Pelicans finalizing trade for Asik

[Primetime]

First, where did I say this was a championship team? At best I've said we don't know what this team is and it's only if AD makes a jump that we can make a deep playoff run. We are leveraging the future on AD because if AD doesn't develop, we are hopeless anyway. You take your shot with a guy like AD and hope for the best.

You are claiming we aren't developing a core. We have Ryno, Jrue, Reke, and now Asik we will be developing. My point is, given Monty's track record of developing players it's horribly close minded to assume none of our better pieces will develop under him when we've been able to turn nobody's into deserving NBA role players.

No. The logic isn't to leverage AD to "win-now". It's to surround him with the best players possible and then get him playoff experience with a good core. It's also not crippling anything, As player's contracts come to an end you have the ability to move them as expirings for better fitting pieces or resign them if they are already great fits. You see what we are doing as trying to win now. I see it as trying to handle AD as best as possible.

1. You don't have to say 'championship team', it should be implied. Isn't that the point of developing a player? You don't develop a player to be the 10th best player on a lottery team.

2. AD's already a great player. No matter what we do, we will be mortgaging our future with him. The debate is more about how to build around him.

3. We have a core, I'm not debating that. I'm debating it's a mediocre core that will end in mediocre results. If they turn out to be an exceptional core, I'd love it.

4. Monty has no track record of developing anything. The only thing he's developed is a reputation for needlessly sticking with Brian Roberts. Developing 10th men isn't development.

5. When you move expirings, you don't get equal value. No one will give you equal value for a player who has 1 year left on his contract. All you need to do to answer that is ask yourself "will you get more or less value if you trade a guy with 1 or 2 years left on his contract?" -- the answer is 2. The assumption needs to be made this is a player you want to keep because otherwise, it doesn't matter, you don't want the guy anyway. If it's a guy you don't want, then you're getting guys that other teams don't value.

6. I think we've set ourselves up to be a good team because we're scared of taking the risk of being a horrendous team. I personally would rather them take the route of "we will either be stacked or we will be terrible".

[Mythrol]

6. I think we've set ourselves up to be a good team because we're scared of taking the risk of being a horrendous team. I personally would rather them take the route of "we will either be stacked or we will be terrible".

All the other points are irrelevant. I think this explains your opinion about everything else. Personally, I'd rather make playoff runs than be the Cavs. You can never plan a finals team anyway. It takes too much luck and things out of your control. All you can do is build a team that you think can make a playoff run and then hope he ball bounces your way.

[MichaelMcNamara]

Me - I would rather roll up into the dance floor and talk/dance to every girl possible and guarantee that I walk away with a 7 or an 8 (and maybe a 10), then just wait all night for a 10 to come in and hope I just happen to get lucky and say everything right and beat out every other guy who is sure to go after her as well - likely ending up with nothing but the comfort of saying to myself, "At least I tried."

GTG - wife might be reading over my shoulder.

[IamQuailman]

Me - I would rather roll up into the dance floor and talk/dance to every girl possible and guarantee that I walk away with a 7 or an 8 (and maybe a 10), then just wait all night for a 10 to come in and hope I just happen to get lucky and say everything right and beat out every other guy who is sure to go after her as well - likely ending up with nothing but the comfort of saying to myself, "At least I tried."

GTG - wife might be reading over my shoulder.

[Jabberwalker]

I had a busy week and haven't gotten a chance to give my two cents on the Asik trade. Sorry to interrupt the Pistons comparison discussion.
I think the trade is bad. Maybe not awful. Maybe not as bleak as some trades that have happened but it is bad. What's so funny is that I like Omer. HE could be awesome on a lot of teams. He has a great niche. He is one of the best defensive bigs in the game. Yet he is totally the wrong player for us. I have been critical of many of Dell's moves at first but then they end up growing on me. This one however hasn't gotten any better since it was reported. To me there are several issues with the trade:

1- It handcuffs us financially and puts us in a terrible position to trade with no leverage.
2- It's not a good fit.
3- It fills the lesser of two needs.
4- It shows either inconsistent ideology or a complete change in it which makes me question how much of a plan Dell has.
5- It adds more chaos to the program and hurts chemistry.

