Do We Really Need A Low Post Defender?

[MichaelMcNamara]

I just dont get how people praise Lillard and bow down to his greatness and then call Ryno a "one trick pony." Both incredibly efficient scorers who are high effort guys on defense but arent good on that end. Ryno good offensive rebounder, Lillard above average at creating for others.

Lillard slightly more valuable because of his free throw rate and because a guard with the ball in his hands will have more value on offense. But I dont see a huge difference - outside of how they are viewed, apparently.

[AD23nEG10]

Do you think a s&t Jason Smith for Koufos could work? Smith has a lil more Marc gasol in his game & can fit well with Z-Bo backing up Marc

[MichaelMcNamara]

Do you think a s&t Jason Smith for Koufos could work? Smith has a lil more Marc gasol in his game & can fit well with Z-Bo backing up Marc

No, I think it would take Pierre and either Ajinca or Withey. I would try to sell them on Ajinca, but I think they demand Withey. And I would do it because I dont believe Withey adds the weight he needs to for him to become a good rebounder. And Koufos is still young. Could be a great 3 man rotation with he, AD, and Ryno for years to come.

[UptownFuz504]

I just dont get how people praise Lillard and bow down to his greatness and then call Ryno a "one trick pony." Both incredibly efficient scorers who are high effort guys on defense but arent good on that end. Ryno good offensive rebounder, Lillard above average at creating for others.

Lillard slightly more valuable because of his free throw rate and because a guard with the ball in his hands will have more value on offense. But I dont see a huge difference - outside of how they are viewed, apparently.

I'll give you one thing that makes me "bow down" to Lillard. If I need a bucket, I can give the ball to Lillard and more often than not, he'll get that bucket. Ryno not so much. If its a wide open shot, Ryno is probably the better guy but straight up here's the ball, go get me a bucket, Lillard all day. I'm not so sure Ryno would out shoot Lillard to be honest. Ryno literally does nothing that Lillard doesn't. At the end of the day, this is a bad argument. It's an apples to oranges comparison. Not really fair to Ryno.

[UptownFuz504]

As for Ryno being 1 dimensional, he is. I'm a fan and he's an important part of this team but let's not make him something that he isn't. He's an awesome shooter but overall he's a very ok basketball player. Don't bore me with the metrics, I already said that he's a marksman. His greatest attribute outside of shooting would be clearing out the middle for guys like Reke and AD. He's ok on Def, he's ok at creating his own shot, he's ok at making others better, he's below average in rebounding, and he's an awesome 3 baller. That = an ok player. His contract may be why people make him untradable but to me he's a replaceable piece. Shooters are dime a dozen. His locker room presence is another story. He may be irreplaceable in that sense.

[MichaelMcNamara]

A guy with an elite skill and several okay skills is a very good player.

And again, offensive rebounding and FT shooting are both elite too. He is a top 40-50 player. Nothing to sneeze at


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[BallSoHard]

I like to think of ryno as a nuclear deterrent. If you help in the paint with your 4 you're goin to get blown up. Which is a pretty big deal considering Jrue reke and Davis.

[Mythrol]

I just dont get how people praise Lillard and bow down to his greatness and then call Ryno a "one trick pony." Both incredibly efficient scorers who are high effort guys on defense but arent good on that end. Ryno good offensive rebounder, Lillard above average at creating for others.

Lillard slightly more valuable because of his free throw rate and because a guard with the ball in his hands will have more value on offense. But I dont see a huge difference - outside of how they are viewed, apparently.

In a way I kind of agree with you. I think Lillard is one of the best guards in the league. He's Harden without the flipping.

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[ItIsRynosTime]

Ryno is not that good on offense. Aside from his 3 point ability, I don't see Ryno winning many match-ups on either side of the ball. I like Ryno but IMO he the 2nd most overrated player on this team (Rivers being the 1st). This year when Ryno played, he shot the ball every time he touched it and implemented that rediculous step back/fade away. That is not a championship recipe. The best role for Ryno is catch and shoot.

Actually Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon are the most overrated players on the Pels because neither of them can play a lick of defense.

At least the Pelicans were a respectable 12-10 in games Anderson played. Holiday was probably a bigger loss because our guards outside of Jrue are bad defensively.

