Aldridge: Ranking Offseason So Far

[SacKings384]

27. Sacramento. Added: centers Spencer Hawes and Mikki Moore. No significant losses.
Hawes and Moore will help in the middle. But the Kings got taken for a ride by Stan Van Gundy, then reached for Reggie Theus as their new coach. Most important, they've yet to separate Ron Artest and Mike Bibby, who don't get along on the court.
28. Denver. Added: guard Chucky Atkins. Lost: guard Steve Blake.
The Nuggets haven't added much-needed perimeter shooting or pared the roster to avoid the luxury tax. And how will there be enough playing time or shots next season for Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Nene, Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin?
29. Cleveland. No significant additions or losses.
Standing pat is not enough for the Cavs, who haven't addressed their point-guard or shooting needs. (They've tried for months to get Mike Bibby from Sacramento.) They'll likely re-sign Anderson Varejao, but that's not enough.
30. Minnesota. Added: guard Sebastian Telfair; forwards Corey Brewer, Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green and Juwan Howard; and center Theo Ratliff. Lost: guards Mike James and Troy Hudson; forward Kevin Garnett.
It's not that the Wolves traded Garnett; it was time. But how did they not get the guy they really wanted - Rajon Rondo - from Boston? Rajon Rondo was a deal-breaker for one of the league's top five players? It's another example of how brain-dead this franchise has been for a decade.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/colu...kets_hot__Wolves_not__in_busy_off-season.html

 

[Bricklayer]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/colu...kets_hot__Wolves_not__in_busy_off-season.html

Oh, we're in about the right place, but as usual Aldridge's reasoning is just all over the place and his rankings are a mess.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

You know what intrigues me? How there are at least three teams (Boston, Denver, Cleveland) with aspirations of going deep in the playoffs that are in need of a true point guard, and yet all three of them passed on both Steve Blake and Brevin Knight, who were arguably the two best free agent point guards available.

 

[dude12]

You know what intrigues me? How there are at least three teams (Boston, Denver, Cleveland) with aspirations of going deep in the playoffs that are in need of a true point guard, and yet all three of them passed on both Steve Blake and Brevin Knight, who were arguably the two best free agent point guards available.

All the more reason that they should be pursuing Bibby if Bibby is having a good year.

 

[SacKings7]

I was actually thinking about that too Slim. Weird..

But the fact is Boston or Denver don't really have the assets to trade for a Mike Bibby (unless we're willing to take back Kenyon ). Cleveland is the only logical team for Bibby, though I'm not too sure they have the assets either

 

[AriesMar27]

that list sucks... we're in the right place but how is dallas at 12?

 

[kingsfan101]

Oh, we're in about the right place, but as usual Aldridge's reasoning is just all over the place and his rankings are a mess.

Well, in this ranking, we aren't. If he were doing a power ranking, I could have understood our rank (though, I would put us a tad higher). The rest of it wouldn't have made sense though. Our summer has been much worse than many of us wanted. However, why is it worse than that of some other teams, e.g. Lakers?

Since he is ranking the offseason, I think he has done a real shoddy job. Why are Spurs sixth just for signing Tiago Splitter? Amongst the players they resigned, Oberto is the only important piece.

Similarly, Phoenix is ranked above Boston for adding Hill, while losing Kurt. Important as Hill can be, if he stays healthy, ranking their offseason so high, despite the loss of Kurt Thomas doesn't make sense.

 

[sauce-26]

Well, in this ranking, we aren't. If he were doing a power ranking, I could have understood our rank (though, I would put us a tad higher). The rest of it wouldn't have made sense though. Our summer has been much worse than many of us wanted. However, why is it worse than that of some other teams, e.g. Lakers?

Since he is ranking the offseason, I think he has done a real shoddy job. Why are Spurs sixth just for signing Tiago Splitter? Amongst the players they resigned, Oberto is the only important piece.

Similarly, Phoenix is ranked above Boston for adding Hill, while losing Kurt. Important as Hill can be, if he stays healthy, ranking their offseason so high, despite the loss of Kurt Thomas doesn't make sense.

