Excellent, my two main rivals commenting on the deal
I agree that Mike is the best player, overall, in the deal - but in this case, I don't really care. Mike and Schmalz got abused by more athletic players during the playoffs on defence and offence, and at Schmalz's age, I don't really see that changing. I needed someone to negate that effect, and I'll take Wooten's B+ D and 3bpg over Mike's A- and 1.nothing bpg any day of the week. He's a bit overpaid, but his rebounding rate per min is very good, he shoots decent percentages, and isn't even in his prime. That, plus shotblockers are very hard to acquire in here - I've been trying for two+ seasons, and now have one.
About Kersey: I don't need him to be a 20ppg guy, really, though I hope that he will if I opt to start him. I think that he can continue to improve his performance and ratings. Hell, I might not even need him to be an option. But we outscored our opponents by about 12ppg last year, and I anticipate that Kersey/Wooten will give me what Bradley/Gminski did on both ends of the floor, so I don't expect too much change on the point differential front - save for what I think will be a better overall defensive team considering the benefits of improved shotblocking.
Kersey provides a better balanced scoring option for my backcourt (shoots good percentages) and is a better backup 1 than Gola was. I think his TO's come down sharply if I play him at the 2, where I plan to play him primarily. *Obviously, Tom, I don't need him to be a premier PG with the league's MVP starting for me
In any event, I was staring up at the Hornets with few options to get better over the long-term (no nice picks, only moderately good youth) so I wanted to change that outlook (and who knows, FA in SSBA is tough and the track record for draft picks isn't a consistent predictor for success, so maybe that Raps pick will be a lotto one). I expect both young guys to improve. And, no, I don't know how Kersey will handle a bigger role on a better team - it's unproven you're right, Hornets - but it's not proven that he can't either. Nor is my team's success really reliant on it. I felt a need to think outside the box and protect my future abit. In the end, I think I've done that.
I think this deal, coupled with the Hubbard trade, makes my team more versatile, and has more legitimate scoring options which makes me better able to match up with more teams.
Oh yeah, and you're both going down
