Well, the thing about David Lee. Yeah, he's only like, 6'9", but he plays a lot bigger than that...
..and don't give him TOO much crap for his defense. He's been on D'Antoni's defensive juggernaut for a few seasons now.
And, since I just realized a weakness of mine... (What? Doesn't everybody constantly search for theirs...?) I am going to provide statistics to back up my argument. Either that, or I am going to delete everything below and including this paragraph and just sign the post here. That's the weakness. Sometimes, I make arguments with nothing backing them up, 'cause, to me, it's obvious Lee's a really, really good player that would help us a great deal... (Except against the Lakers, 'cause their size is just too much, and Lee - no matter how big he plays - is only 6'9".
Anyway..
Among players who played the majority of their minutes at the center position, David Lee ranked 4th in the league in PER last season. (Duncan, Howard, and Oden were the three above him...) All "real" centers. (Yeah, I know Duncan's a power forward. He's a four so he can be an All-Star...) That's better than Bogut, Bynum, and (Mark) Gasol. It's better than a similar player, also from UF, in Al Horford. He ranked 14th overall, with no positional considerations taken into account.
Alright, screw it. I don't need stats for this... even though his rebound rate is 17.9%, and he's a 20/10 guy who shoots 80% from the line and 55% from the field (with a TS% closer to 60%...) while dishing out 3.5 assists per game and rarely getting into foul trouble.
I don't stats 'cause his biggest defensive weakness - weak side help as a shot-blocker, happens to be Serge's specialty. Also, since we play more team than individual defense, he won't find himself in a lot of weak side "I have to make this play defensively" situations. Sure, he's not big enough to bang with L.A., but I'd rather have him out there than Collison. (No offense to Collison, whose game I respect, even as I look to replace it...)
Oh, and, even in D'Antoni's offense, he only took 8 three's all season. That alone is reason enough to try to make him the consolation prize when they can't land Bosh from Houston.
the_ouskull