Who has cracked the rotation off the bench?

Blake, Barton, wright, Robinson, Kaman

 

Freeland is too boring. We already have a ton of stability in Blake and Kaman. We need some spice in this soup Brian! Give me some TROB!

 

I really like what Barton brings. I think a rotations of Blake, Kaman, McCollum and Barton is a pretty solid bench. Hopefully Wright can step his game up this year as well.

 

What's disturbing and it could have been an off night or the Lakers might have been that good is most of these guys played more than 25 mins and only one of them cracked more than 13 points and he labored for it.

 

But I think the vets and the guys who make the less mistakes will get the time. Blake, Kaman, Freeland, Wright and it's up to Barton, McCollum and TRob to come to play the way most feel they can. Freeland shouldn't be getting any time ahead of TRob. McCollum should be forcing the coaches hand to play as should Barton.

 

Did anyone's list change after last night?

 

Not sure why Wright is mentioned here.

I said this last night, but he's become a shooter who can't really shoot. Unless we want a small lineup and have him slide to 4 on occasion, I don't see him getting mins.

TRob needs to play but he won't. I think the thumb thing took away from a lot of development time. Leonard has a hold on that backup 4 position in my mind. Has a serious Channing Frye vibe going right now-- I'm intrigued to see how he'll develop, and I did not see this coming a few months ago.

CJ will play 1/2 for ~15mpg. Write this down.

So I put Kaman, Blake, CJ, and Leonard as our 6-9 players who will get minutes every game. TRob/Free/Willy next who might get in depending on foul situations/matchups. Then DWright and Vic in case of blowouts.

 

Does 3 white guys off the bench equal disaster?

 

It wasn't bad when we had Blake/Rudy/Joel off the bench back in the day. Remember Nate's "white unit?" smh

 

Not sure why a few of you are writing off CJ. I think you are equating his performance as a PG (Which is average at best) with what he will bring as the back up SG when playing with Blake. (Who we all know will come off the bench as the PG)

But to answer the question after Blake and Kaman it does get a little fuzzy. I am not sure Stotts knows. I think he will give these 5 a chance depending on the match ups:

CJ (SG)
Will (SG and SF)
Wright (SF/Stretch 4)
TRob (PF)
Freeland (PF/C)

That is 7 total bench guys for 4-5 spots on any given night.

 

You forgot Meyers. Maybe on purpose.

 

My list has nothing to do with preseason.

Blake, Kaman, CJ, TRob.

The rest fight over crumbs.

Edit: Oops. I guess we need a SF backup. Wright by default.

Edit Edit: I can see Stotts wanting a backup "stretch four" on some nights. Not sure who that is. Freeland can hit a short shot. Meyers can hit a long one. IDK

 

Probably Stotts decided to shorten his rotation considerably.

I have to say that Allen Crabbe has moved ahead and now Victor Claver is my "automatically throw him into any trade idea just to make salaries match" guy.

 

I left off Claver as well and I like him. I would not say the Blazers are loaded with great bench players.......but there seems to be a lot of parity with players 8-14. No one is that much better than the other. They all seem to have different strengths and weaknesses.

 

I think that Kaman and Blake will definitely get the bulk of the bench mintutes.

Beyond that I have a feeling that Stotts is going role with whoever is hot and/or playing well in practice etc.

Obviously match-ups will play a role and injuries will play a role (hopefully not) but after watching pre-season I have moved more to the idea that after Kaman and Blake no one is guaranteed minutes every game. Which may be good to keep all the others hungry and fighting for those other minutes.

 

I don't pay attention to pre-season - it's meaningless. With that said, I'm not really a fan of CJ. But we used a lottery pick on him and Stotts HAS to develop him - failure to do so is a fireable offense, IMO.

CJ is quite the conundrum - until he actually pans out either Olshey or Stotts shit the bed. I have more faith in Olshey than Stotts, so until CJ is given a legit chance to develop I'm placing his poor performance on Stotts. If Stotts gives him regular minutes and a defined role throughout the season and he still sucks by the time the POs start, then I'll shift the blame to Olshey for making a bad pick.

 

Mine did...Crabbe moved up, TRob and Barton moved down. CJ still straddled the fence

 

I think we can all see what Olshey and Stotts wanted CJ to become but he's hot and cold, which is on him more than the FO or coaching staff. He's still a project

 

Had someone been thinking, and it still might be fun for the regular season, we should have had a buy/sell type game on here where people move players up/down/or stay put depending on their game.

Give each player a value right now and a certain starting $$$$ figure see who comes out ahead at the end of the year $$$$ wise