1 - As Macnamara pointed out, we have to dump salary for the trade to go through. There is a possibility there is one that has been agreed to that isn't public yet. If that's the case, this point is moot, until we see that though, I have to assume that we are now in a situation where we HAVE to trade a player and the other team has all the leverage. Other teams can demand more from us because we are in a position of HAVING to give up the player. Gordon probably isn't going to be traded unfortunately. So tht leaves Rivers or Ryno. I don't think either of their trade value is where most people on here think. Even if we trade Ryno, I'm not sure we get anything of serious quality back. Everyone says he's on a good contract. I think he is on a fair contract and I feel like any sane GM would see it the same way. I love Ryno. He is one of my favorite players on this team and I don't want to see him traded at all but that might have to be the move and if it is then we just traded Ryno and a pick for whatever we get back and one year of Omer Asik and the inability to fill any other needs.

2- Monty said that the Center they go out and get couldn't be an offensive nonentity like Steamer was. Have you guys seen Omer's shooting chart? He can ONLY score on tip ins and dunks. He is as bad or worse than Kendrick Perkins offensively. He shot under 30% at over 3 feet away from the rim. He was averaging over 20 minutes per game when he began whining about not getting enough minutes. How many minutes should we give him? How many minutes should we be giving Tyreke? These two won't play well next to each other. Omer is a worse offensive player than Aminu or Steimsma. Do you think Monty will suddenly figure out spacing and play Omer and Reke seperately? He'll play them at the same time and whatever lumbering guy who apparently was too big for AD to guard can now stand firmly in the paint when Reke drives.

3- Unless Dell pulls a rabbit out of his hat and dumps Gordon for nothing we just lost out at acquiring any decent SF. You know what the craziest part of that is? We now can't play our five best players at the same time. Jrue, Reke, Some Scrubb, Davis, and either Omer or Ryno will be on the floor. Small Forward was the position of need. We needed a stopgap center who could rebound. We needed Reggie Evans. We instead dedicated ourselves so completely to the need at center that we may have to trade away good players just to try and have marginal small forwards.

4- This is concerning. AFTER we got the number one pick and knew we'd be getting AD guess who the first player Dell grabbed to build around him? Ryno. The young vet stretch four. On a reasonable contract for a long time. You know what that move says? Either Dell just wanted what he thought was an asset, even if it meant nothing to your new pick, which is concerning since you just got your franchise cornerstone, or he was trying to begin building around AD and thought AD was a center. Did Dell change his mind? All of us here were looking at players who won't be getting huge contracts, we were looking at players like Okafor and Blatche, because we had our two starting bigs. We had the two game changers. Omer does a lot more than any of the guys we thought defensively, but its complete overkill when all those resources are put into it. We very well may have to trade Ryno, moving AD to full time PF. If that was the play, then why did we have Ryno in the first place? Why didn't we roll with AD at PF to begin with? Why confuse things with that? Or did Dell change his mind? Is now, three years into AD's career, the time to start changing your mind about how to build around him after signing long term contract after long term contract? Like I said before, Reke and Omer are an awful pair. Why give Reke that huge deal if you're going to go get a lane clogging center who demands to be a starter or he'll sit and pout? You can't hope to change your ideology half way through your best player's contract and hope it turns out for the best. Was Dell unready for the player AD is? If so why?

5- We were excited to hear that Monty had only instilled a small percentage of his playbook. His offensive creativity is astounding and it makes us all excited to see what it's potential is once he gets the whole thing down. But now we know that there will be a guy who can't shoot playing most likely 30 minutes a game. That changes a lot. Everyone thought we'd run, and with the few games the core 4 had together, they did. What now? We just watched the Spurs win a championship based off of chemistry more than talent. Seriously. Go down the Spurs roster and assign a number to each player based off of their overall skill as a basketball player. It's probably not even as high as you'd give the Pels right now. Yet they won the championship. You know why? Because they know their system. They know each other. They aren't improvising. They play as a team because they know it will help them win. When you change things every year you don't get that stability, you don't get that chemistry. Our guys barely got to play together this year. This upcoming year things will be different because we're now playing a lumbering center where we used to play mobile guys who could shoot (hell, Steamer can kind of shoot throughout his career). Now we change things completely. As an overreaction to the disappointment Steamer brought on Dell has traded our hope of fixing the hole in small forward with a player who will change how we play offense. And now after we likely lose him next year to free agency, what will we have to show for it? The West is again going to be incredible. The Nuggets just got better. Dallas just got better. The Suns have a year of chemistry. If we're healthy we might compete with that group. Maybe if injuries hit a couple other teams we can compete for the 9th spot. I hope, but doubt we are good enough for 8th in the west. So then Asik walks at the end of the year, we lost Anderson/Rivers, and what do we have to show for it. We need one healthy year of chemistry before we can challenge for a playoff spot in my opinion. Even when healthy this last season we didn't play great. We had times when we showed we could. The players and coach need time to figure each other and themselves out. We have a real lack of BBall IQ. That needs to change through playing as a team instead of self. Nothing about this move makes that better. Nothing about this move will be a net positive long term. We want Asik to play 20 minutes a game. He'll want more. Monty will probably play him over 30 and we'll get upset because he'll play him as much as AD or Ryno. To me the move all along was to go after Okafor, Dalembert, Blatche, Hill. I know all those guys have flaws but you also don't have to give up pieces, you could retain chemistry, get a three and D SF, and maintain your current trajectory to the top of the WC in a couple years.

