This obviously won't be an exciting thing to talk about, what with rumors happening... But I want to discuss the decision to start Eric Gordon. To me, unless you have a GSW-esque starting 5, if you have a guy like Eric Gordon, he HAS TO come off the bench. See Lou Williams. See how Toronto changed the series against the Bucks with Norm Powell off the bench. See Austin Rivers' good games off the bench. Sparkplug. Protects when one of your "star" guys is out. Etc. The total minutes played can be the same, but the distribution of those minutes is obviously different. If I think about the Eric Gordon starting experience, I first think about round 2 against the Spurs two years ago. I still have no idea why the response to Nene - your backup bench big - getting hurt was to move Eric Gordon to the starting lineup. Then I think about games 6 and 7 against the Warriors last year. OBVIOUSLY, CP3 was out and Joe Johnson or Aaron Jackson weren't going to replace him, but I think you STILL bring EG off the bench. Start Green. And I think about this year, where EG was forced to start the most games he's started. It's interesting when KD went down this year, Kerr didn't start Looney. He started Bogut. Bogut only played 11 minutes in game 6 to Looney's 20. But that makes sense. Keep your role player exceeding in their role... IN THAT ROLE. If there's some version of "run-it-back-again" happening next year, EG needs to move back to the bench and STAY THERE.
didn't gordon break out of his deep shooting slum after he got moved to the starting lineup? i always thought that was the reason MDA just kept him there
well the rockets lost what 6 games since the february break before playing GS. They were both elite in both offense and defensive ratings. There was 0 indications of needing a change of the starting lineup. Also that's what happens when you don't have the personnel to bring him off the bench. get a capable wing and I'm all for him being back to the 6th man. But then again he might get traded along with capela so well see
If you are going to post about putting EG on the bench, then you need to post about who is starting in his place. Is it House? The House that disappeared in the playoffs? Shumpert? EG off the bench is all well in good when you have Ariza and Moute on the roster.
I haven't heard this debated ad nauseam most season long. Please, tell me new insights and information.
This is what we used to mask Ariza's departure in the starting lineup. People mistake all of the praise for House as some affirmation that he is the second coming. Really, it completely nullified the loss of Ariza until the playoffs but all bills come due. That is why the Butler trade was so important if we also kept EGo. We had 96 minutes of backcourt covered by 2 HOF and an all-star level player. Whether EGo started or came off the bench you get the same minutes. We had roughly half of the front court minutes locked up but that left 70 minutes we had to fill. EGo was that stopgap but incredibly weakened the bench and ultimately it hurt us because we had too many injuries and didn't use the bench in the playoffs. People were too eager to include EGo in a trade not fully understanding why that was a sideways move. When you shrink to about 7 players then you have no room for error when a player is off. Faried was so effective in the regular season but lost all of his time because of defensive shortcomings in the playoffs. Rivers was elevated, House proved ineffective, and Nene while good was used sparingly. Then you have Capela and CP3 lay an egg throughout the most important series. You cannot win in that scenario. The Rockets never gameplanned around Capela's weaknesses. Just like last year, if the Rockets had one other "player" they don't lose.
I wish they had just let Eg facilitate the offense by attacking Steph Curry. It was clearly having and affect., They would force the double team now James get receive the ball when the defense is unbalanced and then attack them.
Either House or Shumpert. Or even Green. You can't take a g league role player like House, move that role around, send him back to the g league, bring him back up but in a slightly different role, etc, etc. and expect him to flourish. He was at his best as a starter. You might say "sure, not surprising"... except it kind of is. He's at a talent disadvantage against other NBA starters. And EG is much better than House, but EG should be on the bench not starting. House splits: http://www.espn.com/nba/player/splits/_/id/2991155/danuel-house-jr 48% form 3 as a starter. I guess as others have noted, this isn't anything new to discuss. Obviously, we can't control MDA. I'm just pointing out that if absolutely ZERO changes are made, the team would be better starting House, and never letting EG start again, lol. If I think about the Clippers taking 2 off of GSW, the fact that the Clippers two best players (or 2 of their 3 best players) nonetheless came off the bench is certainly interesting to think about. I'm not sure I "love" the idea of Lou Williams winning ANOTHER 6th man of the year award as it'd be like putting Harden on the bench yet still giving him 35 minutes a game - that's not a "real" 6th man in the classic sense. But I definitely appreciate the concept of your 6th man definitely not being your 6th best player. You need a guy that's your 4th best player type coming off the bench.
