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[Lascar78]

what does his heritage have to do with anything? He is a 7 foot tough guy who focuses on offense and offensive rebounding and plays very little D and absolutely no help D.

Dirk plays more D than him, not to mention that his offensive power made him an MVP candidate, totally different situation. When Zaza's offense can carry a team to the finals, maybe I'll overlook his lack of D. For now, I won't.

The fact is that we need defensive help in the post. We got shelden who will help, now we need someone else, preferably a center.

[Johnnybravo4]

And I repeat. I said we should pick up Bonzi Wells AND Kelvin Cato.

And if not Cato then who do you suggest? Neither Maglore nor Wilcox are defensive oriented centers. And Wilcox isn't even a center.

[Lascar78]

I'd take Magloire or Wilcox any day over Wells / Cato. Like I said we have no real need for Wells. And despite the fact that you went to school with him, Cato is a virtual non factor in the nba. It's been 4 years since he averaged 5 ppg. 3.6/2.6 last year

Magloire is a former all-star who plays both sides of the floor well. He plays very good D, and is so much better than Zaza it's not even funny. Wilcox is not a center, but he would provide size, athleticism, and another big.

[Johnnybravo4]

Magloire is so great that the Bucks are begging someone to take them off of their hands a mere year after picking him up. In fact they trade their best PG to get Villenueva to facilitate that move.

Wilcox is a contract year wonder, like everyone else that stars in Seattle.

I am not saying that Cato is Bill Russell, but he is a defensive oriented big, basically a 30 year old Tyson Chandler. If he plays minutes hell probably get 7/5 with a block and a half to 2 blocks per game. Which is perfectly fine for your backup center.

Bonzi on the other hand could come off of the bench get you 15/5/3 and could shut down the other teams best scorer. I mean you could run defensive linup of

JJ

Bonzi

Smoove

Shelden

Cato

And still have scoring.

If we are going to make a playoff or quasi playoff run you need JJ to be fresh down the stretch. And while Salim and Childress are good for spot relief, they have too many flaws to play more than 5-10 minutes at that position.

[Lascar78]

magloire is being traded because they drafted a center with the overall #1 pick last year. If they hadn't, they would be keeping magloire.

[Johnnybravo4]

They got Maglore AFTER they drafted Bogut. And traded a damn good player to get him. Then they picked up another PF/C for good measure even though they also had another center in Gadzuric. So basically they are telling Magloire, you are an overrated piece of doo doo and in the words of the great Martin Lawerence GET TO STEPPIN!!!!

[TheNorthCydeRises]

While I don't disagree that Wilcox and/or Cato would better fit the needs for this team . . to say that we don't have any need for Wells is inaccurate at best.

Wells was pretty DOMINANT in that San Antonio series in which the Spurs ( not even Bruce Bowen ) had no chance at stopping the guy.

I know a lot of people on here are stuck on Josh Smith and Marvin being stars . . but Bonzi is better than both of those guys right now.

A backcourt of Claxton, Johnson, and Wells would be a FORMIDIBLE one in the East.

And you can always move JJ to the point, and put this lineup on the floor.

- JJ

- Wells

- Marvin

- Smoove

- insert big man here

Bonzi is a proven scorer, a good defender, and a tenacious rebounder for a guard.

I'll tell you this. Adding Bonzi to this team would equal more wins, than adding a guy like Cato to this team.

[DJlaysitup]

Well whoever we get we darn well better get somebody.

[Lascar78]

they traded mason for magloire, in which they easily got the better of the trade. Additionally, it allowed them to have a really good center in magloire there for bogut to play with and learn from for a year or two, and he was also insurance in case bogut didn't pan out. They will be able to get more for magloire than they could have for mason.

[Johnnybravo4]

He is a 9/9 player making 8.3 million dollars this season. The only benefit of picking him up is that he has a contract that expires at the end of the season.

Which still doesn't help us. We aren't at the point where we need to stock up on expiring contracts. We are already under the cap. And would we want to pay him what he thinks he would get on the FA market? And not to mention he still wouldn't solve our defensive big problem, nor would he alleviate JJ's minutes.

[Plainview1981]

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I am 1000% more of a Tennessee Titans fan than I am a Hawks fan and even I don't want to listen to mindless football topics all year...especially during Basketball free agency period. My football light doesn't click back on until August.

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I'm stuck with being a Titans fan to. The teams in rough shape isn't it?

[Lascar78]

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The only benefit of picking him up is that he has a contract that expires at the end of the season.

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Or we would suddenly have a starting caliber center who scores more efficiently, plays better defense, and rebounds better than Zaza.

Magloire's stats last year shrunk because he was on a team loaded with big men (magloire, bogut, gadzuric, earvin johnson...), while zaza's were inflated because he was on a team with a complete void at the 5.

[Johnnybravo4]

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The only benefit of picking him up is that he has a contract that expires at the end of the season.

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Or we would suddenly have a starting caliber center who scores more efficiently, plays better defense, and rebounds better than Zaza.

Magloire's stats last year shrunk because he was on a team loaded with big men (magloire, bogut, gadzuric, earvin johnson...), while zaza's were inflated because he was on a team with a complete void at the 5.

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Las we will just have to disagree on Magloire. I think he is overrated and got an all star bid because of a weak EC, similar to Theo's bid a few years ago. I don't think that he is significantly better than Zaza to warrant rent a player status, as he would be for us.

[Lascar78]

I know his all star bid was a weak one, and he is not on the same level as your average all-star center, but he is still a big upgrade over zaza.

[exodus]

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He is a 9/9 player making 8.3 million dollars this season.

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Mags is one of only a handful of centers who averaged 10 rebounds per game. He is one of the best defensive rebounders in the NBA averaging 6.8 defensive rebounds per game compared to 4.5 for Zaza.

In other words he gets 50% more defensive rebounds than Zaza for those of you who are math challenged.

And Bonzi actually shot worse on his jumpers than Josh Smith.

[Johnnybravo4]

So what? Zaza was 3rd in the league in offensive rebounds per game, which are harder to get. And Maglore is 14th in the league in Defensive rebounds so at his position he isn't near the best.

I already know what Magloire is going to get me, so I rather take Zaza's upside and spend my money somewhere else.

[DJlaysitup]

I really wouldn't see a problem with having Magloire for one year (especially his contract year). Keeping a "core" of players together in this league is important - but you can't expect to keep everybody together longterm. I see our core as guys like JJ, JS, MW, SW. To some degree JC, ZZ, and Speedy could be a part of that. But there are always going to be some transients coming and going to fill needs. Magloire would be just such a transient and would definitley fill a need.

[exodus]

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So what? Zaza was 3rd in the league in offensive rebounds per game, which are harder to get

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No they aren't. Offensive rebounds are easy to get when you get your shot blocked right back in your face as Zaza does with alarming frequency.

[DrReality]

How can you rag on Za when he had absolutely no help inside. Night after night it was him against two bigs and he got his lunch eaten. Give him some time with another big to develop some moves together before you start ragging his game.

[exodus]

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Sure he gets the occasional putback on his self, but that isn't the reason why he has a lot of O-Bounds.

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He shot 45% which is lousy for a center and led the league in getting his shot blocked. Those two factors give him a lot of putback opportunities.

And he is ranked 42nd in the league in defensive rebounding, .01 ahead of Jason Richardson, Iggy and Smoove. He is only .02 rpg ahead of Chris Paul.

If he was really a good rebounder he wouldn't be so bad on the defensive boards. Yes Al sucked on D but Al wasn't the only reason the Hawks interior D was the worst in the league. Zaza was a big reason for it.