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Logjam
Can the Pistons keep Rasheed and Memo? That question has generated a lot of speculation and no clear consensus as to the answer. However, I feel that it is basically irrelevant, because one of them has to go. The reasons for this opinion are set out below.
Next season, if we were to retain both Memo and Rasheed, we would have the following players competing for playing time at the 4 and 5 positions: Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, Mehmet Okur, Darko Milicic, and Corliss Williamson. Williamson and Sheed are also capable of playing the 3, but then they compete with Prince, Delfino and Ham (who as a coach's favorite is likely to get some time in any case). We are assuming that Campbell was moved to free cap space in this scenario. How much time would each player likely get?
Ben Wallace 36 minutes
He's currently getting 39.6 min, and I would really doubt Brown would cut Ben's minutes much more than this. He's the heart of the team and the best defensive player in the league.
Rasheed Wallace 34 minutes
Versatile defensively and a Brown favorite. He'll get a lot of time.
Mehmet Okur 24 minutes
This is less than a minute more than he's getting this year, and he won't tolerate a playing time reduction next season. He'd leave first.
Corliss Williamson -
We'll assume that he gets all his time at the 3 (and this should compensate for whatever time Sheed spends at the 3 as well)
What is the problem with this? Only 2 minutes a game remain for Darko. The three players ahead of him have already had their playing time cut to a near minimum, especially considering Brown's penchant for playing veterans. One season of inactivity will likely be forgiven by the time Darko reaches free agency, but next year he expects (rightfully) that he will play. The only way he could get more time was if he became so dominant that it was obviously hurting the team to leave him on the bench. However, the three players ahead of him are an all-star, a former all-star, and a likely future all-star. To vastly outplay them next season, Darko would have to be at a near MVP level, which seems very unlikely. So he rots on the bench.
What happens the year after that? Well, maybe five minutes could be shaved from each of the Wallaces' playing time (blame age), but Memo certainly won't want a reduction in playing time (and he'd be a horribly expensive 20 minute a game player). We'd still only have 12 minutes a game for Darko. If Darko were so good that his skill level demanded playing time, then we'd be wasting the talents of either Sheed or Memo. Four all star level players fighting for minutes at 2 positions is not a good situation. Tension in the locker room would be unavoidable, and chemistry problems would be very likely.
The only chance of successfully managing a situation that volatile would be a superbly adept coach. However, Brown has not shown anything to suggest he could handle such a delicate situation. The only solution I can see is to simply not give him such a difficult problem to solve. Re-sign either Okur or Rasheed, but do not re-sign both.
Arguments can be made in favor of both Sheed and Memo, and I won't attempt (in this post at least) to determine which should be re-signed. A lot of variables figure into that equation. However, I hope I have shown that signing both is a recipe for chaos.
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Logjam
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