No brainer to me. Armon is just not very good and given the age of our bigs I say we keep CJ and Barron. We got plenty of guard depth.
Between a guy like Babbit and a guy like Armon; I would give Armon more of a chance. He has good size for a point guard, good athleticism and is willing to work to improve. He also has confidence; is not afraid to take a shot. If nothing else he might be a small trade asset at some point. Barron, at 30, and with average athleticism is not worth keeping. It seems we have enough bigs right now and if we need one later, one of his caliber will be available. .
Six of one, half a dozen of another in my opinion. Neither one is likely to matter one bit this year, but as "UKF" said above at least Armon's younger and might have some future value exceeding what he currently has now, so he's probably worth more as an asset than Barron.
Babbitt still has the premier skill for the NBA: shooting. Armon... doesn't seem to do anything that well (or the prospects of being above-average in anything, for that matter). I don't know that it makes sense to keep Earl Barron, though. If the team is down to playing him due to injuries, the season is over... so we might as well keep younger guys for the future in that case. Ed O.
There's an old guy who has the record for most FTs in a row. (Found it: it's Fred Newman.) It's in the thousands. But strangely, despite this amazing skill in shooting, he's not on an NBA roster. [video=youtube;NzYh4CGAbCU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzYh4CGAbCU[/video]
Armon and Babbitt have guaranteed contracts. Babbits goes on to next season. We haven't heard how much Oden's contract ended up being, but this team could be very close to the luxury tax limit. If we cut Armon we'd have Barron's $1 million dollar salary in addition to Armon's salary on the books that would potentially push us into the luxury tax territory. I'm not sure on the specifics of the new CBA, but it could reduce the distributions Paul Allen receives from tax teams, but more importantly from a fan perspective not allow the team the 150% or $5 million matching window for salaries in a trade. I think we should consider moving Babbitt in a trade if a team like Sacramento or Minnesota or someone is interested in having him for free, then we wouldn't have that salary next season either. But I don't think it makes sense to add Barron's salary when we already have to pay Armon in full.
We already have one spot for Chris J, OP is talking about cutting Armon then signing both Chris J AND Earl Barron.