How how/why we keep letting every piece slip by. We’re going to be a luxury tax team and not have a whole lot to show for it. At some point you have to bite the bullet and pay for a piece if you need it.

Obviously Otis knows something I don’t. “Trust in Otis”, right?

yeah, he was an all-star there, but he’d probably also be an all-star at the 3. he creates mismatches wherever you put him. we need a legit 4 who can rebound, block shots, defend, make jumpers (at least to 15-17 feet) and assert himself physically. otherwise, dwight stands alone in the middle and we’re going to get punked by KG/Perkins/Sheed and Shaq/Varejao/Ilgauskus. We can’t ask Dwight to do it all. And we are also best off with MP coming off the bench and backing up Vince and Rashard at the 2/3. Ideally, we need a 4 who is a veteran and who can play alongside Dwight or back him up. What we need is Rasheed or McDyess!! I’d have preferred Dice. Losing him is devastating. The options are now really thin, unless Otis has a Millsap or Tenacious Lee trick up his sleeve. Bass is fine, but he’s not a guy I want in my lineup down the stretch in game 6 against cleveland/boston next year. I’m willing to give Otis the benefit of the doubt until he proves himself wrong, but right now? Not looking too good. ps- we absolutely should not match for Gortat unless we can trade him for a real asset. We can’t pay $5mm+ to a guy who is a true center, and who can’t really play effectively at the 4.

The reason Rashard was at the 4 last year is because we did not have a true PF, and the only reason he will be at the 4 this year will be if Otis does not do his job (or DeVos does not allow him to) and bring in a true 4. We have been constantly mentioned in the mix for Rasheed, Dice and Bass, and we have not been in the mix for Artest, Ariza, MWilliams, etc. The reason? Otis and Stan clearly recognize that we would be better served with a conventional lineup. Rashard will only be back at the 4 by default.

is a big part of the issue too. When ‘Shard is at the 4, he’s undersized and is fighting for his life every night. Swagger is why Detroit (led by Sheed and Dice) and healthy Celtics (led by KG) have dominated us. With Dice at the 4, we’d have had extraordinary swag. Now we’ll likely be a soft/finesse team again (at least at playoff cruch time, which is the time that matters most). A damn good finesse team, but still. And don’t think Vince brings much perimeter swag either (a la Pierce or Kobe) — Vince is super-skilled, but let’s be honest, he’s softer than cookie dough.

wow, the mavs are making some serious noise. with a core of dirk, kidd, terry, howard, marion and gortat, they’re pretty legit.

now that they got marion they officially have a logjam in the frontcourt and will almost certainly not be in the hunt to sign bass.

anything that gives us more cap space/flexibility is a big plus.

now that sheed and dice are off the board, i’d be content to end up with bass, delfino and either ratliff or gooden. delfino was really tough against us in the playoffs 2 years ago — love his game.

Look, I’m glad you guys disagree with me. It makes me feel better that legit, hardcore fans feel good about Rashard at the 4. I continue to disagree. Don’t take it personally, I just have a different perspective.

Reports are that we made a full MLE offer to McDyess. We did not make that offer to bring him in to back up Dwight for 10 mins a night (just like we won’t match for Gortat to back up Dwight). We made the offer to start him and move Rashard to the 3. Rasheed was a top priority for us — we had talked to his agent very early and tried to schedule a face-to-face. He was not being recruited to back up Dwight, he would’ve started at the 4. Bass’s agent has confirmed that we are at the front of the pack for him. He would likely start at the 4.

This is all indicative that Otis and Stan agree with my view that a true starting PF is the right answer/priority. Also, I loved the way Pietrus played off the bench last year, and would really like to keep him there as a mercurial sparkplug 6th man. I think this is also part the thinking in trying to make a move which would allow us to move Lewis to the 3.

The gimmicky/mismatchy approach was fun and successful (and was aided by having a 6’10" small forward (Turk)), but it is time for us to continue our evolution toward a conventional championship-level lineup, and the priorities of the organization reflect this.