I like this idea. Beno reminds me of Harden. Not terribly athletic, but still gets to the bucket somehow. He's got good vision too.
HP, I respect your views a lot, but we are weak at the 4, and Capela needs to get better on D. I don't think Tucker should be overworked defending bigger guys.
I didn't say we were strong at every position. I said we are deeper than last year at every position....because now we have 2 superstars, and a rotation 9 1/2 deep of legitimate NBA players deserving of their minutes, vs giving the minutes to youth just to develop them or we have no one else (Harrell, Dekker, Brewer)
Exactly. People always clamor for back up this or back up that disregarding what that would mean for the rotation. And Bobby Brown is the emergency guard. If he can’t fill that role then he shouldn’t be here at all.
I've noticed he did fall into that role in the games Chris was resting. It's good, because we already know EG sucks at that role. Long-term we need a real NBA point guard in the third string, but to me there's nothing wrong with rolling with the assumption that Paul and Harden are in 48 minutes a game until some interesting buyouts open up. Worst case Paul sprains an ankle, Luc plays point for one game, and we immediately go point guard shopping at that point with about the same options we have now. Best case scenario we show some patience and end up with a Barea/Jarrett Jack/Shelvin Mack - caliber veteran that some underachieving team gives up on, which is definitely superior to the current options.
I'd say, yes, outside of toughness in the frontcourt, we are a deep team. I will cross my fingers that Michael D'Antoni will learn a lesson from last season and avail himself of that depth; he has a problem trusting more than a handful of players and rides them until the tire treads goes spinning off onto the freeway. I see Harden still taking crap from last season's loss to San Antonio in the playoffs but can't seem to forget the game (maybe game 5?) where MDA only played seven guys, seven!, and Harden's awesome three-quarter game went into the tank when he suddenly exhausted the Wheaties he had eaten for breakfast. But I do like some of the depth and versatility we have now. Again, fingers crossed.
I'm with @heypartner on this one. Why should LMM getting beat off the dribble be a concern for you? How often did point guards actually guard Harden last year when he was our 1? They usually switch their best defender on him. There is no rule as to whom you must defend if you set up the offense, we had Harden guarding slower point guards, 3 and D types, and smaller 4's. LMM can be our point guard and on defense still guard their best perimeter player while Gordon presumably defending the "little point guards." Last year, 3 of our best players (key rotation guys in the playoffs) were under 6'3. The Thunder didn't have the players to exploit it, but the Spurs did. Tucker and LMM give us so much more versatility. This squad is a better shooting version of the one that made the WCF a few years ago. We have the players to switch on defense. GSW is still the gold standard but we are better equipped to face the Cavs and Spurs of the world. I am excite.
That's fine. When Paul rests Harden is the PG. No one else needs to handle. For rest days just let t Taylor and the kids play. No need for vets. Vets don't accrue trade value. Let the kids show flashes so we can trade them down the line. Vets would only waste potential. We don't need our whole lineup to beat the scrubby teams in the league.
