Currently, Roy is seventh in the league in mpg. I can see this trend continuing, because essentially he is our starting SG AND our backup PG at the moment, and while we all like Armon Johnson, Nate is notoriously risk-averse and is currently apt to yank him at the first mistake. (And I don't think Nate actually realizes that Patty Mills is on the team.) We all know that Rudy's handles are pretty shaky, and it's become clear that, now the real games have begun, Wesley is finding his ballhandling under more pressure than he finds comfortable. Long story short, we need a reliable backup. (And let's be clear here: this doesn't mean for one second that I'm criticizing the Bayless trade, because "reliable backup" and "Jerryd Bayless" cannot be forced into the same sentence without causing a rift in the spacetime continuum.) Here's my suggestion: We swap Rudy and Joel for Mo Williams and Leon Powe (just as a throw in for frontcourt depth, but actually I think if he can ever stay healthy, he's a very good player). Cleveland gets James Johnson (if Chicago still wants to swap him for Rudy, after him showing improvement - something I would never have believed after seeing him in Summer League [I believe I said getting him for Rudy would be worse than getting nothing] - apparently he worked with Pip extensively after that) and Joel, and dumps Mo Williams' long contract, and clears up a PG glut (they signed Ramon Sessions and Byron Scott has rediscovered Boobie Gibson). Ideally, Williams and Roy would work together and Miller would join our second unit, but I don't know how that would affect his pride. This is risky, because we would then have two "starting" PGs, but they have very different talents, and actually, because both are quite solid, could play alongside each other. Of course, this never really worked with Porter and Strickland, but... It would also mean that Wesley could play more minutes at backup SG, and this might also mean more minutes for Batum. Thoughts?
I do not want to see another scenario where Miller and another starting-level PG are on the team at the same time with undefined roles. We either extend Miller's minutes, trade him for another PG - or just assume that Nate will give Armon more minutes as time goes on and will, hopefully, reduce Roy's minutes to around the 35MPG as the season goes on. Also, it might be an issue of Nate playing Roy/LMA heavy minutes because he wants 2 guys you need to double-team for many minutes. Maybe Greg Oden's return will help in this regard... with Roy/Oden combinations allowing LMA some more rest, and an Armon..../LMA/Oden in high/low post allowing Roy some additional rest.
I don't like Roy Rudy Wes combo at the end of the 1st and 3rd. Rest Roy at this time and use a real pg. Stick with AJ a little longer. He will get better with experience. However I already see he is getting the rookie calls by the refs.
+1. It just gets confusing offensively and then you have another Damon Stoudamire/Greg Anthony in the playoffs situation.
I agree that eventually we all hope Armon will expand his role, but will that be this year? And if it isn't, will Roy wear down? I have also come back around (amazingly quickly -fickle? I prefer "flexible") to trading Rudy because, watching him, he just seems gunshy. Against the Bulls it was amazing how easy it was to get him to give up the ball. It was nice to see him hit a couple of right baseline drive-then-fall-back two pointers, but it's not really enough. And he does get victimized on D. Maybe he'll go on a tear like in the preseason, and Nate will suddenly start playing Armon 20 mpg, or realize that Batum is our backup PG, but in the meantime I'm worried. Mo Williams (I'm assuming) would be both a more reliable bench scorer than Rudy, and a reason that Roy could play fewer minutes, and more of the minutes he does play creating for himself rather than for others.
Armon plays 7.3 MPG, Miller plays 32.3 MPG. Making Armon a 9-10 MPG player and Miller a 34-35 MPG player practically makes Roy a 35 MPG player for the season. Problem solved.
