When launching a new project or business, there is little need to reinvent the wheel - you can look around an industry, see what has worked in the past and take steps to ensure your people do it better.
Boston is about to build a team around a point guard. No easy task, but not impossible.
For the blueprint, I look at two teams that have had great success building in this way: Isaiah's Pistons and Nash's Suns (2006-07).
In their best years, both teams put a strong shooting, strong defensive partner in the backcourt with their star: Dumars in Detroit and Bell in Phoenix.
They had versatile playmakers at the small forward: Daintley and Diaw, respectively.
Both teams had a big that could knock down the three and rebound: Laimbeer and Marion.
The biggest difference between these teams is the second big, which ultimately defined their style. Detroit had a rotation of rebounders, defenders and little-things guys in Mahorn, Edwards and Sally. Phoenix has an up-tempo, offensive beast in Amare Stoudemire.
In both cases, coming from the bench was pure energy in the form of points, hustle and rebounds. Detroit had the Johnson-Aguirre-Rodman combination. Phoenix had the Barbosa-Jones-Thomas group.
Two caveats. Number one, I recognize that the Detroit team is better. Much better in fact. I think that is due to external factors - free agency, salary cap and league dilution. Second, Detroit won two championships, Phoenix did not. I believe a strong confluence of events leads to championships, not just the quality of the team. Would Detroit have won if Boston was healthy? Could Phoenix have won if Stoudemire was not suspended in the Spurs series? Lets move on.
The key to building a champion around Rondo is well defined - we need shooters and defenders at three positions, we need a wing that can create and we need a well rounded bench.
I think we can acquire a number of these things in a straight forward trade with Denver. I propose sending Perkins, Davis, Wallace, Ray Allen (2 years, $30 million) and our 2010 first rounder in exchange for Nene, Martin, Smith and Afflalo.
Afflalo becomes the sharp shooting, tenacious defender in the backcourt with Rondo (Think Bell, not Dumars).
Pierce continues to start, combining his commitment to defense with the ability to create as needed.
Garnett also continues to start, bringing good floor spacing, rebounding and defense.
Nene takes over the starting center spot. This moves us closer to Phoenix as Nene is one of the faster end-to-end centers in the league. An offensive beast in the right system.
Smith and Martin come off the bench. Both are extremely high energy players, Smith bringing scoring from the wing and Marting bringing rebounding, defense and grit.
We round out the bench with an MLE center like Cambey, Dampier, Heyward or Shaq for two years and an LLE point guard like Pargo, Watson or Claxton for two years.
Extend Pierce through 2011-12 at $15 then $17 million, and resign Finley, Gaffney and S. Williams for two years at the minimum to make the financials and roster work.
This team is up tempo, with good defenders and shooters at three positions. Maybe the best bench in basketball. All of the contracts clear after 2011-12 except Rondo, and we have three future building blocks in Rondo (24), Nene (27) and Smith (24) instead of just Rondo and Perkins.
Denver makes the move for financial reasons and frontcourt depth, their Achilles heal for the past two seasons. The pick helps build for the future around a core of Lawson-Anthony-Perkins.
Topic: Reloading around Rondo with Denver (Read 4436 times)