Nate needs to give Pot an opportunity. The Rashard Lewis at the power forward experiment is failing. Sweet Lew can't post up power forwards and he isn't known for his ability to penetrate past the bigs either (although he has improved in that area). On the flip side, Shard isn't getting any offensive or defensive rebounds when he is playing at the 4 nor can he defend the more physical power forwards in the game. Sweet Lew is a three, period. Nate has tried him at the two and at the four and he hasn't been effective at either position. If two mainstays in the forward rotation are unavailable (Vlad for injury and Fortson for volatility) then why isn't Pot getting a chance to compensate for our lack of defensive rebounding and inside scoring opportunities? Pot was scheduled to be our starting center this season but b/c of injury he hasn't been able to get into the rotation. When he has played he has played well but his chances have been few and far between. Reggie Evans doesn't play starters minutes b/c he can't score or make free throws. Nick Collison has been playing exceptionally well, but he can't be expected to guard both the four and the five. He is also starting to wear down on the offensive end b/c he isn't used to playing as much minutes as he has been (especially considering how much banging he is doing). Pot is a big body who can body up with the more physical players in the league and also get rebounds and timely buckets. Why wouldn't Nate turn to him instead of forcing other players to play out of position? Nate made the comment that he will not penalize anyone for injury and/or suspension. That is complete bs b/c both Pot and Flip were supposed to be in the regular rotation and neither of them have even benefitted from other players in the rotation being sidelined. We are too deep of a team to not use our healthy assets. If Danny and Vlad are unavailable, there is no reason why Pot can't get 15+ minutes in our rotation. My guess is that he isn't playing b/c Nate attributes our success this season to both he and Flip being sidelined during our 17-3 start. Pot is almost guilty by association. W/ our recent front court losses, should Pot get the majority of the back up center minutes?
Yeah, because he can score in the post better than Collison, Reggie, and Jerome with about the same production elsewhere. Nate is just confusing me lately. The rotation has been all over the place.
Please no I still attribute this season's success to addition by subtraction (the Booth/Potapenko/James rotation) He's a poor finisher and is slow. Two things that adversely affect the Sonics' style of play.. I don't mind him getting some minutes when other guys are in foul trouble, but no bigger role please ;[
