Rashard Lewis is popular
Published by The Cavalier July 2nd, 2007 in NBA, Free Agency, LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, Seattle Supersonics, Owners, Stephon Marbury, Rashard Lewis
While you’re attempting to analyze the mid-career insanity of the All-New Stephon Marbury, realize this: every team in the NBA is trying to get their hands on Seattle free agent power forward Rashard Lewis.
He’s an unrestricted free agent, which means he can go anywhere he wants. Of course, only a few teams (ORL, CHA, someone else) are under the cap enough to give him a max deal, which means we’ll be looking at a mean sign and trade here soon, assuming Shard means it when he says he wants to win.
(We’re going with the theory he’s not staying with the Sonics. Despite some nice new young players, the rootin’-tootin’ situation up there is too shaky.)
Lewis’s people know he’s in a nice position, and will do everything they can to make sure everyone gets their chance to win-and-dine him, it seems.
“All I will say is [Seattle] laid it out very professionally,” [Rashard Lewis’s agent person Mr.] Dutt said. “It was very productive and important for us to sit down with them first. There are very few people that have the cap room needed,” Dutt said of signing Lewis as a free agent. “If he were to leave, we would want to help them get what they want.”
There at the end, Mr. Dutt would be referring to the sign-and-trade situation we talked about earlier.
It’s really a toss-up who has the upper-hand here - everyone from Houston to the Knicks to Cleveland has been mentioned in some capacity. Speaking of CLE, let’s just go right to the point finally.
Yes, we’d love to see Rashard in Cleveland. No idea how it happens - probably Drew Gooden and some expiring deals take a trip out West. Maybe a resigned Anderson Varejao? The big question is how Shard would fit in with the Cavaliers.
Fact is, the versatility that would come with Rashard Lewis and LeBron James playing together would be completely unfathomable for Coach Mike. There’s no way two such multi-skilled players could bring themselves to stand still for the the entire 24 seconds it takes to run Coach Mike’s special offense.
And what about that out-of-bounds play they always run, “Just Stand There 43-23-B”? We just can’t see those two being able to pull off that one, either. Unfortunate, since the pairing of these two could be just what the Cavs need to sleep-walk through the first five months of next season.
22 Responses to “Rashard Lewis is popular”
- 1 Pingback on Jul 2nd, 2007 at 10:23 am
- 2 Trackback on Apr 5th, 2008 at 9:45 am
“COWTIPPER” in the picture…classic.
Rashard Lewis is hardly a PF, but he would be a good fit in what CLE has going for them.
Hope he signs in CLE!
Rashard Lewis in Cleveland is indeed a fantabulous idea. Dude can’t rebound or defend worth a damn, but the Cavs wouldn’t need him to, and he is a dynamic scorer. Hell, he’s even a better 3 pt shooter than everyone on their roster w/the possible exception of Gibson. And, while incredibly far-fetched, a Gooden/Shard sign-and-trade, possibly with other contracts to make the #s match, would actually make both teams better.
I really think dude is going to wind up in Orlando unless the Rockets overpay on some kind of ill-advised deal to bring in the hometown boy.
Memphis has the money and the need, but do they have the cahunas?
When did 6 foot 10, 215 become “hardly a PF”? As padraig noted, he ain’t much for the boards or defense but that doesn’t make him a small forward or a guard.
Note the comparisons (based on size):
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lewisra02.html
umm, since the words POWER and FORWARD were brought together to create a position called Power Forward. He doesn’t have much beef on his bones, he would easily get dominated down low by other PF in the league.
And if anyone knows about getting “dominated down low” it’s the Bonester.
So you’re ignoring the link … he’s still a power forward, just not an ideal power forward. Because Garnett is clearly a power forward and he weighs a whopping 5 pounds more than Lewis.
Do the terms power forward, small forward and shooting guard really mean as much as they used to? I mean, look at the Warriors, whose starting 5 consists of one PG, 3 6′6″ dudes* (well, Ellis will probably replace J Rich, so 2 6′6″ dudes and a combo guard) and Andris Biedrins, unless of course Al Harrington starts at “center”. While there are players who are clearly PFs (Duncan, Sheed, Boozer, etc.) or SFs (Josh Howard, Melo, Caron Butler) it makes more sense these days to use 3 categories-bigs, wings and guards. Lewis and Odom are both dudes who have the offensive skills of 3s and 4s but defensively can’t really guard either. Chris Bosh is a “4″ but his offensive game is 90% faceup while dudes like Millsap, Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, Chuck Hayes etc. are proving that some undersized cats can succeed as “bigs”. The point of this diatribe? Position is all relative and with a player like Lewis it’s pretty much semantics.
I still think he’s going to the Magic. If they could get a real PG (Kyle Lowry now that he’s redundant?) and relegate Jameer Nelson to his rightful place on the bench that’s a solid team.
*with that in mind, it’s a minor miracle that Billy Knight didn’t draft Thaddeus and Nick Young
aren’t we funny TVBrain..
Fios, you’re right. I mean, it’s silly of me to even consider Rashard Lewis as anything but a 4 considering he bombs 3s and is more of a swingman type of player considering he has seen run at the 2 and the 3 in his career. Rashweed has made a career of bombing 3s, and he only averages 1 rebound more a game in his entire career. So they’ve got to be the same player, the stats don’t lie
Also, a comparison to anything Golden State related should cancel out your argument unless the entire team runs 6′9 guys out there and all 5 of them bomb 3s and throw alley oops to each other like it’s Rucker Park. It’s enjoyable basketball, but against a “boring” type of team (Jazz, Spurs) that type of play doesn’t work.
