First off, what a hell of a trade. My god, for all you people questioning Riley for not being in the headlines, you should slap the sh*t out of yourselves. For the second consecutive year, we made perhaps the biggest move of the entire offseason without available cap space. There is no question, we now have the most talented set of 7 players(Shaq, Wade, J-Will, Walker, Zo, Posey, Haslem) in the conference, but the obvious question is how these guys will mesh compared to last year's squad. Of course, you're gonna see a lot of spectators question the character of J-Will, who to me is one of the funniest dudes in the league, LOL. However, he's a very good friend of Shaquille O'Neal and I think you'll see Shaq keep him under control similar to the way Jordan kept Rodman under control, but much better. He's one of the best passers in the league and he now has more options than ever, that should keep him happy. Will Antoine Walker accept a 6th man role if we plan on starting Posey to create matchup problems? It is rumored that Riley spoke to him about this prior to the deal. Jason Posey's health is his only concern, because when he was healthy in 2003-2004 the guy put up 14 & 5 shooting about 48%, playing excellent defense.
Okay, so now the question remains....what do we do with the $5.1 million exception? It seems as if 45% of the fan base are sold on giving it to Damon Jones, while another 45% are sold on giving it to Michael Finley if/when he's released. The other 10%? That's where I come in, confused as hell. At one point it seemed almost a sure thing Damon Jones would accept the 20% raise of a 3-year/$9 million deal, but that seems a dead issue right now with Cleveland offering him a deal starting at $3.9 million and a chance to start. I see a lot of people out there who think we're gonna land Finley for the minimum, but that's one hell of a pipe dream if you ask me. There's always NVE, but what's his asking price gonna be and is he still considering retiring? Really & truly, what this team needs are two players: a backup for White Chocolate & a backup swingman. To me, we're better suited splitting the MLE with Tyronn Lue & DerMarr Johnson. Lue can do it all, he's just not great at anything...he's a damn good backup who actually plays defense, something that we don't have at the PG spot. He can bring energy similar to Keyon Dooling as well, and he isn't stupid like Dooling. DerMarr had a very good season in Denver, and he'd bring a great spark off the bench. What do both of these players bring to the team? Two very unselfish, pretty young players who can do a lot of things and step up when called upon...and both play defense(Lue better). EDIT: I wouldn't mind replacing Lue with Earl Watson or Lue/Johnson with Derek Anderson.
Then, look to sign a third guard or another forward to the minimum(possibly a released Brian Grant or maybe Jay Williams?) and send Dorell Wright to the NBDL.
1-Jason Williams, Tyronn Lue
2-Dwyane Wade, DerMarr Johnson, Dorell Wright
3-Antoine Walker, James Posey
4-Udonis Haslem, Wayne Simien
5-Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Michael Doleac
Walker may not even start, they may start Posey and have Walker the 6th man according to many reports. You will see a lot of Williams-Wade-Posey-Walker-Shaq line-ups, you can bet on that. Show me a deeper, more talented squad and I'll show you my bank account.
Okay, so now the question remains....what do we do with the $5.1 million exception? It seems as if 45% of the fan base are sold on giving it to Damon Jones, while another 45% are sold on giving it to Michael Finley if/when he's released. The other 10%? That's where I come in, confused as hell. At one point it seemed almost a sure thing Damon Jones would accept the 20% raise of a 3-year/$9 million deal, but that seems a dead issue right now with Cleveland offering him a deal starting at $3.9 million and a chance to start. I see a lot of people out there who think we're gonna land Finley for the minimum, but that's one hell of a pipe dream if you ask me. There's always NVE, but what's his asking price gonna be and is he still considering retiring? Really & truly, what this team needs are two players: a backup for White Chocolate & a backup swingman. To me, we're better suited splitting the MLE with Tyronn Lue & DerMarr Johnson. Lue can do it all, he's just not great at anything...he's a damn good backup who actually plays defense, something that we don't have at the PG spot. He can bring energy similar to Keyon Dooling as well, and he isn't stupid like Dooling. DerMarr had a very good season in Denver, and he'd bring a great spark off the bench. What do both of these players bring to the team? Two very unselfish, pretty young players who can do a lot of things and step up when called upon...and both play defense(Lue better). EDIT: I wouldn't mind replacing Lue with Earl Watson or Lue/Johnson with Derek Anderson.
Then, look to sign a third guard or another forward to the minimum(possibly a released Brian Grant or maybe Jay Williams?) and send Dorell Wright to the NBDL.
1-Jason Williams, Tyronn Lue
2-Dwyane Wade, DerMarr Johnson, Dorell Wright
3-Antoine Walker, James Posey
4-Udonis Haslem, Wayne Simien
5-Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Michael Doleac
Walker may not even start, they may start Posey and have Walker the 6th man according to many reports. You will see a lot of Williams-Wade-Posey-Walker-Shaq line-ups, you can bet on that. Show me a deeper, more talented squad and I'll show you my bank account.
