pillwenney wrote:SacKingZZZ wrote:pillwenney wrote:Brooks, Thomas and Johnson all aren't much more than 25MPG players anyway in terms of how they should be used.
That doesn't mean the team is well put together, but if you play Tyreke as basically the backup SF and accept Salmons getting no minutes, then there's at least close to enough minutes to go around.
Not that situations and players can't change, but look at Aaron Brooks' career arc when playing less minutes with less shot attempts. The point is, unless you have Brooks or Thomas playing together, realistically neither can be anything close to starter minutes players, and even still, where does Tyreke play? Where does Thornton play? Is Brooks a 10 mpg player? Does that help anybody here? When you have a team like that, like this, full of volume scorers those types will typically look terrible taking fewer shots and playing fewer minutes. The word VOLUME is a key ingredient here.
Before these moves Tyreke playing PG-SF was probably going to have to happen anyway. It had to happen for it to work last year, why wouldn't it this year? Tyreke didn't play SF because he sucked as a PG, he played there so Thomas could see the floor. Thornton and Thomas are one position players who play their one position more truly than Tyreke does any one position. It's why putting Thornton on the bench really doesn't help the situation. People bring up Manu and the Spurs, but Manu doesn't play off the bench for them because he can't play with their other starters, he doesn't play there because otherwise Tony Parker wouldn't be able to play. This is an entirely different situation, one where if it has to be to be mickey moused into working it simply means it doesn't work. I however think it can and if they give up on this core for Thomas or Brooks before they get a really good look at it, and they haven't yet, then that falls in line with pretty much every questionable move they've made the last two years.
Yes, his value will be lower if he's not playing more minutes and getting more shots--which goes for the majority of the league. This would be a real cause for concern if we just gave Brooks a 5 year, $35million deal, but we didn't. He could sit on the bench all year and it wouldn't make a huge difference. But then we'd be losing out on a solid player.
If you'll look back earlier in the thread, my solution is Tyreke playing as basically the starting SG and the backup SF. It's not ideal, but nothing is with this mess of a roster. I think it's the best we can hope for with the players we currently have.
Whether you like it or not, we drafted Jimmer so that he could play PG. We drafted him to be the guy that brought it down and set up the offense, and then spread the floor. Not to be Rajon Rondo, but to be more like Stephen Curry. We did that because the franchise realized that Tyreke at PG DOES NOT WORK. You don't want him making the decisions that set up your offense because that's not where his brain is.
Now, as it happened, Jimmer sucked at this last year, and Isaiah didn't so much, so Isaiah came in and filled that roll. If I had to guess, I'd guess the plan was to eventually start Jimmer/Tyreke/Salmons. Salmons sucking horribly through a wrench into that plan--but of course, that was largely caused by playing with a guy like Tyreke--a guy that dominates the ball, but doesn't play like a PG.
Bringing Thornton off the bench is brought up quite simply because Tyreke and Marcus are both SG's. You can talk about Tyreke having other skills, but the fact of the matter is that you're not going to really succeed in all likelihood with him playing anywhere but at SG. That's just the truth of the situation. That's what this is about.
Honestly, I'm not sure there is a plan on how this team can or will work. This is merely an exhibition in hording talent. If it's not then they've either tricked everyone and know something no person that has ever watched the game of basketball could understand and it will work or they really have no idea what they're doing.
Is Tyreke a SG? I think they'll eventually go back to the line that he's "just a player". He can do a lot of things, whether or not it's good for him as a player or the team the things he emulates on the court are characteristics of what a PG would typically do: penetrating, finding lanes, handling the ball up top, bringing the ball up full court, etc. He can't play the pick and roll to any great extent but he did show some flashes at times last year. I guess we'll see how his shot looks this year. Not to into the idea of a SG who can't shoot and especially on a team without shooting anywhere else and that's chalk full of players that like to force shots at the rim.
