^^^ good points. I still think he is more of a 3rd option like part of a big 3 such as Arenas, Caron, and Antawn or Garnett, Pierce, Allen....
Do any of them have a player such of LeBron James? No, thus why the comparison is unfair.
wouldn't mind having a Lebron, Redd, Jefferson type trio although there are not enough positions for that one unless Lebron played the 4. Do you really think RJ is a second option on a championship caliber team? I'm not convinced.
FYI, Jefferson scored 15.5 points per game in his second season when the Nets reached the Finals for the second consecutive time... Kidd lead them and Martin was 2nd... So I think with Z and James and with him maturing, he certainly could be... Especially with the East being weak...
On a side note: I think the way to build a team around LeBron, and in general, is to build one in three ways: one with a legit point guard, wing player and post player; one with two dominant wing players; or one with a dominant wing player and a dominant center...
If you look at the teams in today's league and the champions of since the 2000's, they are all built in those ways...
The Hornets follow the 1st mold with Paul, Peja and West...
The Pistons follow the 1st mold with Billups, Hamilton and Wallace...
The Spurs follow the 1st mold with Parker, Ginboli and Duncan...
You could say that Celtics follow the 2nd mold with Pierce and Garnett...
The Lakers follow the 3rd mold with Bryant and Gasol...
If you look at the past champions:
The Spurs follow the 1st mold and is the same one they have today... Ditto with the Pistons... They won 4 championships and are stable throughout all the years and are always considered contenders... If you want to go back further, the Lakers rolled with Abdul-Jabbar, Magic and Worthy... And they stayed successful for awhile with it...
The Heat and Lakers follow the 2nd one and won 4 championships with it... But we see what it is like after the championships: disaster and inconsistency along with waiting until the next championship and the chance of being contenders... Even the Rockets followed this mold mid 90's and didn't do too well afterwards...
Now I have to go back past the 2000's for this, but the ones with two dominant wing players seems to be the most successful... The Bulls and Pistons won 8 championships with MJ/Pippen and Dumars/Thomas... They were constantly contenders, always competitive and won multiple titles and afterwards they were still good and have rebounded well...
With those three models in mind, I think model model 1 and model 3 are the most realistic... Model 2 doesn't seem too realistic with us already having Ilgauskas, which prevents us from acquiring that player as well as even if we didn't, he isn't that dominant center... But what puts a damper on it is that there isn't a market for a dominant player like that on the market...
Model 1 seems like the most stable but isn't the most successful... We have James and Ilgauskas that fit the model but don't have the point guard necessary... Guys like Jason Terry, Kirk Hinrich and Andre Miller could be potential available but I don't think they're good enough scorers to fit that mold... Thus throwing this model in the can...
Last but not least is the two dominant wing players model and I think this is one best for LeBron and best with what is available and what we have... If you look at similar players in Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, this is what they thrived in and won a combined 9 (maybe 11) championships... They had their sidekicks in Scottie Pippen and James Worthy/Jamal Wilkes... I think once we get LeBron his "sidekick" our model will be complete...
The Lakers also had guys like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Byron Scott around Magic and Wilkes/Worthy while the Bulls had guys like Horace Grant/Toni Kukoc and Ron Harper/B.J. Armstrong around Pippen and Jordan...
Right now I think we have similar pieces with Ilgauskas and potentially West... Ilgauskas definitely fits that Jabbar/Grant/Kukoc role those guys played in their championships and is just as good if not better (same as the older Kareem)... West seems like a good fit in the Scott/Haprer/Armstrong role, playing the combo guard who can score when needed, defend well and dish out assists when needed... He certainly isn't at the Byron Scott level but he possesses the same type of skills these PG's of the teams had... If he can play like he has of late, he could certainly be the missing piece...
This is why I think getting a sidekick is so important and any guy that can shoot well, be durable, score 20+ a game, is a solid defender and is still young could be so valuable.. Because we have the pieces right now to compete... We just need to get that sidekick... Guys like RJ don't come along too often and if the opportunity is there, I'd be pissed off we didn't strike... Ilgauskas won't last forever and we should take advantage of him while he is here... Because we'll be hard pressed to find a center to do the things he does and provide us with what he provides...
If Jefferson isn't acquired, there are a few other players that could make this model work but not many... Thus why we really need to take a look at RJ, regardless of if he's "gay" or is a "whiner"...