The last two years under Adelman and Morey and even coming into this season, the majority of fans were of the opinion that we had "too many" NBA rotation quality players and that a huge problem was going to be finding minutes for everyone. Amazingly, after one month of basketball under coach Mchale, I think it's kinda crystal clear what we have on our team. We have 8 legit NBA quality rotation players; Lowry, Martin, Parsons, Scola, Dalembert, Dragic, Lee, Patterson We have 2 fringe level rotation players that should be given third string spot minutes only; Hill, Budinger We have 1 unknown quantity; Morris We have 4 players that should not be in the NBA; Flynn, Adrien, Williams, Thabeet. This means that actually we don't really have great depth at all, our depth is kind of average.
Quantity doesn't mean quality. It's a matter of do you have enough flexibility to change line-ups during a game to match the majority of opponents. But you are right, can we sustain an 8-man rotation and can we sustain an injury. The key this year for added depth is Morris. I suspect he'll get his shot. If your #14 pick "unknown quantity" becomes legit, then our bench/depth is definitely above average. And although Donatas won't be playing this year, he appears to be on his way to becoming a rotational player.
The fuhrer was never under this opinion. That's why thabeet and williams were kaput as players under his watch. If anything, it just confirms what maury did not want to hear..williams is a chephalopod and thabeet is well thabeet. What are you supposed to do with him?
Flynn and Williams is debatable. Flynn didn't play much last season because of injury, but I'm pretty sure he could be a quality back-up PG somewhere else. Williams is a head case and can't make it into our rotation over Parsons/Lee, perhaps not even over Budinger.
According to McHale, both Flynn and Williams are good NBA players who got beat out of his short rotation. Just because a guy isn't getting minutes doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to be in the league. Besides that, we did have more depth under Adelman until the trade deadline. Brooks for Dragic and Hayes for Dalembert kept us even but Battier for Thabeet cut a man off the rotation-worthy count.
Oh and McHale not getting as much production out of Hill and Budinger than Adelman was able to is not exactly a feather in his cap. Did he really uncover their secret incompetence, or is he just not putting them in a good position to succeed?
We are not as deep as some believe, however we do have quality depth. Lee, Patterson, and to some extent Dragic can all be quality starters on many teams. Lee was the starting 2 guard for a championship caliber team as a rookie. Patterson, I believe will become close to our best front court player before this season is over. In the past 2 games it was our bench that took over and won the game, which is encouraging, and again demonstrates that quality depth. Although we are not 10 deep, we also do not have a clear drop off at 6/7/8. Scola, Dalembert, Lee, Patterson, Parsons, Dragic are all pretty interchangeable. To your point though, McHale and his staff has identified this extremely early and objectively, dropping the dead weights, playing no favorites, only those who will help us win. And all that without the benefit of many practices. That speaks volumes to their attention to detail and player evaluation. That is also a huge reason why we are playing better of late, as opposed to meandering through 1/2 the season digging yourself a hole you cannot climb out of, only to finally change it up when upper management has to force your hand by trading your pet players who are killing the team out of town.
I disagree, Flynn is a really short point guard, and short point guards, you pretty much have to be either an amazing shooter or an amazing passer, and he is not either, which means he is not an NBA player. Williams is actually just not very good, putting aside all his "baggage", watching him on the court, he is just not a very good player. He is not someone like JR Smith or Ricky Davis, where they are great basketball players, but headcases in terms of team dynamics, Williams is actually not very good even as a basketball player.
I disagree a little. I think Bud is an NBA player but not a starter and can only thrives in a certain systems, NYK, GSW, ORL or BOS make sense to me Hill is a career back up also, he is coachable and can give you 10-12 mins a game playing behind a superstar PF or C. Key is behind a superstar player where he knows he only has to hold the fort done for a short period in each quarter. Flynn is another career back up - but he is limited because of the style he plays, he really needs to have the ball in his hands, he is like AB but he isnt as clutch as AB was. Adrien - i dont know enough about Twill - definitely an NBA talent just he hasnt put it all together - he sees the floor well and can create but he tries to hard. I'd think he could actually start on teams like WAS, SAC, DET. Thabeet is the only one I think that shouldn't be in the NBA.
If the bench was playing better, he'd be just as happy with a 10-man rotation I think. He also wants to cut down the minutes of some of our starters.
Jordan Hill was one of our worst players last year, under Adelman. Chase Budinger was one of our worst players last year, under Adelman, until he was handed the starting gig on a silver platter as a reward for being one of our worst players last year. Looks like McHale's fatal error so far was not putting Budinger on a pedestal so that her highness can muster up the interest to actually start playing like he gives a damn.
I think with Hill and Budinger, Adelman overlooked their defensive failing because they were adequate on the offensive end. But McHale essentially figured out that if you combine defense and offense both Hill and Budinger are not rotation worthy.
With the packed scheduled, I am surprised that McHale has not expanded the rotation to keep fresh legs out on the floor. We are a young team so maybe we can get away with short rotations all season.
I think Lee and Dragic are career sixth men, no chance of them being starters in their career; Lee because he is not good enough offensively as a starting SG, and defensively, he is not versatile enough because of his height to be a specialist defensive starter, those spots usually go to really long defenders who are more versatile like Batum, sefalosha, etc... Dragic because he is a classic combo guard that cannot really run an offense full time, he is best as a sparkplug off the bench, who can dominate the ball and just do his thing for x minutes. Patterson is the only guy out of our 6/7/8 that has a chance to be a starter.
We are currently working with a 9 man rotation so the other guys are not showing enough to crack it. Hill is only there for size reasons since he cannot drop that ass even if it was hot If we keep the streak alive and are still in the mix before the deadline, Morey better work his magic and his word that we are trying to stay competitive and deal a few players for a valuable back-up center and maybe get rid of Martin and or Scola if it makes sense.
How can you say Adelman got more out of Hill? Sure, Hill may have had higher numbers, but he wasn't any better -- he was just given more minutes then he deserved, and it actually cost the team a lot of games and probably a playoff spot. As soon as Hill and Miller were put behind Hayes and Patterson on the depth chart the team immediately improved and made a run. This, by the way, is why McHale is doing a better job than Adelman -- he is willing to play the people who perform on the court better and not the people that he obstinately thinks should play better.