TheFuture wrote:Camden0916 wrote:TRKO wrote:The point isn't Holford or nothing. It's 2 quality guys over one premium guy for this team.
But you're still asking three 21-year olds to do the heavy lifting when you could have a 29-year old four-time All-Star taking a lot of responsibility off their load, allowing the young guys to be even better because there's less pressure on them and not as much defensive attention on them either.
Again, it's the argument of quality over quantity. Deng and Pachulia, or whoever, are nice players, but they're not better than one Horford.
That's not a great argument for horford. Hes never been a heavy lifter in any category. He's a great all around player, but 15 and 8 isn't world altering here. Yes, he would provide a great cog in the middle for defense, but so could a lesser paid player like zaza. While Deng provides matchup flexibility, and good wing defense. The cumulative pros from both of them outweigh what horford brings. Plus, signing them to 2 or 3 year deals vs horfords 5 that he wants will work better. If horford falls off at 31/32 or has a bad injury, then we've crippled our chances of adding talent around our players, and likely crippled our chances of retaining some of them.
Don't let your Florida Gator love blind ya too much!
It also does not have to be Deng or Zaza, i'm just going with those two because they are options in this thread. My main argument is that we need to be building our players in the 6-10 range, not our 1-5 range. As we all should have seen this year, our starting 5 can hang with just about any, and on many nights can beat them. It is our bench that loses a ton of ground. That is where our focus should be. A Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Dieng, Towns starting 5 is better than most starting 5's in the NBA. Our bench is not even playing average yet.
Throwing a max around right now is a bad idea, and most of you just want to do it because its the only time we will be able to. I like the potential of having my eggs in 2-3 baskets more so than in 1.
1. I didn't say Horford was a heavy lifter, but that he would make our young guys jobs much, much easier. And you can scoff at his numbers, but there are six players total in the NBA this year that average 15.0+ PPG, 7.0+ RPG, 3.0+ APG, and 1.0+ BPG. Horford is one of them, the others are: Kevin Durant, Paul Millsap, Giannis Antetekoumpo, Pau Gasol, and DeMarcus Cousins. Horford owned the third-highest WS total among this group.
He's also had a PER above 19.0 for seven straight seasons, and a TS% above .560 for eight straight seasons. He's played nine years total. The guy's consistent as hell.
2. Horford held the fourth best RPM this season among centers that qualified and played 30+ minutes. He brings it on both ends.
3. I agree that our bench needs help. In adding Horford, I too am helping the bench greatly. Dieng gets moved to an ideal role as the first big off the bench capable of playing spot minutes or big minutes should one of the starters get in foul trouble or injured, and he's position versatile. Killing two birds with one stone.
4. If Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins-Towns-Dieng is a fantastic starting lineup, then I'd be really excited to see how it operates with Horford in place of Dieng because he's a whole hell of a lot better than Dieng, and that's not a shot at Gorgui.
5. Throwing a max contract would be a bad idea if it was an undeserving free agent who didn't fill exactly what we need. Horford's a perfect match here in terms of just basketball. I didn't even use the fact that he already has a relationship with Towns from international play on the Dominican hoops team.
6. Expecting Horford to fall off at 31 or 32 ignores the style of basketball that he plays. He's never relied on great athleticism or freakish physical ability. He's really skilled, really smart and well-coached throughout his entire basketball career. Those factors would remain the same in a Wolves uniform.
7. No, we want to throw the max at a player that's absolutely worth it and we realize that this is the best time to do such a move. If we wait, not only do you not know who will be available in the future, but you also don't have as much cap flexibility because Dieng/Muhammad are up for new contracts as soon as next off-season. This is the time to strike. You don't hold off on that because a five man unit played well offensively after the All-Star break. That's a mistake.
