Dear Danny: Cut Cassell, Sign "The Defender"

[indeedproceed]

Lindsey Hunter has a front office job waiting for him in Detroit ... no way he leaves the Pistons. He either plays for them or joins Joe upstairs.

Pretty likely scenario there, even though I've never heard a peep of it. Makes complete sense.

Ever wonder why Darrell Armstong doesn't have that kinda rep? makes me wonder if he's not all that smart.

[Donoghus]

we don't need another point guard...we need another big.

This pretty much sums up my feelings right now.  Cassell or Hunter?  Doesn't particularly matter with me.   Either one is going to be playing pretty limited minutes.  Wouldn't totally be against having neither.

I'd really like to see them address the big men situation right now.  Perk's got me concerned and POB isn't giving me any level of comfort right now.

[jdub1660]

The beauty of Sam. and this is something that Doc mentioned in the paper, is that he is ready and willing to sit and not play 5 games and then go play 30 mins the next.  This team doesn't really need a back up pg for the regular season or necessarily in the rotation.  But if Rondo was to go down for a month do you want Lindsey Hunter, Gabe Pruitt, or Eddie House running the point for 30 mins a night for the next 15 games?  I think I would rather have Sam Cassell.

TP for you for a great point. Sam obviously found it harder to fit into the offensive scheme last year so late in the season. BUT not only does he have that time, plus the summer and preseason to mesh more, he'll fit into his role great. The point to make is that we needed a backup PG, and the hope of the backup beside 10-15 minutes per game is to fill the void if the starter does get hurt. Sam is known for being able to do that, as he took the starting role in LAC with and w/o Livingston being there. The guy is a winner and would do 100x better than any other player on the team to fill Rondo's minutes.
What does Rondo do so great as a team player? He gets the ball into the hands of the Big 3. Could Sam do that? Sure, he's nowhere near as great at getting to the basket as Rondo, but he can back down other PGs then pass to one of the Big 3.
I think the problem Sam had last year was filling the role of offense on both sides of the ball. Usually when he was on the floor, he had nobody to really pass the ball to that could score besides Posey. So, say Posey is trapped in the corner, what's next?...yeah, Sam is going to throw up a jumper. This year though, that jumper will fall more often b/c his confidence in the system will have grown. Also, if Miles and Tony Allen are at better health, then expect the to of them to be catching more Alleyoops off the bench.

[cordobes]

The beauty of Sam. and this is something that Doc mentioned in the paper, is that he is ready and willing to sit and not play 5 games and then go play 30 mins the next.

Agreed.

There's an old saying that goes "all you need to have is eight great players and four others who will cheer like crazy" (don't remember who said it first, Slick Leonard?). The beauty of having veterans as the cheerleaders is that, as Doc says, they're more likely to be able to not play for a month, then be productive when unexpectedly called upon.

[D Dub]

we don't need another point guard...we need another big.

This pretty much sums up my feelings right now.  Cassell or Hunter?  Doesn't particularly matter with me.   Either one is going to be playing pretty limited minutes.  Wouldn't totally be against having neither.

I'd really like to see them address the big men situation right now.  Perk's got me concerned and POB isn't giving me any level of comfort right now.

It seems to me like we are setting ourselves up for the iminent PJ return.  With all the players talking publicly about it, and Doc too - it seems like all but a done deal.  Even Danny's draft picks seemed to signal that we weren't terribly concerned with the C position.  I am not going to worry about it until after All Star break.