A person gets exposed 2 or 3 seconds at a time, kind of like stomach flu. I'm considering getting my ears converted to tin so I can enjoy it.
It's nice to see so many guy who look hungry for a bigger role working on their games. Nice too to see some big, athletic bodies in there banging around. I hope we can morph into that team that nobody wants to play because they know they will be hurting the next morning. Hoping for big things from Vonleh and Alexander.
I'm pretty excited to see these guys play hard, and win a few games. I want to see effort over anything else!
So my buddy and I were speculating on the starting 5. Weird to not even know some of the names of the guys. We figured Dame - 1 Henderson - 2 (Maybe CJ) Aminu - 3 Myers - 4 (Maybe Ed Davis) Plumlee -5 Does that sound about right? (And please for those of you who want to slam me and say "This has been covered in another thread!!", save your breath. This is just a chat board, and we're chatting.)
This is my assumption as well, but stotts may see better chemistry. He also has preseason to figure it out.
Meyers IMO is better for coming off the bench, will get more consistent minutes and will have more of a defined role. As a starter he is a weak defender, will get into early foul trouble and will be looked at as a 4th or 5th option to score. We need more toughness, rebounding, defense and stability from our starting power forward. I like him better as the 1st or 2nd player off the bench.
Tough to balance this team. If you start Ed Davis instead of Myers Leonard, your only outside shooter is Dame. You'd almost be forced to start CJ instead of Henderson in that situation, but then your backcourt defense is suspect.
I respectfully disagree. If Plumlee starts, then so does Meyers or Vonleh (unlikely). I can't see them using two bigs who cannot shoot on the floor at the same time. IMHO, the only way Meyers doesn't start is if Vonleh does, which I cannot see. I know we picked on Meyers (rightfully so) in the past, but his defense % around the basket was pretty good last year. He may not look effective, but the numbers would indicate otherwise. Also, I believe every one of the young bigs on the roster (Meyers, Plumlee, Vonleh, Davis, Alexander) averaged more than 10 reb/36 min, with Leonard leading the way at 15/36min.
Possibly. I think it will come down to who plays better next to Leonard, and which position they want Leonard in. I have mixed feelings. I would like to see both Davis and Plumlee start for different reasons. Looking forward to see who steps up more. Ultimately I'm hoping for Leonard/Davis as starters (force the quicker big to guard Davis and pull the center out on Leonard), with Vonleh/Plumlee as the reserves (similar inside/outside balance). I'm not as big on Vonleh/Davis unless we can afford to go smaller. But, a twin 7-foot lineup of Leonard and Plumlee could be effective--and give the Celtics fans something to drool over.
Dame Henderson Aminu Meyers Davis/Plumlee - impossible to tell which will get the start I think the other four players are locks to start, but Davis/Plumlee will come down to who works best with the starting/bench units.
I don't like Lillard and CJ together and I don't like Aminu and Davis on the court at the same time. The one certainty is: PG: Lillard Beyond that, it's all about combinations. Ideally you want to avoid two complete non-shooters on the court at once, and unfortunately we have acquired 3 this offseason: Aminu Plumlee Davis One of them obviously has to start, but which one? Olshey seems to be highest on Aminu, but I'm not sure he makes sense. How about this slightly weird combination: Lillard, Henderson, Crabbe, Davis, Leonard. That way you get floor spacing and not terrible defense. Bring in Aminu and CJ off the bench and maybe Plumlee because it matters a bit less to have shooters in your bench unit. I actually think Henderson both will and should start ahead of CJ both because of NBA seniority, proven starter-ness, better size and for the same reason that Sefolosha started over Harden and Danny Green starts over Ginobili.
I've often thought the obsession of having settled starters and a clear class division between bench and starters a bit weird. Why not have a more flexible unit? Are athletes so fragile? Or is it too important a benefit for the coach to use to motivate players to discard? Maybe they figure if players are starters then they're less likely to gripe about minutes that swing wildly from game to game? Minutes are going to be really hard to distribute on this team. Now everybody is about equal so it's going to be hard to justify giving (say) Crabbe 30 minutes and (say) Harkless 10. Or vice versa. Ironically, without the clear set of starters we had last year there might be more ego problems for those getting fewer minutes.
Damian Lillard CJ McCullum Al-Farouq Aminu Meyers Leonard Mason Plumlee Plumlee and Aminu provide solid D. Lillard, McCullum and Leonard provide the outside attack. That starting lineup will probably have a bit of trouble on the defensive end though. First off the bench will be Davis and Henderson, with Crabbe providing backup at the small forward position. Scrub minutes for the rest of the guys.
Are we assuming Aminu's a lock to start because he played well in the playoffs (as with CJ and Leonard)? Because I think people are going to be a bit let down by his skillset. He's more Bo Outlaw than anything else. As I keep stressing: he averaged less than 20 mpg with the Mavs last season.
