How this year's bench compares with last years

Posted on LakersGround on 10/3 here
Our bench sucks - blah, blah, blah, blah

Let's look at our bench this year versus last year. For last year, I am including the difference in PER between the player and his man. The bench is listed in order of minutes played at the position. All stats are from 82games.com

Point Guard
Last year - Tierre Brown (-9.6)
This year - Smush Parker
Rating - Smush will be a solid upgrade

Shooting Guard
Last year - Butler (+0.8), Vujacic (-10.6)
This year - Wafer, George?, Vujacic
Rating - Hopefully on a slight worsening from last year

Small Forward
Last year - Jones (-5.7), Odom (-0.6)
This year - Jones, George, Odom
Rating - a healthy George provides additional depth and match up options

Power Forward
Last year - Cook (-1.0), Walton (-6.1), Jones (-3.6)
This year - Cook, Walton, Odom, Jones
Rating - Cook should be better this year. Walton had a terrible first half last year, but came one in the second half. Odom can play here for a "small" line up. Should be better.

Center
Last year - Grant -7.5, Cook -0.7, Medvedenko -2.1
This year - Divac or Blount, Dynum, Medvedenko
Rating - Depends on how Divac or Blount play. Grant was awful, Bynum will probably do well in the minutes he gets, so I think this will be a push or an upgrade.

Overall - three positions should be better than last year, one a push and one worse. Overall, the bench should be better this year.