I'm just thinking. What if we traded SF not for T-Mac, but for a good PF like Elton Brand.(He's only an example. There are many good PF players in this league) What Van Gundy is asking for backcourt players is only to deliver the ball over half court and make open 3s which is too simple for T-Mac. So, my thought is if we got a good pf who can score and rebound with Yao, and have Mobley and Jackson for open 3s, it would be better than we got T-Mac and make such a struggling.
Teams usually don't trade big for small. I don't think we could have gotten a PF like Brand for Steve.
