Trade one, Start one, and Second unit one

[Soft Euro]

The most important thing, in my opinion, is which position you can DEFEND. Bargnani is 7 feet, is "most effective" when defending bigger, slower post up players and struggles against faceup and quicker players. Sounds like his most effective position on defense is center.

And the problem with the notion that his defense would be less of a problem against a defensive center, I give you Amir and Davis. Both guys who are good team defenders and is exactly the type of player that everyone says Bargnani should play beside. And it didn't help at all.

There is not much here I disagree with. Some minor points. I think our main difference is that I think they'll keep Bargnani and you think (or hope) that he is going to be traded. I still think that IF he stays and they do want to add a center (as was said by Casey), then that's the best option, add someone who can anchor the defense (and is taller than amir). One point: that his 'best' defense is against post-up players does in my mind not mean he needs to play center.

[mcHAPPY]

Well, if we quote those numbers we should add the following:

Bargnani's PER as a C was 16.2

Bargnani's PER as a PF was 30.5

Furthermore, if I read it correctly, according the player floor time stats by position Bargnani only played 1% of all total available time at PF. That makes the stats at PF not very dependable. So, if we do take the stats seriously the PER difference at PF (-1.3) was way better (read 'not as terrible') than the PER difference at C. But because of the 1% we should not base any arguments on these stats.

Good point on the small sample size.

Unfortunately either way it is sliced he is still a liability on the defensive end.

[Soft Euro]

Unfortunately either way it is sliced he is still a liability on the defensive end.

Yeah, I read that somewhere on this forum...

[Tim W.]

There is not much here I disagree with. Some minor points. I think our main difference is that I think they'll keep Bargnani and you think (or hope) that he is going to be traded. I still think that IF he stays and they do want to add a center (as was said by Casey), then that's the best option, add someone who can anchor the defense (and is taller than amir). One point: that his 'best' defense is against post-up players does in my mind not mean he needs to play center.

I think that Casey is saying a lot of things, as coaches and management do. One reason I pay little attention to what coaches, GMs or players say is because it isn't necessarily how they really feel and even if it is, who cares. I care about what happens, not what is said. A month before Charlie Villanueva was traded, Colangelo stated that he was part of the core. GMs say what they have to in order to best serve the franchise. Every comment is measured. Player learn to say the right thing (well, except for Gilbert Arenas) in order to best serve themselves. Coaches say what what they have to to best serve the team.

Does what Casey say mean that he actually does want to make it work with Bargnani, or because he's trying to do what he can to expedite a Bargnani trade by keeping his value as high as possible. In actual fact, we have absolutely no idea WHAT he really wants.

As for Bargnani's position, he struggles more defensively against PFs than he does centers, because there are more quicker faceup PFs than centers, and those are the types of players he has the most problems with. So if you move him to PF to "protect him" defensively, you're actually making him worse defensively. And on offense, he doesn't like to post up smaller player, so playing him at PF isn't really an advantage over playing him at center, where he can take 7 footers, who are slower, outside where he can either shoot when they give him too much room or go by them when they play him for the shot.

[mcHAPPY]

Yeah, I read that somewhere on this forum...

You sir, just got nominated for QOTW!!!!!