powe played well in certain matchups. But don't kid yourself. For 95% of the post-season, we had a 7 man rotation playing most of the minutes.

PP
KG
Ray
Rondo
Perk
Posey
PJ

Let's say the two-headed monster of House/Cassell at the back-up point was the 8th man.

  Last year Posey was so important because we had so many weak spots on the bench. What happened isn't the only scenario that can lead to a championship. A lot of the people who are pushing for Posey at any cost are fixated on the backup sf spot as the be all and end all of a team's bench. Last year we won the title with a great backup sf and garbage (or, if you prefer, a couple of pupu platters) for our backup center/pf and pg. What if we had a pupu platter at backup sf and a good backup center? What about a good backup pg? What about a decent backup sf (worse than Posey), but a better big than PJ and a better pg than House or Cassell? Won't those scenarios work?

Maybe. But who's a better backup pg than House or Cassell or a better big than PJ? There are lots of guys, I understand; but who can we sign in the FA market splitting the MLE for those 3 guys?

  I don't know enough about what salaries all of the FAs are looking for to answer that. But IMO the play we got at pg and c was at times decent but generally poor, so I don't see upgrading those spots as an insurmountable task.

Okay, don't care about the salaries then. Just give me names. Anthony Johnson as an upgrade over Cassell, maybe? Elson as an upgrade over PJ Brown?

  I just saw about a 10 page discussion about how well Corey Maggette would fair offensively on the Celtics. I think your opinion was something like "he'd probably do worse but I don't know for sure". Not that I'm criticizing, I pretty much agree with that, but I'm not going to start similar discussions about 2-3 other players. My opinion is that the backup pg and c play we got in the playoffs was very inconsistent and it would be easy to upgrade, especially considering that 2 of the players were close to AARP membership. If you think we can't do better than Cassell or PJ or House then I'm not going to get into a drawn out hypothetical argument about it.

  And, honestly, I mean no offense, but I've been around here long enough to know I could name Shaq as my backup center (if he was available) and someone here would state with absolute certainty that PJ was a better fit for our system.

Shaq would be a better starting center than Perkins. I never said that we can't do better than Cassel or PJ, so you're just putting words in my mouth. The point is: there are plenty of better backup centers and pgs than Cassell/House/PJ in the league. The problem is that they're not available, at least for what he can pay. Beno would be a fantastic backup PG, but he got a full-MLE/5 year contract. Ditto for Diop, for example.

So, if you're saying that we can improve the backups at those two positions so drastically that it would make up for the absence of Posey, the right and honest thing to do would be to look at the FA pool and mention some names. Otherwise, it's an absolutely inconsequential argument.

  So, to summarize, you challenge me to name players better than Cassell and PJ. I say that there are plenty of them out there, but allow that you might disagree with that. You then tell me not to put words in your mouth, you never said that we can't do better than Cassell and PJ. You then proceed to tell me that we can't do any better than Cassell and PJ.

  And, by the way, I didn't say or even imply that you wouldn't think that Shaq would be better than PJ. I said someone would.

  If Sam Cassell is the best FA pg available then I'm going to start sending my 16 year old to rookie/free agent camps. He'll probably rate at least a 10 day contract

[BballTim]

Posey averaged 24 mpg, 22 in the playoffs.

Not sure why he would potentially play less with Ray and Paul each a year older. If anything, they need to cut down Ray's minutes.

  Because hopefully we'll have a decent backup center to back up Perk, leaving the pf minutes to the power forwards, leaving the sf and sg minutes to Paul and Ray and Posey.

[Who]

Can someone please answer me a question.

Is there a guard or big man out there in free agency for the MLE or less that can equal or offer greater impact than James Posey?

I'm looking through the free agency list and I'm not seeing anyone. One could make a solid case for Jannero Pargo but I'd prefer Posey. I don't see any other guards there. Scrolling through the bigs now, nope no big men there. (I stayed away from restricted free agents)

[cordobes]

  So, to summarize, you challenge me to name players better than Cassell and PJ. I say that there are plenty of them out there, but allow that you might disagree with that. You then tell me not to put words in your mouth, you never said that we can't do better than Cassell and PJ. You then proceed to tell me that we can't do any better than Cassell and PJ.

  And, by the way, I didn't say or even imply that you wouldn't think that Shaq would be better than PJ. I said someone would.

