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DXL in the west or in the division?

f5alcon Denver #2 in the West!

DXL wow, i dont see that happening, while they do have depth, it is a lot of new pieces, and chandler and jr smith are better than their replacements. i think denver will be better when playoffs roll around and they are a playoff team, but i still think it is 1. thunder, 2. dallas 3. spurs 4. memphis 5. clippers 6. lakers 7. portland 8. denver

DXL Hollinger is nuts. In the east he has NY at 7 and Indiana at 6 (those teams should battle for home court in the first round), while he has soon to implode/did nothing to improve Orlando at 4 and paper thin Boston finishing 3rd? Can't believe that guy is getting paid for his opinions.

steve H The Knicks are much thinner (and injury-prone) than Boston. Not much there after their Big 3.

DXL steve I don't think either squad (Bos/NY) is a legit contender, but I do think they are clearly moving in opposite directions. The Knicks WILL be better with the addition of Chandler. The C's are talking about playing KG at the 5- and are older than dirt. They will make the post season, but I will be shocked if they do it as a top 4 seed.

Steve HDXL the east doesnt sound too unrealistic though i would probably switch indiana and orlando.

Bryson the rule was still changed for rose

JimboSlice Yeah maybe we Trade Thabo and cook. Or let them walk and we can keep maynor. im not a big maynor guy but i do see his value in making everyone on the second unit better. plus R jack can probably defend most SGs with his length. excluding big ones like kobe,iggy,etc. but most bench SGs arent all that tall

JimboSlice we will probably give him some offer, if he turns it down and becomes RFA we might match if it is reasonable

fearthebeard Yeah the mobile plugin messes with the actual site for some reason so I had to disable it.

DXL the reduced camp is probably hurting aldrich right now with the ball security thing

DXL i'd say serge needs to work on his hands even more so..

DXL yeah i think jackson will be fine in a few months

yehoshuagardner he will be a RFA if he doesnt sign, so we can match whatever offer he would get, so he is ours for the next 5 or 6 years, unless he absolutely wants to leave and signs a shorter deal so he can be an UFA ala lebron, but i do not see that happening. he still would only be in his mid 20s and would have plenty of time to go to LA or wherever after a max contract. If we are title contenders every year he might not even want to leave.

f5alcon He'll be a RFA for one year, but after that won't he be unrestricted. He could play for OKC for 2 more years and then go somewhere else. I know he'd probably be giving up a good bit of money, but that's why I asked the question. What's the difference between what he could make here vs. somewhere else... all of that in two years.

yehoshuagardnerf5alcon no he'd be a RFA the next time free agency hits for him (which would be next year). This means we can match whatever offer he gets from someone else (which we will). If we match it, he has to take our offer. So unless he signs a short deal next summer, we don't have to worry about him going anywhere anytime soon. The only way he'd only be in OKC two years is if next summer he signed a one year contract, which is completely unrealistic.

yehoshuagardner he won't do that, the only player who has done that is ben gordon and he openly hated chicago. If a player does that and gets hurt they would be screwed. It would be about a 9 million dollar(~20%) difference if he did that.

JimboSlice He is saying that if westbrook plays for the QO next year so he can be an UFA the year after.

yehoshuagardner westbrook was probably holding out for the 30% but now that durant has it, westbrook is probably going to agree to the extension soon

Grolgar For shame. Hopefully that will improve soon.

SteveThunderfan Probably jumping the gun a little yes... I like the idea... but... Maynor still remains the only "true point guard" on the roster, and however good Reggie is, I believe his best role is more of a ball handling shooting guard (like Harden).

Nazr also remains valuable, what would happen if Perkins went down for a few weeks or more (very possible with his injury record). Having Nazr on the roster gives us a lot of insurance.

I do agree that Cole and Reggie should both be getting more minutes though:

When everyone is fit, I'd like to see Cole become the second most used center after Perk.Harden should start, with Reggie and Thabo backing him up (split the minutes according to match up/need).