I've been trying to find the silver lining here. Like I said, I like Asik. I like what he CAN be. But I think he is a poor choice for this team for that price.

[MichaelMcNamara]

I feel like when the other shoes drop you will have regretted taking that long to type all that out. We gotta see what the other moves are before we grade it. If you dump Ryno, way different trade than dumping Rivers or Gordon, no?

Lets just wait 7-10 days. Thought I know that request will never be met, I suggest we do it anyway.

[tdcreator]

I've always felt like some players were picked up to hopefully show off their talents then trade them for better players. Ryno, Tyreke, and Gordon are the high end makeover project. Of course you had the low end ones too like Morrow, Babbitt, Ajenca, and Roberts. All that said I really like Treke and Ryno hope they end up staying. I didn't get that type of feeling with Jrue maybe cause it was 2-1st round picks for him. I too feel like something's brewing and that is the excitement of Demps as the GM.

[dleboeuf84]

I had a busy week and haven't gotten a chance to give my two cents on the Asik trade. Sorry to interrupt the Pistons comparison discussion.
I think the trade is bad. Maybe not awful. Maybe not as bleak as some trades that have happened but it is bad. What's so funny is that I like Omer. HE could be awesome on a lot of teams. He has a great niche. He is one of the best defensive bigs in the game. Yet he is totally the wrong player for us. I have been critical of many of Dell's moves at first but then they end up growing on me. This one however hasn't gotten any better since it was reported. To me there are several issues with the trade:

1- It handcuffs us financially and puts us in a terrible position to trade with no leverage.
2- It's not a good fit.
3- It fills the lesser of two needs.
4- It shows either inconsistent ideology or a complete change in it which makes me question how much of a plan Dell has.
5- It adds more chaos to the program and hurts chemistry.
.

Completely off base, and frankly, wrong.

Asik is the best possible fit for this team. This team has offense for days. Our defense is absolutely atrocious. Terrible. Non existent. Our bigs can't guard the post, they get crushed on the pick n roll, their rebound rate other than Davis is awful, they can't carve out space on box outs, etc. Asik does ALL of this stuff well, and also blocks a ton of shots. His defensive ratings are off the charts.

You can't compare the three headed monster of Steemer/Withy/Ajinca to Asik. He is probably a top 3 defensive center in the league. Offensively he isn't a threat on his own, but he sets BRUTAL picks for our penetrating guards, can actually get offensive rebounds, can box out and carve out space for our other finishers. He is an absolutely perfect fit. Do you have any idea how many "Kobe Assists" Tyreke will get with Asik boxing out and rebounding plus the Davis/Anderson duo (best offensive rebounding bigs in the league?) eating up offensive boards?

DD must have a few deals teed up that will make this work salary wise. I don't thing there is any way he does this deal that would eliminate his MLE money. That is the cash that will get us a starting SF.

Asik is perfect. No more "soft bigs" in there getting beat up. We finally got an enforcer. He, along w/ a solid MLE SF, should make us a top 10 defense next year, if not better. If that pick up happens, our entire starting lineup (assuming Tyreke for Gordon) are plus defenders. WE can score all day. Now we may actually be able to defend.

[da ThRONe]

I'm with you Jabber the entire fit of this team just seems off. It's like a person with a rubic's cube every time one good player is added he seems to miss up the chemistry somewhere else on paper. If Dell pulls this off and make all sides match I'll be thrilled and the first person to take my lumps. However as of now from my prespective the personnel and salaries don't at all seem conducive to a sustainable team capable of deep playoff runs.

However like MM said it's still can all be saved. Even though I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with having doubts and expressing them in a well thought and constructive manner.

