Insider 8/22/2005 West loads up for San Antonio

[George O'Brien]

I think that Hollinger was pretty much off with this offseason-grading.

He may not like the Suns' moves but why is he so amazed by the Kings' moves? Getting of SAR isn't that fantastic if they already had 3 PF's.
Wells can mess up their chemistry too. They don't really have a backup C either.

As someone already pointed out SEA got a better grade than the Suns because they may lose everyone not named Ray Allen.

Seattle is my pick for the biggest decline in wins award, a trophy they will inherit from from the Wolves. I think there is a really good reason why McMillian bailed from the Sonics. He figured he would get fired by mid season. They overachieved last season and without McMillian it could get ugly.

The Kings look to be the "new Blazers", a team with lots of talent but does not look much like a viable "team".

 

[fordronken]

I think Seattle's success last year actually hurt them in the long term. That team was never going to seriously compete for a championship, and now it's just difficult to blow up a team that won that many games last year. Also, all that winning drove up the prices of their myriad free agents.

 

[George O'Brien]

I think Seattle's success last year actually hurt them in the long term. That team was never going to seriously compete for a championship, and now it's just difficult to blow up a team that won that many games last year. Also, all that winning drove up the prices of their myriad free agents.

Murray seems to be a likely target by the Nuggets and Reggie Evens seems likely to get some serious interest by any team that wants a rebounding specialist who can do little else. I'm not so sure how much interest Radmovic is going to get, but he is a serious risk to do the one year deal to get out.

 

[hcsilla]

I think that Radmanovic makes a huge mistake with not accepting Seattle's 42 mil./6 year offer (plus incentives). He isn't worth more, in fact he would be overpaid even with that contract, IMO.
Plus with this decision he may pretty much hurt his chances getting a better offer next off-season.

 

[Joe Mama]

Yes, and if some of you did not like Chad Ford, this guy is worse. I really do not like many of his articles. Keeping ESPN insider may get tough if I have to pay to read this guy all year...!

I was just thinking the same thing. I certainly hope Chad Ford gives Hollinger the numbers of several of his "inside sources". I only started paying for ESPN Insider because I wanted the inside information even if I do have take it with a great of salt. Hollinger doesn't give us the scoop on anything. He's just a number cruncher, and I seriously question how much basketball he actually watches. Statistics can be powerful tools, but we all know they don't tell the whole story.

If he really wanted to be accurate he would have stated that Hunter was the Suns only center last year. I would say Kurt Thomas is definite improvement over Hunter. And adding Brian Grant gives us back up at the 4 and 5.

Thanks Colorado. Published just going to write the same thing. First of all I agree with whoever said that Brian Grant at 80% is a serious upgrade from Hunter. This is coming from someone who repeatedly called for Hunter to get more minutes last year. Grant will never block as many shots as Hunter, but he will do just about everything else better.

Secondly, as Colorado pointed out it's a little crazy to compare the backup center position from last year's team because the Phoenix Suns started Amare at center. Last year Hunter averaged 15 minutes per game. Kurt Thomas is an upgrade, and he's going to average about 30 minutes per game.

I think Seattle's success last year actually hurt them in the long term. That team was never going to seriously compete for a championship, and now it's just difficult to blow up a team that won that many games last year. Also, all that winning drove up the prices of their myriad free agents.

in the long run I suppose you are correct that Seattle's success probably did not help them. However I think you are selling them short saying that they were "never going to seriously compete for a championship". There's no telling how well that team would have done in the playoffs if they had been healthy. Heck, they fared better than the Phoenix Suns against San Antonio, and they had serious injury issues from the second half of the season on through the playoffs.

That said, howl in the world is Hollinger rationalize giving them a C+ when he gave the Phoenix Suns a D+? That just reeks of stupidity.

Lastly, Hollinger talks about how well Stromile Swift would do in 40 minutes per game, but he conveniently forgets to mention that Swift would average almost 6 personal fouls and 3 turnovers in that same time. He also doesn't have much range, so Yao Ming will have less room in the paint to operate. Still, I think signing Stromile Swift for the mid-level exception was a good move for Houston. I just don't think it's as big a deal is Hollinger does.

Joe Mama

 

[sunsfn]

I think that Radmanovic makes a huge mistake with not accepting Seattle's 42 mil./6 year offer (plus incentives). He isn't worth more, in fact he would be overpaid even with that contract, IMO.
Plus with this decision he may pretty much hurt his chances getting a better offer next off-season.

Yes I agree. He would make a huge mistake not taking that contract!
If he does not take that offer, he may never get another one like that.

Think of Sprewell in Minny not taking their dumb offer last year.