Lol..yeah they'll probably play just as many minutes, as most of those guys you listed from Toronto did.
The difference is their roles One of those same size as Green is slated to play back up forward where we had 6'9 Kuz and 6'9 Morris. One other is a raw rookie. Russ and Bardley are both 6'3. Rondo and Cook are 6'1, only 1 played meaningful mins (off the bench). Bev and Schroder are 6'1, Nunn 6'2. Two have been rumored to be potential starters. Those 2 other 6'9 guys are a 3rd stringer and a 2 way player. That "7 footer to boot" isn't on the team, he's a camp invite.
That's the thing about roles, we don't know who is going to start or play where yet. You build your team around your talent, not some preconceived blueprint. This isn't a Vogel coached team. Ham may intend on playing his 5's a lot more than Frank did. That alone changes the dynamics of playing time and roles. Russ is 6'3 Nunn 6'2 that's not tiny. Dame and Cj were 6'2 and 6'3 in Portland doing OK. Like I said Toronto played 4 guards 6'3 and under and won a chip too. That being said..We don't HAVE to replicate our chip team or anyone else in order to be successful. We didn't try to emulate anyone in 19, we played to our talents. For all I know, those 3 guys that you are dismissing might end up grabbing a few minutes here. We'll see, but we can make moves as we move along if needed. Morris was a buyout pickup, Avery never made it the bubble and Dwight was a last minute signing. I have to actually see guys play, before determining what's not going to work. Lebron and AD are unique talents, I don't think there is only one type of roster makeup that fits around them.
No one’s talking about the really fine group of athletes we have this year including Jones at center.
You're still missing the inital point that if you are playing small guards, size everywhere else matters. And as currently constructed we lose a lot of size once we start going to the bench. Every team that deploys two small lead guards successfully make up for it with size on the wings and in the paint. And no one’s taking about replicating the bubble team. You brought them up as a size comparison.
Bev and Dennis are quality ball hawks, Reaves, Brown, Walker, JTA, whichever 5 doesn't start. I don't think a lot of 2nd units are going to overwhelm those guys at all. We still have those other 3 guys I mentioned, we are talking about spot minutes here with them.
Naw man. We have a bunch of scrubs and midgets I guess. We won't present matchup problems for anyone. It's all one way.
There's definitely some positives on this team. Youth, athleticism, and effort should be on full display. My issue and concern is that Rob did a piss poor job at setting them up to succeed. This roster was built on a trade that never came. The roster is so awfully constructed that Ham is going to have to be coach of the year for us to have a chance at competing. No defense, no shooting, too many redundant skill sets, too many small guards, too many lineup restrictions (to make X work then player Y has to be paired with him... there's a lot of that). I think it's hard to enjoy the good when we don't have a complete roster and we keep waiting for a trade that's not likely going to happen. There's too many "if onlys" for September.
Well until they actually play the games. Once that happens, some folks might be surprised at the results.
the bolded are things i expect a good coach to manage. rick carlisle deployed an occasional three small guard lineup and won a title doing so. he also built a top-tier defense that featured a 33 year old dirk nowitzki, among other guys not known for being defenders. defense is about attitude and execution as much as athleticism, imo. if ham can get our stars to recommit on that end, we should be able to be at least respectable on d. and his offense is actually tailored to having multiple ball handlers (who are often small in the nba) simply due to where a lot of the catches will be made and how open the center of the floor is supposed to be. i don't see what the huge fuss is about big wings. we have lebron. the biggest wing. and AD, who can play as a big wing on defense against the real brutes if need be. where i do agree is that not enough of our projected rotation players give the opposition a reason to guard them behind the arc. running 4 out with AD and russ making catches in the slot (or even on the wing) is giving the defense a gift, imo. obviously, ham has thought about this, so i'm curious to see what his plan is there. even if you start bryant, his lack of mobility or ability to floor the ball or pass makes him another poor candidate for anything but the 5 spot in the offense. again, ham knew he'd have AD (and maybe russ, too) when he took over and said which offense he was going to use, so maybe he sees something i don't.
This team's roster makes no damn sense now. Are they really going to throw away the season like this? The only lineups that work is where Westbrook is getting 15 minutes a game off the bench when AD is out. Way too difficult to get combinations that have both spacing and defense right now: you know two things that I'm pretty sure are a good idea to have if you want to be a good team in the modern NBA. Just a lot of head scratchers: Beverly/Schroeder make a whole lot of sense only if you trade or bench Westbrook Why they spent the MLE on Lonnie Walker who is a poor shooter and defender is beyond me. Without trading Westbrook, you're left with a likely malcontent or no means of getting some help at the wings which they didn't get with FA They have to trade WB to make this work just have to
They aren't trading Westbrook man, get over it. If Lebron and AD hadn't turned in another less than 30 game season, I don't think we'd be talking about Westbrook. We have two Top 10 at worst players in the NBA. Um..maybe if they played a full season the roster wouldn't be such a headscratcher?
Unfortunately, I just don't think we will be able to move Westbrook. Last year we thought there would be better deals at the trade deadline. Then we thought there would be better deals over the summer. Now we again want to believe there will be deals through out the season or the upcoming trade deadline. If it happens, great, but I'm not holding my breath for that. No one wants him period. And to be honest I get it from those teams perspectives. Worst trade in Laker history is going to hang over the franchise for another season. So, we've got to hope Ham can put together some kind of line up out of this and AD goes back to top 10 status in the league. It's really going to come down to how far he and LeBron can carry this flawed roster. I also see spacing and defensive issues but am hopeful Brown JTA, and Pat Bev can help AD on defense. There will be a quick hook on Russ. Not a lot of easy answers right now. Roster got younger which is an improvement but its still not good.
How come? I think Russ will play most of the time if not all with AD on the court. Didn't you meant LeBron? I imagine 1-3 will be played by these type of combinations: Russ-Pat-Lebron Schroder-Pat-Lebron Pat-Reaves-Lebron Pat-Reaves-Lebron Russ-Pat-Reaves Pat-Lonnie/Troy-Lebron Then 4-5 with: AD-Bryant AD-Jones LeBron-AD JTA-AD LeBron-Jones With this roster I imagine this minutes distribution: LeBron 35 AD 35 Russ 33 Reaves 28 Pat 27 Schroder 25 JTA 22 Jones 19 Bryant 19 Lonnie 11 Troy 11 I don't imagine Nunn plays. If he does, we take minutes from Lonnie and Troy. That gives us 10-man rotation with LeBron, AD, Russ, Reaves, Pat, Nunn, Schroder, JTA, Jones and Bryant. Name me a bad player in that group. That's pretty solid to fight for top 6 in the right system
If Nunn is healthy he is going to play. Based on his last good season he’s our 4th best player. That’s why the Walker signing makes little sense, he’s not better than Nunn, and he’s not better than Reaves in any category other than athleticism.
