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Patrick :Uhm…doesn’t White have an injured hand? Couldn’t that explain why he hasn’t played recently?

Yes, Patrick, that explains why he hasn't played in the past week. He's been healthy most of the season.

Frank :I’m the rapper! Couldn’t resist . . .

It makes me sad that it took five hours for someone to pick up on the reference.

@PNT

Not now. I know. I was being speculative about the future line up. Collison provides defense Krstic offense. Mullens offense, Ibaka defense.

@DizzyDai
I'm not sure there is even 1 coach in the NBA that puts Mullens in the rotation before Collison. Nick is the kind of guy every team needs. Does the dirty work, is rarely out of position, and can score occasionally.

@Crow

I'm also interested in Mullens at the 4.

White is the odd man out unless Green gets traded.

My depth chart would look something like this:

PF - Green/Mullens/Collison
C - Defensive Draft Pick or Trade/Ibaka/Krstic

Mullens & Ibaka COULD pair together nicely. Collison & Krstic could come off the bench.

If you find something you really like before then great.
From a money standpoint maybe you wait.
From a keep Durant happy, successful and there standpoint you can't afford to be short.

Maybe the best values will be after the lockout / next CBA signing.

I can't imagine a scenario where we don't add a front court player via free agency or trade. Unless one of Ibaka or Mullens become legitimate starters at center within the next year, there will be too many good front court options available between now and next year's deadline to pass up.

Unless you think it will be Green 36, White 10, Ibaka 30, Mullens 20 or something.

Regardless of what they do with minutes among the bigs next season the minutes for 2011-12 has either "flex' or "need".

I have passed on mentioning Frye several times before because it is unlikely he leaves and unlikely they pick him up. But you could apply the logic that puts Krstic in the starting lineup to Frye or White. I am interested in what Frye gets paid to see what that says about the value the team got in Krstic, what they may have to pay Green and what other teams might end up valuing White at, considering both his play and his current pay level.

I think it's key to have guys on your bench that could start on other teams because it keeps the practice level high. DJ will find his way on to court somehow. Championship teams usually have a 7-8 man rotation and thats it, 4th quarter playoff games it's your best 5-7 guys thats it. Rest of the bench is cheerleaders.

I don't think the Suns give up Channing Frye. He lost his starting spot but he's pretty valuable for them stil..

Frye is even more imbalanced than Krstic regarding offense /defense but if you wanted more offense and weren't willing to change anywhere but center you could think about Frye. I am not saying I'd target him highly but he will be out there and hard to say what else they can actually get. If they decide not to stand pat and I think they are more far likely to stand pat than do this. I assume Phoenix keeps him but sometimes in those situations deciding on the mutually agreeable price can encounter problems. What is Frye's value? About where Krstic is on pay? Higher? Lower?

I think White's value, or lack thereof, comes from his defensive problems. As Brooks said in the beginning, this year was about defense. White doesn't really play any. Ibaka gets time because he has the physical tools to defend the way Green and Krstic can't. Remember that every shot coming from the backup PF position is a shot taken away from someone else. Scoring a point every two minutes means he's taking a good number of scoring opportunities while he's in. Perhaps the greatest problem is that he plays too much like a starter, and not enough like a role player.

As for trades, I can see Robin Lopez going anywhere. His contract is small, and his potential is high. They can afford him and simply move Frye to PF. There are only a few names that really make sense to our team: Lee, Bosh, Jefferson, and Boozer. The first three are young enough to keep for the future, and significantly bolster our scoring and rebounding from the PF spot. Boozer would significantly boost our frontcourt this year, but not likely stick around after. He would be a great pickup if we want to give the young'ns some real playoff experience while also preserving our cap space over the summer. Utah would have to agree to drop him just to cut salary and get a late first rounder though, as he's not worth much as just an expiring contract to us.

I thought of this before but try to stay away from trade speculation for the most part. They might be able to get Lopez for White and whatever balancing was needed if they couyld agree on the balancing. Especially if such a deal goes down. White's game probably fits well enough into what Phoenix is trying to do.

BTW, only 14 days until the trade deadline. I'm so pumped

Key word: surprised

@Vega

I would be (pleasantly) surprised if we can get Robin Lopez for a first round pick and some change.

white needs to play more next year, at the very least to build trade value

Uhm...doesn't White have an injured hand? Couldn't that explain why he hasn't played recently?

I hope that the Amar'e for Iggy and Sammy D deal happens. If Phoenix gets Sammy D, Robin Lopez becomes unnecessary. Then, they could trade Lopez to us for their first-round pick back. They have to. I've guaranteed that they will. Don't let me down, Steve Kerr!