[MichaelMcNamara]

I'm with you Jabber the entire fit of this team just seems off. It's like a person with a rubic's cube every time one good player is added he seems to miss up the chemistry somewhere else on paper. If Dell pulls this off and make all sides match I'll be thrilled and the first person to take my lumps. However as of now from my prespective the personnel and salaries don't at all seem conducive to a sustainable team capable of deep playoff runs.

However like MM said it's still can all be saved. Even though I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with having doubts and expressing them in a well thought and constructive manner.

What I keep trying to ask, though: Would this exact same team minus Eric Gordon and with 12 mil in cap room seem that off to you?

I can't see how it would. And if it doesn't, then he is one move away. Lets see if he makes it.

[MichaelMcNamara]

I'm with you Jabber the entire fit of this team just seems off. It's like a person with a rubic's cube every time one good player is added he seems to miss up the chemistry somewhere else on paper. If Dell pulls this off and make all sides match I'll be thrilled and the first person to take my lumps. However as of now from my prespective the personnel and salaries don't at all seem conducive to a sustainable team capable of deep playoff runs.

However like MM said it's still can all be saved. Even though I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with having doubts and expressing them in a well thought and constructive manner.

What I keep trying to ask, though: Would this exact same team minus Eric Gordon and with 12 mil in cap room seem that off to you?

I can't see how it would. And if it doesn't, then he is one move away. Lets see if he makes it.

[Kumar]

I just look at the clippers when I see this. DJ has absolutely no range. The only thing he has on Asik is his athleticism. Asik is ten times the defender and a marginally better free throw shooter. And with all the limited range Blake has, they have made it work. Davis already is a better shooter than Blake, so this isn't a terrible idea. Look at the years of Rondo. He could never shoot.

[Kumar]

What I keep trying to ask, though: Would this exact same team minus Eric Gordon and with 12 mil in cap room seem that off to you?

I can't see how it would. And if it doesn't, then he is one move away. Lets see if he makes it.

Yeah he just needs to realize Gordon is a sunk cost and his contract shouldn't effect future decisions. Stretch him.

[donato]

Can anyone think of any realistic cases where we could send Gordon and Anderson as a package deal and still recover a decent asset while clearing a lot of room?

[AUSSIE_PELICAN]

What I keep trying to ask, though: Would this exact same team minus Eric Gordon and with 12 mil in cap room seem that off to you?

I can't see how it would. And if it doesn't, then he is one move away. Lets see if he makes it.

MM,

Here is a question for you.
If Dell stretches Gordons contract do we get to keep Anderson, Rivers and the MLE? (I assume yes).
However will this still give us the flexibility in the next few years to extend the core of:
Davis, Anderson, Asik, Holiday and Evans?

I know it all depends what new contract Gordon gets from his new team, but I just want to know it's not
going to paralyze the team long term.

Thanks

[Mythrol]

Can anyone think of any realistic cases where we could send Gordon and Anderson as a package deal and still recover a decent asset while clearing a lot of room?

The asset we would be receiving is the cap space. If you move both of them you have roughly 21M in cap to play with. That's enough to get you your starting SF, and plenty of backups.

Honestly, instead of a deal moving Anderson for a SF and a pick, if we HAVE to move him, I'd rather use him to dump Gordon and then sign the players we want.

[da ThRONe]

What I keep trying to ask, though: Would this exact same team minus Eric Gordon and with 12 mil in cap room seem that off to you?

I can't see how it would. And if it doesn't, then he is one move away. Lets see if he makes it.

I don't know. There are so many questions concerning chemistry that we were robbed of any significant answers due to injuries. So would not having Gordon on a deal any where near max money be a huge plus? Of course. Saying that Demps is one move away without EJ is IMO yet to be determined. Just on paper I don't know if this roster minus the Gordon effect screams deep playoff run, I'm not as high on our players individually as many here. But I would like our chances a lot more if we trade Eric.

[Jabberwalker]

Completely off base, and frankly, wrong.

Asik is the best possible fit for this team. This team has offense for days. Our defense is absolutely atrocious. Terrible. Non existent. Our bigs can't guard the post, they get crushed on the pick n roll, their rebound rate other than Davis is awful, they can't carve out space on box outs, etc. Asik does ALL of this stuff well, and also blocks a ton of shots. His defensive ratings are off the charts.

