A corrollary question is, should Claver be mainly at PF, if Freeland's mainly a C. If yes, what follows is, should Barton be mainly a SF, since Claver's mainly at PF, because Freeland's mostly at C, on account of Leonard sucking.
Giving the backup C spot to Freeland...will that light a fire under Meyers' ass to work harder at improving? If so, then I'm all for it. Joel obviously improved over the summer and deserves the minutes.
Sure...hand it to Freeland and train MyLe up on his dream: becoming a more ripped Steve Novak! Someone tell me, please: is this because Freeland's doing really well, or Leonard isn't doing jack?
Here are my thoughts on the subject. Freeland deserves some playing time. Right now he does a better job at doing the little things than Joel. (Less mistakes, better BB IQ) I still would prefer he gets those minutes from the PF spot, but then that would take away minutes from TRob who needs the minutes to develop. (That and the fact Robinson is a better rebounder) So by default I would say right now Joel should be the backup center. But maybe split it up depending on the opponent. Leonard still needs minutes to get better. And inevitably he will get better. It's not like he is a turn over machine when he is on the court. He has offensive skills, he can pass and he can rebound. It's his defensive instincts that need to improve and that will only happen if he plays. But Terry needs to win now to save his job, so he needs to go with who helps the most. Even if the margin is small between two players.
That's actually the correct answer. Late in the game, with the game on the line, look for LaMarcus to play the 5 when we go small, when Lopez is in foul trouble, or Stotts goes with offensive/defensive substitutions. Remember, LaMarcus never said he didn't want to play center - ever. All he said during his exit interview is he wanted a big body, legitimate center to bang down low for 25 minutes a game. He just didn't want to spend 38 minutes a game getting beat up by the other team's biggest player. He has shown, over the course of entire career, that he is VERY effective playing center, for limited minutes. And, that's exactly what should happen now that we have a legitimate starting center to play next to him for 25 minutes a night. Of course, he can't play all 48 minutes and Lopez won't either. So, for those 12 - 15 minutes a game, I definitely think Freeland should be the backup. He's earned it. That doesn't mean I have given up on Meyers Leonard. We all knew when he as drafted that he was a 3 - 4 year project, at best. He hasn't even started his second season yet, so he still has another 2 - 3 years to prove he belongs in this league and deserves minutes. Let's face it, most here had written off the much older, more experienced Freeland after last season, and look how much he's improved. BNM
I want Meyers to be the starter long term, but right now Joel is playing better, so he should be playing over Meyers.
You could make the argument that we don't have a backup Center: LMA and Freeland are PFs, and Leonard is a stretch 4. When it matters, it'll be LMA. However, my hope is that the coach will assign the 6-8 center minutes remaining to whoever deserves it instead of "developing" anyone. We're a playoff team now IMHO, we should send players we want to develop who don't warrant minutes to the D-League.
I agree LaMarcus will play if its a close game but during an 82 game season you need backups minutes at both big man spots and for those minutes I agree it should be Freeland. If CJ was in the rotation perhaps we would have more small ball lineups with Batum or Wright at PF but that won't be the case for many months at the earliest. I'm kind of surprised more people didn't pick Meyers I remember him having more supporters here. If we need a big man to stretch the floor he can come in for spot minutes but otherwise I think he has "earned" a spot on the 3rd string. Its crazy to think that he might have been our most effective bench player for a large portion of last season!
It's gotta be Meyers. Joel isn't important to the future of our franchise like Meyers is and we shouldn't be sacrificing Meyers' minutes to Mr. Freeland. I do hope Stotts find a way to play Joel though. He's come up pretty strong and if he really starts playing over his head then maybe then I'd be cool with him taking Meyers' or TRob's minutes.
Meyers is still an effective scorer. But now we have more scorers overall, and so the next thing we are working on is defense. Meyers has no defense, and his offense isn't so good that it makes up for his shortcomings.
Meyers "should" be, but he's not there yet. With that said, I don't think there will be one backup center this year. Based on matchups and lineups I see it being very fluid.
We have a great variety of PFs: LaMarcus, Robinson, Freeland, Claver We only have one serviceable center. Meyers isn't ready. With all these PFs on the team, we should see LaMarcus at backup center quite a bit depending on matchups. Otherwise, Freeland over Leonard at backup center, probably until next season.
If those are my only choices then it's Freeland. I have a strong feeling that Myers Lemon is never going to be an NBA caliber center.
I only voted Leonard because he "SHOULD BE" the back-up center. Although, Aldridge may slide to 5 at times; putting Freeland at the 4 spot.
