This should be our starting lineup. But I know Murphy has to stay a starter to keep his trade value up so he can be moved, which sucks. Foyle has no trade value regardless, so I say let him ride the pine.
Actually I won't be suprised if we see some more liberal substitutions this year from Monty. Remember, he flirted with starting Ike at center over Foyle last year. Also Beans. He even gave Taft significant minutes at the beginning of the year. I have criticized him for playing the vets way too much. Fish and Foyle still got way too many minutes last year. But this year, with Fish gone, and with Monty realizing his sticking with the vets only drew criticizm last year -- not wins -- I expect his trigger finger to be a little more itchy this year. Afterall, there's no more "playing" it safe. If he doesn't find a way to make it work by the All-Star break, I'm sure he won't be around to see Foyle win the Most Improved Player award.
My lineup is Baron, Ellis, J-Rich, Diogu, Beans. It may be small but we have a quick, athletic, good shooting backcourt, two good rebounders and post players on the block.
Don't forget top 5 youngest teams just don't win. Teams have to mix it up with veterans. Unfortunately relying on guys like Foyle, Murphy, Dunleavy probably won't cut it. But only relying on rookie scale contracts to win games just won't cut it either, unless these guys already play like vets or they know how to use their raw skills in order to gain a strong mismatch. A lot of our foreign rookies aren't as talented as we think or they're just not nba ready enough. In terms of completeness I don't think Ellis is there yet, but his defense and offense are very, very good. Ike Diogu is polished but he probably won't grow as much since he's a very complete player, which I like because he's very talented and strong to begin with. The rest of the vets like Richardson do not go well with the way Dunleavy, Foyle, (Fisher), and Murphy play. The worst part is that PF and C are hard to find, and I'm not even sure Ike should be forced into PF right away until the right trade for Murphy comes along.
We should have on of Biedrins or Diogu starting and have Ellis or J-Rich play shooting guard with J-Rich at SF if with Ellis and Dunleavy if J-Rich at SG. We can't rely on players like Foyle, I understand your thinking custodian, but don't you rememeber the Utah game that we ended up losing in OT where in the end of the 4th quarter, Biedrins, Ellis, and Diogu played almost that whole stretch where we came back and at one point tied it up? We need a spark and if we get our young guys paired up with the right team around them, we can be sucssessful.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CABANGBANG:</div><div class="quote_post">We should have on of Biedrins or Diogu starting and have Ellis or J-Rich play shooting guard with J-Rich at SF if with Ellis and Dunleavy if J-Rich at SG. We can't rely on players like Foyle, I understand your thinking custodian, but don't you rememeber the Utah game that we ended up losing in OT where in the end of the 4th quarter, Biedrins, Ellis, and Diogu played almost that whole stretch where we came back and at one point tied it up? We need a spark and if we get our young guys paired up with the right team around them, we can be sucssessful.</div> I believe we need patience. I don't think in our franchise's history have we developed a rookie the right way. I mean none of our rookies had ever played like veterans in their first year, so I think they need to be brought along slowly until they get it. When we draft soley on upside, we need to make sure they get physically mature and they learn everything about the game. I think 2003 was probably the closest where we had each position in the rotation backed up by a capable and smart vet to take over and show the young guys how they can play within themselves. In year '04 we had jack sht for vets. Fisher could lead some, but c'mon he's just not a smart point guard to follow. Foyle... sucks. I don't want to go into detail about the positives he has with loyalty and how he's such a nice member of the community. The bottom line is these guys don't really lead by example in any of the games and they don't offer the things our team badly needs. Guys like Robinson, NVE, Dale Davis, we had to trade for. I think guys like NVE/Robinson were most important for getting guys like Jason Richardson focussed into becoming the player he is right now. Because before he would just disappear or suck in ways Dunleavy and Pietrus do right now. So that's my reasoning. It's just to be patient and let the guys who've developed rookies before, handle their business. Hopefully Mullin realizes that young teams and teams that don't fit together, just don't win playoffs. He needs to put these young guys in a position to win and develop the right way physically, mentally, and skillwise. I think this requires good depth, locker room presence, patience, and a team that fits. I don't think Mullin really knows this, but he's going to figure it out because some of his guys are going to tell him. "Hey Mullin, you've got to properly vet these guys so they stop being such scared rookies in the 4th and when games are on the line." He's also got to get quality vets and not overpay them...
There's too many things about these rookies that we don't know and we only see the stuff they do in the context of maybe a few games. I'm just saying be patient because these guys will play eventually. We don't know enough about them. It could be another Pietrus type thing where we see him scoring a point per minute in some games, but others he just shows that he's not very dependable as a basketball player. Rookies have to develop into students of the game. More importantly we need to introduce guards that can look for our big men inside. Especially once we introduce Diogu into the lineup or Chris Taft. It'll be a waste if they ignore them down there.
