Welcome aboard!

You are correct to observe that neither Phaneuf nor Schenn is a very fast skater. However, when either one is paired with Jake Gardiner or John-Michael Liles, they become an effective defensive tandem … provided that Ron Wilson doesn’t mess them up by over-reacting to each miscue they make and shuffle them with no apparent rhyme or reason, from a long term development perspective.

When the Maple Leafs also choose to have Carl Gunnarsson and still-developing youngsters like Keith Aulie or Cody Franson in their line-up, they are more than adequate on the defensive side of the ice, from a speed, size and skill standpoint.

One of the teams main problems, however, is that they simply do not choose to use their best defensemen enough of the time and, instead, give totally wasted ice time to someone like Mike Komisarek.

Reimer is a solid goalie.

Kessel is a bonafide goal scorer.

Lupul was a solid addition last season.

Patience, no panic moves, and a few more useful pieces acquired via the NHL Entry Draft, during the next 2 seasons, will eventually see the buds blossom into a legitimate playoff team for an extended period of time.

Now is not the time for them to try to fix their still remaining problems in one fell swoop.

1. Welcome aboard.

2. Please excuse my “franchise” error in the body of this thread [since corrected], and thanks for pointing it out!

3. When a player comes into the NHL as a teenager and then has a career goal scoring arc which looks like this:

YR, AGE, GS

’02-03, 18, 17
’03-04, 19, 41
’04-05, 20, 0 [NHL Strike Season]
’05-06, 21, 31
’06-07, 22, 27
’07-08, 23, 38
’08-09, 24, 40
’09-10, 25, 33
’10-11, 26, 32
’11-12, 27, 19 [at-present]

then, it might be fair to say that … in fact … he is an aging forward whose goal scoring prowess is quite likely to decline in the ensuing years commonly associated with a typical elite athlete’s “chronological prime.”

4. The reality that Nash is an aging goal scorer is NOT the primary reason the Maple Leafs should stay as far away as possible from a trade for him. It is just the personal attribute of his which I chose to use to describe him in this single post, as a possible trade deadline acquisition for the resurgent Maple Leafs, a franchise that desperate needs to keep moving in a positive direction long term and not sell any of its core assets for a fleeting shot a playoff spot this season.

News Item #2: Anyone who refers to Nash as “an aging forward” (he’s 27, an age often referred to as “in his prime”) in an effort to support their argument that he shouldn’t be obtained in a deal is doing more harm to his position by appearing to be grasping at straws.

News Item #3: There are plenty of sound and legitimate reasons to refrain from acquiring Nash (like 7 years at 7.8 million per) that don’t require bogus logic and the old Columbus/Nashville “switcheroo”.

1. When I read Arturo’s post on his different draft models, I do not see where he says in advance of the start of Jeremy Lin’s career in the NBA that this player has the ability to become a solid starting calibre PG, if he gets the opportunity to do so.

Perhaps I’m not reading what Arturo wrote correctly?

If so, then, hopefully you can point out where in the article Arturo actually says that, or something like that.

Without you pointing this out, however, what I take from Arturo’s article is:

i. Most GMs in the NBA do a terrible job in the annual draft; and,
ii. Arturo’s stats-based draft models yield a level of performance which is similar to most GMs in the NBA.

Therefore, if I am an owner of a NBA team, I would not want to have [A] an average GM at the helm of my franchise, nor [B] someone who relies on a stats-based draft model like Arturo.

2. Time will tell if Brandon Knight is able to develop as a top tier PG in the NBA. Although I have not seen him play very much so far this season, IMO, nothing in Knight’s statistical performance, relative to his peers, indicates that Joe Dumars made a mistake in selecting him with the No. 8 [overall] Selection in the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery.