Mullens vs Krstic

[OzThunder]

I just watched the game vs Indiana where Mullens saw the court for a few minutes

He can knock down the mid range shot, crashes the boards hard and plays hard defense. Simple point really, is it time to start weening out Krstic's minutes and giving more of them to the Mullens/ Ibaka (and even DJ White)?

I see Mullens as a less experienced version of Krstic with something to play for. I can see Krstics appeal in the offense but to me he brings literally nothing on defense...he doesn't jump for boards or try moving his feet on D. Can we lose anything buy giving him less minutes? Does he have any trade value?

[slick_watts]

Mullens looks like he's put on weight. He was listed at 258 predraft and NBA.com lists him at 275.

I thought Mullens had a lot of energy, looked focused. He was very hesitant on defense, though, and did not seem to know what to do a lot of the time. Didn't seem sure when to help out or when to stay put.

His jump shot looks nice but I want to see more near the basket from him before he gets steady minutes. Nenad Krstic isn't bad on defense, he's not dominant and won't block shots but he knows what to do and where to be.

The two turnovers in seven minutes of play is not encouraging either from Mullens.

[BadWolf]

steady 5-10 minutes every game or every other game would be nice

[wiff]

I had a feeling once Mullens hit that second jumper a thread like this would pop up.

To me Nenad is the better version of Shawn Livingston. He has made a decent come back but I don't see a long term future with him on this team.

I would much rather trade Nenad over Collison.

But at this point what have we seen from Mullens? He hit a couple decent jumpers. He was pretty soft defensively. So far sounds like he is a lot like Krystic. I think they should feed him some more minutes. But at some point the rotation needs to be trimmed down.

I wonder if they are trying to showcase their young talent for an up coming trade?

[OzThunder]

yeh i wasn't saying mullens will replace krstic or anything, i was just saying that so far he's seen the court for 3 games and i'd like to see him get 10+ minutes a game.

Krstic probably wont be in our long term plans and I see Mullens as a worse version of him right now, so we might as well give some minutes to the young player who tries. It might just be me though, but every time i see Nenad get out rebounded on the defensive end i just think he doesn't really try hard enough for boards, or to move his feet to challenge shots

[wiff]

Well Mullens showed off his solid stroke again tonight with a nice 15ft jumper. If he can give you that nightly no reason to keep Nenad around. Again he has to be able to give that to you nightly.

[dream_catcher_9]

One thing I liked about him tonight was he crashed the offensive glass hard. He is very athletic and has real nice size. If he can learn defense, and continue to play hard he will be a rotation player for the Thunder down the road.