My undersized remark had something to do with 6′10 height -220 weight, it had nothing to do with height, more to do with weight and/or muscle. He’s a good player, I’m not criticizing the player. All I’m saying is, the thought of trading Gooden for Lewis will definitely hurt the ability for offensive rebounds, which CLE lived off of last season. That and the fact that if Larry Hughes is still on the team, there will be a lot of offensive rebounds to go around.
well, boneman, with the prior acknowledgment that this is all so hypothetical and unlikely as to be absurd for us to continue discussing…
Gooden/Lewis still leaves the Cavs with two excellent rebounders plus Lebron’s contributions and the 5-7 a night that Lewis will give you. The idea is that they trade some of their rebounding prowess for the ability to, you know, score points so they don’t have to be so reliant on just rebounding and defense. No trade will make Larry Hughes stop sucking.
I do sense your Pistonian dignity offended by the notion of a ragtag bunch of 6-9 abhorrent hooligans bombing away “like it’s Rucker Park”; Charley Rosen and Hubie Brown are proud and would like you to join their cranky old man club. Don’t get me wrong, the Warriors are my team, but I love the Spurs and appreciate the Jazz (don’t worry, I hate the Pistons like any sane person not from Detroit should). All I was saying is this: Chris Paul is a point guard, Dwight Howard is a center, but the Marions and Lewises and even the Matt Barneses of the world make everything in between kind of hazy. Oh, and I’m fully aware that “boring”, efficient basketball trumps all in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop hoping for the day that some team of genetically engineered Nellieball swingmen (not even necessarily the Warriors, just someone) runs their way to a title.
it’s actually not a “offended dignity” or a reference to abhorrent hooligans. It’s just that that particular brand of 6′9 3 point bombers and alley oopers got 1 series victory and everyone’s quick to see if they can actually compare that group of guys to anything relating to any of the other teams in the NBA, which you can’t do because coaches tend not to just sent out 5 completely random guys that are all within 6′5 to 6′9, who play any and all positions.
I was happy to see the Warriors win and I couldn’t believe they did it. It was only a matter of time though before the high wire act came to an end, and it crash landed against Utah.
I truly understand that the “Nellie ball” day is coming, it was only a matter of time before the evolution of kids coming out of school were 6′8 and at or around 200lbs and they can’t benchpress 150lbs. It actually doesn’t bother me, believe it or not, to see a group of guys run up and down the court because it’s all a part of evolution of the game.
So long as there are old school coaches or front office guys employed in the NBA, they will continue to use the mold left by San Antonio because it is the winningest blueprint to follow rather than the Suns “how dare you flagrant foul me when I’m running up the court on a fast break to try and alley oop it to Stoudemire for the 10th time tonight” type of basketball. That style of ball will get old after a while and by the time people realize it’s time for a change, another type of ball will be around trying to vie for attention. For the sake of CLE fans, let’s hope they’re calling it “Coach Mike ball”.
send* and *to play any and all positions…
rashard ain’t worth a dime over 10 mil per.
someone is gonna severely overpay, and then in about 3 years time, they gonna ask themselves “how the hell did we get this contract that no one wants to trade for”. book it.
those teams would be better advised to go after gerald wallace, who’s younger, far better on D and on the boards and a better player overall and who’ll come cheaper.
who ever is gonna get rashard is gonna end up disappointed, while whoever is smart enough to go for gerald, is gonna be surprised. i could see 26 ppg with 7 reb, 2 stl and 1.5 blk from him next season. of course with a FG close to 50%.
You guys sure do use a lot of words.
1 to TVBrain.
Boney, I see where you’re coming from, and I agree with most of it, except for one point: Watching Suns fast breaks and Stoudemire alley-oops NEVER gets boring. That’s called “fun.” To me, anyways.
fun? this is what i deem fun:
http://icreampiedasupermodelandthesexswasgood.blogs.friendster.com/photos/apr06_dunks/
a 5feet 7ish dude who can dunk. plus he is azn i think.
imagine him dunkin on coach mike whenever he runs stupid “wait.. wait now boys.. wait for the defense to set…” plays.
the announcer would annouce: ITS COACH MIKE TIME! then cue the arena darkness and some colourful spotlights on mike.. and a hoop suddenly appearin behind him and the short dunkin dude just runs thru coach mike and then dunks a donut in his mouth
classic
haha icreampiedasupermodel…
I don’t dare click @ work… maybe NSFW?
well, boney, fair enough. that’s actually a pretty reasonable point of view. I just get, you know, a little defensive when people try to denigrate Nellie’s mad genius. I know he’s never won a title, but the dude invented the point forward w/Paul Pressey, was at the forefront of using Euros (Marciulionis, the original Manu), invented the Phoenix Suns before Steve Nash was even a twinkle in D’Antoni’s eye and he’s behind only Red on the all-time wins list. Plus he’s hella Oakland (he got married at the Coliseum back during Run TMC) and a genuine snake oil salesman, so I gotta have his back. but you’re right, barring major rule changes, discipline and dominant big men will win 98 times out of 100; I think Nellie’s problem has always been that he’s just too far ahead of the times (and of course his complete disinterest in defense).
with box because and foxes damage we watched pirates I didn’t suggested probably that day.