That's what I got out of the clips I've seen. He reminds me, hand to G-d, of 1999 Pippen, which is how I figure he'll slot in with us.
Crabbe seems to have grown as a player quite nicely for a 2nd round pick. He's got size at SG, is willing to play defense, and gives us scoring and 3pt shooting. He grew to be a 10+ PPG scorer in his 3rd season. If he starts at SF, he could easily prove he's worth his paycheck. ET may get a lot of open 3pt looks and may hit at a higher rate than we expect. Teams may choose to more actively defend the better 3pt shooters on the team. The one season he started at SF and played 35+ MPG, he shot .365 from 3.
Here is the thing, I think most people (i.e Stotts, Neil, me...) want either CJ or Dame on the court at all times for their scoring. So the best way to do that is to have a PG who can cover big SG's. Unfortunately really good big back up PG's are hard to come by. So my guess is Neil went for the next best option and that was a 6'7" SG who is pretty good at running an offense. I agree ET is not a PG, but surely you agree that matching CJ and Dame up with a small PG like Napier is not a better option. Napier is on the team in case either Dame or CJ gets hurt. At which point he will play with Turner or Crabbe. But again I think most people want either CJ or Dame on the floor at all times. Scott Souza: #Celtics Danny Ainge: “I miss Evan Turner already too.” … Mentioned Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown in fight for those minutes. 3 days ago – via Twitter Scott_Souza
If you play either Dame or CJ all the time how many minutes do they get to play together? And how good are we with just one of them on the floor?
My guess is first 6 minutes of the first and third quarters, and the last 6 minutes of the 2nd and 4th. That is about 24 minutes together and 24 minutes when one of them is with ET. Obviously this could vary from game to game. For example against GS I would play ET more minutes while guarding Klay. How good was CJ during the stretch when Dame was hurt? They do just fine without the other. I think it essential we always have one of them on the floor. That way at least one player on the court can create his own shot.......when needed.
this sounds about right with the one caveat I might add that if we really are effective with ET running the defacto pg position we should play dame and cj together less than they play apart
Possibly, but I don't think anyone is suggesting that we will be better off with either Dame or CJ on the bench. I think the theory is we will be better off than we were last year when inevitably one of them does have to rest. And I do think against teams who like to trap in the 4th qtr (i.e the Clippers) we will see all three in there together. But it would be nice to rest them more over the course of the long season. They both average around 35-36 minutes per game. Nice to get that down to around 32......at least for some games.
Well, Portland will have the highest paid bench in nba history, by a LONG shot. Their bench is probably more highly paid than any starting lineup in nba history.
Yes but this is like Conley being the highest paid player, it's inflated by the new salary cap and so many of our players being free agents. Also, our bench isn't just the highest paid it's one of the deepest and most talented in the league
ET can be backup PG with CJ. Thing about ET he has so flexible when he out there he can play 3 position. If Stotts going to play 3 guard rotation then either Harkless or Crabbe going to start at SF. I going to lean Harkless at first due to what happen in the playoff and he is better defender than Crabbe.
My sense is ET might get spot duty at PG, but we're still going to play Dame and CJ almost all the minutes. If both are on the bench, then ET would play the PG position. This may be more an issue of assuring the depth chart is solid at all 5 positions. ET at PG allows a backup PG roster spot to be used for a player who's not a PG.
a rose by any other name... While opinions of position labeling vary a little, the position that a player primarily guards seems to be the deciding convention of most coaches and announcers. For instance, if Meyers is always at the 3 point arc on offense but guarding the other team's Big on the low block, he's the Center. So if Evan is guarding a wing player but running the offense as the primary ball handler/playmaker at the top of the key, he's the SG or SF running the Point. STOMP
ET last year had almost identical numbers to Batum in his final year here, minus three point shooting. Even with the worse range, they had essentially the exact same TS% thanks to Evans' much better midrange game. ET will or won't be our backup PG the same way Nic was/wasn't 2 years ago. Just depends how you look at it. He's going to run a lot of plays, especially when Dame sits. But unlike in the Batum era, we've got a dynamic scorer to play off the ball handler in CJ, instead of Matthews. ac I don't think spacing is going to be an issue at all. I bet our end-of-game lineup most nights will be Dame/CJ/Evans/Aminu/Leonard. Dame or CJ brings the ball up and Evans is the release. He then picks whichever shooter is open or goes in for the dunk.
There is a video of Stotts talking about a new offensive set they are implementing which utilizes two guards as the point of initiation as opposed to a single point guard. I think this is his way of reducing the need for a traditional PG so he can play ET and CJ together as those lead guards. This will reduce the pressure on each of them to be a prototypical PG. Sounds great to me.
Evan Turner will make defenses pay for doubling Dame and CJ...he'll do what Batum did by making the bigs better only I think he's a way better passer than Batum...Turner is the best passer probably on the roster..we needed that..he protects the ball...when GS plays Shaun Livingston...we won't have to make CJ guard him anymore...mismatch neutralized! I love the upgrade!..
At that point, you have to start worrying about who is best in which spot. Which isn't really a bad problem
