Starting Courtney Lee over Kevin Martin

Not you the only one

 

I don't.

With the other two starters being Scola and Yao, we have offense well covered with Yao-Scola-Martin. Lowry's defense is a much better fit in the starting lineup than Brooks' offense. Most teams don't have multiple backcourt/wing elite offensive threats in their bench lineup. Having two elite defenders in Lowry+Lee coming off the bench is a waste against the other team's bench.

STARTER:
Lowry (Defense vs. strong PG, Offensive Support)
Martin (Offense)
Battier (Defense vs. strong Wing, Offensive Support)
Scola (Offense)
Yao (God)

BENCH:
Brooks (Offense, Defense vs. bench scrub with no offensive capability at all)
Lee (Defense vs. strong PG or Wing, Offensive Support)
Buddinger (Meh and Meh)
Hill/Pat-Pat/Chuck/Brad (Mixed Bag of Offensive Support and Defense)

Most bench lineups do not have multiple elite offensive threats in the backcourt/wing positions. While Lowry is a great 1 and good 2 defender, Lee can cover the entire spectrum of 1-3 effectively, so it is better to have Lee as the elite backcourt/wing defender off the bench instead of Lowry. It will also be much easier for Adelman to hide Brooks' mediocre defense against the weaker opposing bench. Seriously, I never again want to see Battier stop D-Will only to have Brooks get brutalized by the likes of Wesley Matthews or C.J. friggin Miles, let alone against lineups like Billups/Anthony or Rondo/Allen.

On offense, I get to keep more of my hair when Brooks does his 20-foot "Look, I'm PG-Kobe!" Downer-fader with Lee, Chuck, and Brad on the floor instead of Martin, Scola, and Yao whether Brooks makes more than 37% of those or not. I am also not too high on an all-support bench offensive lineup of Lowry-Lee-Bud/Taylor-Hill/Chuck/Brad/PatPat unless PatPat turns into Landry-2 in a hurry. Brooks will hurt us much less as the self-imposed #1 offensive option in this lineup. The one concern here is that, with Brooks, the offensive production of every bench player may go way down, hurting their trade value.

The whole idea of always starting your best offensive lineup regardless of fit is obsolete. Basketball is a game of matchups, and Lowry-Martin-Battier gives us the best chance at good matchups for both starting and bench lineups. The Brooks-Martin-Battier lineup is strictly a "let's keep Brooks' trade value up as a starter until we trade him" lineup that hurts us on the court. The Brooks-Lee-Battier lineup leaves the bench without an elite wing defender. The Lowry-Martin-Battier lineup is the way to go. That said, I am not at all opposed to keeping Brooks as the starter until the trade deadline is past.

 

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if you already start battier, why the need to start lee? you need offense on the court and martin is one of our best shooters.

terrible idea.

 

at least the 6th man would play lol. I'd much rather a 12 million dollar 6th man than a 23 million dollar suit model on our bench.

 

Nice post. But one thing about the "let's keep Brooks' trade value up as a starter" scenario, what if we actually want to keep Brooks, for ourselves? In that case it would also make sense to start Lowry, and drive Brooks' value down, hoping that we can resign him for cheap.

Either way, if you want a balanced lineup it makes a ton more sense to start Martin and bring Brooks off the bench than the other way around.

 

Ummm there is no way on this earth you start Lee over Martin.. Just pretty much a ....

 

I'm not opposed to Lowry starting in the current state we are at, but looking pragmatically AB is entrenched as the starter for the foreseeable future.

 

from YAOS restaurant.


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I haven't bothered to check every single post, but is there a single one that agrees with OP?