I really like a lot of this post but I want to address the bold quickly. Better than the bottom 4-5 players on the roster last season, for me, represents a significant upgrade. Considering the first 7-8 healthy players form the bulk of the vital playing time on any given night, having a veteran that won't miss 'gimmies' and layups (ala Marion) could really come in handy. Jefferson gives you what we need right now - more shooting - plus, he provides dimensional depth in transition to deliver something extra that we currently don't have on this team.
I'm not trying to pick on you on personally Cassity, rather using yours as an example, but the sentence 'underwhelming upgrade that won't make much impact when it matters most' might be the general overstated sentiment on the board at the moment. Sure, there's no arguing that he's not a signing that blows the roof off. But when we're talking about 'impact when it matters most,' we've already got a pretty solid crux of guys who take care of this for us. Even if he was the kind of player to stamp his mark on games as a go-to option in the playoffs, we've already got a pretty reliable first, second, third and even fourth option on our team for this kind of scenario.
So when we talk about being better than the bottom 4-5 players but not making an impact when it matters most, this might actually be the kind of handy player we'll need moving forward. Somebody that can fill that 8-12 roster spot but doesn't have to be called upon to step up big in pivotal situations.
I'll continue to harp on about the most important figure: 33-3 with a healthy, full roster last season. It doesn't matter who you add to this team, if our main guys aren't healthy, then there's no number of roster upgrades we can execute that will work in our favor heading into a playoff run. Keep our guys healthy, and take care of business with veterans and shooters. This is the mantra of the front office at this point, and I don't see why they should have any reason to think otherwise given the evidence.