  If Sam Cassell is the best FA pg available then I'm going to start sending my 16 year old to rookie/free agent camps. He'll probably rate at least a 10 day contract

Okay, okay. But are you going to name those Free-Agents that are going to be drastic improvements at the PG and C positions or not?

Here are some of them:
Tyrone Lue
Anthony Carter
Carlos Arroyo
Keyon Dooling
Derek Anderson
Jason Williams
Anthony Johnson
Francisco Elson
Jackie Butler
Chris Andersen
Earl Barron
Jake Voskuhl
Adonal Foyle

[bucknersrevenge]

Exactly. We have a good example in the Finals as well. Radmanovic, Walton and Ariza are a good SF rotation. Rad is a great shooter, Walton a great play-maker and  Ariza a great defender. But they don't do anything else and I bet Phil Jackson would rather dump 2 of them for a player like Posey.

I remember saying before the Finals that the Lakers bench was apparently better but in the end we would win the bench battle because Posey was the best all-around player and the most versatile one and we wouldn't be playing bench vs bench 5on5 games.

Well, we agree, but I'll go one further.  I'd bet that Jackson would willing dump all three (Spaceman, Jr., and Ariza) for Posey and sign a minimum guy (like, say, Matt Barnes) to fill the rest of the time.  This discussion all comes down to PT.  There are 240 minutes available per game.  Thats six 40 minute increments.  Assume for simplicity's sake the playoff starters play 40 minutes (not always true, I know, but bear with me, it does not change the argument).  If you have a strong 6th man who is a combo guy (can play two positions, be it the 1/2, the 2/3, the 3/4, or the 4/5) AND you have players like Garnett and Pierce who are starters who can play multiple positions, depending on match-ups, your 6th man can play the majority of the bench minutes (my guess is about 22, or what Posey average in the playoffs).  Of those 40 "bench" minutes, would you rather have Posey taking 22 and whatever rookies/min-level guys you have taking 18 (Powe, BBD, and House), or would you rather have Barnes, Ross, and the corpse of Anthony Johnson taking, say 36 of those minutes?

I go with the former.  Barnes, Ross, and Johnson are not significant upgrades over Powe, BBD, and House if they are even upgrades at all (Barnes looked great two years ago, last year, not so much).  Posey is the most useful player in that scenerio, playing the most minutes.

poseys not gonna get 25 mpg again off the bench. maybe 17 at best. only reason posey got over 20 is because when perk got in trouble we had NOTHING behind him. guarantee danny rectifies that before training camp. whether you believe in giddens or not he will play spot minutes. were gonna pay 6mil a year for 15min of defense at the 3

As a coach, and considering our starters (if I was Doc), I'd rather have a bench of House, Posey, BBD/Powe over a bench of Johnson/Ross/Barnes and it's not even close. Are you aware that neither Ross nor Barnes can shoot the 3 therefore they can't provide spacing? It's a matter of flexibility. Ross is a better perimeter defender than Posey, but playing along Rondo he would cripple our offense. Barnes can guard small 4s or big SFs, but he's basically Posey without the range and the ability to guard smaller wingers. I mean, as a sum, they are probably better, but you can't play the "sum". It's not only a matter of minutes.

Oh, and how would you sign Ross, Barnes and Johnson with the MLE? Barnes alone will get the full-MLE or very close somewhere.

you assume that because ross doesnt shoot the 3 thats actually an issue. everybody knows this team had problems settling for the 3 WAY too often last year. and when paul came off the floor we often suffered because he was the only one that could attack the rim and get any fouls. theres nothing wrong with taking and hitting a nice 17fter vs a 3. i would definitely want house back. wed have andersen to back up perk. well have giddens and another fa defensive winger be it devean george, kirk snyder, miles or whomever else danny has eyes on. danny and doc wanna put more athletes on the court. also wants a team that doesnt have to live and die by the 3.
i hope this is directed at me because i never mentioned those names.

It is an issue of spreading the floor on offense and giving guys like kg room to operate. If a player can't hit the three but instead takes 17ft shots, then you are not making the defense come out as far and thus not spreading the floor as much, which allows poor defenders to look really good like LA did when they played off Rondo. Posey was huge for us in that respect in the playoffs, huge!

