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So since the Ibaka trade, it's become pretty obvious that we have a large hole at PF. Considering the history of the team, it's likely that our space to fill that hole is somewhere between the full MLE (~5.5mil) and maybe $10mil.

Who do we target to fill that hole?

FAs (leaving out team loyalty and obvious big contracts):

Marvin Williams (likely too expensive)
Lance Thomas (reportedly being recruited by OKC)
Jared Dudley
Solomon Hill
Jeff Green
Luol Deng (likely too expensive)
Nene Hilario
Mirza Teletovic
Trevor Booker
Derrick Williams
Jason Smith
Brandon Bass
Anthony Tolliver
Luis Scola
Kevin Seraphin
Darrell Arthur
James Johnson
Terrence Jones
Andrew Nicholson
Donatas Motiejunas
Jared Sullinger
David Lee
Ryan Kelly
Lou Amundsen
David West
Jon Leuer
Thomas Robinson
Tyler Hansbrough
Amar'e Stoudemire
Charlie Villanueva
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
Elton Brand
JJ Hickson
Kris Humphries
Jason Thompson
Jeff Ayres


PFs or SF/PFs that might come available in trade:

Taj Gibson
Kenneth Faried
Wilson Chandler
Kyle O'Quinn
Trevor Ariza
Josh McRoberts
Spencer Hawes
Amir Johnson
Jonas Jerebko
Mike Muscala (also could be FA depending on option)
PJ Tucker
Mike Scott
Drew Gooden


Of these guys, I have a few that I like and think might be realistic given the available money and assets.

Lance Thomas:
Had an excellent year shooting the ball last year, which would bump his price up. Could regress. Still, showed some wing and PF defense chops and was a bright spot for the Knicks. Motor never stops.

Darrell Arthur:
Probably better in a bench role at this point in his career, but won't kill you as a starter. Smart defender, though he's been robbed of some athleticism. Excellent midrange shooter and decent 3pt shooter. Does the little things

Jared Dudley:
See above. He's a little better shooter.

Jared Sullinger:
Will he eat himself out of the league? That's my main concern. If you can get him in shape, could be a steal. But IDK.

David West:
Savvy veteran, smooth in the post, decent passer, excellent midrange shooter. He's not going to switch onto anybody on the perimeter comfortably at this stage of his career, but he's good in a disciplined defensive scheme.

Taj Gibson:
Very limited offensive game, and he's most comfortable around the basket. But he's a very good defender.

Trevor Ariza:
He'd get manhandled by bigger 4s, but he's a very good defender with a decent perimeter shot that comes and goes.

PJ Tucker:
See above. Ariza has a better track record shooting.

Thoughts?

Assuming they are only clearing salary by waiving Ilyasova and not moving Kanter I'd have David West and David Lee at the top of my list. I would try to sign both of them. A big rotation of Adams, West, Kanter, Lee and Sabonis would be good enough given the upgrade of Oladipo over Waiters to more than make up for the loss of Ibaka. Neither West or Lee would expect big roles, they are high quality 15-20 a game guys. So the minutes for PF/C would looks something like:

Adams-25, the same as last year
West-18
Lee-15
Kanter- 20
Sabonis-10
KD-8

That leaves 8 minutes a night with KD at PF in a small ball role. They would have Collison sitting at the end of the bench ready to give them 10 minutes a night when someone was banged up and needed a night off.

Dudley, Arthur, Taj, and Booker are my top 4 realistic-ish guys.

Fantastic breakdown man. Been swamped at work and posting in between, great stuff.

bondom34 wrote:Dudley, Arthur, Taj, and Booker are my top 4 realistic-ish guys.

Fantastic breakdown man. Been swamped at work and posting in between, great stuff.

Work's actually a little slowish at the moment, so it's not so bad. Next week you might not see much of me though.

Yeah, that looks like a decent set of options. I also kind of wish Grunfeld would go temporarily insane and put Morris on the market too (Wiz fans seem to think he should be the bench guy?).

dbrandon wrote:

bondom34 wrote:Dudley, Arthur, Taj, and Booker are my top 4 realistic-ish guys.

Fantastic breakdown man. Been swamped at work and posting in between, great stuff.

Work's actually a little slowish at the moment, so it's not so bad. Next week you might not see much of me though.

Yeah, that looks like a decent set of options. I also kind of wish Grunfeld would go temporarily insane and put Morris on the market too (Wiz fans seem to think he should be the bench guy?).

Yeah, though he was pretty meh last year, I almost think some of the others would be better. At some point Kieff became the worse playing Morris.

