From KC this morning: On the inside (5) Noah Boozer Deng Rose Bogans Probably on the inside (4) Thomas Gibson Brewer Watson Maybe on the outside: Asik Thomas Korver Probably on the outside: James Johnson Eight or nine is tough to get to.
Hmm...how good would Rudy Fernandez look in that spot, especially considering his preseason performance?
The Inside: Rose Noah Deng Boozer Mostly on the Inside, occasionally on the outside: Korver Gibson Brewer 50/50 Outside/Inside Asik Watson Mostly on the outside, occasionally on the inside James Johnson Kurt Thomas
Well at the moment with Boozer being out , the number of niggling injuries and a nasty road trip to start , I reckon it has to be Asik Noah Deng Bogans Rose Thomas Gibson Korver Brewer Watson When Boozer is back and healthy you drop Kurt Thomas out and save him for the playoffs and you will have Watson and Gibson playing 10 - 12 minutes a night , Asik , Korver , Brewer and Bogans playing 20 to 25 mpg and then Rose, Boozer, Noah and Deng playing 34 to 38 Yes that's right Omer Asik will be ahead of Taj Gibson in the rotation. You've then got : Thomas Scalabrine Johnson Weaver In reserve
Pretty much my thinking, but I bet Asik and certainly Watson are in the rotation. If Asik is not, then we're going to see Boozer at C in small lineups.
This exercise is even harder when you list Kurt Thomas twice. I actually like his game and hope he gets regular minutes, perhaps six or seven game. He doesn't make many mistakes and looks like he will probably have three or four games this season where he gets hot, as veterans do. I actually don't mind Bogans as a starter. It actually may be hard for him to get minutes if he doesn't. He's perfect for our starting lineup even though he's not a world beater -- makes few mistakes, plays good defense, and hits threes. That's about all you need from our starting two guard.
Eeek. With what we've got we have no need to play Boozer at Center. We would only do so if match ups allow , but the East has plenty of bigs at Center and I really couldn't see too many teams who Boozer would match up well against inside Asik can handle playing at least 12 to 15 mpg right now - and I suspect his role will grow to around 25 minutes per game as he gets more acclimated to NBA play. I would use Kurt Thomas as the back up in this role for the nights Omer burns 3 fouls in 3 to 4 minutes of court time
Noted Denny. I'm just not buying it so literally I take it sort of like what you suggested in that Watson and Asik will play minor minutes , but , I think both Watson and Asik will be in the core 8 and then you'd use Korver as a specialist zone buster / instant offense guy at 9 Noah Boozer Deng Bogans Rose 6th : Brewer ( across the 2 and 3 ) 7th : Asik ( at the 5 with Jo sliding to 4 ) 8th : Watson ( across the 1 and 2 ) 9th : Korver There is the most likely 9 man rotation ... at least the one I would go with. And, you sub Kirk Thomas in for Omer if he has his games where he picks up quick foul trouble. Kirk is a better interior defender than Taj IMO and fills and AD/PJ type role for us where he can stick the elbow jumper from 15 ft - meaning that we don't necessarily need Taj for his offensive contributions as I think we will get what we need from Boozer and Noah ( and Deng if he slides over to PF in spot minutes ) And if this is the case and we want to smooth the edges around Omer's role - I think we are better off going with a vet interior defender like Kirk that is a better physical " on man" defender than Taj. Taj, JJ are key reserves with Scalabrine and Weaver there to make up the numbers
I'm not a fan of Bogans as the starting 2, or even being in the rotation. I really do like Brewer and Watson and Korver and think they should be the starting 2, backup PG/SG, and SF. In that order. Or Korver should be starting at SG, perhaps. A couple of observations. Dallas played zone against us almost religiously, and in spite of our better than expected 3pt shooting, they beat us while not even playing their starters (Dirk, Kidd, Marion, Terry, Butler, etc.) at the end and in OT. The occasional 3 from the SG or SF spot isn't enough, it's got to be a consistent threat of the 3 and punishing zones with it. The Bulls played small ball for much of that time to get Deng's 3pt shooting at the 4 and open a spot for another elsewhere. If they're going that route, are they going to play Noah at C, or do they want Boozer in the game? Asik was destroyed by Orlando's bigs. Something like 3 fouls in 3 seconds. Can he grow out of that? Possibly, but that remains to be seen. The point being, if opponents find that a weakness and can exploit it, we are doing the wrong thing strategically. Another thing to consider is that if we're up by a lot of points, or down by a lot of points, the guys who aren't rotation players get PT and may look like rotation players.
