Bench Struggles

[SmashMouthRod]

Am I the only one who thinks that Solomon Hill shouldn't be playing over Copeland or that Stephenson shouldn't be on the wings with O Johnson. I have watched all of the games and noticed that Vogel likes to go to the bench rotation while keeping either Lance or PG on the court at all times. I think its a good idea however when Lance plays the 3 with OJ at the 2 it seems that teams go on their runs. The bench still struggles to score sometimes and going small doesn't seem to be making things any harder for the opposing team to score. I think its time to infuse Cope into the rotation and see whats hes got. Solo hasn't even scored the last couple of games.

Hill/Watson
Stephenson/Johnson (until Granger is good to go)
George/Copeland (he has the length to at least matchup with sf's)
West/Scola
Hibbert/Mahinmi

[mikepacernation]

Am I the only one who thinks that Solomon Hill shouldn't be playing over Copeland or that Stephenson shouldn't be on the wings with O Johnson. I have watched all of the games and noticed that Vogel likes to go to the bench rotation while keeping either Lance or PG on the court at all times. I think its a good idea however when Lance plays the 3 with OJ at the 2 it seems that teams go on their runs. The bench still struggles to score sometimes and going small doesn't seem to be making things any harder for the opposing team to score. I think its time to infuse Cope into the rotation and see whats hes got. Solo hasn't even scored the last couple of games.

Hill/Watson
Stephenson/Johnson (until Granger is good to go)
George/Copeland (he has the length to at least matchup with sf's)
West/Scola
Hibbert/Mahinmi

I couldn't agree with u anymore Solo just isn't good right now and I think that when PG goes to the bench cope needs to step in and play SF and lance at SG so we dont have to play lance at SF where people like deng can take advantage of him. Hopefully Vogel gives the guy that they gave a 3 million dollar contract to a little bit of actual playing time

[Wizop]

I think Copeland is just more of a four than a three. Hill hasn't hit a thing but he showed a shot in summer league so that'll come. the hope of course is that Granger picks up those minutes before too long and we're just giving Hill some much needed game experience while the minutes are available.

in any event, it sure hasn't cost us a single game. no way is the Bulls loss Solo's fault. we got outplayed at about every position.

[Scoot McGroot]

Cope is really a 4. Other than that, I'm happy that we got to play out a lot of jitters in Solo while win in 9 out of 10. Better to do so now, while winning, rather than later when we need him.


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[mikepacernation]

But why not just try cope in at 3?? He can't do much worse then solo has and cope has proven that he can actually make shots. Its better to work this stuff out early in the season rather then later. Cause right now honestly our bench doesn't look all that strong.

[EuroPacer]

I have to say, I disagree with the bench not looking strong. They started off wobbly but I think they are gelling quite well now (taking the Bulls game out of the equation, all players sucked in that game). CJ is beginning to look like the pick-up we needed for PG back-up. Scola is a very solid player and has been impressing me, OJ has some issues but has shown flashes of fitting in especially on the D. I would like to see more Copeland as well, he can clearly score, but not because the bench is failing.

[Wizop]

But why not just try cope in at 3??

perhaps because they've tried it in practice and he hasn't been better than Solo.

[Scoot McGroot]

But why not just try cope in at 3?? He can't do much worse then solo has and cope has proven that he can actually make shots. Its better to work this stuff out early in the season rather then later. Cause right now honestly our bench doesn't look all that strong.

Would you rather have the weakness on offense, or on defense? Putting myself in Franks seat, I'd imagine that Solo being better in the defensive end wins out hat discussion right now.


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[SmashMouthRod]

Copeland makes sense to play at the 3 because of his ability to shoot the 3. With Scola and Stephenson carrying the scoring load attacking the basket for the second unit; it would only make them more potent to space the floor with Watson and Cope. I agree that the bench is better than last season. But the team has only scored over 100 once this season. Solo can develop more in the D-League playing 30 or more mins a game vs. 10 mins a game. Not to mention he hasnt hit the side of a barn in the last few games.

[mikepacernation]

Copeland makes sense to play at the 3 because of his ability to shoot the 3. With Scola and Stephenson carrying the scoring load attacking the basket for the second unit; it would only make them more potent to space the floor with Watson and Cope. I agree that the bench is better than last season. But the team has only scored over 100 once this season. Solo can develop more in the D-League playing 30 or more mins a game vs. 10 mins a game. Not to mention he hasnt hit the side of a barn in the last few games.

I agree I think cope needs to play the 3 and solo needs to hit the bench or a d league. Yes we started 9-1 but I think with more scoring from cope we could be a lot better offensively mostly in the first half cause we struggle in the first half

[Scoot McGroot]

Copeland makes sense to play at the 3 because of his ability to shoot the 3. With Scola and Stephenson carrying the scoring load attacking the basket for the second unit; it would only make them more potent to space the floor with Watson and Cope. I agree that the bench is better than last season. But the team has only scored over 100 once this season. Solo can develop more in the D-League playing 30 or more mins a game vs. 10 mins a game. Not to mention he hasnt hit the side of a barn in the last few games.

I'd rather Solo get to practice with the team and continue to learn our system. I'd rather not send him, or really anyone, down to Ft Wayne to play open gym and really not grow in any way.

Otherwise, I'm not sure that Cope can play the 3 well. He can get space to shoot on slower 4's, we'll see how he does on quicker 3's that can make up that space quicker.


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[glasket]

I would give Cope a go for a few minutes instead of Solo. See how he looks with the second unit. It'll certainly create space and perhaps allow lance to drive inside.
Don't forget when Danny comes back he will most likely use up Solo and Juice's minutes.


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[Scoot McGroot]

Cope's at the 3 right now against the Knicks...


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[glasket]

Indeed how did Cope look at the 3? Was it with the second unit or some starters?


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[Scoot McGroot]

Indeed how did Cope look at the 3? Was it with the second unit or some starters?


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2nd unit only. Was.....ok, but it was severely limited minutes as he was only on the floor when Paul was on the bench. I'd kind of like to see him more with the starters as the 5th option in situations than to see him as a 3rd option in the 2nd string. He seems best as the forgotten man on the court, not the focal point of the defense.


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[Wizop]

Cope also did a decent job guarding Melo although he may have had the advantage of doing that in Knicks practices.

[marcusaurelius]

I think that the Pacers starting five is good enough to win it all, if they get a little more help from the bench than they got last year. Scola should be fine by the end of the year, probably just needs to get integrated into the rotation and develop chemistry with his new team mates.

If Granger never comes back as a solid contributor, it will definitely make things tougher. But the beauty of having such strong starters is that you can still win while "breaking in" the younger/newer players. By the end of the year, the second unit just needs to be moderately better than the second unit from last year. Seems very possibly, and I would think probable, but not guaranteed, that that will happen.

[mikepacernation]

Scola was pretty solid tonight with 17 I was pretty impressed. Looks like he's getting more comfortable with the team and his outside shots are falling.

[glasket]

I am becoming more and more impressed with Scola. He and West have such deadline 18 footers. Lovin it.


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