State of the Thunder: Should Jeff Green be coming off the bench in OKC?

I want to begin this article by saying that you will not find a bigger Jeff Green fan than I am. In fact, outside of Nick Collison, he's my favorite player on the Thunder squad. However, he seems to be misplaced at the power forward position.

At 6"9, 235 pounds the man simply doesn't have the size to play against the likes of Pau Gasol, Tim Duncan, or even Dirk Nowitzki on the defensive side of the ball. I actually think his speed and skill set give him a unique mismatch on offense, but without a dominant low post presence to help him on defense he is often taken to school by his bigger opponents.

I would like to propose a simple solution to that: bring him off the bench. Effectively this would give them a starting five of Russell Westbrook, Thabo Sefolosha, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka/Nick Collison, and Nenad Kristic. Alternatively, they could regulate Nenad to back-up duty (which I see happening soon) and go with a front court of Ibaka and Collison.

If you've watched the Thunder play lately you'll notice that they often make large runs when Ibaka and Collison are playing together. This is because they are much better rebounders than the soft Kristic and they have the size Green lacks. It's only natural to assume that if one or both of them started we would continue to see them play at a high level.

However, Green's lack of production on the defensive side isn't the biggest reason I would like to see him become the team's sixth man. The main thing to me is that he has a game that is very reminiscent of another man who had difficulty finding a real position earlier in his career, Lamar Odom. Both Green and Odom have very unique skill sets, especially at their height. In fact, the two seem so similar to me in terms of how they could be used, that it's surprising to me no one has actively asked this same question.

If Green is able to buy into being the sixth man, the Thunder would have one of the better benches in the League. He would come in with the second team and dominate most other team's benches while playing his more natural position of small forward.

With Green and James Harden leading the bench to dominance the Thunder might be able to overcome their lack of size. If that happens they might be able to take the next step towards an NBA Championship. I don't envision this working over night, but it's something OKC might want to look into given Odom and the Lakers success with a similar plan.