Hicks123 wrote:longstrangetrip wrote:Interesting points, Tim and Monster. I note that Reddick did eventually take a 1-year deal with Philly, so there was clealry flexibility in his demands. If he took $23 million for one year in Philly and wanted $48 million for three years here (or elsewhere), it's logical to assume a 2-year offer would have split the difference...say $19 million per year. I have a difficult time concluding that Gibson at $14 million is a better deal than Reddick at $19 million. We had a huge need for a good-shooting wing off the bench, while I would argue that we already have a player similar to Gibson on our roster...Cole Aldrich. Both are offensively limited but tough players who don't get pushed around. If you look at their career per 30 numbers, Cole is clearly the better rebounder, shot blocker, assister, and stealer, while sporting a far superior TS%.
https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=1&player_id1_hint=Taj+Gibson&player_id1_select=Taj+Gibson&player_id1=gibsota01&idx=players&player_id2_hint=Cole+Aldrich&player_id2_select=Cole+Aldrich&player_id2=aldrico01&idx=players
We certainly don't know, but I sense that Thibs' familiarity with Gibson and lack of confidence in Rubio led him to some deals that are not as helpful as other potential deals would have been. As for me, I would much prefer JJ Reddick's 43% 3-point rate coming off the bench to Crawford's 35% rate that we are saddled with. I would argue that Tyus, JJ, Belly and Cole backing up Ricky, Wig, Butler, Gorgui and KAT would have put us in the conversation for a top seed, and would have been a much stronger rotation than the one we enter the season with.
LST, I typically find your insight to be fantastic. But the fact that you even put Cole Aldrich and Taj Gibson in the same stratosphere as players means 1 of 2 things has happened over the past week: 1) You went completely senile; 2) It has been a while since you have seen either Taj or Cole play basketball. While it is great to play the "per 30" numbers, we all know that the numbers for limited, part-time players don't transfer out to similar production over the course of 30 minutes. Cole is a HORRIBLE basketball player....we could clearly see it last season. When you say "both are offensively limited", again, this is not a fair statement at all to Taj. I agree with the premise (as Taj will never be confused as a top offensive player), but Taj's limitations still allow him to be a servicable scorer when needed. With Cole, he is simply not capable of anything remotely close to offensive capability. There is a difference between being a capable scorer and being a liability as a scorer. Taj is clearly a capable scorer....and I will let everyone guess who the liability is.
And frankly, for every decent defensive play I saw Cole make a year ago, it was mixed with 3-4 other horrendous plays from him as well. He has little in the way of basketball IQ, and seems easy fooled and confused on the court. You won't see that from Taj this season.
I do believe that Aldrich is a worthwhile basketball player (he wasn't as bad as he showed in limited mins last year) I agree he isn't anywhere the same tier as Gibson. In addition Ginson is a much much much more versatile player in every way and I think just looking at some basic stats doesn't do Gibson justice.
Also on Redick one issue that people tend to forget about him is if you want to get the most out of him you need to cater the offense to him to some extent. If you just want him basically standing around the 3 point line waiting for someone to find him that's great but to get real value for that contract he wanted you better do more than that. He is extremely good at what he does but be is a guy that benefits from finding his spots moving all over the place. That can be a positive but it could affect what you want to do offensively. A lot of those type shooters need some sort of framework to do their best work. I'm guessing we will see a bit more value from Korver this year for the Cavs with a year to get more comfortable. A guy like Chase I hesitate even more about bringing him in for that reason because it seems to take him at least 20 games to fit in and find his spots on a new team or system. That's not good when he may not even play much if he signs somewhere. Remember I am saying all this stuff and I am probably the biggest Redick fan on the board and was less adverse to signing him here than many.
