Move Matthews to the bench. That gives us a decent scorer off the bench. The starters a all about Dame, Nic, and LA anyway. Barton can take open shots wherever they may be. Sign a PG that can score. Who is out there? Anyone in the D League? Some Jeremy Lin/Patty Mills guy? Matthews/Leonard/NewGuy solves the bench issue. I've been saying Delonte West but you guys keep shooting it down. He really would solve all our problems.
Matthews is definitely not a "create your own offense" kind of player; moving him to the bench isn't going suddenly energize that unit's production. As for starting Barton, I'd like to see him earn minutes as a reserve first. Furthermore, the notion that there is a street free agent out there that could push this team from it's current trajectory to a top 7 pick and into the playoffs is pure fantasy. At best they might find a combo guard in the D-league who can score 10 ppg off the bench, pushing them all the way to a 9th seed in the West ... just good enough to have to surrender our pick to Charlotte, but not enough to produce anything meaningful or sustainable. This thing is going to take a little while and there is no shortcut back from all of the franchise crippling injuries we saw over the past 5 years. This was always going to be a rebuilding year. My advice is to suck it up and enjoy watching Lillard develop, Nicolas mature and watching the team play an entertaining brand of unselfish basketball on offense ... and pray to god the defense starts to make some incremental improvements.
Agree that Matthews is a bad choice to move to the bench because he's a complementary player all the way. He's Thabo Sefolosha, not James Harden. Actually Barton could be that bench sparkplug because he is all about creating his own offense. So with any luck he'll develop into that. No, the player I'd see moved to the bench (this isn't going to happen, by the way) is Batum. Start Claver, who can defend and hit threes, and feed off Lillard and Aldridge, and have Batum be the man on the second unit. However, Batum's improvement has come from playing 40 mpg, so this would only be for 8 mpg, and thus wouldn't actually make much difference. But it makes sense, and if Batum could be sold on the idea that he's Manu Ginobili, it would totally work!
Considering that Sasha Pavlovic is starting over Claver at the backup 3 spot, I'm guessing Stotts doesn't think he can play there ... or just isn't ready.
I think it's the old "I'm not going to play a rookie unless I have to" syndrome - see Kevin McHale's treatment of the Rockets rookies we were all impressed by in summer league. But sometimes players can vault into the starting lineup from not playing at all - see Patty last night. I think those were his first minutes of the season. It makes sense to surround players with starters so that there's less burden on them. You can tell them just to focus on simple things at first. Either that, or Claver is simply a bust. We may never know.
Yeah I agree as well, Wes would not help the bench. He is a decent defender and a good 3 pt shooter. Those two attributes compliment Lillard, LMA and Nic. Like Nikolokolus stated, the second unit needs a guy who can create his own shot . Someone like Crawford.......
Your willing to start Will Barton and bench Wes Mathews but your not willing to bench JJ Hickson and start Meyers Leonard? Is there some favoritism going on here?
Maybe you can keep 2 of LMA, Lillard, and Batum on the court at any one time. Then you only need the bench guys to play defense and maybe hit a shot when open.
This thread could be about Barton, or Claver, or Freeland, and my answer would be the same. Playing our starters 40 minutes per game has produced a 2-4 record. That's .333 when we try to win. We wouldn't be any worse if we'd played those 3 players. We might be 1-5. Those guys aren't throwaways and should be developed fast. 2 have extensive pro experience. I was very surprised by what an all-around SF Claver was in the exhibition season. That guy is totally mobile, and a good dribbler and shooter. I saw the same traits as Batum had as a rookie. Batum got to start then.
KingSpeed is full of shit - don't feed the troll. its basketball - thats all. coach makes the decision. don't like it, lets hear why
So Speed Racer doesn't recognize him as the guy who told him wearing that scarf and gloves made him look manly.
