Two things: Stotts is still the head coach; not exactly a rookie friendly, and secondly, rookie bigs have more of a jump to make going from college to the pros -- it just takes time.
That's 3 SFs out of 30 and he defends SF better than SG. Not that I disagree - he needs to get better on defense. Way better.
Unless we somehow manage to land Jae Crowder, I think Harkless will continue to start. I'd like to see Aminu NOT playing PF this year, which means a vastly reduced role for him, to the point I'd consider trading him. I mentioned this idea in another thread. I don't want to jinx anyone by mentioning the "i" word, but lets just say, I'd like to see some insurance at the 5 spot. Aminu for Cole Aldrich works cap wise. It's almost a dollar for dollar swap. Aldrich didn't get much playing time in MIN last season, but the year before, he was great backing up DeAndre Jordan In LA. He's not nearly the talent Nurk is, and he was doing it against other back ups, but his advanced stats that year playing for the Clippers compare favorably to Nurk's 20 games in POR. I think he'd be a good back up big to have around, just in case. BNM
Please tell me you would not seriously consider a starting line up that includes all of Damian Lillard. C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe? Crabbe was the worst defender on a bad defensive team. That line up would be a disaster. Big deal, Crabbe guards SFs "better" than SGs. He suck at guarding both. No way am I putting him out there trying to guard other starting small forwards. Yeah, I just mentioned the obvious 3. I also wouldn't want to see Crabbe trying to guard Giannis Antetokoumnpo, Jimmy Butler, Carmelo Anthony, Gordon Hayward, Danilo Galinari, Andrew Wiggins, Rudy Gay or any other SF capable of averaging >15 ppg against REAL NBA starting small forwards. BNM
You guys gotta remember how good Hark shoots from 3 when playing with Nurk. He's at like 44%. Nurk makes him so much better.
To me Stotts likes Aminu and Harkless paired together and I see them coming off the bench....I think Turner should start with Vonleh and Nurk..bring in Harkless Aminu Crabbe and Davis or Collins off the bench with Napier as the spare pt guard..Swanigan could give Harkless a run for his money at minutes..Mo doesn't handle being benched very well. Chief and Davis are cool with whatever minutes Stotts gives them...somebody said Stotts doesn't play rookies but I disagree...he played Dame and CJ and Meyers and AC their rookie seasons. He played TRob his rookie season with us...he played Will Barton....he's even played Connaughton in small stretches and gave Layman a shot early in the season last year.
Mo should split that $500K bonus check he got for shooting 35% from 3-point range with Nurk. He would have never made it without him. BNM
Serious question: other than Dame, what rookies have we had since Stotts has been here have deserved more minutes than they got? C.J. missed training camp, preseason and the first couple months of his rookie year with a broken foot - and was playing behind Wes Matthews. Shit, Meyers got over 1200 minutes as a rookie. It's not like he didn't get his chances. I can't honestly think of a rookie that deserved to play that didn't. BNM
There's no reason to bench Harkless. He's earned his starting spot and plays best in that position. He will be the best combination of shooting and slashing. Exactly what we need playing through Nurk and playing pick and roll.
That makes sense. But only if you can get a "star". Trading players just to move them because you have too many quality players doesn't make sense however.
Noah Vonleh Ed Davis Patty C Bazz Napier Those four players will all be free agents next summer. Nurk will as well, but Nurk ain't goin anywhere. Those are the four players I would be trying to trade because I can't see us spending any significant cash on retaining them.
Line up: Starters: Dame CJ Harkless Vonleh Nurk Second 5 sub all at once!!!!) Turner Crabbe Aminu Collins Davis When in foul trouble and we need extras: Leonard Napier Layman Swannigan guys we could/should try to use in a trade to dump salary: Crabbe (I think Connaughton is ready to slip into this spot. If not, bring Napier into the PG and slide everyone up one and Layman can play backup SF.) Leonard... obvious reasons. Get these guys off the team should be the next main objective. Without soing this, we will not be able to jump onto opportunities in the future. Crowder is available and the talk of the forum, so send Leonard and whatever picks it takes for Crowder and whatever salary dump they want to make to even the deal. This would then make Crabbe more expendable for us to dump.
I think it was his rookie season but AC started when Batum got injured and we went 7-0 with him in there...