You can't compare the three headed monster of Steemer/Withy/Ajinca to Asik. He is probably a top 3 defensive center in the league. Offensively he isn't a threat on his own, but he sets BRUTAL picks for our penetrating guards, can actually get offensive rebounds, can box out and carve out space for our other finishers. He is an absolutely perfect fit. Do you have any idea how many "Kobe Assists" Tyreke will get with Asik boxing out and rebounding plus the Davis/Anderson duo (best offensive rebounding bigs in the league?) eating up offensive boards?

DD must have a few deals teed up that will make this work salary wise. I don't thing there is any way he does this deal that would eliminate his MLE money. That is the cash that will get us a starting SF.

Asik is perfect. No more "soft bigs" in there getting beat up. We finally got an enforcer. He, along w/ a solid MLE SF, should make us a top 10 defense next year, if not better. If that pick up happens, our entire starting lineup (assuming Tyreke for Gordon) are plus defenders. WE can score all day. Now we may actually be able to defend.

I agree with all your points but I never said he wasn't a fit defensively. Our defense has been terrible. He does help that. What doesn't make sense is the other end of the floor. Imagine, he has worse shooting numbers than Stiemsma did last year. If Steamer and Reke can't play together as it seems most have agreed, then why can Reke and Asik? I should have said in my original post that I am excited to see someone who actually knows how to set a pick.

I'm with you Jabber the entire fit of this team just seems off. It's like a person with a rubic's cube every time one good player is added he seems to miss up the chemistry somewhere else on paper. If Dell pulls this off and make all sides match I'll be thrilled and the first person to take my lumps. However as of now from my prespective the personnel and salaries don't at all seem conducive to a sustainable team capable of deep playoff runs.

However like MM said it's still can all be saved. Even though I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with having doubts and expressing them in a well thought and constructive manner.

I heard the argument that Dell seems to make moves just to make them and always disagreed. Trading Ryno now would make me rethink that.

What I keep trying to ask, though: Would this exact same team minus Eric Gordon and with 12 mil in cap room seem that off to you?

I can't see how it would. And if it doesn't, then he is one move away. Lets see if he makes it.

This team as constructed,minus EJ would be great on paper. You'd hear no complaints so log as we still had money and resources to go after some SFs but we don't have a single one and we'll need at least two and now we're at the wrong end of the barganing table. Also, although our team looks good on paper, developing chemistry comes at the expense of painful losses. We aren't getting chemistry immediately. We're going to have to develop it through time. A monkey wrench just got thrown into the little chemistry we developed last season, and in the very difficult West where we still probably don't make the playoffs, we just threw all our resources at a guy we have no guarantee will be here afterward.

Also, you really think Monty doesn't play Asik at the end of games? I know that harping on Monty is worn out, but we've all seen his feelings about having a bruiser. He's been begging for one. You think he won't play Asik more than we think he should? On paper our team looks great, but there are so many ulterior factors that can and most likely will prevent it from reaching it's potential.

I just look at the clippers when I see this. DJ has absolutely no range. The only thing he has on Asik is his athleticism. Asik is ten times the defender and a marginally better free throw shooter. And with all the limited range Blake has, they have made it work. Davis already is a better shooter than Blake, so this isn't a terrible idea. Look at the years of Rondo. He could never shoot.

Do Rondo and Jordan play on the same team?
I know that sometimes people's fascination with spacing is overblown. Other teams have guys like Asik who can't shoot and do just fine. But none of them have guys who need the ball in their hands with a usage rate of over 20% that play terribly when next to non shooters, and like an All Star when surrounded by them. If you have Reke, you HAVE to have shooters around him. I'm not saying everyone has to be ajump shooter but you have to be able to get him clean looks at the rim. The easiest way which, is to have a stretch big. Davis may get there, Anderson is that to a t, Asik will never be one, and if Anderson is dealt, and Asik plays 36 minutes a game, Reke is going to have a terrible season.

[Mythrol]

Asik and Reke can play together because of two reasons, 1) Asik eats rebounds up and so Reke will get a lot of Kobe assists with him. And 2) it was the Reke + Aminu combo that was so bad. 1 center is not going to shut down Reke's game. It would take having multiple players on the team who players can play off of and ignore to stop Reke from driving.

[Jabberwalker]

Asik and Reke can play together because of two reasons, 1) Asik eats rebounds up and so Reke will get a lot of Kobe assists with him. And 2) it was the Reke + Aminu combo that was so bad. 1 center is not going to shut down Reke's game. It would take having multiple players on the team who players can play off of and ignore to stop Reke from driving.