The lakers did have a better offseason than we did. The fact that they got stability at the point with Fisher is a HUGE upgrade of Smush Parker, and the fact that they resigned Luke Walton. We got a rookie big, and a bench player, whoopee.

 

[vfettke]

Well, in this ranking, we aren't. If he were doing a power ranking, I could have understood our rank (though, I would put us a tad higher). The rest of it wouldn't have made sense though. Our summer has been much worse than many of us wanted. However, why is it worse than that of some other teams, e.g. Lakers?

Since he is ranking the offseason, I think he has done a real shoddy job. Why are Spurs sixth just for signing Tiago Splitter? Amongst the players they resigned, Oberto is the only important piece.

Similarly, Phoenix is ranked above Boston for adding Hill, while losing Kurt. Important as Hill can be, if he stays healthy, ranking their offseason so high, despite the loss of Kurt Thomas doesn't make sense.

Spurs are ranked 6th because they are the champs. the resigned Oberto who is an important piece and drafted Splitter late in the draft. and if you hadn't noticed, San Antonio drafting foreigners in the late first round has worked out pretty well for them

 

[kingsfan101]

The lakers did have a better offseason than we did. The fact that they got stability at the point with Fisher is a HUGE upgrade of Smush Parker, and the fact that they resigned Luke Walton. We got a rookie big, and a bench player, whoopee.

Spurs are ranked 6th because they are the champs. the resigned Oberto who is an important piece and drafted Splitter late in the draft. and if you hadn't noticed, San Antonio drafting foreigners in the late first round has worked out pretty well for them

Signing your own core players is the first and probably the most important step for building a team, and I am not downplaying the importance of the Spurs resigning Oberto, or the Lakers retaining Luke. Also, particularly in the case of Spurs, this is what they primarily needed to do (though they shall likely like to add some youth on their wings), so we can't rain on them for not going after FAs or making trades to "upgrade" their team.

At the same time, a good summer shall usually entail more than retaining your core. Would we rate our summer as good if we sign Martin to an extension?

Don't get me wrong. I am not happy with our summer and would have loved to see some of our vets shipped for expiring and picks. I only feel that some of the other teams, ranked much ahead of us, haven't had it much better either.

 

[sauce-26]

I would consider it a great offseason by signing Martin to an extension. A good offseason in my book is either staying great or getting better. In the case of the
Spurs they are staying great by keeping what they have. We would get better by keeping Martin and building around him.

 

[VF21]

I think it's safe to say the Kings are actively working with Kevin's agent to ensure he stays in Kings purple for quite a while.

 

[DaMan]

You know what intrigues me? How there are at least three teams (Boston, Denver, Cleveland) with aspirations of going deep in the playoffs that are in need of a true point guard, and yet all three of them passed on both Steve Blake and Brevin Knight, who were arguably the two best free agent point guards available.

Really i think that Boston and Denver are set at the PG postion. I love Rondo in bos, if he just passes the ball to the big 3 and plays D he will be fine. The only problem I see with him is that his j is off and on but i am sure he is working on that.

Denver signed Chunky Aktins and I don't think he has to do much with Iverson, Melo, and Nene on the floor. Just like Rondo all he has to do is play D, pass the ball to the stars, and make the open shot if he can do thoes things he will do great.

Cleveland is a team that needs a pg and guys like Blake and knight won't cut it. Blake and Knight to me are better off as 6th man or on teams like Den or Bos where they won't be asked to do much, do to the amount of star power. Cleveland needs another guy who could provide large amounts of points and help out lebron or in better terms be his Robin. Bibby could help the situation the Cavs are in for the short term but do to his age and current play i don't think he is a long term solution. Maybe they could trade for bibby and hope that Gibson could develop under him and later become his replacement.

 

[cfechter]

Well, in this ranking, we aren't. If he were doing a power ranking, I could have understood our rank (though, I would put us a tad higher). The rest of it wouldn't have made sense though. Our summer has been much worse than many of us wanted. However, why is it worse than that of some other teams, e.g. Lakers?

Since he is ranking the offseason, I think he has done a real shoddy job. Why are Spurs sixth just for signing Tiago Splitter? Amongst the players they resigned, Oberto is the only important piece.

