Just an FYI merged the two threads cause they looked like basically the same thing, poll is still here though.
I'm not sure he can last 30 minutes without fouling out, especially against the size of AD, McGee and Howard.
Yeah but it is still "small ball". True we will have a true center in the line up the whole time. But the other 4 spots will be small. Trent will be guarding Lebron and Melo will be guarding AD during critical parts of the game. That will give us 4 shooters on the court, but they will be playing small ball. We have no choice but to spread the floor and get in a 3 pt shooting contest. Thus the reason I was kind of hoping to lose the Brooklyn game. Horrible matchup.
Mario, Wenyen and Melo are all 6'8....they'll take the minutes...Melo only if we go smallball...Hassan and Nurk will guard McGee and Howard
It is crazy. I'm also surprised how many people think losing Collins is addition by subtraction. Despite his lackluster play in the bubble, I don't think him being out makes us better.
We don't know how long Zach had this ankle injury. He might have try to play through the whole bubble with it.
Zach was measured at 6'10.25, so he ain't a 7 footer either as far as young bigs that are better: Jaren Jackson (2 years younger) Michael Porter Jr (1 year younger) Bam Abedayo (same age) John Collins (same age) Jarret Allen (7 months younger) Thomas Bryant (same age) Deandre Ayton (1 year younger) Marvin Bagley (2 years younger) Domantas Sabonis (1 year older) Myles Turner (20 months older) Laurie Markkanen (6 months older) I might be forgetting players and of course, if you go 2-3 years older to guys in only in their mid-20's you have Giannis (only 25), Pascal Siakam, Montrazel Harrell, Anthony Davis, Kristaps Porzingas, Clint Capela, Joel Embiid, Jusuf Nurkic, Nicola Jokic honestly, at this point, if you made a list of young bigs that are worse than Zach it would be shorter than the list of those better
Portland was already hurting for depth. And they face AD. Zach even giving the Blazers a mediocre 20 minutes a game would be a help. If either Nurkic or Whiteside get in foul trouble, Portland is going to have big problems
Many of those you list play SF. Zach is a C/PF. Zack can defend the rim, defend out to the 3pt line,, and shows skills on offense, I'm not saying he is an allstar prospect or proven rotational player, he is not. But hes not worth completely giving up on. Are there other superior players we could've taken at #10? Sure, but we can't change that now. There's 15 roster spots, hes better than other options if healthy this post season and either way hes worth looking at more next season. Now if you are saying we shouldn't consider him a core starter in the offseason, I'm on board and would be happy with a superior option if such an addition becomes feasible.
I'm not saying "give up on him"...just that penciling him in as the PFOTF, as he has been so often, is a bit loopy...he hasn't earned that distinction. Aminu was better He's also not that young any more. He'll turn 23 in 3 months. Shit, I remember the Meyers is still young bullshit when he was 25
Gaberial will do just as well as Collins. I have faith in Gaberial. The bar isn’t that high on matching Collins production
Jaren Jackson - PF/C Bam Abedayo - PF/C John Collins - PF/C Jarret Allen - C Thomas Bryant - C Deandre Ayton - C Marvin Bagley - C/PF Domantas Sabonis - PF/C Myles Turner - C Laurie Markkanen - PF/C Giannis - PF/C Pascal Siakam - PF Montrazel Harrell - PF/C Anthony Davis - PF/C Kristaps Porzingis - PF/C Clint Capela - C Joel Embiid - C Jusuf Nurkic - C Nicola Jokic - C Literally the only one with minutes at SF: Michael Porter Jr - 3% of minutes have come at SF, 87% of minutes at PF and apparently he's even played some C (10%) in small ball line ups. If we could somehow turn Zach Collins into a Cody Martin + Jalen McDaniels or Malik Monk over the summer, I'd be all for it.
I’d go with a seven man rotation - no Mario. Gabriel looks better than Zach albeit on a small sample size and certainly better than Mario. I’d plan to play Gabriel 30 min and see what happens. Nurk, Hassan, Gabriel have to make a concerted effort to stay out of foul trouble.
This is the type of take that surprises me. Totally dismisses depth. Even if you don't think Collins has an impact on the game, we don't have a long list of people who can defend 6'10-6'11' mobile bigs.
