Settling it once and for all. Getting rid of Bargs: addition by subtraction?

[BasketballCrush]

I think your reasoning is sound, but Andrea came on as a player with Bosh's departure. His ppg increased as did his confidence.


When I see him play, I don't see defenders in his face, I cant remember me yelling, "why are you forcing it", from my recollection he is getting a lot of open looks and good oportunities at the basket, just has not been as acurate this year as he was in the previous years without Bosh.


The ball also seems to move better without him.

[Fully]

Addition by subtraction doesn't exist. If a guy isn't good enough to start he comes off the bence. If he can't do that, he's a body in case someone get's injured. Regardless, unless he's a locker room trouble maker, which Bargs ihas never been reported to be. Just removing him from the team doesn't make us better. At the very least you can have him come off the bench and open up the scoring.

I don't think Bargnani has been a bad teammate or locker room troublemaker, but I think it's fair to wonder whether that might change if he returns to the lineup to the role that so many of us hope for him. No starting spot, drastically cut minutes, long stretches on the bench watching when he isn't in one of his offensive grooves, sitting during crunch time, etc. That would be a very different picture than the one that he has been promised for so long by Colangelo, and the cynical part of me wonders whether it will become an issue inside the room. This isn't a problem unique to Bargnani really; Frankly I'd expect any player in the league to be pissed off if they had the rug pulled out from under them in that fashion, and I've been a Bargs hater for years.

Your other point about moving a player down the rotation based on his performance is true in theory but not necessarily in practice. Having ~11 million dollars tied up in any bench player means that they are going to be vastly overpaid, especially if he's going to be a guy that may or may not get many minutes on a night to night basis. Amnestying him this summer would allow that cap space to be used (hopefully) on pieces that will have much more of an impact on the team's success and provide much greater value for the franchise moving forward.