They probably wouldn't even consider Krstic at PF so I'll let that one go.

Mullens at PF might be more interesting but will they even try it? You'd want to try it in practice first before making a leap but I say try it for real sometime.

Of course you got to fill the center spot with somebody.

Somebody good or at least ok on team defense first (to me) and at least one of rebounding or scoring, probably rebounding. How good and how quick will Mullens or Ibaka become good at help defense reads? Unless and until either one becomes at least a "solid ok" on that they'll probably keep Collison and Krstic.

One of Krstic or Collison could be traded and that would free some minutes next season and / or just cut Green back to 30-32 total minutes and make 8-12 of them at SF.

Next season between PF and C you got 96 minutes

you could go

Green 20-24 (at PF), Ibaka 14-24, White 10
Collison or Krstic 20, Mullens 10, a new big or bigs 8-24. Keep both Collison and Krstic you just don't pick up a new guy or don't play your rook.

guess we're in agreement, didn't mean to argue with you, just clarifying a bit. I like those long posts. :)

Sammy :@Vince

Injuries happen. I’m actually kind of surprised Krstic has been healthy for as long as he has been. DJ’s under team control for a while. I don’t think there’s any reason to rush a trade.

I'm not talking about trading White. My point is that if you want DJ White to get 10 minutes a game in 2010-11, those minutes have to come from somewhere. And, with 5 draft picks and cap space, it seems highly unlikely that we're going to start 2010-11 with the same frontcourt rotation. We almost definitely -- whether in the draft or by trading one/both of the first-rounders -- are going to have at least one more big man to go with Green, Collison, Krstic, Ibaka, and Mullens. (Perhaps Collison and/or Krstic will go, but the point still stands.)
So for White to get 10 minutes a game next season, who are you taking them from? Your new first-round pick? Your fancy trade pickup/FA signing? Ibaka, who's showing tons of promise? Collison, who has done his job well for 6 years now? Those are the options, and not a one makes any sense based on 200 minutes of nice stats in unimportant situations.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4887916

KD article

I really think we need to take White's stats so far with a grain of salt. Do we really think DJ White could average 18 a game playing starter minutes? How about once defenses adjust? How much would his efficiency drop? Does he understand how to play team defense? Is he a fouling machine? I can only make educated guesses at the answers to these questions, but I'm guessing the coaching staff – who watch DJ in practice every day – have a much more accurate guess than I do. Like I said, DJ will get his minutes eventually, but I'm not holding my breath for him to solve our front court problems.

You are welcome Rhett.

How you weight the importance of Scoring, Rebounding and Defense from the PF spot with the starters would seem to be the right way to select the guy for that job. By having Green there are they saying the PF job with the current starters is mainly about scoring? Maybe it is. But it is more likely they just flat assumed him there rather than apply any comparison. If scoring is the most important job then White seems like he could do that too. If job #1 and maybe #2 is rebounding and defense then others would look like better choices.

Is the way Ibaka gets the job by focusing on rebounding and defense or raising his scoring? Ideally he'll do both and it will probably take being good at both to get the job.

I'm not a big proponent of +/- over such small sample sizes. You could cherry pick 200 minutes from any player to support any argument, it's not enough time to make any kind of determination..

White's per minute production is nice when he's on the court. I'm not sure I put much value in 200 minutes of +/-.

Crow: Thanks for the comparison charts.

If the comparison is Green vs Ibaka vs Collison vs White at PF,

Scoring ability from high to low would probably go White, Green (or some would go Green then White) then Ibaka, Collison

Rebounding Ibaka, Collison, White, Green

Passing White, Green, Collison, Ibaka

Defense at PF hard to say but it might be
Collison, Ibaka, then Green / White or White / Green. Can't really say yet and it depends on opponent mobility vs playing inside.

They don't weight the same but that's

Green a first or second, a second, a third and a third or fourth.

Ibabka so far is a first, second, third and fourth.

Collison is a first, second, third and fourth.

White a first or second, a second, a third and a third or fourth.

That is an unclear situation.

If you add Krstic, Mullens and even Durant to the PF equation and whoever they draft this season or next or trade for it seems up for grabs or perhaps at least should be.

If you trust Adjusted +/-, Statistical +/- or your own eyes in addition to these numbers you might tip one way or another.

BTW, some food for thought. Thunder are at 28-21 right now with 33 games left to play. If they go 17-16 the rest of the way, OKC's at 45 wins. At this point, I'd be pretty shocked if they don't get there.

