Yeah, but I think he probably would slide back to the four when Lebron retires, especially after Rui starts to age in his own right. It is highly difficult to find good fours in the league. But for now, he could play the three. Would be a huge asset at the three at 6-8 with a 7-2 wing spn.
i'm still leery of him as a full-time sf due to the defense, but i can see a lot of minutes there. i agree that slimming down is better than bulking up for him. he's plenty big for his game.
I hear you. One could argue that Max would be the cleaner fit at the 3, because he is a better defender and a more reliable jumper. But unproven. Rui would be a good sixth man.
Rui showed me enough last season to not hesitate to start him at the three. He showed he bought into playing defense. With an entire off-season to put in the work it appears he has he is going to help in a ton of ways. He could start at three, be the sixth man filling a number of positions. My preference till I see more from the team during camp is for Rui to start at the three, Max at the two and Austin at point. Those three hounding players with AD behind them would be pretty solid. Lebron is smart enough to just float around picking off a few passes and point at others when his man scores. Though I don't think it will take long for the inevitable combination of AD and Colin to push Rui to sixth man. From a defensive point of view I would love to see stretches with Austin, Max, Rui, Vando and AD. Vando be a screener and cutter to mitigate his weakness on offense and that is a powerful unit. AD could just protect the rim and clean the boards, bark a few orders. We have so many possibilities and they are all good.
I'd been on the start Rui train but I think I've switched to wanting Vando to start. Vando's greatest value to us is guarding the premier wing players on the opposing teams, and we maximize that by having him on the floor to start each half. Plus if LeBron just bounces back a little from three, Vando's negative spacing isn't so harmful in the regular season. In the postseason I think it will always be hard for Vando to stay on the court the deeper a series goes, but LeBron will be picking up the slack defensively in those scenarios. Rui should still close each half with LeBron and AD though.
yeah, i still favor AD/lebron/vando/reaves/russell with rui/prince/christie/vincent/hayes being the big minutes guys off the bench. center minutes: AD (32), hayes (16) pf minutes: lebron (32), rui (8), prince (8) sf minutes: vando (20), rui (16), prince (10) sg minutes: reaves (32), christie (16) pg minutes: russell (24), vincent (24) jhs/reddish/castleton/hodge/lewis step in if/when there are injuries, though i could see reddish pushing christie and prince for minutes on the wing.
That minutes distribution looks great to me. Limiting LeBron and AD to 32 mpg each would be incredible.
lol, it's wishful thinking. no coach can resist playing those guys 34+mpg in the regular season. maybe popovich, i guess.
Sorry, but Lebron and D in the same sentence at this stage just don’t seem to fit. He’s much more likely to let his guy blow by him and blame someone else for it.
Any player that age can be expected to coast quite a bit. He had some nice defensive moments, but it’s also not sustainable for full games at a time.
That game was fun as hell, he just came out of nowhere and started bombing the threes he’s been short on almost the entire time he’d been here
I would say that he was turning Japanese, I really think so. But ................ he is already that and turning American!!
