Okay, so the group as it stands clearly is not working. The parts don't fit together. Stuckey needs the ball in his hands to be effective (and also has a wahgraine), so at the very least something has to happen with him. Frank wants defense first. That's great. The problem is, you can't just put 5 Ben Wallaces on the floor because your team has to score at some point, and this team is not. Oh, sure, it's capable of scoring in transition, but their defense is a bend-but-don't break style that is not built to create turnovers so much as force other teams into bad shots (which they don't do, incidentally), and that's not going to lead to transition buckets. This starting unit has no guys that are able to get their own shots. Sure, the Tayfake will work on occasion and Bynum and Stuckey will catch the defense out of position and ram into the basket, but for the most part it relies on set plays creating open looks. I watch and see big men (Monroe, Drummond, Maxiell) standing around on at the top of the key way too much. They aren't involved in the offense, they aren't cutting to the basket, the team isn't grabbing offensive rebounds at nearly the per-game rate it was last year - which is incredible because of the extra opportunities that all those missed shots are giving them - and what we're reduced to seeing is a lot of elbow jumpers from Monroe clanking off the rim. Nobody should EVER be standing around on offense. If that's happening, it's the coach's fault for running really basic plays where only one option is available at any one point in time. It's like an extreme version of Larry Brown's offense where Billups would bring up the ball and Rip would curl and if that didn't work, then other things happened. Your offense has to be built around the strengths of the players. Stuckey is not a spot-up shooter; Knight is. Stuckey, then, should be running the point and Knight should be the off-guard (because he can hit the three). With Stuckey (and Bynum off the bench) running the point, you need guys that can make a living either spotting up for threes or crashing the boards. Guys like, oh, I don't know... English, Knight, Tay, Singler, Monroe, Maxiell, JJ, and Drummond. The threat, of course, is with Knight having to guard a two (because he's small), but just because it's Stuckey at the 1 and Knight at the 2 on offense doesn't mean that you have to play it that way on defense; defensive players choose who they match up against, you know. So this starting lineup can actually work, but it requires Stuckey running the point and Monroe/Maxiell acting as road graders setting picks and then crashing the boards. And someone has to teach these guys that when the ball goes up, the most likely place that it's going to go off the rebound is the other side. Off the bench, with this offense, JJ is a three. I'm really irritated that they didn't keep Macklin, but that wasn't my decision. I'd move Krav into the rotation and run with a Bynum/English/JJ/Krav/Drummond bench that uses English and JJ as your outside guys and Krav and Drummond as space creators. That doesn't leave much space for Singler, but I'm hoping the team trades Tay this season anyhow... that would move JJ into the starting rotation (or should), and Singler into the bench rotation. Anyway, that's my little rant. The team isn't great, and none of us really expected them to be, so I can't say I'm horribly disappointed so far, but it would be nice not to watch them get blown out in a game that the national media is watching. Oh well.
Start: PG- Bynum (until we find a better option) SG- Knight SF- Jerebko PF- Monroe C- Drummond The guards would get open shots, Jerebko would be slashing, and Monroe and Drummond would clean up the mess. Bench: PG- Stuckey SG- English SF- Prince PF-Maxiell C- Kravsov Hopefully this would be a strong defensive unit with some shot blocking and good help D. 11th man: SF- Singler (move JJ to PF when there is a foul trouble need) 13th man: Kris Middleton (switch him into the rotation for a week to see what he looks like) Deep bench: Maggette Daye (switch him in for Maxiell or Krav if the 2nd unit can't score and is against a team that is going small). Villanueva (same as above for Daye, but switch him in if the other team happens to put in their cheerleaders instead of NBA players) Immediately work on trading Tay to a team that is disappointed in their SF and wants to believe that he is their answer. Just get an expiring and some draft picks. This is a mess so far. It's unbelievable that we could trade Tay, Maggette, Daye, Singler, and Middleton (all SF's) and not even suffer a performance drop off.
I think Maggette will be an important piece when he come back from this injury. Not because he is or will be a star.. I'm not tripping. He'll be important because he will be better, at this point, than English, and right now... anyone is better than Stuckey. Kravtsov, Daye and Villanueva ARE NOT PLAYING FOR A REASON. They must be SUCKING REAL BAD in practices.
It doesn't matter what sort of rotation is concocted, the LA Lakers are going to beat it by 20-30 points every time.
Past: Prince Daye Stuckey Maxiell Bynum BoT Maggette Future (& present): Drummond Monroe Knight English Singler Middleton Russian Guy Joe's goal should be to maximize the assets that he can aquire for the "past" guys (cap space, picks, players) in order to add to the future guys. *Regarding the "future" guys, I'm not saying that these guys absolutely need to be a part of the future, just that they have the potential to be a part of it. * Regarding the past guys, a couple of these guys could move into the "future" category but their roles and contract status would have to change.
Not going to put my lineup hopes up, but at the very least, Frank needs to send a message to the starters and bench a few of them for the start of the Nuggets game. All he did in the off-season was say that no one's spot is safe and now he needs to back up those words with actions. We can NOT afford to have the effort they (starters) dished up in LA
I would put Jerebko in that list ahead of guys (Middleton, Russian guy) who have never played a minute yet.
Do we have a single good defender on this team? Dre has got potential but he's not there yet, the same with Knight and English. We have yet to see TRG. JJ is all hustle but he's not a good defender. Our players range from abomination to ok on defense and that's a problem when our offense sucks.
This is a pretty accurate statement, though I will say that Drummond has the potential to be more than a role player. But yeah, they're a pretty mediocre collection of talent.
I don't support any lineup that doesn't have Jerebko and Singler playing all their minutes together. I was actually impressed watching Maggette interact with the young guys last night. He was my star of the game.
I want two things in the way of lineup shakeup. 1- Start Drummond and Monroe. 2- Bench Stuckey until his shooting percentage improves to mid-teens at least.
