Mr. 'Dropping his Thunder'-pants

THe Later Hosens drop Wilkins, pick up C. Smith

All right - time to get back on the posting - there's a lot of catching up to do, so these may be a bit short...

We discussed D.Wilk quite recently here. The Hosens did not show a great deal of patience with him, but it looks like he has a starting gig in OKC (CJK's latest FAP Post explains in detail). He didn't look very good in Wednesday action (3/2/2, in 33 minutes), but the OKCs were blown out so badly by the CLEs it's a bit hard to draw conclusions. Then again, the 'small-ball' lineup is now 0-2, which might draw a reconsideration from the new coach. On the other hand, the Thunda are now 1-15, so 0-2 might look good.

Craig 'The Rhino' Smith has yet to be discussed...until now! That said, there's not much to say. In his 3rd year out of BC (go Eagles!), the T-Wolf F-C has gotten some run lately, due in part to Kevin Love's disappearance, and a lack of production from any of the other frontcourt options in town (one of the J-Collinses, Mark Madsen, and 'The Custodian'). If K-Love doesn't step it up, the Wolves are really weak up front. Smith is not tall (well, he's 6'7", but he's not tall for an NBA PF), but he is fat, and clogs up the lane like nobody's business. I watched his game against Boston, and he's just a bit too slow to play good defense. He gets a lot of layups, but surprisingly few rebounds, and will presumably get 20 minutes a night against halfcourt oriented teams (note his good games have been against PHI and DET). His role may increase if Love continues to disappoint.

Judgment: The Hosen need big men, but Wilkins' current opportunity is intriguing; moreover, there are higher upside bigs available. Well, there were. As we'll see, the Hosen dropped the Rhino in his quest to corner the WAS frontcourt.

Brownout!

Hosen drop Kwame, pick up D. Wilkins

CJK must love the OKC Thunder! In what cannot qualify as a surprise, Kwame Brown is back in the FAP, after a few mediocre games for DET.

Damien Wilkins, fifth year swingman out of Georgia, has been filling in adequately for an injured DesMase. Interestingly, in the Thunder's first game under their new non-Carlissemo coach, they went small - i.e., no Swift or Petro clogging up the paint. Instead they played a recently productive SweetNickyC at C, moving Jeff Green to PF, and inserting D-Wilk as the starter at SF. Wilk ended up with only 11 pts, and nothing else, but he did log 27 minutes. Indeed, neither Sene, Petro, nor Swift even played tonight. If this continues, D-Wilk could see a quite nice boost in minutes (depending on how and when DesMase returns). Many of us have fond memories of some D-Wilk runs in previous years when he consistently contributed double digit points, a couple 3's and 4 or 5 rebs and ast. We'll have to see if the smallball continues.

Judgment: Kwame remains a cake-throwing sack of poo, and D-Wilk can produce, if he stays on the good side of the new coach. Verdict - a good risk for the Hosens.