He's turned himself into a very nice little player. Lockdown defender at the 1, excellent at the 2, solid at the 3. Tremendous ballhawk as well. Even gets blocks on his man (2nd on the team in blocks in the playoffs). Solid rebounder too.
On offense his jumper is still completely busted, but he's a surprisingly decent post player against small 1s and combo guards. He's also a much improved off-the-ball cutter. Solid finisher around the rim, with the athleticism to make something out of nothing but lacking the touch to be really remarkable. Very capable of taking his man, even good defenders, off the dribble with crossovers and getting fouled at the rim, but still very turnover prone on these forays. Lacks a floater so he also tends to huck some ugly stuff off the drive when contested.
I'd really like to keep him. We have his bird rights so we can fill his rotation spot without tapping into the MLE, he's shown he can play with Rondo in spurts, he knows the system and he's finally shown the ability to contribute in the playoffs.
His complete lack of a jumper and his inability to play the 1 will hopefully keep the bidding down on him. Consider that Bruce Bowen, the perennial 1st team defender and corner 3 marksman (39% career 3pt shooter), only got $4.1 mil in his biggest payday. Here's hoping Milwaukee doesn't spring out of the woodwork to fill their overpaid non-shooting shooting guard slot now that Desmond Mason and Ruben Patterson are out of the league.
