Comments on: Wednesday Bolts – 7.15.09

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:03:07 +0000

At some point the Thunder are going to be done rebuilding and start building a title contender. We have westbrook and durant solidified as starters for a long time, if green gets bigger and keeps improving then he is the 3th long term starter, and harden is playing great and seems like a guy that will fit perfectly with wesbrook and durant. Assuming harden works out and green turns into a real PF, we have enough pieces of the puzzle that its time to start thinking about what we need acquire to be a title contender in 2-3 years. Drafting more rookies that take a couple years is not the way to fill those holes, unless they are extremely talented, because we won’t have the minutes to give them to speed up their learning curve. I think this is the year that Presti decides what the missing pieces are and gets them via trade in the next 12 months, using our $13.3 mil expiring contracts and lottery picks.

By: Steve H

Steve H — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:59:41 +0000

@nick Next year's draft class is loaded with PFs. If the Suns move either Nash or Amare, we could find a long term solution at the 4 spot with their pick. I guess we will just have to disagree on this one, and the odds are that we never land Boozer, but I still think it would be a great value move that would ultimately yield a greater return than just hanging on to Collison.

By: nick

nick — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:46:16 +0000

@Steve H that super backup role for green only makes sense in sepcific circumstances. a lot of people bring up odom, but the only reason odom gets major minutes there is that pau can slide over to play the 5. boozer definitely wouldn't be able to do that, so green minutes would solely come behind boozer and durant, and there aren't a whole lot of minutes there. and even if you that there were enough minutes for green, then we've totally buried collison, white, and ibaka. especially for the next year, where i don't think we're really going to compete, i'll pass on boozer. i'm not entirely against upgrading the 4, i just think it makes way more sense to do it with someone who could also play the 5 (those guys are pretty scarce)

By: nick

nick — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:43:14 +0000

@Royce ok, it was probably a mistake. i didn't think that would make much sense

By: Steve H

Steve H — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:36:17 +0000

@nick If Green comes back a little bigger,stronger, and more committed to interior defense and rebounding, I'll be happy to hitch our wagon to him as our future power forward. If not, I'm looking at him primarily as a great back-up three, or filling the 4 spot when we decide to go small and up-tempo. My point is- if we are looking at essentially the same player as last year, we could sure use a new starting PF, and I don't see the harm in landing Boozer. I love both White and Ibake's potential, but I don't want to rely on them for starters minutes next year either. I also think we could also expect to see more defensive intensity from Boozer than he might have previously exhibited because he would be auditioning for his 2010 contract. And like I said, if he isn't setting the house on fire and ain't interested in staying- we could always move him at the deadline. Presti got PHX unprotected 1st rounder making a similar move with K.Thomas. God only knows what he could bring in for Boozer.

By: Steve H

Steve H — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:24:50 +0000

I read on Hoopsworld that Livingston would like a guaranteed contract from the Thunder, and I for one am hoping he gets it. Is this the kind of thing (contract extension for Livingston) we are likely to see this off-season? I get the feeling his price is only going to go up the longer we wait. I would also like to se Presti lock up Thabo for about four more years while he is at it.

By: Royce

Royce — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:23:06 +0000

@nick
I didn’t get that from HoopsWorld’s salaries:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9147

By: nick

nick — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:22:59 +0000

@Steve H i'm not at all a fan of getting boozer. i think he would really hurt the development of green, white, ibaka, etc. and the guy plays absolutely no defense, kev would go crazy if we had him. i don't think he makes us all that much better in the short term, i think he hurts player development, and we'd have to pay extra. pass

By: nick

nick — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:13:01 +0000

@Nix yeah, i suppose. it just seems like they could do better, they'd still be paying haslem's 7 mill ... that is a pretty significant saving with the tax i guess, but i would have thought they could do better. @Royce on hoopshype it says that every year after this next year on jones's contract is a team option- is that right?

By: Steve H

Steve H — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:09:12 +0000

@Vega Wouldn't Utah be better served by just trading us Boozer straight up for Collison? We could throw in Atkins for salary matching purposes if need be and they could buy him out for 760K. That move would trim about 12mill off the Jazz payroll this year after the tax is imposed. I would love to add Boozer- even if it is for just one year. He might very well decide he likes it here and play for less than 12+mill per year, or we could trade him at the deadline to some team in contention for lots of goodies. Worst case would be we get a 20/10 guy for a year playing his ass off for next years contract for the price of a back-up PF/C and an additional 6 mill in salary this year.