I love heypartner's take on this matter. ...and as a matter of fact...I'll have my take when it matters.
Um no. Thats part of it, but he also plays smart ball. He is good at denying his man the ball. He is good at taking charges, at disrupting. There is no basis for that argument. If his defense suffers in a starting role, its because he is playing against better players, thats the whole point. Your whole argument is baseless and terribly flawed. So he can't maintain that level of energy, but he Lawson can, while also sharing offensive creation? That is just a bad argument. You are just making things up. He has been injured and there simply isn't enough data to make conclusions like that. You are just stating an opinion as fact. There is no evidence of any of that. Again this is just basketball rhetoric. You know that shooting guard, who ran a bunch of iso's that everyone hated. Yea, that starting lineup produced points at a rate higher than the #1 offensive team in the league. I don't want other players to create for Harden. I want our MVP to create the most possessions possible, because he is top 3 in the league at doing it. Again, you guys are trying to fix a problem that we simply don't have. Exactly. Now reread that and replace Ariza with Beverley and Brewer with Lawson. That is the whole point. Playoffs is a totally different ball game. All lineups go out the window in the playoffs. I am talking regular season. Harden never literally publically asked Morey to get someone like Lawson to play alongside him at PG. This is what was said: "One of the pieces we need to have"
Larsv Harden will be able to get the same amount of shots off. Some will be off screens without the ball. Some will be off of ISO. He will still be able to get to the foul line at a high rate. It's about taking some of that load off of him. This will help him out on the defensive end. Harden will have another MVP type season. Our bench will be fine.
If you don't see it then there's not much else to say. His defense has always been hustle and evergy. Why do you think he picks up silly fouls because he plays super aggressive and doesn't balance it out as he wants to go 110% all the time. How is there no basis to that? He does it every game lol. That's how he got to this point cause it sure isnt due to loaded talent. The person he is guarding isn't the point here. His defense has no where been near where it was when he came off the bench. That should be obvious. I didn't even point out who he's guarding because it doesn't matter as where talking about his defense in general. Your stance on Lawson coming off the bench is definitely favoring your judgement. There's no flaw here. Nobody says Lawson is some defensive juggernaut but his pg play as a whole is a whole lot more important next to harden then a limited guard next to him on this team if they want to win a championship. Everyone has to sacrifice for the better of a team especially when it's deep. Sounds like you might have a hard team letting Beverly lose his starting spot for some reason but to me there really isn't anything that says Lawson off the bench helps this team more than starting. The only argument for Beverly starting is this defensive status and even as a starter it isn't lockdown. He isn't stopping all these elite pg's in the league. In limited minutes he can do what he does best and be a pest against them though which is what this team needs along with setting up for those open 3s
My computer's down & I had back to back trips to the ER in the last few days...or I would have responded earlier. So, as I'm posting from my phone, I'll just respond to the hoops portion, not the myriad of comments which speak to a community sometimes analogous to a social experiment gone awry. Ty brings balance/ rhythm to this team.....a cohesive flow without wearing out James. He'll get Beard the ball in space with 1/2 - 1 step at minimum already...in addition to many wide open J's. Lawson also gives us the ability to play inside out or outside in. The penetrate and dish for a dunk or wide open shot. He will find our big men at the precise moment when they have guys sealed/ off balance.In addition he can bust it from dowtown after getting the kick out from same bigs..just better ball movement, period..makes us impossible to deal with as long as we stay healthy. Lawson allows for a rested and fresher Beard (and this will show offensively AND defensively) whether on the court together or not. Our efficiency will grow by leaps and bounds. And don't forget his effect on the fast break.
So, as I'm posting from my phone, I'll just respond to the hoops portion, not the myriad of comments which speak to a community sometimes analogous to a social experiment gone awry. You know I have much love for you brother Plow. Get well yesterday!
Start Lawson so we can come out of games strong, play him for 6-7 minutes and replace with Beverly. Once Harden is out put in Lawson so we can have a dribble penetration threat. Man defense at PG is not a huge need as long as they are good at rotations and in PnR. He's done a solid job in rotations IMO. His man defense hasn't been the best, but as long as he plays solid on rotations it's more than enough. Albeit one thing about starting Beverly is he can tire out the starting PG, while LAwson can capitalize on scoring once opposing PGs are tired.
I like this, start out strong and halfway through the first quarter put in Beverley. From then on rotate as needed. It is a great problem to have. We have so many weapons it will be a challenge to figure out who plays how many minutes and with whom. Lawson and Beverley will just be a part of what needs to be determined on a team this deep. I think we could take away our starting 5 and still make the playoffs in the East. :grin::grin::grin:
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. The only real argument for starting Bev over Lawson is defense and as some have pointed out, he's not going to shut down any of the elite point guards. Lawson isn't just the better overall player…..he's going to make everyone else around him better too. Howard is going to get better looks around the basket. Harden, Ariza and DMo are going to get more open 3s. You can't make a reasonable argument that Beverley's defense is worth more than all of that. This doesn't need to be complicated. Start Lawson and stagger his minutes with Harden (and DMo for that matter).
Eh, I'm favoring starting Lawson because him and Harden need to get chemistry playing together. Period. End of story. Because whose going to end games? Harden/Beverly? I doubt that. Lawson will end games and as such he needs to have a repertoire with Harden. Throughout the season though it should be very situational. If you start Harden and Lawson and it allows you to get off to good starts then you can stagger their minutes throughout the game and be just fine. We may even see a three guard lineup sometimes. This team when healthy is deep. So I'm not even worried about it. People have completely forgotten that we still have offensive options in Brewer, Howard, and Dmo. As in you can give these guys the ball and they can score. 2nd unit doesn't have to dominate, they just have to hold their ground. I guess we'll see. It really all depends on how well Harden and Lawson play together. Also no, first preseason game isn't enough to go by to judge that.
Except Ariza is a better overall player than Brewer, and Lawson is a significantly better overall player than Beverley. So that argument doesn't make sense.
