I just posted a long-ish article on the FanHouse riffing off this report from the Tacoma News-Tribune, which DBB reader Nick emailed me this afternoon:
[Sonics] General manager Rick Sund
Yeah, that Rick Sund, the one who was VP of player personnel in Detroit for six years from 1995-2001. and director of player personnel David Pendergraft, both of whom were at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Sunday night, are evaluating talent and making calls to other general managers in an effort to pry loose a player that could help them. A player such as Detroit’s Dale Davis is a perfect candidate.“Until our young bigs improve a little – and by young I mean Petro and (Mouhamed) Sene – a veteran big guy would give us a better chance to win,” Pendergraft said. “If we had Robert (Swift), we wouldn’t be having this discussion. He is a legitimate starting center in the NBA.
If Seattle has interest, should we move him? I enjoyed the debut of the Bruise Bros. as much as anyone (probably even more so, considering the Pistons were actually fun to watch for the first time in a long while), but I’ve long said that Detroit needs to try upgrading their point guard depth, and if Earl Watson can be had, well, Detroit should think about it.
Yes, I know about Dumars’ commitment to Will Blalock, Davis’ toughness and potential salary cap problems. I (try to) address all of that, which is why my post over there is probably the longest one I’ve ever done for the FanHouse. But take a look and tell me it doesn’t make at least a little sense. (The first part of the post contains a little bit of re-hashing of stuff we’ve already discussed here, but I had to set the table to properly frame my thoughts.)
Sonics off center [Tacoma News-Tribune]
Seattle May Be Looking at Detroit’s Dale Davis [NBA FanHouse]
I don’t think Joe would trade Davis. Joe thinks we’re a contender, and Joe has always stockpiled big men. We’d have to assume the finals still goes through Miami. Therefore, IMO, Davis will be perceived as necessary.
Plus, it seems kinda weird that a supposedly multi-skilled backup PG can’t get much minutes on 3 different teams.
Yea… I hate it. Earl Watson? I’ll pass and stick with the bruise brothers and Blalock.
Dale is a gritty old veteran who can play well when he gets extended minutes. He’s cagey enough to rebound and defend well.
First, Earls contract is too long and too expensive. Second, if Big Shot goes down with an injury I don’t think Earl will step in and lead us to a championship. Third, I really like Blalock and Hunter. I think they are good backups for short stints.
Our real concern injury wise is Rasheed. His ankle sounds worse and worse all the time. If he’s not 100% this year late in the season we are done. Keeping Dale and J-Max we might be able to shut Sheed down for big parts of the regular season and still make the playoffs (thanks eastern conference).. ala Shaq.
But even if Sheed makes a miraculous recovery we will still need Dale for two reasons. One, we’ll need bodies to throw at Shaq (if he comes back), and we need someone to play for Naz when he picks up his third foul in the first 5 min. of the game.
Finally…. we can’t lose Billups… we won’t lose Billups. He is way more important than Ben. He will get his big contract. Joe let Ben walk in a calculated move not because he lost a bidding war. He wasn’t worth the money Chicago is giving him. Billups is a max contract player. He drives the offense, and is unique in that he’s a large strong PG that can score and pass well. They don’t grow on trees.
Not a big fan of Watson for Dale trade at all. Off subject, I would like to see Maxiell take an attempt at playing small forward. If he can that could open up Detroit to a few more trades options.