Adding another one to my list, Deng if they could clear cap space.

How great is Andrew Nicholson? Age 26 an ideal age

itzmrgigglez wrote:How great is Andrew Nicholson? Age 26 an ideal age

Ilyasova. Nicholson is more athletic, but that hasn't translated into better defense or offense. If Nicholson could be had cheap and could learn to play defense he could be a decent rotation player. Right now he's a lesser version of Teletovic.

I'm not overly concerned. Power forward is one of the easier holes to plug in today's NBA.

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Ilyasova will be the stretch 4. I doubt they sign anyone. They do have the mid-level that starts at $5.5. If they let Dion walk they will probably use that. But, if Dion is retained they would have to cut someone.

Don't know if Toronto is willing to deal pat pat but he's a guy I'd like to see us inquire about

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spearsy23 wrote:Don't know if Toronto is willing to deal pat pat but he's a guy I'd like to see us inquire about

They can have Ilyasova, Morrow and McGary for him. I'll then be fine with whatever else happens this off-season, because we would have a starter at PF. Patterson and Oladipo would be a significant upgrade to Waiters and Ibaka.

I think we stick with Ilyasova at the 4, he had half decent advanced stats on Pistons before being traded. I think under OKC's system should bring the best out of him.

Old Man Game wrote:I'm not overly concerned. Power forward is one of the easier holes to plug in today's NBA.

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It would be a typical Presti thing to not plug it tho...

Yes, because he's proven so inept lol.

bondom34 wrote:Yes, because he's proven so inept lol.

Are you seriously arguing it would be the first time for the Thunder to give minutes to a player that shouldn't even be on the roster? He traded for the RPM-equivalents of Ilyasova in Kanter and Waiters and then of course we have Kyle Singler at 71st out of 81 SGs. That's 3 guys that played a combined 5716 minutes this season (including playofsf) that couldn't even crack the top half of RPM for their respective positions.

Pillendreher wrote:

bondom34 wrote:Yes, because he's proven so inept lol.

Are you seriously arguing it would be the first time for the Thunder to give minutes to a player that shouldn't even be on the roster? He traded for the RPM-equivalents of Ilyasova in Kanter and Waiters and then of course we have Kyle Singler at 71st out of 81 SGs. That's 3 guys that played a combined 5716 minutes this season (including playofsf) that couldn't even crack the top half of RPM for their respective positions.

And Kanter performed well, Waiters improved, and Singler was benched. Also none of those 3 are starters.

bondom34 wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:

bondom34 wrote:Yes, because he's proven so inept lol.

Are you seriously arguing it would be the first time for the Thunder to give minutes to a player that shouldn't even be on the roster? He traded for the RPM-equivalents of Ilyasova in Kanter and Waiters and then of course we have Kyle Singler at 71st out of 81 SGs. That's 3 guys that played a combined 5716 minutes this season (including playofsf) that couldn't even crack the top half of RPM for their respective positions.

And Kanter performed well, Waiters improved, and Singler was benched. Also none of those 3 are starters.

My point still stands. This wouldn't be the first time Presti keeps a player that just isn't good.

Pillendreher wrote:

bondom34 wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:
Are you seriously arguing it would be the first time for the Thunder to give minutes to a player that shouldn't even be on the roster? He traded for the RPM-equivalents of Ilyasova in Kanter and Waiters and then of course we have Kyle Singler at 71st out of 81 SGs. That's 3 guys that played a combined 5716 minutes this season (including playofsf) that couldn't even crack the top half of RPM for their respective positions.

And Kanter performed well, Waiters improved, and Singler was benched. Also none of those 3 are starters.

My point still stands. This wouldn't be the first time Presti keeps a player that just isn't good.

So still riding with the "Presti is a crappy GM" meme I see. Figured that died a while back.

bondom34 wrote:

Pillendreher wrote:

bondom34 wrote:And Kanter performed well, Waiters improved, and Singler was benched. Also none of those 3 are starters.

My point still stands. This wouldn't be the first time Presti keeps a player that just isn't good.

So still riding with the "Presti is a crappy GM" meme I see. Figured that died a while back.

Yes, he has been a crappy GM these last few years. His drafting is very, very good, but his trades have been **** so far. I like the Ibaka trade, but if he doesn't get a good PF, I do think it did more harm than it did good.

EDIT: In the end, this doesn't matter. We'll always disagree on this What matters is that our current PF-rotation isn't contender worthy and Presti needs to do something about it and I think he will. Getting that nun-guaranteed contract is a clear indication for additional moves imo.