Right now our roster seems to be stacked. We have: FVV/Amen Green/Reed Dillon/Cam Jabari/Tari Sengun/Adams Not counting players like Jeff Green, Landale or Tate. Especially our back court seems to be overcrowded (with Cam probably also competing for minutes at SG and Tari at SF). Are we going into the season like this, and will all of these guys get minutes? Will Reed start the season in the G-League? Is a major trade involving at least one of our 7 young core pieces inevitable? What do you think?
I believe we need to trade Dillion, Jalen, Jeff Green, Tate and FRP for Paul George. The Jalen Green experiment is over
As far as our rotation, show me MINUTES. Here are minutes that seem impossible to change and you tell me who you would take minutes away from: Sengun(28)/Adams(20) Jabari(30)/Tari(14)/Sengun(4) Brooks(30)/Tari(16)/Amen(2) Green(32)/Cam(16) FVV(30)/Amen(18) I haven't even counted Sheppard yet and still we have several players who are going to complain about their minutes. Cam will not be happy with 16. AMEN THOMPSON only has 20 minutes, which is a travesty, I hope his competitive nature does not accept this. FVV, Brooks and Jabari are all playing fewer minutes than last season. Jeff Green, Jock Landale and Jasean Tate are all out of the rotation in this scenario. How the heck are we going to fit Sheppard in? Even if Jalen Green struggles, he's going to get what 4 fewer minutes? 8? That's not enough for Sheppard and Cam has actually EARNED those minutes on an NBA court. If you listen to Stone's press conference: - He believes in G League no matter where the player is picked in the draft. - Believes Reed can benefit a lot from G League. - Specifically said Reed would have to beat someone out. - He said it's Ime's choice, and Ime's choice with 2 of the best prospects in the world last season was to spend half a season in G League. More importantly, Sheppard is not a SG. He's one of the smallest players in the entire NBA and he's not particularly strong nor is he ultra athletic. You guys were saying Jalen Green is undersized for SG and Sengun for C - and these guys are not even an inch shorter than the average. Suddenly you found it in yourself to play someone 6'1.75 at SG? Be realistic. I'm sure Sheppard can play SG in a pinch since he has some college experience with it, but if he doesn't guard a PG adequately he won't be a starter in this league. The best thing for him and us is for him to run a G League offense for half a season while he waits for a window to open through injury or bad streak of games from FVV/Amen/Cam. If Cam doesn't play defense and pass the ball this coming season, I think his minutes are most in danger since Sheppard can give us better shooting and better defense regardless of height.
The team still has two open roster spots after Sheppard - one of those for pick 44?? and the other could be one of the exceptions they have the NT-MLE & BAE. I don't think they use the BAE, that's a next year problem but if you think the roster is crowded now - imagine bringing in another ~$15m player. Let's not forget about two way players either .... teams are allowed three now.
I'd just relegate Brooks to a 15 minute bench role. If he doesn't like it salary dump him for nothing or just straight cut him. I don't even care about the rest of the contract, it's sunk cost. Give the kids room to grow.
Yeah, that is my point. We have too many players worthy of getting minutes. Reed fills a big need, but we literally have no space for him right now. That's why im wondering if he will spend most of his first season in the g-league or if we trade one or more of our young guys. I don't know who that would be - Green is probably the logical choice because of his looming extension. But I also still think he has the most upside - if he can get more consistent. But I have been waiting on that if for a couple of seasons now... trading FVV or Dillon would mean we keep all our young guys, but the trade market for them should be really low. As of Reed playing as a SG - it is dependent on who is playing PG. I love his fit next to Amen. I don't think we can play him next to FVV because of defense.
On Reed playing SG - it doesn't depend at all on who is playing PG. You are the position you guard, that's not an opinion, that's what all NBA coaches agree with. He is a PG because he can only guard PG's. If Amen is guarding the SG, Reed is a PG. If Green or Cam are on the court, they will be guarding the SG most often, and Reed will be guarding the PG. For Reed to be a SG, he has to guard SG's. A 6'1.75 rookie is not guarding NBA SG's in next season's high stakes playoff chase. Maybe if we were still rebuilding we could allow him to make some rookie mistakes and get bullied there. We're trying to get into the top 6 in the West though. On taking Green's spot, even that is not realistic. Whoever takes Green's spot has to be able to collapse defenses, Ime has spoken about the necessity of getting that from the perimeter. If someone is replacing Green, it won't be a catch and shoot player. Further, I doubt Reed will be a better defender than Green - if we compare to Green's defense from the second half of last season. Reed has to make rookie mistakes, he has to spend time in the G League, he has to get acclimated when he eventually joins. I'm fairly sure he'll be a better defender than Green in the long run, but next season unlikely.
