Great job building this roster. While I am concerned about what we might be defensively, we just might outscore everybody. LOL.
For how much flak we're getting on our perimeter shooting, after today: (I used last year's 3p% only rather than career as 3p%s are going up leaguewide as players focus their training more and more on them) % of 3s shot last year minimum 3 attempts 35%+ 3 pointers = * 38%+ 3 pointers = ** 40%+ 3 pointers = *** Wayne Ellington .422 *** Marc Gasol .410 *** Carmelo Anthony .409 *** Kent Bazemore .408 *** Malik Monk .401 *** Kendrick Nunn .381 ** Lebron James .365 * Trevor Ariza .350 * ------------------------------------------------------ all under 3 attempts per game Alfonzo McKinnie (actually shot .410% but on 1 attempt per game, for 6 minutes average isn't bad output) Anthony Davis .260 Dwight Howard n/a Talen Horten Tucker .282 Russell Westbrook .315 5 guys over 40% 1 guy over 38% 2 guys over 35% More than 1/2 the roster is in acceptable, if not good-very good 3p territory Next: Sign Buddy Hield with an S&T w/Schroder and a 3rd team or however they are working it out (fingers crossed) and resign Duds and we are looking pretty damned good from 3 if Vogel puts a heavy limit on Russ and AD as well as THT if he hasn't improved dramatically.
I feel a little more comfortable with Monk and especially Nunn. I was terrified that we'd be relying on Bazemore, or worse, Ariza for major minutes. I wonder if we'll try the three small guard lineup similar to what OKC did a couple seasons ago with Westbrook/Monk/Nunn along side AD and Lebron.
PG: Westbrook 32 min + LeBron 10, THT 6 SG: Ellington 15, Nunn 15, THT 8, Bazemore 10 SF: LeBron 12, THT 14, Ariza 12, Bazemore 4 PF: AD 16, Melo 18, Lebron 10, Ariza 4 C: Gasol 14, Howard 18, AD 16 Still missing Monk and Bazemore, need to do this again, stopped half way as it is tough to get all these guys minutes. We have 7(!!!!!) wings who can shoot and/or play defense. Not sure how will they play together. I guess it can only work if either LeBron plays a lot the 4 or THT is the backup PG. We have no other floor general who can play there not named LeBron or Westbrook. You also don't want LeBron all the minutes Westbrook is resting, that means they will play less together Quite interesting roster, a lot to decide and test and play during the regular season
Really interesting 24 hours. Nunn was a big surprise! Monk was unexpected while THT & Melo were expected. I think over the season we will have a depth chart resemble something like: WB (30) / Nunn (18) Ellington (16) / THT (16) / Monk (16) Bazemore (20) / Ariza (16) / Lebron (8) / THT (4) Lebron (22) / Melo (20) / AD (6) AD (24) / Dwight + Gasol (24) It's a solid 12 man rotation with a ton of shooting. We have good defenders in AD, Dwight, Gasol & Ariza, and I expect Lebron and WB to be decent. Nunn, THT, Bazemore and Monk are where we can expect some improvement from Vogel's defensive coaching and hopefully two of them can really step up here. We may not have a single lockdown defender on the wings, however we have a lot of looks we can throw at any premier PG/SG/SF. For SF's, we can throw Ariza, THT, Bazemore, Monk and Lebron at them. For the small guards we have Westbrook, Nunn, THT, Monk and Bazemore. For the premier PFs we can go AD, Ariza and Lebron. I anticipate we can be a top 10 defence and offence this year. When we get to the playoffs we'll probably only run a 9 player rotation and some of the overlapping role-players will sit, while injuries will do their thing for others. Maybe something like: WB (38) / Nunn (10) Ellington or Monk or THT (30) / Nunn (18) Bazemore (28) / Ariza (14) / Lebron (6) Lebron (32) / Melo (16) AD (38) / Dwight or Gasol (10) I think some of main competition for roles for the playoffs on the team will be Ellington vs Monk vs THT. I expect Monk to win out here if he can improve his defence. I think Bazemore vs Ariza vs THT could become a thing. If THT can become a high level wing defender, he'll make Ariza redundant and eat into some of Bazemore's playing time. The last one is Dwight vs Gasol. Either way I'm happy with this team, we have a lot of flexibility. We can play defensive, we can play big, we can play small, we have shooting, we have some young guys in the guard spots. Great job all things considered.
