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It'll be interesting to see what we do in the case that we get Zion. To be honest, I would not like the dynamic of either of Lauri or Carter playing next to Zion. Zion is a PF; Lauri is not a center; Carter is a center with no range to allow space for Zion. We'd have to trade one, if not both.

The idea that we have a top 4 that's too good to come off the bench is laughable to me. This narrative only exists because we are at the bottom of the ladder in the NBA. Lauri and Lavine are the only two legitimate starters that we have who can start on even contending teams.

Carter. He’s very young & hasn’t necessarily earned a starting spot.....yet.

I think Porter would be most accepting of coming off the bench because he would be able to see the BIG picture that all players get injured and he'd start if somebody at the 2,3,4 got hurt. Plus he would more than likely be on the floor to close games out so he might not start but would probably play starter's minutes. I wouldn't be afraid to see Porter, Hutchison and Valentine be the core of the bench, add Lopez to that and the end of the first and third quarters might take or pad a lead.

if this hypothetical is about drafting zion, then benching carter is probably the best option for two reasons:

1. expediency. a lot of people are saying "oh, people are only suggesting carter because he's young." and, well...yeah! all else being equal, it's easiest to send the 20-year-old who's started 44 games in his career to the bench, just because he's got less of an excuse to pull rank. not that i think porter would throw a fit about coming off the bench, but i think wendell would take it in stride, which helps.

2. getting useful information about how each frontcourt pairing works out in practice. you could just try to make everyone happy by starting our five best players, or you could try to bench porter because he's least likely to be a long-term piece. but if we get zion, he's almost certainly not sticking at SF long-term. you need to give him plenty of time playing next to just lauri and just carter to better inform your decision-making going forward. (and, if he looks good next to both of them, we need to turn one of the bigs into 'the bench guy' eventually. might as well start now.)

i guuuesss you could just run out a lavine/porter/zion/lauri/carter starting five and yank one of carter/lauri early in the first to stagger minutes. that would still work even if we signed a guy like brogdon, who immediately becomes your sixth man. but, i already wrote all that stuff up there, so i'm gonna post this anyway.

Too vague of a question.

Are you asking "who do you hope we can sign" and thus put one of our top 4 guys to the bench? In that case I hope we draft Ja Morant and sign Kawhi Leonard. OPJ off to the bench. Or draft Zion and sign Kemba (WCJ off to the bench with ye).

Weird thread. Almost like the ya gotta screw one, kill one, marry one exercise.

Now that we have the results of the lottery - I say no one. We find starting PG and back up big for the least and work this out.

Carter. Porter's salary makes a bench role tough to justify whereas Carter as a reserve relieves minutes pressure on Lauri and pushes Felicio completely off the depth chart.

If we got a quality enough player, probably an unpopular opinion but I’d bench Zach and bring him off the bench. His scoring and shooting could be just as useful in those types of minutes as the 6th man.

If it we needs lucked into Zion then Carter would be the obvious choice.

JimmyJammer wrote:The idea that we have a top 4 that's too good to come off the bench is laughable to me. This narrative only exists because we are at the bottom of the ladder in the NBA. Lauri and Lavine are the only two legitimate starters that we have who can start on even contending teams.

I agree partially, except I don’t think we have a single player who’s proven anything. We have a few guys who could maybe be the 5th starter on a good team, but we don’t have anyone we shouldn’t be looking to replace at this point.

Agree that it's an odd question, particularly since it's in a vacuum. Those 4 guys look to be the only legit NBA starters the Bulls have, though clearly WCJ is the least proven.

I like two-way players. Porter may be the best we have in this regard. I've got to have a big who can defend the rim and WCJ wins that one by default. That's as far as I'll take it...yeah, I'm copping out.

You bench anyone who is not a 2 way player unless they are a superstar on offense. If they go by this principle, they can build a great team. But, right now, they don't have the pieces unless you consider Lavine as an offensive superstar. The only player who fits into a team concept is OPJ. Others should be benched as and when they find better players. If they draft Garland and he is bad on defense/better than Lavine on offense, I would start him in a year because you can't have two iffy defenders.