RZZZA

Manu would be nice. Eric Jordan, I mean Gordon. Kyle Lowry and Ty Lawson are undersized but really good. Joe Johnson, Kevin Martin. O.J. Mayo and J.R. Smith are project guys who you hope you can fix. I'd want Harden and Arron Afflalo but I'd expect them to grow into the role. Harden would need to become a better defender and prove he can play starters minutes against starters. Arron Afflalo would also need to prove that, and he'd need to get better at iso ball. He's already a good defender though.

I said he showed a little bit of it. Am I the only one who remembers what we looked like when everyone was healthy? Rose and Rip worked pretty well with eachother, Derrick was trying to figure out how to play with him. He'd hang back at the 3pt line and just toss the ball to Rip and let him work. The passing between Rip/Noah/Boozer was beautiful Go ahead and "give up" and call me delusional, I know what I know and I saw what I saw.

He showed a little bit of hanging back this year, there was a 20 or so game period when Rose and Rip were on the court at the same time, and all the other starters were healthy too. Our offense looked beautiful. Rose was just hanging back at the 3pt line, letting Rip handle ballhandling duties, and the ball was moving great and Rose was not being exerted 100% for the majority of a game. I loved it.

In 2011, Arron Afflalo's TS% was 62% and his 3P% was 42% amd his FG% was nearly 50%. But you know, Arron Afflalo is not taking over any games, and neither is Harden. These are guys you want to get if you happen to think Derrick Rose should still be the focal point of our offense, they aren't guys you get if you think Derrick should ease back and get a break once in awhile. They're guys who benefit off the drive and kick, just like every other player we have now. They aren't guys you toss the ball to and say "Here, create. Carry the offense." Don't get me wrong, we'd definitely be better with Harden or Afflalo playing the 2 if money somehow wasn't an issue and we could just plug them in. But they aren't guys who have ever shown themselves capable of carrying a team. I just think we need that other guy.

Yea hhe looked to me to be grimacing and limping a bit after that play...

Why don't we just start walking Span? This is ridiculous

Denard Span...let's bean this guy hard. He's gonna get on base anyway

We sure are hitting a lot of line drives directly at guys

I wanna see De Aza and Youk GRIND

Ugh, throw strikes dick

I wish we had some offensive firepower at 2b. Someone like Brent Morel, there was a great offensive player.

Come on Beckham. Go for a Beck-bomb

That's why you don't say we're definitely going to lose Caesar. A little magic can always happen

Wtf...nothing going right these past 2 days

If we have a 1-2-3 inning here I'll be mad

the f***....why are we bobbling everything on the transfer?

Man, AJ is terrible at throwing runners out. You can run all day on him.

I think we'd have a better chance getting on base if we didn't swing rather than if we did....

Let's put it this way: I'd rather have 3 guys on the team with a USG rate at 25 then 1 guy on the team with a USG rate of 30+ You mention the Spurs, but the Spurs have 3 guys with a USG rate that's 25+ every year. Duncan, Parker, Ginoblli, that's 3 guys who demand defensive attention. Having one guy with a USG Rate of 30+ and everyone else with a USG rate thats below 25 is not a recipe for success, generally speaking If we want to let Rose continue to be a 30+ USG guy, we need to get him another star with a high USG just like the Celtis, Spurs, Thunder and Heat have Our highest USG guys after Rose are Rip Hamilton and Carlos Boozer. Not good. We need a little bit more than just a guy who can hit a jumper when Rose collapses the defense. We need a legit star.

Do we really want Rose to continue to have a 30 USG? I mean that's Russell Westbrook/Lebron James type USG. Except we don't have Durant or Wade on our team. Unless we're getting Durant to play SG for us I don't see the sense in NOT trying to take the ball out of Derricks hands a little with a guy who can initiate his own offense reliably when he needs to. There's no way this kid can survive with a USG that high every year. It's not fair to ask him to. We need another ballhandler/penetrator not another guy who stands on the perimeter to chuck 3's.

This is the crux of where we disagree. Do we really want to continue to be the type of team that needs Rose to take all the tough shots and initiate our offense to the degree he has been? I'm arguing no, that it will be more beneficial to us to have Rose take less shots and have a lower USG. Less responsibilities. Less weight on his back. I mean Carlos Boozer has a higher USG than James Harden and he's efficient as well. But its not all aobut scoring efficiency, you have to look at the total player.

I would be cautiously optimistic and I'd cheer my lungs out for him. Make no mistake, I'm a bulls fan first

It's not just a high USG rate that's important, it's also how efficient and productive you manage to be under those circumstances. If you have a high USG rate, naturally the other team is treating you like an offensive threat, that means they're likely putting their best defender on you, they're keying in on you with 2 guys at times, they're always watching you on the court. Can you be efficient under those circumstances? Can you stay on the court for more than 30 minutes per game? Can you draw a large sample size of shot attempts year in and year out, on a consistent basis? That's also why I would rather have Russell Westbrook than James Harden. Westbrooks efficiency is pedestrian, but he has one of the highest USG's in the game and the lowest %ast'd numbers. It tells me he's very, very good at initiating offense and no stranger to beating good defenses. I'd much rather have a guy like that than Harden, who is very efficient but does not usually initiate his own offense and has a very small USG, indicating he mostly goes up against bench guys and teams aren't keying in on him as much.

he played 21 games with the bucks doe...we really gonna judge a guy who was traded midseason and played only 21 games with his new team?

A high USG rate indicates a guy who has proven that he can be a #1 option. Thats exactly who we want, a #1 option who can be our #2 option. Someone who can take the game over when Rose is having a bad day. Another star to face the Heat. I think you're the one looking at the wrong thing. http://hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Manu%20Ginobili 2007 27 USG 2008 28.69 USG 2009 27 USG and elite efficiency to match.