Post draft? (Draft isn't over yet) Also, might be worth waiting for free agency too? MLE level player could make a rotational difference.
Indeed, that’s the problem with drafting so many high picks in a short span of time. We don’t have enough minutes to develop them and ultimately that will result in us losing asset value. We’ve already lost 3 FRPs in JC, Garuba, TyTy. I hope the same doesn’t happen with Cam, Tari or Reed. Instead, we should now be consolidating. Packaging some of these young players for proven stars that are still young enough to continue growing with the rest of the group, eg Mitchell, Ingram, Booker, Lauri, Bane.
C- Sengun (32) Adams (16) PF - Smith Jr (30) Eason (18) SF - Brooks (28) Whitmore (20) SG - Green (30) Sheppard (14) Amen (4) PG - FVV (32) Amen (16)
This looks good to me - I would expect Jabari to get some minutes at C, and I would expect Eason to get more minutes than Cam. I would also like to increase Amens minutes and decrease FVVs minutes to 30. That being said, I still could see other guys like Tate or Green or even Bullock or Holliday grab some minutes - Udoka doesn't really like to play too many young guys at the same time...
I think it's too early for consolidation. No one improved in the 2 years under Silas, we f*cked that up royally which is currently messing with our extension decisions. In reality we've given everyone just 1 season to show what they can do in a winning environment. Since we f*cked up the development, we have to give these guys another half season at least and probably will get less back than we'd like if we have to dump someone. Tari, Jabari and Green have to have great starts to the season or one/two of them has to go. However I'm not trading any of those guys this summer, all of them could be taking stunning steps in development. If Jabari comes back with more muscle, 2% better 3PT shooting and slightly smarter defense - damn. If Green significantly improves his shot selection and decision making after one year of Udoka tutelage - damn. If Tari is healthy and improves his 3PT% by 2% - damn. You don't want to lose any of those guys. I like the OKC model. Just keep drafting players, and for each one that's looking good, you have to dump one. Once upon a time they were waiting for Poku and Giddey to flourish. Did they get amazing returns for those guys? No, but it doesn't matter. As long as you keep replacing your weakest link with another chance at a star player, it's worth it. Forcing ourselves to make early decisions so we can penny pinch on the return - I find this to be an unnecessarily paranoid strategy, not worth what you might be giving up on.
This looks pretty reasonable to me. Not to mention that while the rotation is tight when healthy, there will obviously be games players will miss throughout the season.
Bullock and Holiday are free agents between the seven guys on rookie scale, Dillon, FVV , Tate, Jeff, Adams, Landale we are at 13 out of 15 spots already, with maybe one going to pick 44 tomorrow One of the more likely use of the last spot is to take on money via mid level trade exception for a team that really needs to save money, one obvious target would be PJ Tucker, if the the Clippers are willing to throw in some seconds
I think eventually Dillon should be traded, to free up minutes for Amen and Tari (and Cam). Jalen's minutes should go down (some minutes for Reed and Cam) and his efficiency up. Maybe some bigger consolidation trade down the road. A lot depends on how Jalen starts the season. Another question is, will Bari improve? Or should Tari and Amen take some of his minutes? I think so, tbh.
C- Sengun (30) Adams (12) Smith (6) PF - Smith Jr (24) Eason (24) SF - Brooks (28) Amen (16) Eason (4) SG - Green (30) Whitmore (14) Sheppard (4) PG - FVV (32) Amen (10) Sheppard (6) At least until we trade Brooks and/or Green for upgrades
Pretty close to what I think, but I would give all C backup minutes to Adams. I would give Bari and FVV fewer minutes and Sheppard more. Brooks, Bari and yes, Jalen are question marks for me going forward.
