I hope this doesn't mean tonight's starters become permanent

I still think it's a terrible lineup. We just match up very well with San Antonio, since we both play slow grind it out games.

 

I do think tonight's lineup is situational. But I think it was the perfect time to test Miller in the starting 5. If we need speed, we might start replacing Blake with Webster in the lineup, with Miller starting.

 

10-1 blake is in the starting lineup again in the next game.... whatever that means.

 

I sure hope this means an eventual transition from Blake to Miller in the starting lineup. But with Blake playing a team-high 38 mins tonight, I don't know if Nate is ready to give 'Blakey' 15-20 mins a game.

 

When I heard this was to be our starting lineup tonight I was furious. That lineup hadn't worked well so far and I couldn't fathom how McMillan could go with it. Well, we won tonight so my hat's off to Nate for the time being. I'm not a big fan of making tons of substitutions throughout the course of the game, as it could be a detriment to the team finding their flow. However, we are a very deep team, and if guys can truly buy into that concept and leave their egos in the locker room, this could end up working for us. Can't wait for the next game!!!

 

I hope it means we are a lot more "flexible" and will use our depth and talent strength to dictate lineups depending upon what works best vs our opponents. Last nights starting lineui will not work nearly as well vs other teams, so be flexible and change when necessary.

 

Nate just said he's sticking with the lineup for the time being.

 

Doesnt Minni start Flynn? As much as it hurts - I would rather have Blake in front of him trying to guard him than Miller, at this point in time.

 

It is similar to the lineup that was an total disaster in pre-season and parts of some regular season games with one difference. Nate is playing a real center with it, and using Aldridge at PF instead of Outlaw. That provides some size to go with the smalls, so it helps out a lot.

But if you think about the rotation, the thing that actually allowed it to be pulled off last night, was Webster willing to go to the bench, and Bayless spirited play running the 2nd unit. Bayless played PG great IMO last night. He looked under control, he ran the offense, he penetrated the paint, he got to the line. The more times the 2nd unit gets to the line while they are in, the longer the starters can rest.

 

It's crazy that Roy slides over to SF and Blake slides over to SG over Rudy?

Rudy is in a funk right now. He's put in the game in short spurts and can't find a rhythm.

A more prominent/defined role will do wonders for Rudy.

 

I agree he would be a better fit there. I wonder if this lineup is really just to make people happy on the team. Sometimes that can have a lot more to do with your players playing hard then them actually struggling.

 

I think it's not that bad now that I see how it works. Before it was more "Tampering". Last night it was "This is it" therefor the team responded to it with open arms.

The reason this line-up works is the spacing on the floor. Also, all three players played the passing lanes much better and they worked off each other to help defend the perimeter. If you watch the game closely, watch how they were eying each other and communicating. It was like there was 3 of the same brain on the floor defensively. And their focus was making sure there was no penetration.

Now on the offensive end, you have two players (Roy and Miller) playing the wings and able to get the ball to Oden and Aldridge on the low block. It also forced Aldridge to either play inside, or he doesn't get the ball. That's so much better. The sooner Aldridge gets it that he needs to score in the paint 80% of the time, the sooner the success of our ball club. Oh and Roy playing the wing and off the ball for all but the 4th was totally perfect. Save his energy, give him the 4th quarter to shine. He scored the same amount of points cause he had so much reserved energy in the 4th (i.e. 12 4th quarter points)

Also, now you have Webster, Fernandez and Outlaw coming off the bench as our primary offensive weapons. Webster is the guy you need to put the pressure on defensively and Rudy and Outlaw are the guys supposed to create their own shot.

Look on it "outside the box". It actually makes a lot of sense if Roy plays a wing. It's makes total sense to have Webster come off the bench and give us a spark defensively on the second unit. But mainly, it gets our bigs involved more in the paint. Embrace it. The more it's implemented, the more we start winning games.

 

The spacing was created by having Miller handle the ball and Roy/Blake on the wings. It did not work when we had Roy or Blake handling it - because Miller is just not a long-range threat - so Atlanta, for example, could collapse on the middle. So, it seems that when Nate wanted Miller to run 90% of the sets - he knew what he was doing.

 

Great point and I agree. THe spacing was amazing last night. Watching it again, you can really see it working well.

 

Can't Webster or Rudy space the floor instead of Blake, please?

 

Yes. On offense.

I am still waiting to hear someone tell me who else can somewhat stay in front of quick point guards. It's not Rudy and it's not Webster.

 

I agree with this. The three guard lineup worked but I'm not convinced it wouldn't have worked just at well with Webster or Rudy instead of Blake. My choice would be Rudy.

OTOH, I agree with Mag's post from top to bottom. So long as Miller is running the point with the first team and not being asked to shoot outside jumpers, I think it's worthwhile to consider what combinations of other players are going to work well for the second unit. It's going to take some more tinkering to determine where Blake fits best. I don't see why though that Blake couldn't do his thing with the second unit and let Rudy start.

 

No one on our team can. Not even Bayless, really. Miller's one-on-one defense is worse than I'd expected. The key is as mags described, the three guard lineup playing joined-at-the-hip team defense. Its worth a try for a few games.

 

From what I have seen so far, Miller works against the bigger, slower guys and Blake works better against the quicker guys.