With the injury list constantly getting longer and longer Byron Scott must make difficult decisions regarding who will be getting more minutes. In recent games he has opted to play without a center for most of the 3rd and 4th quarter despite our inability to run a decent offensive set or stop anyone in the paint. Last game Chris Paul actually tried to play center for a few minutes and nearly wound up ending his (and our) season.

After the game I caught up with Byron Scott and asked him what was going on.

Me: Byron, what’s going on with playing 3 or 4 guards and David West for the entire second half when it clearly doesn’t work?

BS: Well with all the injuries we have had to make some tough decisions.  So instead of trying to win games I just throw out 3 guys who play similarly, Chris Paul and David West. If we had a center I’d be happy to play him, but alas we don’t.

Me: What about Melvin Ely? He’s a veteran who can grab a few defensive boards and play decent defense. I realize he’s not ideal, but we really can’t have Chris Paul guarding the post against 7-footers. He almost died last night. Ely played 50+ games last year as a reserve on a team that looks much better than this one.

BS: I don’t think he’s around anymore. I’m not sure what happened to him. He might be on OKC.

Me: No….that’s Chris Wilcox. I see Ely on the bench every game. I think he’s actually the only healthy center we have.

BS: Are you sure? He’s a pretty noticeable guy. I think I would have seen him.

Me: Byron, he got a haircut. He’s still the same guy otherwise though. I know he looks shorter, but he’s actually the same size and still has the same skill set that he had before the cut.

BS: OH YEAH! I was wondering who that was. Hmm….normally I just like to watch Chris Paul do whatever he wants since my coaching career depends solely on him. Maybe I’ll stop being a clown coach and play a center when we clearly need one, but probably not since that’s not my style. I really like playing Butler, Posey and MoP at the same time so we can can’t run the pick and roll AND our defense is too small. David West is pretty tall. He can guard both big men for the entire 2nd half and carry the offensive burden without resting at all right? Plus, Ely (it that’s actually him) just doesn’t look as cool without the hair and that’s all that matters in my book. Did you see my mean suit last game? It was ballin… Not basketballin, but more like volleyballin….