Why is everyone down on SAR? He is a top 10 PF in the league and he will be starting next year at the PF spot be it if we still have KT or trade for Gooden or whatever. Also why do I always see when people have trade proposals to trade KT they always have the player we bring in starting and have SAR off the bench. He is too good to come off the bench.
The problem has always been he's barely a "power" forward at all. And not Top 10 anymore, if he ever was. And now that we've lost Bonzi that deficiency gets even more exposed -- our OG WAS our PF.
KG
Duncan
Dirk
Brand
Amare/Marion (whoever you want to call the PF)
Bosh
Gasol
Howard
J O'Neal
Webber
The question is where does he fall amongst the great mushy 2nd class:
Sheed (most would take)
Okafor (all would take)
Boozer
Gooden
Wilcox
Harrington
Randolph
Okur (actually might be moving to center with Boozer back)
West
Murphy
Martin
Jamison (if you call him a PF)
Odom (assuming he shifts back to PF now that Radmanovic has arrived)
He would be hardpressed to cleanly unseat any of those players, although multiple platoons could develop. Hence the question isn't whether he's Top 10, its whether he's Top 20. He also would not unseat Haslem/Walker in Miami, simply because they won with that balance. He was offered a chance to more or less be Antoine Walker for them and come off the bench behind Haslem, but turned it down. He would be hardpressed to be more than a platoon player with Villanueva or Frye in NY/Mil with talented kids needing to play. Or even here, with the uber-All-Star Kenny Thomas ahead of him. He might be able to start in Chicago, although I think Mr. Intangibles, PJ Brown, might hold him off and make him a 6th man again where he would be competing for minutes with a super rook in Tyrus Thomas. He might be able to get clean heavy minute starts in Boston (although if Jefferson comes on he could get unseated), New Jersey (who should have signed him), Hawks (althoguh doubt they would want him back), and Houston. Other than that? So maybe he's 15th-25th. A walking post game, but where are the "little things"?
In any case, if we decided to slow down the offense to feed Reef, he should still be capable of being a high teen type scorer maybe. But if he doesn't rebound, block shots, clog the middle, how is that any different than Antawn Jamison?