Five hall of famers. If we're factoring in international play into the consideration, 6 with Marc. Who else has anything close to that? I don't think rotations will be finalized until we get camp (finally...a training camp!) under our belts. I also think it'll flux a fair bit with some minute restrictions to Bron (maybe others) during the dog days of the season.
The only team that comes close is the Nets: Irving Harden KD Blake Patty Mills (international consideration) Either way I hope we get this finals matchup. It’ll be a titanic struggle!
Starting lineup Westbrook Ellington Lebron Davis Marc 2nd unit Nunn THT Monk Melo Dwight On nights big 3 rest you still have Bazemore and Ariza to fill in as backups. Not bad
My closing lineup based on this roster without a single minute played: Westbrook Nunn Ariza LeBron AD Ariza is key because of size. If he's not capable we will have issues. Options: - Melo and are burned on D - Bazemore and lack size - Monk or Ellington and lack size AND D - THT and lack shooting Gay would be perfect for this role, goddammit. From the guys still available, only Millsap would be good enough to play the closing lineup and to get him for the min is just too good to be true. I'm thinking playoff time, where we will have to beat Kawhi and PG or Durant, Harden and Irving. Maybe Bazemore develops into a KCP and solves that issue
I love projecting rotations lol Take 2: PG: Westbrook (30) | LeBron (7) | Nunn (11) SG: Ellington (20) | Nunn (14) | Monk (14) SF: LeBron (10) | Ariza (15) | THT (23) PF: AD (17) | LeBron (13) | Melo (18) C: Gasol (15) | Howard (20) | AD (13) Big 3 with 30-35min Nunn and THT around 25 Ellington or Monk and Howard on the 20s Ellington or Monk, Ariza, Melo and Gasol in the 10/15s We can do a bunch of combinations Starting 5 is locked with the doubt on the 2. I guess we will try to have either LeBron or Westbrook on the floor in the playoffs, during reg I see us running THT+Nunn+ (Monk or Ellington) for some stretches Some interesting combinations: Westbrook-Nunn-Monk-Lebron-AD Lebron-Ellington-THT-Melo-Howard Westbrook-Monk-THT-Ariza-AD Westbrook-THT-Lebron-AD-Howard (whenever we want to go physical, damn this lineup is scary) I think Melo and Ellington play most of the time with LeBron. There's no lineup where we don't have at least 2 snipers, except the BIG lineup. Our bench is ready to run. If we don't kill the curse this year, I vote to stop trying triples for the rest of Lakers history.
hmmm...minutes will be tough to sort out, but my guess is injuries take care of a lot of that, as they often do. i don't think i see ariza playing as much as everyone else does. i see him as an emergency/occasional player. westbrook 30/nunn 18 monk 20/ellington 16/THT 12 (my guess is one of these guys falls in and out of the sg rotation, though, so it won't be consistently split like this, just averages out) lebron 20/baze 16/THT 12 AD 20/melo 18/ lebron 12 gasol 16/dwight 18/ AD 12 feel like THT can play some 1 in a pinch and nunn can play some 2 to get some more minutes. truth is, though, few teams play 12 guys consistently, and vogel seems to like to keep it to 10, right? my guess is one center and one of the sgs will be on the shelf for periods of time, which will sort it all out.
Yeah one of the only concerns I have about our roster construction at this point (and it’s a good problem to have) is how we find minutes for everyone. I just hope we were transparent in our negotiations about everyone’s roles, and made them aware that some of them may go stretches with DNP-CD, but they need to stay prepared because eventually their numbers will be called based on the matchups and injury situations.
I feel like we need another 4, no? I don’t know that Marc, Dwight, AD, and Melo is a complete frontcourt, unless LeBron plans to play a lot of 4 this season
that was my thinking above. we know it was discussed among lebron/AD/russ, and we know that we signed a ton of guards. my thought is that you start each half pretty traditional: marc/AD/lebron/ellington/russ and finish halves small: AD/lebron/russ/2 guards (monk, THT, nunn) in between, you mix and match a bit depending upon opponents, injuries, chemistry.