I'm the rapper! Couldn't resist . . .

@Vince
Injuries happen. I'm actually kind of surprised Krstic has been healthy for as long as he has been. DJ's under team control for a while. I don't think there's any reason to rush a trade.

Teams kept passing Billups around. They keep passing Camby around. Ultimately you got to know what your needs/ desires are and if that player can fulfill them.

Maybe we move Krstic and start Nick in his place. That brings Ibaka and White off the bench in relief.

Crow :
Is he going to get 10+ minutes a game every game next season? I would at least for the first few months whether you keep him or not.

If you do, where do those 10 minutes come from? Ibaka's minutes are expanding. We're going to have (at least) one first-rounder at the 4 or 5 (and if we don't, it's because we traded for a veteran 4 or 5).

Sammy you said "One of the great luxuries that Presti’s had is time."

"Had" was accurate.

Still has or not is debatable.

You could say he has 2-4 more years to tinker or you could say he mainly has 6 months to get it right with last or at least near to last chances at 12 and 18 months.

Wizards aren't going to trade McGee, they want to blow that team up, you don't trade your young guys when you do that.

I agree that Camby's defense is a bit overrated especially at this stage of his career. He'd be better than anyone on our roster, and trading Collison for him would give us enough cap next season to pursue a max free agent if we wanted to go that route. I don't see the Clippers trading him for a player with $$$ after this year, though. They probably want young talent on a rookie deal and expirings.

Unless you truly think he is just a garbage time star / mirage. Then you trade him before that is proved out if somebody thinks he is worth more than what that is worth, which is very little.

Good points.

If White is going to be somewhere between Bass and Boozer (and I think he is) then he is a good asset. Maybe you end up deciding he doesn't fit as well as others but I'd think you'd want at least 1000 minutes played before you decide that and probably 1000 minutes to show other teams whether he is closer to Bass or Boozer.

Is he going to get 10+ minutes a game every game next season? I would at least for the first few months whether you keep him or not.

McGee is cheap and cost controlled for another two years; the player the Wiz want to move is Haywood. You can't have McGee without providing some significant salary relief.

@Crow
One of the great luxuries that Presti's had is time. With so many holes to fill on the team, his strategy up till now has been to accumulate as much high-upside talent as possible and to develop develop develop. Collison was the only known quantity among our PF/C slots. Wilcox, Petro, Swift, White, Ibaka, Mullens, even Green – the minutes they're given are all experiments, at least to begin with. I wouldn't read too much into Presti trading up for White other than he liked what the scouting reports said and thought he'd be a nice low-risk investment in our frontcourt depth.

Having too much depth and too much talent is a good problem to have as a GM.

Same players but thru age 23 instead of rookie

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tiny.cgi?id=yN6gw

So far White is the best shooter. Bass improved from his rookie season. Boozer the longer term rebound leader.

White's really low turnover rate is probably the product of real small minutes with less pressure and maybe quicker shots but it is worth noting or watching in the futre to see it continues.

@Crow

Right. None of those guys I mentioned are blockbuster guys. Probably none of them have played enough meaningful minutes to draw a good conclusion. I just feel like they may be obtainable.

Then again, if we're going for a proven veteran with our cap space, none of those 4 qualify.

Rookie White vs rookie Boozer and Bass

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tiny.cgi?id=H4xEu

Ok Jax. I've haven't seen enough to really judge potential on McGee beyond seeing his physical abilities. He is still young, in a bad circumastance and it is true that to get a big generally they can't look too good or they won't be available. He has actually looked good at PF in limited minutes. But that may or may not be meaningful.

@KingGondo
I've never heard anything that remotely indicated Camby has an attitude problem- on the contrary, everything I have read about him indicates he is a team player and a class act. Like I said, I love Collison- but he is redundant on a team that will be starting Green at the four for in the short run, and that will be looking for additional playing time for Ibaka if we land a legit starting center. Over-rated defender? Do you really prefer what Krstic brings on the defensive end? Think Collison is a better defender at the Center position? Camby is averaging 12 boards and 2 blocks per this year. As for it being "well documented" that what we need to add is offense, I never bought into that argument. In and of itself, the maturation of Westbrook, Harden, and Maynor should add points and reduce our turnovers. Our most glaring need has been, and continues to be a starting center who protects the rim and pulls down boards. Adding a real center makes our good defensive squad a great defensive squad. Our offense will improve on its own as our rookies and sophmores mature.