Doesn't it make more sense that the defender of the center is able to stop Reke by staying near the basket than the small forward?
Per nbawowy while on the court at the same time Reke had .96 points per shot with Aminu on the floor with him and .92 with Stiemsma. With both off the floor he averaged 1.05. And like I've stated above, Asik is a worse shooter than Steimsma is.

The other part of the problem is we don't know who the small forwards we get are, but are we really going to be able to get good small forwards with zero money? Are they going to be shooters or will we have to roll out Aminu and Miller? Will we have to get bargain bin players from Europe or the D League? Or will we have to hope that Babbit learns to play the three better, at which point what does the significant upgrade at C mean if we just created another hole at SF?

[durun]

Eric played twice as many minutes with Aminu than Evans. Please explain why Evans game suffered and not Gordon's

[shanesy]

Gordon is a shooter and Evans isn't?

[i am cow lolz]

Think of Asik as Bogut offensively, not Steamer. Asik find the open holes of the defense like AD can, and he is one of the best offensive rebounders in the game.

[i am cow lolz]

Completely off base, and frankly, wrong.

Asik is the best possible fit for this team. This team has offense for days. Our defense is absolutely atrocious. Terrible. Non existent. Our bigs can't guard the post, they get crushed on the pick n roll, their rebound rate other than Davis is awful, they can't carve out space on box outs, etc. Asik does ALL of this stuff well, and also blocks a ton of shots. His defensive ratings are off the charts.

You can't compare the three headed monster of Steemer/Withy/Ajinca to Asik. He is probably a top 3 defensive center in the league. Offensively he isn't a threat on his own, but he sets BRUTAL picks for our penetrating guards, can actually get offensive rebounds, can box out and carve out space for our other finishers. He is an absolutely perfect fit. Do you have any idea how many "Kobe Assists" Tyreke will get with Asik boxing out and rebounding plus the Davis/Anderson duo (best offensive rebounding bigs in the league?) eating up offensive boards?

DD must have a few deals teed up that will make this work salary wise. I don't thing there is any way he does this deal that would eliminate his MLE money. That is the cash that will get us a starting SF.

Asik is perfect. No more "soft bigs" in there getting beat up. We finally got an enforcer. He, along w/ a solid MLE SF, should make us a top 10 defense next year, if not better. If that pick up happens, our entire starting lineup (assuming Tyreke for Gordon) are plus defenders. WE can score all day. Now we may actually be able to defend.

This. Asik is the bruiser we're looking for AND he's an elite defender. One of the best fits with AD possible.

[Jabberwalker]

This. Asik is the bruiser we're looking for AND he's an elite defender. One of the best fits with AD possible.

I'm not arguing that AD will suffer because of Asik's presence near as much as Evans. It won't help AD though. If Ryno is on the floor instead of Asik, then one of the two are likely the case either:
A- Ryno's man (most likely a PF) is on the perimeter and whoever was guarding AD (likely a C) will easily be blown by because of AD's speed and size or
B- Ryno's man stays guarding the paint forcing the roster to adjust and leaving someone (likely Ryno) open for a three.
Now play that out with Asik. Either Asik leaves the pain, his defender doesn't care and will continue to guard AD meaning that AD will have to get by whoever picks him up from the pick and roll as well as Asik's man, or AD's passing is going to have to improve greatly to hit Asik in traffic if Asik stays near the basket, or Davis is going to have to take more jumpers (aka less high percentage shots).

Of course that scenario doesn't mean near as much as the Reke situation but everyone saying he'll just clean up Reke's misses isn't thinking about math.

Let's say we're a good rebounding team. Reke will struggle to get to the basket and will either turn the ball over or put up much worse shots than before. Although we just improved our chances of rebounding the ball, we still haven't put it in yet. Put backs are high percentage shots but now you have Reke shooting a low percentage at the hoop, say 40%, we get the rebound from his shots at the hoop 50% of the time (that's a ton), and make a tip in from those rebounds 70% of the time (again, a ton).

.6 (this is the percentage of the time he misses at the rim) x .5 (chance we get rebound) x .7 (times we get the ball in the hoop from the rebound) x 2 (what the points are worth) = 0.42 points per miss.

So now we increased his turnover rate while driving in traffic to get to the hoop for the .42 points per times he misses. Is that really worth it? Or would you rather have a cleaner drive, and cleaner look at the basket because a player who can stretch the defense is on the court?