psico, that's about as good of a summary of the situation vis-a-vis Nixon as I've seen. I think YMMV on the statement of "he can play", but it's more 'to what degree'.

The only thing I would add that Rich Bisaccia, who pushed to bring in Nixon almost from the day he was hired, departed this past offseason. And there was something of an 'oddity' about his (Bisaccia's) departure. They didn't fire him right at the end of the season, and he didn't leave until quite a bit later. It just seemed a little 'odd'. I wonder whether that (Bisaccia leaving, as well as the not-quite-normal way it all happened) is stuck in Nixon's craw in some way? Frequently, when a player has an attitude issue, it's not one big thing that happened, but rather an accumulation of small happenings over time...