I am excited to see the growth of Anfernee but while it seems as though he has been, to a degree, positioned as the second coming of Dame, I am starting to think differently - I think he is more the second coming of CJ. Thus, with that thought in mind, I thought "What if we start Ant with Dame in the backcourt and bring in CJ to run with the second unit and help with "staggering". CJ is no Dame but he has, at times when Dame has been out, shown the ability to distribute and orchestrate. I think by slightly weakening our starting five (Ant for CJ) it can significantly strengthen our second unit (with CJ acting as more a distributor and enabling him to use his skills and wiles against second units. Probably things I haven't considered but an off-the-top of my head thought. Reasonable or not? Gramps...
Kinda already doing that. Players have this thing about starting. Only way around it is to start em the first 5 mins of the 1st and 3rd quarters, and then bring em back in for all the second.
Yep if the reasoning is just for staggering their minutes, it is already happening without sending CJ to the bench. He leaves early and comes in with the bench. I also think that Baze deserves the first crack off the bench when CJ sits. So Dame, Baze and Hood can be in there together. Then when the 2nd qtr starts you have CJ, Simons, Baze, Mario and.........? ( preferably Collins )
I just cannot see putting Simons in against other teams starting back courts. The Blazers would start every game in a hole. Maybe in time but right now he would get smoked and the first quarter sets the tone of the game. Okay you might be able to pull this off against teams like the Knicks or even the Kings but lets be honest here. The Nuggets, Jazz or even the Thunder would be a bad idea.
This makes 0 sense. We can stagger CJ to play him with the bench. Playing CJ less minutes isnt going to help. Playing him his normal minutes off the bench will either gas him or defeat any logic behind bringing him off the bench anyway. Bringing him off the bench has no positives compared to staggering him. He and Dame have chemistry. Why do people still talk about bringing CJ off the bench as a good option? Why do people discuss it as if itd be hypothetically possible?
Guys, can someone help me out? Can "the Blazers would start every game in a hole" mean something other than the Blazers starting every game in a hole?