re: the bolded parts
You posted that WC sucked. I looked at your numbers, dug marginally deeper, and came away completely unconvinced by your own stats, as opposed to finding them sobering.
RJ has played with . . .
A. Better defensive players, especially in the post having his back and even on the wing. Tim Duncan's DRtg numbers are amazing. Andrew Bogut for MIL last year, without even having to look up his numbers, was a good defensive center. Manu Ginobili, statistically by DRtg, I believe was just as good or even better than Bowen.
Who was out there having Chandler's back? David Lee and Danilo Galinari?
B. RJ has had defensive minded coaches who had systems. Pop, Skiles, Frank.
Chandler spent the last two years with D'Antoni. What was he supposed to do?
So no, I don't think anyone is arguing that Chandler is Bowen or Battier.
But is it really such a stretch to think he's an upgrade over RJ defensively?
Shouldn't the Spurs want an upgrade option?
He's not much of an improvement over RJ in the 3pt department, though he's looked good in the games I've watched this pre-season. But unlike RJ, he can play the 4, something RJ either can't or won't, as evidenced by the stories last year about RJ being removed from the role of smallball 4.
I've posted most recently on Chandler that I didn't think it was realistic because he'd be a one year rental, as the Spurs likely wouldn't/couldn't fork out the money to keep him.
But today I was recalling how they dumped 1 first round pick for what at the time was a 1/2 year rental of Kurt Thomas because they were in the desperate 'win now' mode.
Maybe that could happen again?
EDIT: confused the # of picks of the Thomas trade for the Nazr trade, fixed it to only 1 first rounder