Sheed can seamlessly step in for KG, and he can seamlessly take the offense since he's been doing it for so long. Sheed hits big shots in big games. If we're going to stay this old may as well stick to the status quo. This is the wrong year to prospect.
This really says it all. We need someone way more for the playoffs than the regular season. Maybe Gortat has a more productive season overall than Sheed, but that will be in a starting role for a team with far less firepower than us (Houston w/o Yao for example). Gortat looked so good against us because his teamates were making way more 3's when he was on the floor over Howard, which has nothing to do with him other than being on the winning team.
I would also argue though, that Sheed's numbers have potential to increase comming off the bench because he will get more looks in the 2nd unit where we were lacking scoring options (especially down low...if Baby didn't pull that 14 footer out of his butt miraculously, we would have got ROCKED by the Magic, it wouldn't have been close). That same shot is Sheed's M.O. He puts those up in his sleep, and he will be much more of a go-to guy than anyone we had comming off the bench last season. Plus if we have to deal with injuries to our starting bigs again, I am far more comfortable handing a starting role over to Rasheed Wallace than freaking Gortat, who has started how many games?
I'm not trying to say Gortat sucks, but honestly, who would be talking about him now if the Magic weren't just in the Finals? He has proven very little, even less than Big Baby, and could possibly be getting a far greater paycheck too? I don't get it. I would say pass on Gortat, ESPECIALLY if the letters M.L.E. are associated with him. That is reserved for a glue guy/6th man type; he is neither at this point in his career.