Assuming that Joe's statement was true about Darko having a spot in the rotation... Who loses the PT? Sheed, Dyce... or both? Sheed was the primary backup at center while Ben rested... Is everyone ok with his minutes being reduced by 5 to 10 minutes. I'm not so sure Darko will perform equally as well as the guys he's replacing.
Ben. It's gotta be Benny. I have a really bad feeling about Joe using Evans and Darko as leverage in contract negotiations with Ben and Tayshaun.
losing PT Dividing up the playing time at the 4/5 spots is going to be one of the more interesting things that Flip is going to have to deal with. 96 minutes between - Last year the main 3 averaged 94 minutes. Ben (36 minutes) Sheed (34) Mcdyess (24) I would guess that Ben would play a little less, maybe 30-34 minutes per game, but I woulnt expect Sheeds minutes to go down too much, he's too important on BOTH ends of the floor. One way to get Darko, Maxiell (hopefully he can back up the 3 also) and Dale Davis some minutes would be to play a big line up. Something Larry only did a couple times last year. Which, in turn, would give Tay the rest that he needed last year. But who can play the 3 or who would be the 3 that would be on the floor at the same time? The quickest big man lineup might be Darko, Ben, and Maxiell. Can we pull that off on the defensive end? With zone D I think we can.
Why? What reason has Joe D. ever given to you to make you feel as if he would deal in bad faith with anyone let alone His Guys and in particular the foudation piece he built a championship on? I think just the opposite, Joe is going to make a staement to the Association by the way he compensates Big Ben next year, Ala M.J. Max him out year to year until he retires. I'm sure Joe remembers the effect Krause had on the Bulls and does not want to go down that path.
Nobody said anything about not re-upping Ben....Just said that his minutes may be reduced to make floor time for the young guys like Darko and Maxiell.
As it turned out, the minutes for the "big 3" didn't change a whole lot: Ben: 36.1 mpg in '05 down to 35.2 mpg in '06 (-0.9 minutes) Sheed: 34.0 mpg in '05 up to 34.7 mpg in '06 (+0.7 minutes) Dyess: 23.3 mpg in '05 down to 21.2 mpg in '06 (-2.1 minutes) It is still basically a 3-man rotation for 2 positions (PF,C).
And we can't have that anymore. We need a legit 7 foot center to come off the bench with Dice. Thats where a lot of problens start with this team. Ben might be evn shorter than 6-9 so he should be a small forward not a center anyways.
You look at how well Dallas is keeping Shaq from dominating and you can't help but look at Ben in certain matchups... it's just plain stupid having a 245 LBer playing the mijority of his PT against a guy 80 LBS heavier... the only exception would if this guy could make up the difference on offense (read Suns).. We missed EC or an equivilent body (D.D. was not the answer) If Cato goes on to play Shaq well in the future I will be pissed at Flip.
Thats probably part of the reason why Ben seemed so upset. Not only Cato but Davis was signed partly to play Shaq in the playoffs.
I don't know if we even saw enough of Dale Davis to make judgement. Do you? I like what I saw from him when he did play. But no one is going to shut down Shaq. But that was 12 fouls (DD & Kato) that Flip let sit on the bench.
I think that Elden played Shaq as well as anybody. I was disappointed that we didn't dig him up this year for the playoffs.
Sign me up for the "we need an additional big man" crew. No question Cato should have played, and Dale Davis is really more of a 4 than a 5. We need more size up front. Przybilla looks to be the best of the FA prospects.....short of Nene. Looks like a bunch of folk are lining up to (over) pay for his services. The pickings look pretty slim to me.