3s off kickouts i dont mind. but many times we had a tendency to put up quick jumpshots and we got into trouble with it. i have a problem with our top 2 scorers off the bench being spot up jumpshooters on top of a starting lineup that shoots jumpshots as much as ours.

[cordobes]

You can have great slasher and post players in your roster, but without outside shooters, they won't attack the rim. See Miami.

Pretty much the same reason Ray was able to score that last lay-up in Game 5 so easily. There was a huge space in the paint because we had four guys with good range off the ball.

That's why Ross offensive flaws are an issue. Doc was forced to sit Rondo a  lot during the playoffs because he can't shoot and teams started to cheat off him. With two guys who can't shoot in the backcourt, you are not attacking the rim more, quite the opposite.

[Who]

3s off kickouts i dont mind. but many times we had a tendency to put up quick jumpshots and we got into trouble with it. i have a problem with our top 2 scorers off the bench being spot up jumpshooters on top of a starting lineup that shoots jumpshots as much as ours.

That was very annoying. I don't like how reliant the C's are on their perimeter game either. It would be beneficial to the team to have someone off the bench who can score another way, either in the low post or off the dribble. Fully agree.

Who is that player? What player in free agency delivers that?

As I look down that free agency listings the best scorer who isn't primarily a jump shooter is ... Tony Allen. The second best is Bonzi Wells. I don't see anyone else that brings any substantial offensive threat.

To make use of that offensive threat whichever one was signed would need to be the primary backup on the wings or else they wouldn't have enough minutes to make a large impact. So they'd effectively be replacing Posey. Both players should earn low money, much lower than MLE, so there would some wiggle room after that.

How do you feel about that scenario?

Or is the another player you had in mind?

[BballTim]

  So, to summarize, you challenge me to name players better than Cassell and PJ. I say that there are plenty of them out there, but allow that you might disagree with that. You then tell me not to put words in your mouth, you never said that we can't do better than Cassell and PJ. You then proceed to tell me that we can't do any better than Cassell and PJ.

  And, by the way, I didn't say or even imply that you wouldn't think that Shaq would be better than PJ. I said someone would.

  If Sam Cassell is the best FA pg available then I'm going to start sending my 16 year old to rookie/free agent camps. He'll probably rate at least a 10 day contract

Okay, okay. But are you going to name those Free-Agents that are going to be drastic improvements at the PG and C positions or not?

Here are some of them:
Tyrone Lue
Anthony Carter
Carlos Arroyo
Keyon Dooling
Derek Anderson
Jason Williams
Anthony Johnson
Francisco Elson
Jackie Butler
Chris Andersen
Earl Barron
Jake Voskuhl
Adonal Foyle

  I'd start out with Dooling and probably someone like Kurt Thomas. Possibly Theo Ratliff, or maybe offer some money to Swift if you think he's healthy. But how much are you counting on Cassell and PJ when they're both 39?

[bucknersrevenge]

You can have great slasher and post players in your roster, but without outside shooters, they won't attack the rim. See Miami.

Pretty much the same reason Ray was able to score that last lay-up in Game 5 so easily. There was a huge space in the paint because we had four guys with good range off the ball.

That's why Ross offensive flaws are an issue. Doc was forced to sit Rondo a  lot during the playoffs because he can't shoot and teams started to cheat off him. With two guys who can't shoot in the backcourt, you are not attacking the rim more, quite the opposite.

i agree with that. i just dont agree with running 1-4 iso sets exclusively or that our entire offense has to consist of jumpshots either. theres no reasons guys can do backside cuts. more often than not when we ran a break last year it would end with a pull up 3 that occasionally we hit but we missed a fair share of too. as opposed to guys going straight to the rim for layups. im just saying our team had an unhealthy over-reliance on 3pt shooting to get by and it could be problematic in the future.

[BballTim]

You can have great slasher and post players in your roster, but without outside shooters, they won't attack the rim. See Miami.

Pretty much the same reason Ray was able to score that last lay-up in Game 5 so easily. There was a huge space in the paint because we had four guys with good range off the ball.

That's why Ross offensive flaws are an issue. Doc was forced to sit Rondo a  lot during the playoffs because he can't shoot and teams started to cheat off him. With two guys who can't shoot in the backcourt, you are not attacking the rim more, quite the opposite.

  We could use another slasher though. Paul, Rajon and Tony Allen are the only ones on the team.