Especially with Ricky hurting/ineffective, there’s little choice other than to start Thornton, and indeed play him big minutes. As much as we complained about his performance in the Denver game, it’s my opinion that he needed to be out there, if only because the alternatives (Novak, Collins) are worse. Novak is going to be a defensive liability and Collins didn’t help much on either end – at least not against the Nuggets.

But if the sole criterion for success is having a guy come off the bench to score 20 from time to time, I would say that problem is solved. Randolph had a season low 7 against Denver, but he can score – there’s little question about that.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the sole criterion for success.

They’ve even brought us back in some situations. Mike Taylor did a great job getting us back into the Denver game. I think that we need that kind of intensity coming from our first unit. I’m not saying that I’m content with the bench, but they should have better scores to work with when they come in. I think that we’re playing too much from behind, which ends up making our bench look worse.

When you’re 2-13, I don’t necessarily think that the bench is the first thing that we should be looking at. The bench is something to look towards when you’re team is close to getting over the hump and needs that extra push. Right now, I think we focus on the starters and hope we get to a point where the bench is our major problem.

That said, I think you present some valid points, and I think that we do have six players capable of starting with the Randolph trade. Lets stand pat on the personnel front and see how this unfolds.