/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/22961/20120222_tjg_sb4_032.jpg)
Here's a tough question to answer: where does Trevor Booker play this season?
Last year, Booker started 32 games at power forward. He wasn't perfect, and an injury ended his season for the second straight year, but most Wizards fans would probably say they were happy with his progress. If the Wizards made no moves to improve their frontcourt and plugged Booker in as the incumbent starter at power forward, I don't think too many people would have complained. Instead, Booker has to fight for minutes with Nene, newcomer Emeka Okafor, an improved Kevin Seraphin and last year's first-round draft pick, Jan Vesely. Nene is one of the team's cornerstones, Okafor will play because he is highly-paid and Seraphin and Vesely are two youngsters the Wizards need to develop in order to get to where they want to go in the future. All that makes it tough to determine Booker's place in the Wizards' hierarchy.
Then again, we were in this same spot last year. Booker was asked to play some small forward as a rookie, and then the Wizards picked Vesely and Chris Singleton in the 2011 NBA Draft. We wondered where Booker would play, and he still carved out a role as the team's starting power forward. There are some players that just find their way to the court thanks to their effort and consistency. Booker seems well on his way to being one of those guys, provided he stays healthy.
POSITIVES TO BUILD ON: Booker's perimeter jumper is still a work in progress, but he made significant improvement last season, upping his shooting percentage on 16-23 foot jumpers from 18 percent as a rookie to 34 percent last season. He still has to improve that by another 5-10 percentage points to progress more as a player, but last season's progress was encouraging.
AREAS TO IMPROVE: He works hard defensively, but he still finds himself out of position defending pick and roll far too often. He's also a bit undersized, which hurts him when he's guarding post players. MySynergySports.com numbers are imperfect when we're talking about defense, but Booker still ranked 302nd in the league in defending plays that directly involved him.
PROJECTED SPOT IN ROTATION: As noted above, this is really tough to figure out, but I think he finds his way in some way or another.
OUTLOOK: It always seems like the Wizards make personnel decisions without Booker in mind, and it always seems like he finds a way to play at least 20-25 minutes a game. Even with all the bodies the Wizards have in the frontcourt, I expect the same to happen this year, so long as Booker stays healthy.
What are your projected statistics for Booker this season? What are your general expectations for him?