I would rather see him take 30 minutes, and take them from Jalen and Brooks. Fred is our best ball distributor by far, and his ASST/TO ratio is great. VanVleet (31 mpg) 129 assists and 27 turnovers Thompson (26.4 mpg) 44 assists and 39 turnovers Green (32.4 mpg) 62 assists and 60 turnovers Brooks (30.7 mpg) 33 assists 23 turnovers Give Sheppard a couple more of Fred's minutes as he develops. Sheppard (11.8 mpg) 31 assists to 14 turnovers
I’d be ok with myriad of changes at this point. 1. Reed to G-League for 15 games of being the man. He didn’t even get that at Kentucky. 2. Holiday into the rotation for a few minutes to help overall FG %. 3. Guarantee Cam 20 min a game for awhile. 4. Limit starter minutes to 28-30. Sengun (28)/ Landale or Adams (10)/Smith (10) Smith (18)/ Eason (20)/ Amen (10) Brooks (28) Eason (8)/Amen (12) Green (28)/Cam (20) FVV (30)/Holiday (12)/ Amen (6)
I wouldn't give Cam more than 12. I'd cut both Jalen and Brooks down to 26 and give those extra minutes to Amen and Eason. If Cam starts playing great then give him more of Jalen's minutes when Jalen is throwing bricks or turning over the ball too much. I'd still like to see us find a way to work in some minutes with Sheppard and Holiday coming in for Fred, and not Amen. Maybe see what happens by cutting Fred's minutes to 28, unless he is on fire.
We don't have to make a bunch of changes all at once. Trial and error is in order. The first thing to do is substitute Amen for Jalen and see if Jalen can go to work against other team's benches and if Amen and Sengun can co-exist in the half-court. Maybe sometimes start Tari over Brooks after a while and see how that works or even Tari over Jabari for a while or against certain lineups. Ime is too stringent in his rotations and it has definitely caused us a couple of w's.
No way Cam should be getting anything more than spot minutes but he starts playing better in actual nba games. He’s been awful this year. I mean, he’s shooting .048 from 3. Not .48. .048.
I think with the quarter mark past us we may see some new things over the next 20 games. They've got to find a way to enable Amen Thompson, and I think he and Alphonso Gunshow have already proven they work together. Just a funny but I think you meant "cost us a few w's". I mean, causing a dub is good. He's caused 15 in 23 games, as much as folks seem to default to complaints the old adage "winning fixes everything" is still true. It's not perfect, it's not pretty, but it damn sure is working. He has a role, 3 and D. He wasn't doing one last year and this year isn't doing either. Doing it all with an air of entitlement too, pretty lit.
He had this to start the season and failed miserably. It's as if he learned nothing in the offseason and regressed big time. Nothing should be handed to Cam. When his opportunity comes, he should take what he gets and must not fail. IMO, if his 3-point shot returned, Udoka would probably tolerate Cam's buffoonery (which may never go away because he's not a smart player at all).
There isn't much to say about him. He does everything on the court, from rebounding the ball to stealing it, from scoring mid-range shots to making corner threes. Almost never has a bad game. Every team needs an Amen Thompson.
Re-watched Amen's highlights from last night's game. Watch Lead Assistant Jeff Van Gundy sitting on the LAC bench go crazy trying to defend Amen by keeping him open and letting him shoot. He is game plan for Amen failed miserably.
