howard, bynum, hibbert, al jefferson, demarcus cousins, marc gasol, amar'e, tyson chandler, nene, gortat, mcgee, noah, deandre jordan, brook lopez. still, that means he is in the middle of the pack as a starting NBA center. and his defense is better than everyone on that list with the exception of howard, chandler, maybe noah/jordan. i don't think center's that bad, we need to add some depth to the position though. i think Asik will average a double-double, or close to it, during the season. If he does, he is definitely worth that money, because bynum, howard, and cousins are the only centers to average a double double. finding a big man that puts up 10-10 along with elite defense is a huge win, for any team.
Howard Bynum Cousins Bogut Chandler Duncan Gortat Ibaka or Perkins Pekovic Lopez(Brook) Horford A.Davis(if he plays C) Monroe M.Gasol Hibbert Noah Garnett Mcgee Al Jefferson Varejao Okafur
The two spots where we got our big splash veteran free agent acquisitions. Ironic. I don't think we have weaknesses anywhere so much as we're just thin on talent all over. I'd say we're strongest at shooting guard. That'll take a hit when Martin leaves, but Lamb will do okay.
We don't know. Too many unproven players. Center position is the obvious answer due to there only being 1 true center on the team, and he is one dimensional. At the same time, centers aren't what they were in the 90s, so I don't know if I'd really call it a weakness. Backup PG is probably my biggest concern, as I am really high on Lamb, and think at worst Forbes is a decent backup at the wing. I expect at least 2 PFs to be able to prove their worth out of all the ones we have.
It seems as if you just named as many centers as you possibly could, Omer Asik was brought here for his defense not his offense. So you can't just put a guy ahead of him because he plays more offense, when he probably doesn't come close to Omer when it comes to defense.
Perkins is OKC's center for the moment. Wouldn't surprise me if they moved Ibaka to the middle this season though. And for the moment I'd rather have Asik over Perkins, Varajao, Okafor, Javale, and Pekovic, unless and until Asik proves me otherwise this coming season. And frankly I wouldn't want Brook Lopez at this point over Asik. Lopez may be more skilled and will look like a great player playing with DWill, JJ, and the rest. But he's fool's gold. Dude wilts against any other good opposing centers. I feel that Asik is somewhere between the 14-20th best center in the league with the opportunity to significantly improve or fall way down on this list. The other thing I see is our big rotation right now being Asik, Patterson, and Motie. We'll probably have a 4th guy (Royce/Jones), but initially I would expect those 3 to gobble up the 4/5 minutes. There's 96 minutes at PF/C. Each of those guys plays 30, that leaves 6 garbage minutes for some sort of small ball lineups with a small 5 and a small 4. So, in my humble opinion, either PPat or Motie is going to catch the balance of the center minutes while Asik is on the bench. When you look at the center position in that light, we could get better, but I don't see how it is our weakness. I see our wing play as the weakest part of the team right now. Chandler is great for 30 a game. But what else? Lamb has great potential but he's not going to be able to play with most of the SGs in the league right now, not to mention SFs, because he's too young and his body is not mature enough. The perimeter is where we lost all our guys, Lowry, Dragic, Lee, and Chase. Lin and Parsons are good. KMart should be good but he's trade bait. I still think we are in the worst shape on the perimeter currently.
We have lots of high level potential at the 4 spot. We will not know if any of them are budding stars or not for a while.
I would rate the starting positions as follows, considering we keep Martin: SG-Martin PG-Lin SF-Parsons C-Asik PF-Patterson I would rate the back-up positions as follows: SG-Lamb PF-D-Mo, T Jones SF-Delfino PG-Douglas, Machado C-Williams (if he makes the team), D-Mo, Patterson This is why I consider C as the weakest position.
That's exactly why a trade of Martin + several PFs for Jefferson would make sense. Not only it solve the long jam at SG and PF, Jefferson could move to C whenever Asik rests/gets injuried, strengthing the weakest position of the current roster.
He didn't say as good defensively, he's said who's better right now. We know Brook Lopez sucks, but, at the moment he's a hell of a lot more proven that Asik. Varejao is a flopper but he's proven he can do what Asik does in bigger minutes, rebound and play D. I wasn't factoring in pay or anything like that either.
Maybe, maybe 5-7 of them. Dwight, Bogut, Chandler, Duncan (maybe), Garnett(probably), Varajao (maybe barely), Noah (perhaps), Perkins (maybe).
