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It's funny that he's only rated one point worse than Scalabrine and I'm thinking to myself, "if Mullens could be as valuable a role player as Scalabrine, I'd consider the pick a success." Probably just one of many reasons that giving attention to video game ratings is a mistake. (I understand there's a lockout, though.)

They probably could cut rookie salaries by $10-20 million so other players can be cut less and / or the owners make more.
It might not be particularly "fair" but those guys have done less to earn the still large to enormous pay.

If the two sides agreed cut the 13th required roster spot that would save about $20 million league-wide that would allow more money to go to the remaining players or stay with the owners.

Cut the max agent fee from 4% to 3%... and that could save the players $20 million that then they could offer up in the BRI split deal and stay even.

The two sides are $80-160 million apart reportedly.

They have to figure that out but...

how could you cut owner costs besides lowering the player's share of BRI?

Permanently cutting other NBA expenses besides player salary by 5% would appear to save about $120 million per year.

Some ways to do that:

Cut the salaries of the top 50 NBA league employees by 10% would probably save a few million.

Cutting the salaries of the top 5 team employees by 10% would probably save $20 million.

One might also cut NBA spending on advertising and marketing. Not sure how much they spend but I'd think you could cut $10-20 million and not feel much, if anything.

Cut spending on NBA offices, especially a few more overseas. Probably save a a few million.

Cut spending on All-Star weekend. Probably save a a few million.

Cut some team administrative staff by centralizing the work at the league level.

Cut back on game ushers. Maybe save a million or more.

Cut back on team travel expenses by 10-20%. Could save many millions.

Cut back on Stern's personal executive perks. Save a million or more.

Cut back on international trips.

And so on.

They could potentially cut back on funding of the NBDL and the WNBA but I am not necessarily advocating that.

He's just not good at basketball. About all that can be said for him. He's big and has some athletic ability.

What's bothered me is his lack of basketball IQ when he plays, not his defense. He doesn't know where to be on offense OR defense, he's terrible off the ball, he's bad with the ball in his hands. Basically he's your classic case of a kid who was corrupted by being able to overmatch his competition at every level with his physical attributes, and never actually learned the game at all. Sure he's not the worst jumpshooter, and is a pretty good athlete for his size, but that's not useful at all if he can't do anything with the ball in his hands and can't put himself in a position off the ball to use his physical gifts.

I think he could flourish somewhere, but it won't be the NBA. If he is a first or second option frontcourt player on a european team, I think his game could develop, but having to play a role other than that seems to have very little hope for him.

If Mullens' defense is wanting and he doesn’t protect the basket and Perkins Nazr Collison and Cole are ahead of him at Center, I wonder if a test at PF might be worth at least a small try. It realy depends on how good hi soffens eis and I haven't seen enough to say. I suggested they try that in Tulsa but I didn't watch to see if they ever did. If he hasn't become a traditional Center yet, I tend to doubt he will get there. Maybe letting him be a pick and pop offensive center alongside a better defensive player at PF or letting him try being a big PF off the bench would be a better experiment than continuing to try to make him a traditional center.

Ah, should have said around Oct. 23. That is when their season started last season.

Mullens' first game in Greece is Oct. 23. He might be the starting center there.

Byron sucks. Past present and future tense. But he is 7 ft tall meaning he has value to someone out there on a cheap contract to at least try out, hence why I propose we package him and thabo for dwight Howard before we actually play games this year, selling them the pipe dream that he is actually a better American Marcin gortat and thabo has developed a deadly three and become vintage Shane battier. It's foolproof.

In 2K11, Royal Ivey was a 39 and BJ Mullens was a 44, so we actually had 2 of the worst. We should be used to it.

I agree that he COULD be something. I think his ceiling is somewhere just slightly north of Nenad Krstic, a pick and pop-not much defense or rebounding Euro type center.

But, I still think his biggest deterrent to becoming something so much more is between his temples and what he is receptive to receiving from his core group of advisers and people he trusts.

I say this because no Center in the NBA ever had much more of a combination of height/athleticism/raw talent than those big names like Shaq, D-rob, Hakeem etc. Mullins is over 7 feet, with hops, long arms, athleticism, and a jump shot. His defense and TENACITY is about wanting it and working hard. He doesn't protect the basket, and so guys like Perkins and Cole and Nazr, who have less athleticism and height will likely always be in front of him on the depth chart.

If he could combine the nasty side that protects the rim (like Cole, Ibaka, Perkins) with the jumpshooter side (ala Brad Miller), he might have a long career.

With Perkins, Ibaka, Collison and Aldrich (and Nazr for at least this year) all ahead of him, he's not likely to get any more playing time this year than he has before. For Byron's sake, he needs to be on the roster of a team without so much depth at his position. You can get some better in practice, but there's nothing like real PT, and he just won't get it here.

For their full careers (still limited minutes but a better estimate) Fesenko and Ajinca are closer to neutral but a neutral or better RAPM is something than less than half of players achieve. They have both improved slightly with more experience.

By regularized Adjusted +/- the worst overall estimated player impacts last season were from folks like Hickson, Webster, Nocioni, Hinrich and Delonte West at worse than -3 points per 100 possessions.

In limited minutes Mullens was estimated at -0.9. At least 50-75 rated worse.

Of the bottom five on NBA 2K12, Mullens had the second lowest RAPM. Novak was estimated slightly worse. Ajinca (who has been available several times previously) and Fesenko (who will be available) rate at +1.1 and +1 on RAPM.

Worst player and lowest rated performance are related but can be different when you consider how much trial a player has gotten. Using statistical theory, any rating of him so far is much more likely to vary from his true rating than it would for players who have gotten to play a lot more. Mullens could be better or worse than his rating in such limited minutes.

Not playing is generally a bad sign in the NBA but not getting to play means not really knowing. Sene got 260 minutes. He probably hasn't good enough to play a meaningful role but he was never given much of the real test.

There is very little basis to expect Mullens will get real testing this season either. He will probably get traded or dropped without real testing by the Thunder. I know they see him in practice and are experts but I'd prefer to see real testing... if you invest in and keep 1st rounders.

Man, Byron cant be as bad as all those guys who played for the cavs last year..