About 11 months ago I wanted to trade Love for Ibaka straight up, with Harden thrown in if possible:
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1007393(this was also the thread where Dr K coined the phrase "major Tony Ronzone" to describe player-inspired erections)
A lot has changed in those 11 months, and Love is definitely a keeper. Randolph compliments Love much better than Beasley does, and I think Randolph can play some minutes at both the 3 and the 5, as well as obviously the 4. I don't think we have room for all 3 of these guys to get the minutes they need to develop, and after giving it a lot of thought I think Beas should be the one we move. I have grown to love the dude, and hope he puts it all together, but I really don't think he and Love can co-exist defensively long term. They are a worse defensive pairing than Love and Al were. Randolph, on the other hand, compliments Love very well defensively, especially if he can play some minutes at the 3.
I think we should move Beas for a defensive stud big man, along the lines of Ibaka, who I still have a major Tony Ronzone for. Varejao is appealing and probably gettable, but has a bad contract and is coming off surgery to repair a tendon in his ankle. If he comes back 100% I would still be interested in him despite his contract, as he was having a career year this year before his injury.
Other possible players who fit this mold (Perkins, Ibaka, Chandler) are probably not gettable. I haven't seen much of Gortat in Phoenix, where he probably isn't asked to play too much D, but he looked good defensively in Orlando. DeAndre Jordan will be a FA this summer and might not want to go back to the Clips now that his role has been reduced by the return of Kaman. Bogut would be nice, and his offensive game seems to be coming back to him recently.
I don't know, I'm just brainstorming, but I think we need another defensive big man to replace Darko in the starting lineup or at least get more minutes than him even if they are coming off the bench. Darko could be the kind of starter that starts the 1st and 3rd quarters, but only gets extended minutes if he's having one of his good games. He is WAY too inconsistent to rely on regularly though.
I would like to see our 96 minutes at the 4/5 to be divided up something like this:
Love-35
Varejao(or someone similar)-28
Randolph-15 (with another 15 or so at SF)
Darko-10
Tolly-8
Hmm, after looking at that, we would be way better off if Randolph could get most of his minutes at the 3, allowing for a few more minutes for Tolly and Darko.
Sorry this became a huge rant, but I guess the biggest question to come out of this rant is whether Randolph can play the 3. What does everyone think about that?
(Randolph at the 3 certainly works in NBA2K11, but EVERYTHING works in 2K11)
