Would you move Marion for the first pick in the draft?

[Joe Mama]

I am no orthopedist, but I am pretty sure that if you crack a vertebrae, it stays cracked. I have a friend who has a chunk missing out of his 3rd vertebrae in his lower back, and it has been that way for 3 years. I am pretty sure he would have opted for surgery if it was possible.

The orthopedic surgeon told him that he will have the back of a 50 year old for the rest of his life (he is 19 right now), and that he should go to a PT pretty often.

Hm. I just realized he has a chipped vertebrae, not a cracked, is there a big difference?

I busted two of my cervical vertebrae (blew one apart) seven years ago. They fused by C-4, 5, & 6 together using bone from my hip and some cable I believe. I was told that part of my neck is now actually stronger than the rest of my spinal column. What's the point? Each of these injuries is different. There's quite a difference between having a cracked vertebrae and having each hunk missing from one of your vertebrae.

Regardless, my trade was being made assuming that Okafor would not have lingering back problems.

Joe Mama

 

[George O'Brien]

Okafor's health will be a subject of considerable investiagation over the next month. There will be a lot of rumors planted by teams that would like to have him drop, so I wouldn't believe much unless the Magic start talking about Howard.

 

[Goldfield]

Aside from the financial feasibilities of the trade.

YES. I would do it. And I like Marion.

I just believe that Okafor would add more to this team. He would be a shot blocker and a defensive stopper in the middle and I do NOT believe he would get abused in the west playing center.

We would trade Marion for Okafor, sign Kobe, keep JJ, and pick up Ben Gordon or another solid pg from the draft with our own pick.

With that trade our team would become substantially better.

I agree 100 & 10%

 

[Goldfield]

Out west Emeka would get abused if he played C.

Other that the obvious center on the Lakers. What center do you think will abuse Okafor in the NBA let alone the west?

The days of the Ewing/Mourning/Hakeem/Robinson led teams are over. Shaq is the ONE and only talented huge center that nobody can stop.

PF's are now playing center. Okafor is the next genneration center IMO.

 

[elindholm]

I'm not a big stickler for height, but if someone is undersized for his position, he needs to have other exceptional qualities to make up for it. I did watch some of the tournament, and Okafor just doesn't seem exceptional to me. He is not exceptionally strong, not exceptionally quick, and does not possess exceptional footwork. At seven feet, he could get away with those limitations, but at 6' 9", it seems unlikely.

 

[Joe Mama]

I'm not a big stickler for height, but if someone is undersized for his position, he needs to have other exceptional qualities to make up for it. I did watch some of the tournament, and Okafor just doesn't seem exceptional to me. He is not exceptionally strong, not exceptionally quick, and does not possess exceptional footwork. At seven feet, he could get away with those limitations, but at 6' 9", it seems unlikely.

whoa there Eric. Okafor has a lot of work to do on offense, but he has fantastic footwork on the defensive end. He's probably the best college player I've ever watched and getting good defensive positioning and doing so without fouling his opponents. As I just wrote in another post I don't think he's nearly as athletic as Ben Wallace, to whom he's always compared.

He is also quite strong for a player coming out of college. Supposedly he is a very hard worker. I'm not sure how much more mass he would want to stack on, but he could and will certainly get stronger.

Joe

 

[Goldfield]

I'm not a big stickler for height, but if someone is undersized for his position, he needs to have other exceptional qualities to make up for it. I did watch some of the tournament, and Okafor just doesn't seem exceptional to me. He is not exceptionally strong, not exceptionally quick, and does not possess exceptional footwork. At seven feet, he could get away with those limitations, but at 6' 9", it seems unlikely.

It is true height does help aid limitations.

But the dude just flat out blocks and/or changes ALOT of shots durring the game. That makes a huge impact.

You cant judge him on his tournament play. He was not even close to 100%.

 

[Joe Mama]

It is true height does help aid limitations.

But the dude just flat out blocks and/or changes ALOT of shots durring the game. That makes a huge impact.

You cant judge him on his tournament play. He was not even close to 100%.

With his back he was not one 100%. Yet, unless I'm mistaken, he was still the most valuable player of the tournament. He flat out dominated several of those games on the defensive end of the court. In fact he was impressive on the offensive end in a couple games as well.

I'll bet anyone here that this guy averages a double double and around three blocks per game as a rookie.

Joe Mama

 

[devilalum]

Tho Ratliff would be a great fit for this team...

If Okafor is a Ratliff type of player, I would easily send Marion for him.

We dont NEED a star at center. A guy who is a defensive stopper, would be a great fit IMO. Sombody who can Rebound & block Shots to pair up with Amare is what this team needs.

The Suns could have had Ratliff for a Googs package. All the Hawks wanted to do was dump salary.

But then the SUns wouldn't have saved all those millions.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

The Suns could have had Ratliff for a Googs package. All the Hawks wanted to do was dump salary.

But then the SUns wouldn't have saved all those millions.

I dont know about that. CLearing just Ratliffs salary wouldn't have been enough for Atlanta. I think the only reason they did a pure salary dump was because they were able to dump it all in one swap.

There were always rumors about Shareef and Theo, but the Hawks didn't want to trade just 1 unless someone would take the other.

 

[devilalum]

I dont know about that. CLearing just Ratliffs salary wouldn't have been enough for Atlanta. I think the only reason they did a pure salary dump was because they were able to dump it all in one swap.