Similarly, Phoenix is ranked above Boston for adding Hill, while losing Kurt. Important as Hill can be, if he stays healthy, ranking their offseason so high, despite the loss of Kurt Thomas doesn't make sense.

I think that David Alridge has proven over the years that he's a huge band-wagoner and will jump on whatever the top or most popular teams are doing.

 

[NewMonkey]

Well, in this ranking, we aren't. If he were doing a power ranking, I could have understood our rank (though, I would put us a tad higher). The rest of it wouldn't have made sense though. Our summer has been much worse than many of us wanted. However, why is it worse than that of some other teams, e.g. Lakers?

I'd say it's because the Lakers need a lot less work than the Kings. The Lakers can add a piece or two to get better. It's obvious to everyone in the world but Geoff Petrie that the Kings need to hold a fire sale and rebuild completely. Instead of shedding players and salary, the Kings have actually gone backwards by adding players, hence the bad offseason grade.

 

[CruzDude]

I think Aldridge is about right on in is brief assessment. As to his ranking, more like 15-20 would be realistic. Maybe new Coach T can get Ron Ron and Bibbs to play their roles: Bibbs as primary ball handler and play starter and Ron Ron as primary defender, slasher to bucket and offensive rebounding. IF that happens (thats a tuffy!!!) then we see major improvement.

 

[Smills91]

The lakers did have a better offseason than we did. The fact that they got stability at the point with Fisher is a HUGE upgrade of Smush Parker, and the fact that they resigned Luke Walton. We got a rookie big, and a bench player, whoopee.

Our roster > Lakers roster

Just getting a new coach improves our record. There's no way our roster could have done any worse last year.

 

[Dave McNulla]

every year houston gets ranked highly for offseason moves and every year they are mediocre-to-bad again.

there's the value of these rankings.

 

[SacKings7]

every year houston gets ranked highly for offseason moves and every year they are mediocre-to-bad again.

there's the value of these rankings.

That's because Houston has to deal with injuries to Yao and Tmac every year. If those 2 stayed healthy, they'd be one of the favorites

 

[Bricklayer]

every year houston gets ranked highly for offseason moves and every year they are mediocre-to-bad again.

there's the value of these rankings.

They got ranked highly last season, and even without Bonzi still jumped by 20 wins up to a 52 win 4 seed. And if you don't see the danger looming from that quarter this season after adding half a dozen guys as well as Adelman...well the wakeup call could be rude. You add even 5 wins to that teamf rom lat year and its a 57 win team right in the mix. Health will be everything.

 

[cfechter]

Our roster > Lakers roster

Just getting a new coach improves our record. There's no way our roster could have done any worse last year.

Not sure I agree with you on our roster being better than the Lakers roster - after all, they have Kobe Bryant

I do think you're spot on with us having a new coach improving our record. This team massively underachieved last year. Not that I think we're a 50 win team or anything close, but our talent level should be able to get us 40 wins (effectively leaving us in the mediocrity we all hate).

 

[NewMonkey]

Our roster > Lakers roster

Just getting a new coach improves our record. There's no way our roster could have done any worse last year.

They do still have Kobe on that team, right? And without any changes, we're going to suck every bit as a bad as we did last season. The current Kings roster even doesn't even sniff .500 basketball.

 

[DaMan]

Our roster > Lakers roster

Just getting a new coach improves our record. There's no way our roster could have done any worse last year.

As long as they have kobe they will alway have the better team, lol.

every year houston gets ranked highly for offseason moves and every year they are mediocre-to-bad again.

there's the value of these rankings.

If being a mediocre-to-bad team means getting a 52-30 record in the Westersn Conf hardest divison and being a few rebounds from the second round, sign me up then. And also add this is the same Rockets team that played the better part of last season with out Yao Ming and Bonzi wells (due to JVG). If the Rocket's T-mac, Franics, and Yao stay healthy and RA gets Bonzi to play this team will be down right Dangorus.

 

[Dave McNulla]

if yao and mcgrady play 82 games, it'll be a first for them as teammates.

i know, i'm spoiled. 52 games and first round exit don't seem good to me.

maybe they'll be better this year. adelman is one of the best coaches in the league. but the rox are still in the toughest division, in the toughest conference.