We know what we will get from bass. The other guys:
1-sully is a rookie and unproven
2- green, a year off after a heart issue (and was terrible in the time he was playing for us the year of the trade)
3- wilcox, coming off a heart surgery
4- darko, a bust his entire career
5- collins, insurance
1 - We actually have a pretty good idea of what we're going to get from Sully. Everyone knew even BEFORE we saw him play that he was going to give us strong rebounding, good hands, solid passing and a good finisher in the low post against small-medium sized Power Forwards. We all expected that his defense and conditioning would need some work.
So far in the first two preseason games he has shown those exact traits, and he has clearly shown us that right now he is our best offensive rebounder and probably out best inside scorer. When a guys first two games are perfectly consistent with his scouting report, then you can usually be pretty confident that he's going to live up to that.
2. The fact that Green is a year away from heart surgery means absolutely nothing if he is healthy
right now, and at this stage he looks like he's perfectly healthy.
When he played for us the year of the trade he had to adjust to a new team, a new role (from starter to bench player) a change of minutes (fom 30+ to just over 20 a game) and a new position (from maily PF over to primarilly a SF). He had to do all of that 20 games prior to the playoffs on a team who showed a lot of resistance to the trade (and hence he probabably had a lot of mental pressure on him to fill Perkin's shoes).
Despite all that he still averaged 15 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists on a per 36 min basis, while shooting 49% from the field and 80% from the foul line. Call me crazy, but if that's the kind of numbers he puts up when he's playing "terrible" after being chucked in the worst possible scenario, then that's a guy that I (and I think just about every team in the NBA) would be happy to live with.
I think the problem with Green is that because he's so young and talented (and replaced a guy every one loved so much) every one here seems to expect him to give us 22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists a night while shooting 50%/40%/90% and making the all-defensive team...and anything less that that seems like a dissapointment.
As I said, I'm willing to bet that any team in the league would be
thrilled to have a young, athletic 6'9" guy who can play multiple positions and give you and an efficient 10 points to go with 3 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench and he put up those numbers under the worst possible circumstances a player could be thrown into.
You think Miami wouldn't take Jeff Green in a heartbeat given the chance? How about Chicago, the Lakers, the Spurs? He's the type of player any team would love to have and you can be sure that OKC would have never traded him if not for the fact that they (1) were desperate for a tough defensive center and (2) already had an elite swingman in Durant.
3. Wilcox - as with Green, heart surgery is no concern unless the player shows any signs of it being an issue. Wilcox had his after Green so it may take him a bit longer to get his conditioning back, but if he gives us what he did last season he'll be very valuable.
4. Darko has been great these last two preseason games. In the past Darko has had talent, but lacked the motivation to bother to use it in regular NBA games that count. The last two games are essentially meaningless preseason games, yet still he's shown a nice effort level - to me that's a great sign. He's grabbing boards and blocking shots, and they are exactly the two things we need from a big right now.
5 - Collins is, as you say, insurance. I'll give you that!