Sefolosha/Hayward can split the minutes at SF when KD is not on the floor.

Dominator I agree with keeping nazr for "Perk insurance," but I feel like this is probably the best time to trade maynor. I was less impressed with him at the end of last year than I had been in the past, and if RJ took the backup PG spot it would create all sorts of juicy mismatches for him just based on his size, alone. i realize the guys guarding him were scrubs, but Reggie looked like a physical specimen out there, comparatively, at least. A 2nd string of RJ, DAE, Thabo, Nick, and Cole looks pretty darn good physically, and from a basketball standpoint, IMO. But you're right, we probably should wait for more proof outta RJ, I just hate to let maynor walk when his stock's so high around the leaue right now.

SteveThunderfan I'd pretty much agree with that.. I just kind of like that we have two different type of PGs. Russ with his aggressive style and Eric with his more controlled pass first style. Maybe Reggie can develop into an effective PG but I'd prefer to see him as a shooting guard.

It deos make alot of sense. Cook is far more expendable than Manor, and Maynor/RJ IS a better backcourt than RJ/Cook. I just hope nobody decides Maynor should be a starter and pays him as such. I saw where someone suggested that Brooks was keeping Thabo as a starter to keep his value up; How about if Brooks played Maynor less and RJ mor this season to knock Maynor's value own so we could keep him long term? (When exactly does Maynor become RFA?)

Yes...I think that's jumping the gun. When the trade deadline hits, that's when we might (might) thnk about a deal, depending on how we are playing, health, and what skill we might need to get out of the West.

trade deadline, yes. absolutely.

SteveThunderfan maynor is still better than jackson as of right now, the thing is maynor will probably get offers at starting pg money when he is a restricted FA and at that point we probably will not match. With our team built around the spurs model. We are always going to be cycling role players with cheaper rookie deals or cheap vets like collison.

Maybe if RJ cuts into his minutes enough this year his value will go down and we can keep both? Wishful thinking, but man is it nice to have the security at every position to debate that our backup's a starter and his backup could replace him.. Go Presti!

SteveThunderfan maybe, but i think maynor would want to start if he had the chance. Yeah it does make sense to trade him before he leaves, but that doesnt have to happen until next season, so no rush on it, plenty of time to develop jackson.

when does he become RFA?

SteveThunderfan after the 2012/2013 season.

But since everyone acknowledges that maynor will get a starter offer and leave, doesn't it make ever more since to trade him now? We're gonna lose him either way, it's a mini-CP3 situation (very mini, but still) and since maynor becomes a RFA at the end of this deal, any team that really wants him would want his cheap year before they have to match offers. His rookie years are SO valuable because they're cheap, but after this he's just a decent player with a decent contract (that we can't even afford).

SteveThunderfan it would, if his contract was up next summer. but he doesn't become an RFA til the summer AFTER next. for that reason, there's no rush at all. If someone offers us something ridiculous for him this year, sure take it. But if not, we have all the way til the 2013 trade deadline to make a decision.

JimboSlice Ok well in a year everyone meet back here for trade Maynor talks haha. Until then, START THE BEARD!!!

TaoMaas well he is still really efficient, but it does take away from best choice for initiating the offense.

Yes, many of his stats are against the 2nd unit. But he is also usually the only real threat on the floor at that time and the defense has to focus on him. It goes both ways. He is still very good and efficient when playing with the starters, especially late in the year last season. The last game against Dallas when he was creating shots off the pick n roll with Russ and KD on the floor was unstoppable, and hopefully we see that 8+ times a game this year.

kfmsooner I believe that Harden is like Odom in that, many times, he is a starter playing against back-ups. There's nothing wrong with that, btw, and it has certainly played to the Thunder's advantage...but I think it's something we need to keep in mind when evaluating him. But really..."The Beard" needs no such qualifiers. I think he's already proven that he's a valuable contributor, whether it's coming off the bench or playing with the first team. He's a "keeper".