Bloggystyle -- The Greatest

Much like the Steve Nash debate, Fitz disagrees with my analysis, and one comment tells me that I "obviously don't watch enough basketball to know what your talking about."

Well if there's anything I do know, it's basketball. And if there's anything I definitely watch enough of, if not more than necessary, it's basketball.

So this time I'll explain myself by rebutting Fitz's and "ZukeMorty's" arguments.

I've got to say that I don't understand the logic of the trade for any team involved in the trade, with the obvious exception of the Miami Heat, who absolutely stole three great players.

I can explain this:

Boston: Boston is clearly starting a youth movement centering around Al Jefferson and hopefully (for them) Gerald Green. They got Qyntel Woods, once thought the next McGrady and still young enough to turn his career around. They move Walker and his overpaid 6 year contract to the Heat and got back money and second round picks, which are non guaranteed contracts, as well as a couple of big white centers, one of which may pan out yet. Walker was an unrestricted free agent, and Boston had no intention of keeping him or Payton, so getting something out of nothing was the result.

Memphis: Memphis gets Eddie Jones and Raul Lopez to replace Posey and Williams. While that's certainly nothing groundbreaking, Memphis will have cap relief sooner as a result. If they got worse, it's barely worse.

Utah: Ok, I admit I don't have a clue what the Jazz were doing. They already gave up on Kirk Snyder, sent to New Orleans. And Ostertag is Ostertag. Obviously Lopez was no longer starting with Deron Williams there. Since I don't know the contract situations of Ostertag/Lopez, nor do I care enough, I won't bother analyzing this further. Simply put, the Jazz went from bad to bad.

New Orleans: A no brain deal for them since under NBA rules they have to put a team on the floor. Rasual Butler is a decent swingman with a pretty good perimeter game, and Kirk Snyder is a young project.

At that point, Fitz called Jason Williams, Antoine Walker and James Posey "great" players. "Great" players don't shoot 41%, 42% and 35% respectively, unless they're Allen Iverson...

After I pointed out that those players are far from great, I was greeted by Mort's commentary.People who assume the Heat will have chemistry problems only had to watch Walker work his way out of Dallas in one year and Williams work his way out of Sacramento quickly as well.

Walker went from starter to benched in the playoffs while in Dallas, despite playing for on Nelson, who like Walker has never had a preference for D. It was the ridiculously bad shot selection out of the 6'8 power forward who chucked up about 5 triples a game.

Jason Williams worked his way out of Sacramento by passing the ball into the stands more than into the hands of Chris Webber. Averaging 4 turnovers a game in under 35 minutes in Year 2 was quite a feat. Williams has finally dipped to a more normal number of 2 turnovers a game in about 30 minutes under Hubert Brown and Mike Fratello in Memphis, but his career 39% shooting doesn't help much.

Even Posey was a malcontent in Houston and was injured on and off throughout last year.

I've heard it said that Williams and Walker won't fit 'cause they both need the ball. Bull Shit. Williams wants the ball just to pass it and Walker is a perfect 3rd scorer.

Williams will be the point guard, but the primary ball handlers for the Heat's system will obviously be Wade and Shaq, which means that the Heat need the other 3 players to stretch the floor. Thus they had Haslem, a decent mid range shooter, Eddie Jones and Damon Jones, the latter hitting the 2nd most triples in the league last year. Williams struggles to hit 30% of his 3 point attempts each season.

And I have no idea how Walker is a perfect 3rd scorer. The guy has never been a 3rd scorer in his life. He's been the same 19/8 in 35 minutes with 20 shot attempts for his entire career. He's taken about 1500 shots per season every year except for his 1100 in Dallas. Walker is a career 41% shooter, and he's at 32% behind the arc despite taking an average of 400 triple attempts per season in the last 5 years. For the first time, it will be sensible for Walker to drift to the perimeter. The problem is that obviously Eddie Jones was a more natural fit at 3 on both ends of the floor for Miami.

In sizing up the Heat against the rest of the East, Fitz says the following:

In the mean time, the only team in the East that made an effort to get any better was the Nets. The Pistons are arguably the same, and the Pacers will be roughly the same team they were this year.

While I agree that New Jersey didn't leapfrog the Heat, the Pistons are still the same team that came within a bad 9 minute stretch of repeating. And obviously the Pacers "added" Artest and a ready to play European point guard, which can't hurt when Tinsley's the starter.

Every other Eastern conference team is right about where they were last year, if not worse like the Celtics. But it's pretty difficult to claim that this trade hurts the Heat, at least for the next 2 years and the relative short term.

The Bucks clearly did not get worse or stay the same.

I don't think the trade helped the Heat at all on either side of the floor. Their offense just added considerably worse perimeter starters who averaged about 10 more shots per game than last year's counterparts, Eddie Jones and Dame Dash Jones. On the other end of the floor, the thought of watching Antoine Walker guarding small forwards is hysterical, and Jason Williams has never played defense. Posey, if he can stay healthy for a change, is a decent replacement for Eddie Jones, and he's probably a better fit than Antoine Walker on both ends of the floor as well.

And with the short term established, this trade obviously kills the Heat in Years 3-6: Shaq will be gone or unrecognizable, Wade will be maxed, taking the Heat's cap with him, and Walker will be completely untradable as he will be pushing late 30s.

Thus, this is how Miami ran on their sword. Much like the Steve Nash debate, I believe the impending season will prove me right.

# posted by Jay Dub @ 2:43 PM