Jimmy Smith (Times Pic) bringing the heat on Demps

Steamer's a mistake, but Smith's got a hair up his arse for the wrong reasons here.


From most accounts, Steamer's contract is up and he's not going to be able to play the next two games, so he's being replaced with Ely.

It's not like we have Bird rights on Steamer anyway, given that we only had him for a season as a FA signee.

I want Monty gone but frick this

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Just playing devil's advocate, there are a couple of folks out there with Louisiana, and New Orleans, connections who might be available for hire this summer: Joe Dumars and Avery Johnson.

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Damn dudes not playing around

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If, 80 games into a season, a team cuts an offseason free-agent signee and replaces him with a nomadic journeyman who has compiled an undistinguished NBA resume over the last 12 years, only one conclusion can be drawn: Someone made a serious miscalculation last summer.

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This would make more sense if Steamer wasn't an undistinguished nomadic journeyman. He's acting like we gave Steamer the max this offseason.

Anyone floating the idea of hiring Avery Johnson and now Joe Dumars is an idiot! Take that hometown crap and shove it, Jimmy. I fear Benson and Loomis will do something stupid like this with the mindset of selling tickets. My God.

yea that is my fear also

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Demps never should have signed him

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They should've called Ajinca up first but I don't think they signed Steamer with expectations greater than what he's done and Smith going down put him on the court more than he would've been.

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He's obviously been pissed off a while and this insignificant Stiemsma move was just a way to let it out.

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My exact thoughts. He's been waiting to write this one for a while.

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good article by Smith I can't help but agree with most of what he wrote.

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At least you have an excuse for being shortsighted on this.

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it apparently took the New Orleans Pelicans 80 games to realize their embarrassing mistake.

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This is revisionist history. Anyone know the names of the other guys available when we signed Stiemsma? Guys like Amundson and Cole Aldrich who haven't even spent the full season on NBA rosters. Ajinca was headed to Europe. It wasn't a mistake to sign Stiemsma, it's just the type of guy you get when you are scraping the bottom of the barrel. We knew going into the season that this was going to be a weakness.

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Signed forward Luke Babbitt on Feb. 4. Babbitt has not been a difference-maker and cannot play defense. This was a pointless move.

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Actually he's been a decent floor spacer that has made other players more efficient. It was not pointless at all. Another scraping the bottom of the barrel move out of desperation due to injury for sure, but many blogs have documented that it actually helped Tyreke quite a bit. I think Smith has done a fairly good job this year, but this piece either isn't very well thought out, or is intentionally disparaging. Funny how BSS and TBW have been writing well thought out pieces for months on why Stiemsma is bad, and Smith waits until he's cut to write a sensationalist piece calling him a mistake. I think he probably just knee jerked, because my initial reaction was "Did the blogs get Stiemsma cut?" and then when I saw he was injured, the simplest explanation of him not being available the last 2 games seemed to fit better than Demps slapping Stiemsma in the face on his way out.

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If, 80 games into a season, a team cuts an offseason free-agent signee and replaces him with a nomadic journeyman who has compiled an undistinguished NBA resume over the last 12 years, only one conclusion can be drawn: Someone made a serious miscalculation last summer.

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OR a player that everyone thought would be here as a one year stop gap when he signed was not going to be healthy for the remaining 2 games and a team that is desperately thin needed to replace him with a warm body. If Stiemsma was healthy and this happened then maybe you have a case. And if Stiemsma was cut because he was deemed a mistake, or if he was cut to prevent his resigning because Monty's usage of Stiemsma was seen as the mistake, then I think that's a good thing, not a bad thing. Mistakes will be made, but recognizing them and cutting your losses is an important ability for GMs.

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Dumars, the former McNeese State guard who is close with Saints/Pelicans executive vice president of basketball operations Mickey Loomis, stepped down as the Pistons' president of basketball operations on Monday.

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Interesting. I've said for a while I'd love for Demps to have a senior advisor. I'm not sure I want anyone that thinks Josh Smith is your savior calling the shots, but his experience and access could be valuable to Demps. Let Dumars be VP of basketball ops and let Loomis be a little more hands off so he can focus on the Saints.

Best part of the article:

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Johnson could be an option as a basketball ops hire; he probably does not want to coach.

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Too bad it sounds like he's just pulling stuff out of his arse.

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only one conclusion can be drawn: Someone made a serious miscalculation last summer.

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Amazingly, it apparently took the New Orleans Pelicans 80 games to realize their embarrassing mistake.

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I don't get why he's saying it's a "serious miscalculation" or "embarrassing mistake." Everyone thought Steamer was at best a just below league average center (something he didn't live up to in the least) and that J. Smith was getting the bulk of the Center minutes early on anyway (which he did). I don't believe for one second anybody seriously thought we were gonna trot GS out there 40 minutes a night; the dude was a filler at best, he's on a minimum contract or MLE i'm fairly sure, Pels didn't get Oden, and they took what was left that had a believable marginal benefit at the time (didn't happen).

And I think we can all agree Steamer didn't do well for the Pels and I guess, in essence, was a "miscalculation." But not a serious one, a minor one if anything; and if Ryan Anderson had played 70+ games, GS role would've been nearly nonexistent. Were the Pels supposed to trot out Withey in October? The rookie, who's not strong, marginally tough, and got posterized on in his 3rd ever game? I get Withey's 24, but in NBA years the guy was every bit a rookie as I've ever seen.

This Smith guys mental. Shameless attempt at click bait if I've ever seen one.