Now that we have played several games we have seen the Stotts system which seems to be: (a) 1 4/5 guy who draws double teams (b) 1 4/5 guy whose first job is defense (c) 3 1/2/3 guys whose job is to shoot the 3 (and also create/play defense) and that's what we have as our starters. Here's our nonrotation players and their default long term benefit to the team: +Joel Freeland (b) +C.J. McCollum (c) -Thomas Robinson: Not likely to command a double team/not a defensive specialist right now. Will he develop into either of these roles? -Meyers Leonard: Wants to be a (c), currently not a (b) or an (a). -Watson: not in Blazers long term plans. -Barton: Can do some interesting things but he can't shoot. +Crabbe (c) -Claver: Smart player but he can't shoot. I'm not condemning these (-) players, they have valuable skill sets. However, they don't obviously fit into the Blazers long term plans.
Keeping a good bench in play will be the difficult part; our starting lineup is set, with LMA's age and Matthews's ability to sustain his performance being the factors that may cause changes in the future. CJ can probably be plugged into Matthews's slot if needed. LMA's game isn't athletic, so he may be good to great for another 4-6 years... I guess you just look for rough gems in the 4/5 area and hope Olshey's ability to sniff out bargain combo guards continues.
Shooting does seem to be a sine qua non for PT for all but the bigs. Shame about Claver. I bet he ends up on Real Madrid (which could beat a fair few NBA teams right now) next season, making a trio of disgruntled ex-Blazers.
Best case scenario is Will Barton is our Lance Stephenson and Thomas Robinson is our Larry Sanders (well, last year's Larry Sanders anyway). That is, players who were developed in-house to become useful contributors from a starting point of zero PT.
I think that your list is a pretty good assessment as of right now. But after seeing the improvement that Joel Freeland was able to bring to his game after a summer of hard work, I'm pretty reluctant to write off any of the young guys. Still plenty of room for growth in Robinson & Leonard's games, IMO.
I'm ok with the 9 man rotation. I think the other guys will fit in better as they get up to speed. Freeland is a prime example. His progress did not come from playing in NBA games, but from his work in the gym and film room over the summer. Just because those guys aren't getting play time doesn't mean we shouldn't expect to see improvements when they get their opportunity to take the floor.
