Does anybody think that Afflalo can be a Bruce Bowen if he is trained properly? Seems like he has the physical skills, the intensity, and the corner 3-pointer.
He doesn't have the length to defend 3s. In the NFL, if you can catch the ball, you are a possession receiver. If you can catch the ball and run fast, you are a superstar. Afflalo is a possession receiver. He works very hard, but I don't think he is particularly athletic or skilled. Maybe he will develop. Right now, he is like a slower version of Lindsey Hunter.
Bowen is 6'7" and 200 lbs. Afflalo is 6'6" (in socks) and has a 6'9" wingspan... His weight was 206 when he came into the league. The Daily Bruin - Where will Afflalo land in the NBA? Here is a snippet from when he was in the draft and SA was considering him: It seems like Afflalo's offensive game is much more versatile. Bowen didn't make the all-defense team until he was 29 and got his first season of 30 mpg after being traded multiple times and never getting consistent minutes. The year after that, SA picked him up and he became a dominating defensive player. I'm not saying that Afflalo will be that, just pointing out that he might have that type of potential.
These late first round and second round picks are like venture capital. There is a small hit rate that makes up for all of the ones that fizzle out. Sometimes you're throwing good money after bad and sometimes you turn your nose at the next Bruce Bowen... like Miami did, Boston did, Philly did, and then Miami did again. Kwame Brown and Arron Afflalo are probably our 2 best defensive players at the moment. I think that Prince is a very specialized defensive player, in that he frustrates jump shooters when he doesn't have to guard against them driving past him (when he had the WALLace bros. behind him). Not sure what I'm recommending. Maybe just that we evaluate AA a little differently because his destiny might be out of the ordinary mold of what wows us when we watch a young player.
TFD, I know I am not saying this, let me take a deep breath and say, you are the MAN. I am sooo impressed with this comment, I don't believe I am actually saying this too you after our battles over the years. This is good stuff here. Right On.
Nah, that one game when he scored 18 points, hit 3 threes, against Milwaukee, I thought Joe had pulled a fast one on the NBA. But then every time I saw him after that, he never looked like he had a 12' jumper. And he never got much bigger in the 4 or 5 years he was with us.
We aren't going to compete for a championship until at least 3 seasons from now, 2 if you're lucky. All these people on 950 or wherever filling your heads with this idea that we can just buy all the players we need and compete next year is ridiculous. Again, the trophy is at least 2 or 3 years away. If you think otherwise go buy the bobcats and put all your free agent knowledge to use. That means we have at least 2 or 3 years to find a back up for tay, which is why we have a whole %%%%load of people auditioning for that spot. We also have 2 or 3 years until we have a solid center in place, so why should we enter bidding wars for gortat or bass. We have 2 or 3 years before we are competitive, so if we keep rip and tay, they might get old and need some fresher legs to take the bulk of the regular season minutes. And if we want to trade rip and tay we have 2 or 3 years to make a trade. Why try to get everything done in the first 10 days of the free agent negotiation period when he has so long to pull it off. Would you rather pull of some trade now and get tyson chandler or marcus camby right now, and watch them sit around injured or would you rather us hang on to rip until the february of 2012 and manage to pull off a key trade and get a low post player that delivers a championship 3 years from now. Relax and enjoy the weather instead of complaining that the dream team didn't get rebuilt in a week and a half.
I'd say we'd have to trade Rip away this year for chemisty reasons. But I agree. Moves will be made over time. Opportunites will open later that don't exist now. We just have to be able to capitalize on them.
I know economic realities won't let GM's take the most aggressive approach because the building would be empty all year, but it would be really nice to just do the hardest tank job in the history of the league. Don't sign any FA's. Trade Rip and Tay for expiring contracts. Then run a talent evaluation process for the season for the young players. Establish all the role players first, then get in the draft lottery next year and the year after, and then buy the rest of the starters with $60M or so in spending money. Without much luck, we could have 2 lottery picks and would only need to buy 3 positions at an average annual rate of $20M per player. Pick up your FA's over a 2 year period. #1-3 pick #1-3 pick $20M FA from 2010 $20M FA from 2010 $20M FA from 2011 If it were a computer game and that is how you played GM, you would probably win more than your share of championships. You'd peak for about 3 years until you rookie lottery picks had to be resigned, then you could blow it all up and start over.
Patience Grasshopper Ya'll need to go over and take a look at the thread in NBA Stuff by Mikhail about the shrinking salary cap. Once the season starts and it's easier to determine how the loss in local revenue is effecting teams, a boatload of them are going to start firesales to offload salaries. We get near the trade deadline in February, the teams that clearly aren't going anywhere except into the luxury cap wormhole will be looking to move guys. The teams that are going somewhere or feel really close will have to decide if trading for a player like Tay or Rip to put them over won't also help their longer term bleacher seat sales. This whole shrinking cap dynamic is a game changer. Dumars is in an interesting position next summer with what looks to be $8.5M falling off the payroll (Kwame, Bynum & Sharpe).
