On the 1st day of camp it appears Nick has already been excluded. All the Seattle papers reported Weiss stating he wants him off the bench with Fortson again this season. With no Evans in camp I think its becoming more and more possible that Vlade may be getting his wish and getting the starting nod.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I would like for that spot not to go to Nick Collison right now, although I think he's a very good defensive four," said Weiss of waiting a year before starting Collison full-time. "I really liked bringing him off the bench with [Danny] Fortson last year. I'd like somebody else to be able to become the starter because I don't want to wear him out at that position. Right now, he's going to be a guy who's on the floor when the game finishes."</div> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/soni...34_vlade04.html So Weiss may have said he's not starting, but he already said he plans on him finishing the game. A more important designation for sure. And to be honest, I think BW is right - Nick and Danny were a great tandem off the bench last year and played well together. What I think is interesting about this is, so does that mean Danny is the first C off the bench along with Nick at the 4? Wonder where Mikki and Swift are going to fit into the rotation. There should be some decent articles for the next week or so considering it was media day yesterday
Weiss also said he plans on Nick seeing more than 25 minutes a game, so it's not like he's disregarding his abilities to start. Obviously you have to look at all your rotations, not just your starting five, and if Bobby thinks Nick and Danny play their most productive ball together, it makes sense to have them in the game at the same time. He also said Nick was far and away the team's best forward at the defensive end, so obviously he is going to be on the floor in every crucial situation and at any time when the opposition is scoring too freely. I reckon Bobby's just making sure Nick doesn't get too ahead of himself and is brought along slowly, which is fair enough.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Roland Hood:</div><div class="quote_post">Vlad can start 1st and 3rd as he and his agent desire, then Nick can finish when it matters </div> Uh, if we start Rad and Pots, with of course Allen, Shard, and Rid, can you tell me who is going to rebound? I can live with the fact that we might not sign RE, or that he may not start, but if collison isn't going to start, and Rad is, we will have the absolute worst starters in the L on the glass. Rad, Lewis, and Ray don't compliment each other, and poor Pot is going to get pummeled by opposing front lines as this trio launch up tre after tre after tre after tre after tre after tre after tre...Does anybody else remember starting Radmanovic at PF a few years ago. Does anybody remember how it was a seriously failed experiment? Please tell me we aren't going to try that again.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Odde24:</div><div class="quote_post">Uh, if we start Rad and Pots, with of course Allen, Shard, and Rid, can you tell me who is going to rebound? I can live with the fact that we might not sign RE, or that he may not start, but if collison isn't going to start, and Rad is, we will have the absolute worst starters in the L on the glass. Rad, Lewis, and Ray don't compliment each other, and poor Pot is going to get pummeled by opposing front lines as this trio launch up tre after tre after tre after tre after tre after tre after tre...Does anybody else remember starting Radmanovic at PF a few years ago. Does anybody remember how it was a seriously failed experiment? Please tell me we aren't going to try that again.</div> Hence the winkie. I was just taking another jab at Vlad and his agent, since they are idiots
I don't like the idea that Nick can't compete for a starting job. Like Odde said we will have the worst rebounding starting frontline in the league if Vlad starts and we will be forced into dumping the ball into Sweet Lew for our only hope for inside scoring (if our opponents don't choose to play Lewis with a power forward--since Vlad has no post game). What worked last year may not necessarily work this year. We have some different parts and some people games have expanded. Bob should be a little more tight lipped so that players don't take their roles for granted. I'm getting the impression that Weiss is the polar opposite of McMillan which I'm not sure this team needs. I wasn't Nate's biggest supporter, but I don't think that the players walked over him either. I hope that Weiss is the type of coach that will demand respect from his players b/c the last thing we need is the inmates running the asylum in the Emerald City.
We'll get back Reggie Evans and he'll start for us. Because I do not want to see Vladimir as a starter at PF.
To add to the point Odde brought up about us possbily starting the worst rebounding lineup in the history of the league, its also extremely tough to be an effective transistion team (which BW also stated he wants to do) without at least a solid rebounding unit. I can just envision Rad sprinting out to run the wing as soon as the opposing team hoists a 3 ball...only to realize he was guarding a 4 who he just left in prime o-rebounding territory Phoenix wasn't a very good rebounding team last year, but they also often sported 4 players who could handle the ball on the floor at the same time which helped them get out in transistion. We'll have at the most 3, and usually 2 considering Lew and Rad aren't tremendous ball handlers.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Iron Shiek:</div><div class="quote_post">Bob should be a little more tight lipped so that players don't take their roles for granted.</div> I will agree with that. I was trying to make the same argument about Sund running his yapper to the Times about signing Reggie Evans. It's just bad business. Somebody should just tell these guys to smile big for the camara and talk about how excited they are about the coming season. Somebody asks about Nick? "We are defining roles right now. He is a great player. Maybe our best defender. We are really excited about the coming season." Some other guy asks about Reggie? "We are in negotiations with Evans now. I hope we can bring him back. We are really excited about this coming season." How is Ray's ankle? "Ray's ankle is fine. 100%. We are really ex..."
