.... ALL of it. Agree especially with the importance of the "starts" to the game and the 3rd quarter. Ham needs to rotate better, and that's not rocket science even for him.
I like the starting lineup with Austin. If it was earlier in the season I’d want Malik to start, but because we’re going to be shortening the rotation for the playoffs anyway, I’m not even sure Malik will be in the rotation. He’s kind of shot himself out of minutes. I assume Rui, Troy, Wenyen and Dennis will be the only bench players getting regular play and realistically it will only be 3 of them.
Starters: Russell, Reaves, James, Vanderbilt, Davis 2nd Five: Beasley, Schröder, Hachimura, (4 spot) open, Gabriel
I like Austin. I don’t have time to worry about which Beasley is gonna show up night to night in the playoffs. I don’t trust Ham to pull him when he’s 0-4 to start the game and we’re down double digits in the 1st quarter. At least with AR I know what I’m getting.
I think our best starting lineup is AD, Lebron, Vanderbilt, DLO and Reaves. However I recognize that this does not leave others in their best situation for the team to maximize its potential. I am not going to pretend I know the quick answer to this but I do think that next year, that should be our starting 5 and we should build around them. As subs, I like most of our guys but am unsure which ones will succeed in the roles available to them here. That is what we should be figuring out right now. I actually like Schroder off the bench, not the best playmaker and has his weaknesses but certainly brings a big spark and can get us some buckets, plus he is capable of playing in the starting lineup if we have an injury. If we can find a guy who gives us more options, then go for it, but honestly, I will say that about everyone we have. Not really sure about Beasley vs Walker. Probably don't need them both coming off the bench. We have time to figure this out.
Yeah, Hachimura can play the power forward spot (4). Troy or Lonnie at the 3 in spot minutes? TBH, with all the injuries and MIA's this crew is kind of a work in progress.
Problem with Troy or Lonnie is if we are “prioritizing” Malik over them, and then Beasley is back to needing better looks most of the time. How bout if he’s sucking any night …. live up to your word when you got here Ham, and play the guy deserving it in practices and games both sides of the ball in Troy or Lonnie and still stagger the bench with one of LBJ, HBK or DLO.
if Buss family dont cheap out, we should use mo/beasley combined salary for a trade per @abeer3, $31M can get us something nice
This is a great point. Almost everyone, even the people arguing to start Beasley, thinks that Reaves is the better player and should get many more minutes than Beasley, whereas Beasley's play has been warranting fewer and fewer minutes. However, if you start Beasley, you are basically guaranteeing him an increased number of minutes vs if he came off the bench. Those minutes should be going to Reaves. Especially in the playoffs. For example, if you start Beasley, even if you don't close with him, he's likely to get 20+ minutes. Would you rather a game where Beasley gets 20 min and Reaves gets 28, or a game where Beasley gets 16 and Reaves gets 32? I think most of us would want the one where Reaves gets more min. This is another point in favor of Reaves starting.
I don’t think anything needs to be set in stone. But Reaves can get plenty of minutes coming off the bench. It’s about playing guys in contexts where they can best succeed. To me that’s Beas playing with Lebron and Dlo mostly as well as AD which is best done with the starters. If he is bricking a lot and hurting us then take him out. Reaves needs to close.
It is imperative to the success of our team that Austin starts and closes. We need to build consistency and chemistry with our best line up playing together with what few games are left. We have our starting five so no more experimenting or juggling needed. Let Malik shoot his way out of the Laker induced "Limelight Syndrome" from the bench. He will have hot stretches and possibly win a game or two for us during the playoffs. That is a good role for him. Next season he will have the opportunity to try again.
How many minutes does Team Start Beasley want him to play, vs how many minutes for Reaves and how many for DLo and Schroder? Because I am starting to think that is an increasingly important factor in who to start. For example, I did a full minutes allocation of what I would like to see, and it almost requires Reaves to start, esp as the playoffs go on. This may be tldr, but to anyone who reads it - any comments on if it's good, or if you would change the minutes of anyone substantially? ----- For the rest of the regular season: DLo (32), Reaves (16) Reaves (16), Schroder (20), Beasley (12) LeBron (32), Brown (16) Vando (30), Rui (18) AD (36), Gabriel (12) 32 LeBron (Is he on a minutes restriction? Increase to 36 by end of season.) 36 AD 32 Reaves 32 DLo 30 Vando 20 Schroder 18 Rui 16 Brown 12 Gabriel 12 Beasley ----- Playoffs: DLo (34), Reaves (14) Reaves (20), Schroder (20), Beasley (8) LeBron (38), Brown (10) Vando (30), Rui (18) AD (38), Gabriel (10) [or Bamba (10)] 38 LeBron 38 AD 34 Reaves 34 DLo 30 Vando 20 Schroder 18 Rui 10 Brown 10 Gabriel (or Bamba if back) 8 Beasley ----- Game 7 of the Finals DLo (38), Reaves (10) Reaves (28), Schroder (20) LeBron (42), Brown (6) Vando (34), Rui (14) AD (42), Gabriel (6) [or Bamba (6)] 42 LeBron 42 AD 38 Reaves 38 DLo 34 Vando 20 Schroder 14 Rui 6 Brown 6 Gabriel (or Bamba) 0 Beasley
You suggest 16 minutes a night in your post, I think 16-20 minutes depending on if he's hitting shots. First 6 minutes to start the game and the 3rd Q, final 3 minutes of first half. And that fourth and final shift is determined my makes vs. misses, but he's not in my closing lineup either way. I think that's too many minutes for Vando. The energizer bunny needs to recharge. His sweet spot is 25-26, I give those 4 found minutes to Beas in one of those three guard lineups that Ham loves so much.
Good reply. I think if Beasley is hitting shots, that's a reasonable minutes adjustment. The problem is, if he's not, if he starts off 0-3 or 1-5 or whatever, then it's not worth taking minutes away from other players, to see if Beas will be able to turn it around or not. So I prefer to give him 12 and then give him more if he's hitting, but if someone else wants to give him 16 and reduce if he's cold, that's fine. I just don't trust Ham to adjust appropriately in-game, so I think it's safer to have Beas come off the bench instead of start. But his minutes can still mainly come with DLo and LeBron, it's just a matter of appropriate rotations.
was going to say both of these things. i don't think vando is a 30mpg player. and that's ok. neither is caruso, and he's really valuable, too. in his prime, ginobili played about 30mpg off the bench and closed halves and games. we can do that with reaves. we can start him, too, but i like some built in stagger between him and lebron/russell. i don't want our rotations putting us in places like the other night where all three are off the floor simultaneously. you have to think of reaves as part of a big 4 now, i think. and we need at least a couple of those guys on the floor at all times for things to work. if that means starting a slight downgrade placeholder, i'm ok with it. if we can scheme around that, i'm ok with that, too.
He just had a sub par game for him TOs wise and forced shots / missed gimmies …. but stil did good things too. He has really good ju ju with both DLO and Schroder.
