First of all i agree with everything you said except the fact we NEED sully. Hes a rookie that in all likely hood won't see as much time once the playoffs start.
I disagree.
In the past Doc has never played a rookie big minutes period, but that's because he's never had a rookie that could give veteran-calibire production.
Sully is getting minutes right now because he's playing the right way and because he's not playing like a rookie. He's right for rebounds. he's taking charges, his moving the ball well, finishing well around the basket and he's doing it all with a great attitude.
As long a Sully continues to play the way he has he will continue to get minutes regardless of whether it's the regular season or playoffs. Sully has been outplaying Bass for some time now, and Doc clearly recognises that - today he played twice as many minutes as Bass did.
We need to trade out any combination of Bass, Lee, Barbosa and picks.
* Bass because he's redundant and Sully is doing just about everything better
* Lee because he becomes redundant once Bradley returns
* Barbosa because he's very streaky and too good a player to have riding the pine - he deservers an opportunity to play more
* Picks because if we have enough young guys, and if we make the right trade our future will already be set. Plus we are a playoff team so our picks will be late first round in a weak draft.
I'd prefer to keep both Sully and Melo but I would be willing to let them go if it would get us a youngish and high quality package in return (e.g. Cousins and Tyreke Evans, Gortat, Millsap, Josh Smith).
I would still do everything in my power to try to make a trade work without giving those guys up, and only would add them if it was absolutely necessary.
I think Bass is as good as gone to be honest. There are too many signs to ignore:
1. Bass' drop from the starting lineup
2. Bass' drop in minutes (less than 20 today)
3. Recent signing of a seemingly redundant power forward
All of the above tells me that Doc has Bass about ready to ship out, he's planning to start either Collins or Sully, then he's bringing in a low cost D league player as backup insurance once Bass is gone.
Adding to this I see Barbosa as a potential addition. He's a athletic and talented volume scorer on a vet minimum deal - that's the type of asset a lot of teams would have an interest in, so he may be a very valuable filler in any deal. For us he becomes pretty redundant once Bradley comes back, as both he and Terry can man the PG spot just as capably as Barbosa can.
Finally Lee - he's certainly shown improvement in the last 10 games (as opposed to the time prior to that) but I think once Bradley returns there's not going to be a lot of playing time for him. With Rondo playing nearly 40 mins a game and Bradley starting at SG, I'd expect to see Terry soak up a lot of those remaining minutes at both guard spots...and it would be a waste to [ay $6M for a guy who will be playing at most 10 minutes a night.
I really hope the rumour is true about Sacramento trade. If we could get either Tyreke Evans + Demarcus Cousins or Tyreke Evans + Jason Thompson (either works well) then it would strengthen our lineup significantly.
If it means giving up either Bass or Sully (not both) for a deal like that I'd be willing to pull the trigger. I would rather keep Sully but I know he'd get more interest from other teams, and I'd be happy enough with Bass as a backup PF behind Cousins/KG/Thompson - as long as he's not starting he's fine.