The only tough decision I see right now is whether to start Wallace... which honestly I don't see how we can keep him on the bench. The guy produces. Once he gets comfortable he's going to be great. It's tough, because I don't want to bench Batum, but the only other option is moving Aldridge to center and starting Wallace at power forward. That might work against some teams, but not all teams.
I think we could be dealing with having too many players deserving minutes. But I also think it's a chemistry thing where we are inserting Wallace, Camby and Roy - 3 very important players - into the rotation and them having to re-adjust to the system and the system adjusting to them. It could even take one or two more games before the team starts to run more smoothly. I wouldn't predict a loss to the Kings but with them playing better basketball and us needing some more time to gel, even that is possible.
I don't know either, but it's something to think about. FWIW: I have always thought of Nate as being at his best when he's in survival mode ...
Had we started the year with this group all healthy, they would be fine. It's not all about Nate's coaching. I just don't think anybody realized the dramatic shift in dynamics that bringing Roy, Camby, & Wallace (at the same time, no less) into the rotation would create. Guys are thinking too much, and trying to feel out what their roles are. Pretty much everybody, even LA (although I don't know how much of the last two games can be attributed to his knee and him just being tired) seems unsure of what their role is now. I think it's fair to be worried. While I have confidence that they can right this ship, there just isn't any time. We are 1 game away from the 9th seed, and just can't afford a losing streak. Roy won't play tonight, right? (They said he won't play back-to-backs for a while). I'm interested to see if that makes a difference. Of course, it IS Sacramento playing w/o T. Evans. That stat I saw yesterday, I think 22-11 w/o Roy and like 11-16 with him was troubling. It's obviously not just him, but there is something different psychologically when he is out there. I'm not too worried about Gerald Wallace. You don't need to run plays for that guy to get double figures, and I don't think he cares about touches. He'll be fine, although I'm a little worried about Nic's head when he goes back to the bench (which will happen BTW). I'm not worried about Camby's presence. He just brings his lunch pail to work and does his job. Roy? Yeah, it scares me. Lamarcus seems like he almost wants to give the reigns back to Brandon, and Rudy/Wesley are going to have reduced roles when Roy plays - no way around it. It's hard to just throw the last 30 games or so out the window and say "We're a different team now, and my role has to change." Roy's presence may be causing that to happen, and I don't know what you do about that. Now that IS up to Nate. He's got to figure out how he wants to use Brandon and be clear about it with the whole team. They haven't done that, probably at least in part because they aren't sure how his knees will hold up. How often can we expect Brandon to play like he did Friday against Denver? I don't think anybody knows, and this game-to-game uncertainty is confusing the team. Putting a 15 minute restriction on him, and then letting him play 24 shows they don't even know what they have in him, more or less how to use him. That could be the key to what happens down the stretch.
Perhaps something to think about this off-season is finally entertaining trade offers for Batum? In the past, we've fretted over whether we can part with him to get Wallace, but now we've got Wallace for mere pocket change... Use the remainder of the season to determine how well Wallace fits and how much he has left in the tank. If all the talk is to be believed, Batum has very high value around the league and should be a good building block in a trade for an elite PG or C.
