Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick41
But until Terry is traded, we have no choice.
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That's sort of the point. As long as you're not trading young for old (which JET for Turk obviously would not be), you're not making your team older - at least in the short term - regardless of how old the guy coming back is.
While I'm at it, a note on Turk's numbers last year. He dropped off in three areas that I can see: minutes, field goal attempts per minute, and free throws per field goal attempt (for context, in the latter category he ranked even with Carlos Boozer and Josh Smith this season). On the other hand, his scoring efficiency and assists-per-minute showed held steady, his rebounds-per-minute went up, and his TO-rate (both per-minute and calculated relative to his fgas and assists) went down. Put it together, and you can make the case that the decline in his productivity last year was symptomatic of something other than age-induced suckage.
Not that there aren't reasonable caveats to that suggestion. For one thing, even assuming that the dropoff was due to something other than age, that doesn't necessarily mean it should be any less concerning; and the fact that there are similarities between the reports floating around about Hedo's situation with the Raps and some things that may have gone on with JHo and the Mavs isn't exactly comforting. Another thing worth noting is that Hedo's numbers from 07/08 were even better than his numbers in his last year with the Magic, so you could argue that the fall-off of last year was a continuation of a trend towards a decline in productivity rather than an isolated blip on the radar.
For my part, as long as he doesn't get sidetracked by chemistry/integrity issues, I think we're seeing fluctation around a mean productivity level on the order of 13-14 points on 54% true shooting with 5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and a 2:1 or better assist:TO ratio in about 32 mpg. That's not a guy I'm looking at to deliver the team a championship, but it's not somebody I have a problem acquiring as long as there's a spot in the rotation for him (which there isn't right now) and the price is fair (the JET/Carroll proposal I mentioned above strikes me as being that).