Game 19: Oklahoma City Thunder (12-6) vs. Dallas Mavericks (11-7) | 8:00pm CST

[DanSchwartzgan]

Williams was a good signing, and will be valuable off the bench but he's extremely undersized. He does not provide what this team is lacking and that is rebounding and paint presence.  Toughness. 

A bigger 4 who can score, rebound, and guard the paint, while also covering the 5 for limited minutes is what this team is missing. Basically a healthy Maxi in his prime.  Siakam is the prototype, but the asking price will be insane. I doubt any combination of Green, THJ, Hardy, Omax, Holmes, Kleber, picks get this done. 

So do we find the next Maxi or the Next Siakam? This is why you and many others were looking at P.J. Washington.  Who else fits this type player and is available?

PJ isn’t a ton bigger than Williams, but he can do more with the ball in his hands and he is the better rebounder.  PJ has said publicly that something was close to happening with Dallas.  What we don’t know is whether that was pre or post the GWill ‘trade’.

I’d probably put John Collins in this same category (slightly bigger than GWill, does more with the ball and is a better rebounder).  Neither of these guys is the defender that Siakam is.  We can probably argue as to whether they are better defenders than Williams (I suspect the answer might be no if Williams still played for Boston).  PJ seems like the odd man out in Charlotte.  Trading a second for Collins and getting back a first seems like an Ainge thing to do.