How Important Is PPats Production Off The Bench?

[Johnny Bball]

What PP wants really shouldn't matter. He ain't the coach.

Of course it does. Any good leader would say It matters. One can try to sway his opinion, but he has to buy in.

[Rapcity_11]

What PP wants really shouldn't matter. He ain't the coach.

Of course it does. Any good leader would say It matters. One can try to sway his opinion, but he has to buy in.

I'm sure Delon Wright wants minutes. Does that matter? I bet Bebe does too. I'm sure Ross wants to start. Does a good leader care?

Also, what happened to the rest of my post?

[Johnny Bball]

What PP wants really shouldn't matter. He ain't the coach.

Of course it does. Any good leader would say It matters. One can try to sway his opinion, but he has to buy in.

I'm sure Delon Wright wants minutes. Does that matter? I bet Bebe does too. I'm sure Ross wants to start. Does a good leader care?

Also, what happened to the rest of my post?

Lol I knew this would be your response. Because one is reasonable and one isn't and has to be earned. A leader would let them know their expectations and what it takes to get there. Patterson has earned the opportunity to start or come off the bench right now. Maybe sullinger changes that with his play or something else does.

I wasn't responding to the rest of your post so I didn't include it. Mostly because it's just conjecture.

[Rapcity_11]

Of course it does. Any good leader would say It matters. One can try to sway his opinion, but he has to buy in.

I'm sure Delon Wright wants minutes. Does that matter? I bet Bebe does too. I'm sure Ross wants to start. Does a good leader care?

Also, what happened to the rest of my post?

Lol I knew this would be your response. Because one is reasonable and one isn't and has to be earned. A leader would let them know their expectations and what it takes to get there. Patterson has earned the opportunity to start or come off the bench right now. Maybe sullinger changes that with his play or something else does.

I wasn't responding to the rest of your post so I didn't include it. Mostly because it's just conjecture.

Exactly right. It's about expectations. The expectation needs to that PP should start. And that should be communicated. Glad we agree.

Also, Delon/Bebe getting minutes isn't unreasonable at all (they've looked good at times). Same with Ross starting (he has in the past). Don't pretend otherwise.

How was it conjecture? That's not true at all.

[becausephilchow]

Very important IMO.

If he can play consistently good D, and hit the open 3 at a good clip, and grab boards? He's very important.

[Mikistan]

Very important IMO.

If he can play consistently good D, and hit the open 3 at a good clip, and grab boards? He's very important.

it is a contact year for pp

masai has a penchant for replacing bench talent and switching pieces of the supporting staff so far

he may be priced out of our range with lowry's contract year and if ownership is not willing to go into the tax

gonna be an interesting year to come

[slothrop8]

Doesn't particularly matter if he starts - what matters is what personnel groupings does he play the majority of his minutes with? Patterson needs to be playing the majority of his minutes with DeMar and JV. Patterson provides the spacing to compensate for DeMar's lack of 3 pt shooting, and he provides the mobility and help defense to compensate for JV and DeMar's defensive shortcomings. The spacing and defense Patterson provides is not as important when he plays with Ross at the SG spot because Ross can shoot and play individual man defense. The same will likely hold true with Powell. PPat's mobility on D to help cover for the 5 wasn't as big an asset playing with Biyombo as it would be pairing him JV, and the same will likely hold true with Poeltl if he's the back up 5 - though PP may well be needed to offset the liability of Sullinger's D if we use Sullinger as the backup 5. Regardless, PP can only play so many minutes - and by far the best use of those minutes is to shackle him to DeMar and JV. If they are on the court - he should be too.

Last season the PPat/JV/DeMar combo was +20.9 pts/100 possessions. Meanwhile Scola/JV/DeMar was predicatably -3.4 pts/100 possessions. The combo that works with PPat played 317 minutes together all year, the combo that didn't work at all with Scola played 873 minutes together. This is basically coaching malpractice. While Casey has many admirable traits and has made gradual improvement as a coach - his understanding and correct deployment of optimal personnel groupings still leaves a lot to be desired. This is relatively basic rotation construction and something Casey has to get better at. The fact he's threatening to make the same mistake again this year with Sullinger in the Scola spot has been driving me crazy all summer and it hasn't even happened yet.

So, long story short - doesn't matter if Patterson starts - though he should - but if he doesn't want to, whatever. If he's refusing to buy in to starting It means those first few minutes of the game will be played with a sub-optimal personnel grouping - but that can be overcome if we get the rest of the rotations right the rest of the game. But Patterson must, must, must play a huge chunk of his minutes with DeMar and JV and Casey needs to be working right now on figuring out the substitution patterns that will allow this to happen. Ideally that's getting PPat to buy in as a starter, but if not figure out the pattern to get the JV/PP/DD combo a ton of minutes together.