Cole Aldrich

[fallacy]

If cole can play as well as he did tonight for a whole season, he's going to be great

[slick_watts]

It's hard for me to evaluate Aldrich since almost all of his minutes this season have been garbage minutes. Aldrich only scored points three times this season when the margin wasn't 10 or more in the fourth quarter. He looks like he could be a decent backup, but one thing that concerns me is that he doesn't seem to hold position very well even against scrubs. He has very long arms and has a decent motor to the ball. Yet I see him get pushed around a lot more than a guy his size or skill set should.

[slick_watts]

I like Aldrich more than Perkins, also he can be a big body to put under the basket defensively if we need to amnesty Perkins.

Perkins can be difficult to like in general, but he's brought a lot of leadership, toughness and heart to the team. These are all things Aldrich wasn't capable of bringing at the time Perkins was acquired.

Perkins was having a historically bad season at one point but rallied a bit after the All Star break. His DRB% and TOV% in particular were way more in line with his career numbers during the second half of the season. Perkins rated as one of the better isolation / post defenders in the league as well.

[sonictecture]

but one thing that concerns me is that he doesn't seem to hold position very well even against scrubs. He has very long arms and has a decent motor to the ball. Yet I see him get pushed around a lot more than a guy his size or skill set should.

I've seen and been concerned about this as well, but I've also seen him hold his position, so I wonder if the lack of consistency is more mental than physical. Once again the sample size that we've seen is so small.

If it were a strength problem I would assume the OKC trainers and coaches have been working with him
to strengthen his base and use proper leverage. Aldrich has skinny calves, but he can jump pretty well.

[IMAN5]

I hope he flourishes with OKC because he is one of the best systems for a young player and they put a lot into that trade to get him.

Stay hungry and focused young man, you'll get your chance.

[JimboSlice]

If he was good enough to play over Nazr right now, he would play.

While I agree with the rest of your post this is definitely not true. Brooks has a history of undue loyalty to veteran players or even just players who have been here longer (ex: Jeff Green over Ibaka when Ibaka was clearly ready to be starting, Fish over Thabo/ Harden/ Cook/ Ivey at times, Nazr over Cole even when Nazr was terrible this year, Thabo big minutes to Harden's low minutes last year pre-all star break despite Harden showing to be more than ready for big minutes early in the season). He favors continuity, which isn't always the worst thing, so it would stand to reason that unless Cole had proved himself last year, nothing was changing for him in the lockout shortened season.

That said, Cole looks very ready to me from the small sample size this year. He looks completely out of place in garbage minutes much like Dejuan Blair looked against us in the PO's this year before Pop inserted him in the regular rotation (where he flourished in once given the chance). If he gets regular minutes next year (which I would assume he will with the possible, if not impending Perk amnesty), I'm sure he will be very serviceable.

[Bravenewworld]

Perkins was having a historically bad season at one point but rallied a bit after the All Star break. His DRB% and TOV% in particular were way more in line with his career numbers during the second half of the season. Perkins rated as one of the better isolation / post defenders in the league as well.

I think Perkins can be very overrated at times.
He is a great guy to have if you need to clog the lane and defend a low post presence but outside of that he really does nothing very well. He is not a great rebounder. Not an effective scorer. Not an option of any kind except maybe once every 15 games. Hes not very athletic although he can show flashes every now and again.
I think we really tend to overvalue him. He seems to be more of a second string/situation big man as not many teams have that true big goofy center low post threat anymore.

We really need to see Aldrich step it up and take the starting center position from Perkins. Aldrich can run the floor with the other guys, he is great defensively, a great rebounder, a pretty good scorer (he actually has a good jump shot that is released so high up no one could even block it - ala old KG'ish) and has too much upside to let Perkins stay as the starting center.

[Devilanche]

I do think our needs for perkins intangibles will lesser over time with the core continued progressed. Right now at least, he's still important.

You can't go on about how Perkins is overrated and go on to say that Aldrich is great defensively/rebounder when he hasn't even got a run in the rotation to show that. Can't just based it off garbage minutes. He's probably a better scorer than perkins though that's not hard to do.