There were always rumors about Shareef and Theo, but the Hawks didn't want to trade just 1 unless someone would take the other.

If the Suns were willing to exceed the cap they could have made it work.

If the Suns had traded for SAR and Theo without giving anything up would they be a contender? I don't know, I dought it but this team would be the biggest most physical team they'd put on the court in awhile.

Theo
Amare
SAR
Marion
JJ
etc......

That seems like more pieces than we have now.

 

[Chaplin]

I'll bet anyone here that this guy averages a double double and around three blocks per game as a rookie.

Joe Mama

Not much of a stretch playing for a terrible Orlando team...

 

[Joe Mama]

Not much of a stretch playing for a terrible Orlando team...

that's true with regards to his points and rebounds, but 3 blocks per game would have made him the third best shot blocker in the NBA this season behind Ratliff (3.6) and Wallace (3.0).

Joe Mama

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

that's true with regards to his points and rebounds, but 3 blocks per game would have made him the third best shot blocker in the NBA this season behind Ratliff (3.6) and Wallace (3.0).

Joe Mama

I would maybe give you 2 blocks per game. I just think 3 is a little much for his first year in the league (but not out of the question in the following years). I am sure he will have some monster block parties, but there will also be dry spots to balance them out.

Yao only averaged 1.9 blocks this year, and 1.79 the year before.

 

[elindholm]

whoa there Eric. Okafor has a lot of work to do on offense, but he has fantastic footwork on the defensive end.

Whoops, sorry. I meant his footwork on the offensive end; i.e. his post moves. I didn't pay that much attention to what he did defensively, maybe because, in the games I watched, the other team didn't go at him much.

But let's be honest: if all he ends up being is a slightly larger version of Ben Wallace, that's not the kind of stuff that #1 overall picks are usually made of.

 

[sunsfn]

The suns have made the commitment to get a team that can compete in the playoffs and win a title in a few years.

That is tough and only time will tell about that........

But, if Okafor is on a team that goes a long way in the playoffs, he will be playing power forward, not center.

The suns do not need a power forward, they need a center.

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

If the Suns were willing to exceed the cap they could have made it work.

If the Suns had traded for SAR and Theo without giving anything up would they be a contender? I don't know, I dought it but this team would be the biggest most physical team they'd put on the court in awhile.

Theo
Amare
SAR
Marion
JJ
etc......

That seems like more pieces than we have now.

You missed my point. Atlanta was not looking for players, they were looking for a complete salary dump. They had been since they dumped Glen Robinson. The problem was, they wanted to either clear BOTH SAR and Ratliff for expiring deals, or neither. They needed them to come off the books at the same time to have the max amount of flexibility. For a long time it looked like they would just have to wait for them to expire, until Portland offered them a 20 million dolalr expiring deal.

The suns could only have offered Googs, which would only clear the cap hold of 1 of the players. I guess Dice might have been able to be traded to, but I thought that a player had to wait 60 days to be retraded (There was some exception that Sheed fell into I think, not sure though.) But I mean, would you rather have SAR and Ratliff than 24 million in expiring contracts, I dont think I would.

 

[devilalum]

You missed my point. Atlanta was not looking for players, they were looking for a complete salary dump. They had been since they dumped Glen Robinson. The problem was, they wanted to either clear BOTH SAR and Ratliff for expiring deals, or neither. They needed them to come off the books at the same time to have the max amount of flexibility. For a long time it looked like they would just have to wait for them to expire, until Portland offered them a 20 million dolalr expiring deal.

The suns could only have offered Googs, which would only clear the cap hold of 1 of the players. I guess Dice might have been able to be traded to, but I thought that a player had to wait 60 days to be retraded (There was some exception that Sheed fell into I think, not sure though.) But I mean, would you rather have SAR and Ratliff than 24 million in expiring contracts, I dont think I would.

I know all Atlanta wanted was to dump salary. I was thinking the Suns had McDyess at that point too but I can't remember for sure.

As for your question, it depends on what the Suns do with the cap space.

 

[JCSunsfan]

It is true height does help aid limitations.

But the dude just flat out blocks and/or changes ALOT of shots durring the game. That makes a huge impact.

You cant judge him on his tournament play. He was not even close to 100%.

He is quite an amazing shot blocker. He has a rare ability to get blocks without getting out of rebounding position, going for fakes, or getting off his feet and out of position.

The guy is also exceptionally intelligent. My guess is that he will be a very heady player on the court. Good decisions at crunch time etc.

 

[George O'Brien]

The suns have made the commitment to get a team that can compete in the playoffs and win a title in a few years.

That is tough and only time will tell about that........

But, if Okafor is on a team that goes a long way in the playoffs, he will be playing power forward, not center.

The suns do not need a power forward, they need a center.

The Suns need really really good players, regardless of position. If the best player in the draft plays a position that is already strong, it never makes sense to take a lesser player even though he meets your need. For example, there are quite a few of us that thought (at the time) Prince or Boozer would have been better picks than Jacobsen, even though they played positions that were already covered.

In this year's draft, there are no obvious early lottery full fledged centers. The top big men are probably better suited to playing PF than center and that includes Howard and Biedrins as well as Okafor. I would take any of them simply because quality big men are such a scarce commodity.

Last draft no one could figure out why Dallas took Josh Howard late in the draft when their real needs were for a big man. However, he played as well as some of the guys taken in the lottery. They took Josh Howard because he is a very good player and he proved it.