Bigger question is with Shumpert. Not sure how we incorporate him without affecting chemistry or if he brings more on the court than GG, Rivers, etc. are already giving us.
Actually he a good locker room guy from all accounts...so if worst he just a Bobby brown I wouldn't mind. Maybe mentor some guys house
Not a difficult problem; when one of GG or Shump is sucking we play the other more. Rivers and Shump on D is a wash, but Rivers can at least handle the PnR well. Between GG and Shump, it's better offense vs better defense. I honestly don't see an issue here. Faried at starting 4 or backup 5 is a more intriguing decision IMO.
we have an actual way to play 2 bigs against DEN or GSW. Faried went from a useful minutes eater at C to an actual PF role which is incredible, and something I didn't expect. This is a legitimate contender once again.
Last time we played Philly, embiid absolutely destroyed us cause we didn’t have capella nor nene. We will need all the bigs bodies we can for the next game, meaning we need Faried more than we think vs the elite teams.
I know Rivers and Green played well tonight, but in general we need to get those 2 guys out of the rotation. Green is a nightmare defensively and Rivers is a nightmare offensively (shooting 39/31/54%, my lord). They are perfect insurance players, Rivers should come in when we want to rest both Paul and Harden. Clark too, though he's not really a rotation player. You take those 3 out and replace them with Faried, Shumpert, Nene and you got something. That's your 8 players, and Nene is sort of a 0.5 player meaning he plays only when the matchup requires him. Even in going 6-0 recently, we are 15th defensively for that stretch. So we need to think about defense. That's what these last 18 games are about. Nothing but defense. We CAN sacrifice a tiny bit of offense. It's fine being 2nd or 3rd best offense if we can get into playing top 10 level defense. To do that, Shumpert is the key. Shumpert replacing Rivers and Green is a significant upgrade. But he can't be a shooter or ball handler like those 2 guys, so we need to bring Gordon back to the bench and insert Shumpert into the starting line up where Harden/Paul will consume all the shot creation duties. Faried and Nene will be backing up Capela and Tucker. Our backups here are not ideal, but they have their strengths and as long as they can give Capela and Tucker enough rest to remain effective, we're good.
Off topic, but finally a guy who knows how to use "effect" and "affect" lol. It drives me crazy how native speakers get it wrong most of the time.
Having the depth can mean we can make Green more of a luxury. Bring him in and if he gets hot keep him in, if he isn't then yank him. But he's a good option off the bench for someone who can go 4-7 on a given night and get buckets quickly. Rivers had been playing really poor but he's shooting 39% on 3s since the All Star break and I think his defending has been better too. He still makes dumb plays and often makes the wrong decision on whether to shoot, pass or drive when the ball is kicked out to him. However he needs to continue to get minutes, especially if he continues to knock it down from deep. If we're trying to keep CP to around 30 mins a night, having Gordon and Rivers sharing the load is essential.
We don't need them at all imo. Even if you want to reduce CP3's load, one of Harden and CP3 is on the floor at all times and they are running the show. Which tells me we don't need a backup PG because they are each other's backup PG. What we need is 1.5 or 2 backup SG's and that's easily achieved between Gordon, Shumpert and CP3 (when Harden is on the floor with him). In blow outs, you bring in Rivers and/or Green. Ideally we get House back and he is better insurance than both those guys if he miraculously is able to maintain his previous form. Rivers is sometimes serviceable but his shot is too shaky and more importantly his FT shooting is unacceptable. That's a problem his whole career. We already absorb the downside of Capela and Faried's FT shooting, adding Shumpert in is making us lose the easiest shots. This is why I was campaigning to keep Knight, because at the end of the day if CP3 averages 30 and Harden averages 32 (which in truth is never going to happen) then that leaves 34 minutes behind them. In reality most nights and in the playoffs that's going to be closer to 30 minutes and Gordon will eat up all those minutes and in fact he's a perfect compliment to both Harden and CP3 as playmakers. Those 4 minutes don't matter much. Instead of giving it to Rivers, I would rather give those minutes to Shumpert or House who address a couple of our weaknesses better (size, defense, rebounding). Allows us more tactical options. Which means instead of flipping the coin on whether River or Green happen to be on tonight, we are choosing between strengths (Gordon's attack vs Shumpert's defense). Those guys are not rotation guys. A guy in Green who is consistently a terrible defender. A guy in Rivers who is shooting 31% on the season - and all guys who shoot 31% have 39% stretches - and can barely hit over half his free throws is a problem in the playoffs, the task is too large to entrust them with serious minutes unless you're desperate. Shumpert can eat a bunch of those minutes, and Tucker will chip in too if Faried can hold the fort at backup 4 for 15 minutes.
