Rerisen wrote:aaqubed wrote:Rerisen wrote:What gets you mileage in the modern league is versatility and players that can play multiple positions, and roles, on both ends.
If Fred can coach up Niko as a SF, it only makes him that much better and our team that much more versatile and lethal. The kneejerk reaction against it, when the other options are so unknown right now, always baffles me.
If Niko can get passable minutes at SF this year, that only increases the likelihood that the guy we drafted can actually get some experience and maybe help the team if he is any good.
It's not a kneejerk reaction. It's a reaction to the fact that he was terrible at it last year. Worse than Snell, on both ends, when he was at the 3. Meanwhile when he was at the 4 he was awesome.
Now I agree, it'd be great if he can play the 3 at an average level. But I'm not holding my breath on that.
He was also a rookie and the other options at SF also stunk, including Snell most of the year.
You have to give a rookie, coming to a new league and new culture, more than one year to prove what he can do or not.
Niko also sucked in the playoffs last year, but wouldn't it be stupid to suggest we should never play him in the playoffs again? I don't think it would be much more stupid to say he should never play SF again, especially when all the big slots are heavily contested for minutes.
I didn't say he should never play SF again. But I don't think it's a "kneejerk" reaction to say that Snell is probably a better option there. Snell might not have been very good, but Niko wasn't either (at the 3), and if you're arguing that he needs more time, then so does Snell (and Doug for that matter, who I also have not given up on).
We know that when Niko is at the 4, he has several advantages that he can exploit, right now. He is quicker than most 4's, he has the ball handling to get by them, he can beat them down the floor. At the 3, he doesn't really have those advantages. And at the same time, he was straight up terrible defensively on that end.
Yes, the other options stunk (besides Dunleavy, who most certainly did not). But I do think that Snell was better at the 3, particularly on defense.
Ideally, I'd prefer a trade where we send Noah or Taj and get a starting level 3 in return, and then Niko will step into a 25-30 minute role as the third big (with Portis as the 4th in a small role this season). Obviously I'm not going to hate it if Niko CAN play the 3, it's a good thing for him to learn, but I'm not holding my breath on him turning into a good player at that position. I'm more optimistic that Snell or Doug could turn into a starting caliber 3 than I am that Niko can.
