You don’t move to a 9 man rotation by dropping Travis out, because you don’t have anyone to play backup PF (unless we’re going to see 10-15 mpg of Joel and Greg together, which no one expects).

So if you drop Travis out, you replace him with Juwan in the rotation, which Quick suggested. But if you do that, you aren’t moving to a 9 man rotation, unless we’re going to a three guard rotation, which no one believes is happening, either. Or else we’re going to a three man rotation at the wings (Roy, Rudy, Nic) and leaving Martell out, which no one believes is happening, either.

So basically, Quick is talking rubbish here. If his “source” has told him Nate is thinking about a 9 man rotation, his “source” is either lying or ignorant. If Nate goes to 9 men, it is irrelevant to Travis, we’ll still need a backup PF, so to bring it into the Travis conversation shows that Jason either wasn’t thinking critically about his info, he was just stirring the pot, or he’s intentionally helping Nate send a message to Travis (which I really doubt he’d do).

Anyone seen the games this preseason?

He doesn’t even look like HE thinks he’s going to make the rotation.

Top ten performers (in approximate order of preseason performance, not necessarily projected playing time):

Oden
Miller
Howard
Bayless
Przybilla
Roy
Aldridge
Webster
Blake
Batum

Others:

Udoka
Outlaw
Fernandez (Grade: incomplete)
Collins (Grade: incomplete)
Cunningham (Grade: incomplete)
Pendergraph (Grade: incomplete)
Mills (Grade: incomplete)

Now, when a guy struggling to make the team as a 15th man (Udoka) beats you out, you have to question whether you are going to make the active roster on game day, let alone the playing rotation. Rudy comes back from injury, and that’s eleven guys guaranteed to be on the roster who are outplaying Travis, and there is no way Nate consitently goes to an eleven man rotation, let alone twelve. Even assuming Bayless ends up getting edged out (tough to do the way he’s been playing), there is no way that Nate shaves minutes from Batum in favor of Outlaw, and it’s tough to envision Outlaw taking minutes from a high BBIQ and ACTUAL PF guy like Howard, especially the way he’s lit a fire under hsi teammates this preseason.

I really think Travis is out of the rotation, so waiting to make a trade until mid-season seems like a bad move, unless it’s just to a team that wants the expiring contract and won’t care that he’s been collecting bench slivers all season. that said, there will probably be a lot of those teams out there, and if we can do a consolidation trade at midseason using the salary cap space of Blake and Travis that we considered doing last year, I am still all for that, so long as it nets us our PG of the future to pair with Andre for the next couple years until Andre moves on.

we have 9 guys that are set in the rotation with Howard, Bayless, and Outlaw deserving of some minutes. I say let’s see how Howard does over the next week and if he can be a solid back up PF then Outlaw and Bayless fight for who doesn’t get traded.

In point of fact, we don’t need a reporter to make the obvious point, which is that Outlaw is at risk for playing time. Batum’s inevitable improvement, Websters return, Howards experience, and Fernandez’s skills and continued improvement virtually guarantees a minute crunch at the 3 and very likely the 4 spots. It began last year though, when Webster went down and Outlaw could not step up – deferring instead to a 19 year french rookie – Batum, who virtually no one thought would get many minutes. From that point on, the hand-writing has been on the wall for Outlaw. He had to step up and improve his game – meaning defense and rebounding – yet we haven’t seen it. Mac likes to portray Outalw as a good man to bring off the bench to provide some quick offense and points – and he did do that. However, that was last year. Short of an injury, I can’t see Outlaw getting many minutes at the 3, and with Howard on the team, I think he’ll get squeezed at the 4 as well.

Sometimes it all comes down to players who can seize the moment. Outlaw had that moment handed to him last year – and he couldn’t seize it.