I agree that Earl Barron has always played well for us when given the chance.
More to the point, all the other options so far make less sense.
Ivan Johnson is the best player (based upon PER) that we have considered but it is hard to see him as a backup center rather than just an additional PF (we already have seven players who can play PF).
Wang Zhelin has more long-term potential but is probably a year or two away.
Jerome Jordan and Hamed Hadaddi are also reasonable alternatives. Jordan is actually ranked highest by PER, but Barron has played the best for us historically. My inclination is to invite both Jordan and Barron to camp (and Haddadi if possible) and let them compete for the final spot, reserving the right of course, to grab someone else who gets cut from another camp at the last minute if they are clearly superior (but I sort of doubt that will happen).
However, if Barron indicates that he may sign somewhere else, we might be forced to take him sooner, and that would be an acceptable outcome.
