You can't judge him on the 3 games he played with the Hornets against the Celtics.
I was referring to three Hornets games I've watched this year, actually four. I wasn't counting the game they played the C's.
In most of them he hasn't played much, and has been pretty blah overall when he has been on the court.
I read the topic, and nothing in there convinces me. We'd either have to let Ray go or not use the MLE to avoid blowing the teams budget. It'd be a bad move, especially when we could get a player who's better than Posey with the MLE itself.
Understand, I agree with you on that point : if acquiring Posey means letting Ray go, then I'm all against this trade. However, if we can acquire him while re-signing Ray next summer (which is a likely scenario), then, what's the cost? My only problem with Posey is that he has a terrible contract running on 3 years and that he has, say, 2 good years left. But as I said before, Rasheed is in the same position (and even older actually) and I didn't hear people complain about giving him the contract he got.
Our window is really short. It would be great to acquire the famous "young wing with a long term but OK contract" but, seriously, no player fits that description, and even if he was, we don't have the pieces needed to acquire him by trade, nor the money to do so by free agency next summer.
Posey is playing terribly and looks out of shape. Not sure how much he could offer regardless of his contract situation, which is also bad.
Have you seen him play this season?
Just so you can compare, here are his stats from his year in Boston :
24 minutes per game, 7 points, 4 rebounds, 1,5 assist, 1 steal, 41% shooting, 38% from 3Last season (2008-2009) in New Orleans : 28 minutes, 9 points, 5 rebonds, 1 assist, 0,8 steal, 41% shooting, 37% from 3
This season (after 20 games) : 22 minutes, 5,5 points, 3 rebounds, 1,5 assists, 0,6 steal, 38% shooting, 37,5% from 3Do you notice a huge dropoff? The guy is playing 2 minutes less and has almost the same stats that 2 years ago. His versatility is still here, as are his shooting skills and his defense. He is just getting less and less playing time because Stojakovic (former star), Wright and Thornton (rising young players) are more needed in New Orleans' offense.
I don't know where these "Posey is out of shape/done" comments come from. Posey is still the perfect role player, and the only question mark about him is his awful contract. Other than that, he is the most interesting available wing on the market, considering that NO doesn't need him any more and that they want to get rid of his contract.
We're not talking about acquiring Posey to use him as a starter or anything, but just to allow Pierce and Ray to rest during the season, and to shut or slow down opponent teams' superstar in the playoffs while knocking his 3's on offense. The lineup of House/Daniels/Posey/Baby/Sheed would be perfect for the bench and in case of an injury.
I understand the owners and Danny are reluctant to overpay a role player like Posey, especially when they refused to give him his deal two years ago, but it certainly looks like he is one of our best options for the present and the near future, considering that we are in "win now, worry about the future later mode" until 2012 (and maybe even earlier that this deadline). We won't have the chance to sign a good and young player this summer.
Another similarity between Sheed and Posey : Sheed didn't play well with the Pistons last season because he quit on them. Since he is here, except for his shooting slumps, he has brought us all the things we wanted.
Posey doesn't seem to be good anymore because he doesn't fit anymore in New Orleans (if he has ever fit there). But his stats are here to prove that he is still the same excellent role player, whose role would be perfect in our system.