[ItIsRynosTime]

Low post defense is not a concern. We have a lot of bigs. Not sure if they're all coming back. Jeff Withey plays above average defense. Jason Smith does too. Ajinca is fair. Stiemsa you can sub in on defense and sub out on offense.

Guard defense on the other hand, major concern. If we could trade Eric Gordon for Sefolosha or Danny Green I would do it.

[Blattman]

I was thinking about finding the perfect center to put in a three man rotation with Anderson and Davis. And all the sudden I was struck by an obvious name too often forgotten : Emeka Okafor.

If you really think about it, he could be the perfect piece: good rebounder, rim protector and he's great at slowing down low-post offense (meaning more time for Davis to come from the weakside). He also already know Monty's system and he was always a great professional in his time here. Since he's coming back after one year without playing (same injury as Anderson), his market value should be low and in the pelicans range.

Of course, there would be some serious competition from contenders, like the Heat, Clippers, Thunder, Pacers or even the Spurs, but he could decide to come back if Demps offers him a better contract. May be a longer contract around 4-5M per year could make it happen.

[MichaelMcNamara]

Okafor is the big wild card in free agency. Similar injury as Ryno, but he is old and plays a more physical game. I think if he was fully healthy last year and had a season similar to his previous one, he gets 5-6 mil per. Now, I think he only gets 1 yr contract offers and it is in that 3-5 mil range.

He has become much more of a jump shooter the last few years. For example, he took just 29% of his shots at the rim last year, compared to 60% in his prime. The thing is, he isn't a very good midrange shooter even though he takes a lot now. Still a very good rebounder, but his blocks have tailed off considerably too.

Even if he is healthy, I don't know if he is the fit.

[da ThRONe]

I'm OK with Okafor on the cheap end as a stop gap.

[Blattman]

About his shot selection, I wondered if it wasn't due to his team more than his own inclination. When he was in Washington he played alongside of Wall and Nene, so the floor spacing was needed and if I remember correctly in his last year in Nola he played plenty of time alongside Kaman, so again he was encouraged to take jumpshots. Maybe you're right, maybe with age he's becoming less willing to bang inside to take his shots, but at least he could be more an offensive factor than Withey or Steamer.

Regarding his blocks, that's not my biggest concern since he has the best defensive rating of his carreer last year, he seems to have found a way to improve his defense. Blocks aren't necessarily the best way to qualify the ability to protect the rim, for example Splitter has a good Opponent Field Goal Percent at Rim even without being a good shot blocker.

His ability to recover is the real question mark, he has a history of being quite healthy but you never know when a big start to broke down.

If no other team offer him more than one-year contract, there could be a chance that a partially guaranteed second year could entice him. If he's able to combe back healthy, he would be a nice center with a cheap contract and if he can't be effective anymore he could at least be waved to create space to sign someone like Koufos next year.

[Kibner]

Gordon for the Hibbert reclamation project.

[da ThRONe]

Gordon for the Hibbert reclamation project.

I think Ind can still get more value for Hibbert than Gordon. But if Hibbert keeps disappearing it may be possible especially if they can't retain Stevenson. This could be something to look at if Hibbert is still in a funk next season.

[UptownFuz504]

What about Greg Oden. He signed a 1 year deal and he'll probably get a ring this year. The Pels could get him on the cheap. He'd be a 15 min a game guy at the 5

[MichaelMcNamara]

He has player a total of 212 minutes this year. I don't think you can sign him and pencil him in for 15 mins a game. That would be 1200 minutes, or a 600% increase of what he played this year. I wouldn't do it. Would have more faith in Okafor making a recovery and being able to play 1200-1500 minutes


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[Ludiculous]

Actually Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon are the most overrated players on the Pels because neither of them can play a lick of defense.

At least the Pelicans were a respectable 12-10 in games Anderson played. Holiday was probably a bigger loss because our guards outside of Jrue are bad defensively.

That's not entirely true both of them are pretty good on ball defenders especially when they want to be. Against the rockets this year there was a stretch that Gordon was shutting harden down. I feel like when they want to they can both be good. The problem is off ball defense.