DuckIII wrote:I’d also add that some of this “entitlement” may also stem from injuries to OPJ, Lauri and Hutch being AWOL. BD has limited options anyway. He may have made Willy “earn it” more or reduced his role had the roster been healthier.
Side note, every time you call him "Willy", I cringe.
I OPJ was healthy to start the season and Pat got the nod anyway. Obviously that didn't last long. If you were going to swap him out now, it would probably be Thad/Temple starting at the 3/4 given OPJ/Lauri's absences, but at the immediate moment, there's no reason to go against starting him and keeping some better balance off the bench.
To your point about starting but lesser touches vs bench but more touches, I agree. His current role has allowed him to defend the elite players in the league in virtually all of his minutes, so he is getting a lot of defensive exposure vs a lot of offensive exposure. I think that also clues you in to what type of player they think he will be (or at least initially) because if they viewed him as a really high upside offensive player (or at least someone ready to start making that leap right away) then they should be putting him position to get more exposure on offense.
The way they are developing him to me says they view him as a defense prospect first that isn't ready on offense but needs to grow defensively (more or less the opposite of White). Of course that doesn't mean anything necessarily about the long term view of him, but short term he's getting a lot more defensive education than offensive.
