i think backup sf is fine. he's not that small, really. sg is ideal, though, yes. problem is we also have forwards aplenty in lebron/vando/rui (i'd argue wood is also a forward). anyway, i think the christie signing was more about later than now, actually. i know we (myself included) are saying the investment signals an interest in playing him now, but i wonder if they're just hoping he'll be a bargain on the back end and potential trade fodder in the interim. everybody asks for reaves in trade because his contract is a bargain.
I wish him luck, Max has some potential, but man..competition for PT is going to be fierce. I hope he put in the work this summer.
injuries. i didn't know how some minutes would shake out last year, then gabe and vando missed the whole season and we're having to start cam reddish and stuff. the key is making the most of your opportunities. my guess is max and knecht will be fighting for the last guard spot in the rotation (dlo, gabe, reaves are in for close to 30mpg each, imo, a few less for gabe). if both guys impress, jj may find minutes for them at sf, which may be good, as without another center, we're going to have play up with rui and vando some.
Don't think it's that fierce. We have basically 3 non-players in our 15-man roster. Then Wood/Hayes split the C backup. Vando is the backup 4, Gabe the backup PG. Then you have Knecht, Max and Cam for the 2 and 3 backups. Max is for sure ahead of both, it's up to them to play him out, which I doubt
I think they both play. We should have a 10 to 11 (C split) man rotation. It may get slimmer when injuries crop up. I was thinking that we really need to manage Bron and AD minutes. Our roster is too tight, a long injury of any of them and we are probably missing the playoffs. Then you have 65 game quota you need to get to get the individual accolades which are important for both, so they won't sit much, which justifies managing their minutes. We tried that earlier last year but we sucked too much. I think JJ will be able to navigate that better. On the Cs, I think we should play each depending on the matchup. If it's against a big center we go with Hayes, if it's not we go with Wood. And against tanking teams I would play AD like 20 to 25 minutes and unleash Wood. He's playing to stay in the league so I think he can give us something. Then we need Reaves to step up and be a 22-5-5 guy who can hold the offense when Bron is out. Him, Rui and DLo need to have a great season for us to have a decent season just because we will manage Bron better, increasing our chances.
i wish we managed lebron and AD's minutes better, but two coaches have refused already. AD played 36mpg last year (22 year old ant played 35mpg). gs kept curry under 33mpg while lebron was over 35. we've got to find ways to survive minutes when one of them isn't on the floor. this should be possible.
Yeah. I think the pressure to save their job played too much with our coaches. JJ may have it too, especially being so inexperienced and having the media on top of him every single day because of that. But I hope his ego leads him to make the decisions he thinks are the most beneficial and not the safe ones. But I agree that starting 2-10 would be very tricky to manage. It's a hard thing to do in a franchise like ours. You don't have much wiggle room to afford starting slow. Maybe with Vando and Gabe it gets easier because it allows us to defend better and therefore stay in the game when we have both out. I'm hoping that we'll be better offensively and DLo, Reaves and Rui are guys who could/should hold the team on that end so it's really up to the defensive end.
THIS is why we have really missed having a real option at backup C this season(and last, as well as the previous). I’ve seen enough from Hayes and Wood to know they aren’t it. Both are terrible defenders and Wood needs a lot of touches to be effective on offense. Jaxson is only effective on the oop, and the good defensive teams can easily push him far enough away from the rim to stop this play. Wood has had effective stretches of rebounding, but it seems like he only cares about that when getting a lot of looks on offense.
Yeah but Wood and Hayes, are both power forwards, just like AD. It sounds good in theory, to scale back on Lebron and AD minutes, but we can seem to beat anybody decent, without them playing heavy minutes. We might win a game here and there, but for the most part, we can't win consistently without it happening. Judging from these preseason predictions, it seem like most of the NBA analysts, think that this particular team, isn't that good, outside of Lebron and AD either. We have two All NBA players, and we are still considered to be, a playin or 7th-8th seed caliber squad.
Without Vando and Wood, our only 4s are Bron and Rui, both expecting to start. I wouldn't be shocked if this meant Rui coming from the bench in a bigger role and having Max or even Knecht starting. It's too soon for both, but we have nobody else to rely on Although I think Max is really important off the bench because of his rebounding
