This guy has played 24, and 25 mins, in these last two games. It's funny that folks are still complaining about his playing time. TBH Austin has been pretty bad on D lately, a lot worse than Prince. D'Angelo too I don't think that we should be relying on Vanderbilt, to cover up them, and occasionally Lebron too, every night.
It's all about context. Is he starting? Should he be? Who is he getting minutes over? What's his assignment? Does that fit within his capabilities? Can someone else do that better? If he's not scoring, is he doing anything else out there to justify leaving him in or putting him back in?
Considering some of the corpses that have been rolled in and out of here during their run, that's incredible.
I feel bad for Prince: he's a decent player who on a contender with a good coach should be bench guy getting 15-20 mpg and if he's hot get more. But he's been thrown into this role as a defensive stopper plus movement shooter which he's not good at.
I think the outcry from the fans is starting to affect Prince. As pretty much everyone has said, it sucks because its really not his fault.
If Prince absolutely HAS to start then Vando has to be in for Reaves. Dlo/Prince/Vando/Bron/Davis We NEED Vando in there for defense and rebounding. He is actually finishing and passing really well offensively as well. That also slots Prince off of the opposing teams best player. Reaves will play well off of the bench either way. And please get a center who can do center things so we aren't completely useless without AD.
The bottom line is he simply DOES NOT need to start. Prince is not doing enough to warrant either the starting position or the amount of minutes he gets. In over 30 minutes a game he can't even get to 10 points a game and he's not a whole lot better on D either. He's down to 42% shooting overall. And I don't want to hear about how Prince is such a great three point shooter. Rui is averaging 39% from three (currently slightly better than Prince) and 50% overall shooting. He's averaging 11 points a game in just 22 minutes. If you want offense Rui is better. If you want defense Vando is world's better. This doesn't even take into account the rotten chemistry with Prince and the starters. You've seen the numbers here - he is awful with Lebron and AD, let alone Dlo and Reaves. Both Vando and Rui were here last year and have better chemistry with the starting unit. Ham is being obstinate here and I don't understand why at all.
I agree with you. I want him benched and playing 18-22mpg but that just doesn't seem realistic with Ham. Unless Prince is traded away to remove him as an option, Ham will just continue starting him and playing him 30 minutes. My lineup proposal is just working around that fact. Start Prince at guard since he does zero forward things. Zero rebounding, zero poa defense etc. He can shoot threes and guard a lessor talent with Vando beside him.
I was thinking about this and seriously would not be surprised if Darvin is afraid of Vando working better noticeably with LeBron, AD, DLO and Reaves and he’s going to look really BAD at this point after being so peculiarly stubborn about not doing it …. for exactly that …. not doing it sooner.
He needs to swallow his pride and just do this. He has the excuse of Vando’s injury and minutes restriction for why he didn’t do it before. But now that Vando is healthy he no longer has that to hide behind. Just make the damned switch already.
Ham is a phony. He’s actually “Feelings instead of Facts.” I like Prince, but he should have been coming off the bench from the start.
