I said he would never return to being an acceptable starter or great bench caliber NBA player. I'm happy for him so far, but he has yet to prove he regained enough athleticism to attain either of those. I dearly hope I end up being ultimately wrong, especially with the Oden micro-fracture, but I think its still to early to tell. If Joel ends up beating Sean Marks for our backup C spot but is a below average backup center in the league I will not consider his return a success.
I only saw him play the Washington game, and the thing that stood out were the small things and fundamentals that so many of our players neglect. It was strange watching a shot go up and immediately Joel is looking for a guy to body and block out WHILE the ball is in the air. If Aldridge and Batum did that consistently, they'd put up much better rebounding numbers. Maybe there's something for flowing through gaps and attempting to board that way, but we have too many guys trying to do that. He definitely helps plug some major needs.
