Ok what will joe do with 4 draft picks in the 2009 draft will he keep them all or will he trade the bottom two.

Sheed and max contract is up after next season what do you see joe doing with these two.

What will joe do about samb will it be room for him in the future on this team with all these draft picks coming and joe likely drafting a big this upcoming draft

I think there will be room for Samb since Ratliff will be gone, won't he? The big that gets drafted might be bound for the NBDL anyway.

Aren't 3 of them in the second round? I can't remember.

If they're late, I doubt the guys will ever see playing time.

We've got 5 roster spots opening up due to expiring contracts this summer - Hunter, Dixon, Hayes, Herrman, and Ratliff.

I expect we'll have at least 3, probably 4, spots to fill. I'm assuming Hunter will retire, Dixon will look for elsewhere for more playing time, Hayes and Herrman probably won't have many options and Joe may decide to keep one of them around, and Ratliff may decide to retire although he may be worth keeping for another year if he wants to continue playing.

We've got picks 29 and 59 in this year's draft. Next year we have our own first and second round picks with additional second round picks from Minnesota and Toronto. The Minnesota pick might be early in the 2nd round; however, we not not get their draft position. GM's seem to have a way of acquiring late 2nd rounders to fulfill their trade obligations.

I expect Joe to be looking for a veteran point guard for insurance, and an athletic wing player (a 2 or 3 to fill the role that Hayes couldn't quite master this year.) And somehow over the next couple of years he's going to have to come up with another elite level big to fill the gaps left by aging Wallace and McDysse.

He's going to have to use his draft picks wisely either by trading the picks or acquiring desirable/tradable players with the picks.

I think 3 of them are 2nd rounders.

At the start of next year both Sheed and Dyess will be 34 and Billups will be 32. Ratliff seems old but he is only a year older than Sheed and Dyess. Next year is also the last year of Sheeds contract.

There is soon going to be a transitional period whether we want it or not.

I like our starting 5 for next year..... I'd like to see AJ push and win the winning job by the playoffs, and Max stay playing off the bench. I think were seeing how great he can be, but at the same time how I think we need to keep his mins limited to the 20-25 min range. There was a great article about how he plays so hard because of his size compared to alot of people he defends.

I would sign Ratliff to next year to be there for insurance and to look great in a suit most the year. Samb and maybe another rookie to spend the year in Fort Wayne learning there trade... (I really wish we could control how the team was coached/teached more though)

Billiups and Hamilton starting and losing a few more mins off there mins with Stuckey and AA getting more entrenched into a serious rotation. Signing A vetern combo guard that can play either position in a pinch if we have an injury.

The spot that troubles me is what to do at the SF spot behind Prince... I would say hermann and Rip/AA combo for most instances with our 1st round draft pick maybe having a chance at getting a shot. Depending on who the other team is playing we can go big or small to match up with those 3... and I think as we move forward we are going to play a 3 guard lineup alot more as it will have the most talent on the floor.

So we lose Hunter, Dixon, Hayes....
Gain a vetern combo Guard, and 2 draft picks.. hopefully a big body, and a small forward

Wow do we have a keeper in stuckey..... does he look like he's been doing this for years or what? The future for him is the "sky is the limit", he just seems to grow from game to game.

By far the steal of the draft... Top 5 pick if they redo the draft today?

Stuckey is probably one of the better bench guards and is really coming into his own this playoffs. This is exactly what he needs to get a leg up on other players, the pressure and quality of competition of late round playoff action.

I think the kid has upside if he can improve his range, ball handling and defense.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

I'm pretty confident he can get better in all those categories. He's gotten better with the mid-range J already, as evidenced last night in Boston. He's been vulnerable to some bad fouls early on in playoff games, including last night, but he's done a nice job adjusting within games and avoiding those bad fouls in the later stages of the game.

We may be a better team next year. These starters are clearly not over the hill. With even more bench support next year and reduced workload on the big 5, we could have a really broad, balanced attack.

I'm thinking that we should probably trade all of our draft picks for future year's picks. We don't need any more young players. And their addition will just stress Flip out and ruin their development.