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A few games in it seem obvious. We go 6 deep with wings and arguably we don't have a traditional 4 or even a 3/4. I know the game is positionless today but, the skill set provided by Thad Young is missing. Every team needs a dirty work athlete with some size. So I pose the following questions:
1. Which of our wings is expendable?
2. Who could we reasonably get?

In a not particularly exhaustive search I came up with this.
Pacers out TJ Warren
Magic out Al Aminu

Aminu is a pretty good Thad Young knock off. The contracts match in both $$ and time. Orlando seems to have too many 3/4's who are better 4's than 3's. Also looks like they could use another scorer.

From our perspective i move Warren because he's been overall the least impressive of him, Lamb, J Holiday, McD, Sumner.

Thoughts?

So far Warren hasn't impressed but no need to make an early move. Player development isn't limited to the youngest players.


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I want to see what Warren can do when Oladipo is back and playing.

The question I ask myself is can Turner and Bitadze play together? Knowing Turner and Sabonis can, but without a big positive impact.

When talking about balance, ideally all 3 bigs can play together with one and the other.

With 1 player always playing center, one PF/C and 1 smallball 4. Looking forward to the Turner Bitadze lineup.

Wizop wrote:So far Warren hasn't impressed but no need to make an early move. Player development isn't limited to the youngest players.


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I agree with your point. Maybe it clicks with Leaf and Goga is fine backing up Turner. Otherwise I don't rule out situations where you play with only one big. That might all work. And, of the 5 trade candidates Warren could be the one with the biggest upside.

Pacersike wrote:When talking about balance, ideally all 3 bigs can play together with one and the other.

Goga looked okay playing with Sabonis last night.

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Not sure I love the idea of either Turner or Goga guarding 4s. On offense, though, both can shoot the 3.

I want to see Jakarr Sampson get some more opportunities. He wasn't great offensively against Cleveland, but he offered a lot of energy & made things a bit more difficult for Love with some nice defense.

The big lineups have fared pretty so far. Domas and Myles have played 89 minutes together and they have a +3.9 Net Rating. Domas and Goga have played 16 minutes together and they have a +9.4 Net Rating -> https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advanced/?Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612754&GroupQuantity=2&CF=GROUP_NAME*E*Sabonis

Obviously, the sample size is very small but I don't see any reason to think that they can't be productive together.

Wizop wrote:

Pacersike wrote:When talking about balance, ideally all 3 bigs can play together with one and the other.

Goga looked okay playing with Sabonis last night.

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I think that has a lot to do with Goga being more mobile and willing to contest shots. I mean he covers for what Sabonis is lacking.

Nuntius wrote:The big lineups have fared pretty so far. Domas and Myles have played 89 minutes together and they have a +3.9 Net Rating. Domas and Goga have played 16 minutes together and they have a +9.4 Net Rating -> https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advanced/?Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612754&GroupQuantity=2&CF=GROUP_NAME*E*Sabonis

Obviously, the sample size is very small but I don't see any reason to think that they can't be productive together.

https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/12/lineups?on=3216&on=3729#tab-four_factors

https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/12/lineups?C=3216#tab-four_factors

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2860666-nba-stars-who-could-surprisingly-be-traded#slide6

It's up for debate with such a small sample size. Time will tell

Pacersike wrote:

Nuntius wrote:The big lineups have fared pretty so far. Domas and Myles have played 89 minutes together and they have a +3.9 Net Rating. Domas and Goga have played 16 minutes together and they have a +9.4 Net Rating -> https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advanced/?Season=2019-20&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612754&GroupQuantity=2&CF=GROUP_NAME*E*Sabonis

Obviously, the sample size is very small but I don't see any reason to think that they can't be productive together.

https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/12/lineups?on=3216&on=3729#tab-four_factors

https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/team/12/lineups?C=3216#tab-four_factors

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2860666-nba-stars-who-could-surprisingly-be-traded#slide6

It's up for debate with such a small sample size. Time will tell

The sample size is indeed very small. I'm confident, though. Very confident

I think we could really use someone like Jae Crowder

ahartleyvu wrote:I think we could really use someone like Jae Crowder

Agreed. Someone who is really more of a 4/3 that can defend the big wings/mobile 4's is definitely the hole on the roster needing to be filled. We're really stretching playing Justin Holiday there as a 2 at the 4 that can defend some, but I think Sampson is supposed to be that, and Alize is hoped to be that long-term, but a Crowder, Aminu, etc, would be very helpful now.

ahartleyvu wrote:I think we could really use someone like Jae Crowder

or like Thad Young although I understand completely why we didn't offer him what the Bulls did.

Scoot McGroot wrote:

ahartleyvu wrote:I think we could really use someone like Jae Crowder

Agreed. Someone who is really more of a 4/3 that can defend the big wings/mobile 4's is definitely the hole on the roster needing to be filled. We're really stretching playing Justin Holiday there as a 2 at the 4 that can defend some, but I think Sampson is supposed to be that, and Alize is hoped to be that long-term, but a Crowder, Aminu, etc, would be very helpful now.

That's a good point. We don't have a player who can guard the big wings that have primary ball-handling/scoring duties like LeBron, Durant and Giannis. That's the area where we're going to miss Thad the most.

It's why I always supported targetting someone like Taurean Prince. I always saw him as someone who has the potential to be like Thad in that aspect.

I like the defense I've seen from Lamb, but he is only 6'5". Maybe they're banking on improvement in that area from Warren?

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Nuntius wrote:That's a good point. We don't have a player who can guard the big wings that have primary ball-handling/scoring duties like LeBron, Durant and Giannis.

who does? can you name a few players other than those three who can guard those three? we also got schooled by Drummond but it is generally accepted that the only answer there is to play someone he can't guard at the other end and we do have that. I'm more worried by the Kennards of the league.

Wizop wrote:

Nuntius wrote:That's a good point. We don't have a player who can guard the big wings that have primary ball-handling/scoring duties like LeBron, Durant and Giannis.

who does? can you name a few players other than those three who can guard those three? we also got schooled by Drummond but it is generally accepted that the only answer there is to play someone he can't guard at the other end and we do have that. I'm more worried by the Kennards of the league.

Thad did pretty well against them. Heck, even Bojan did a decent enough job making them work for their inevitable production that it helped us around the rest of the court. No one can reliably stop those guys (other than other super duper top guys like Kawhi/PG13/etc), but even just savvy guys that can slow them down or make them earn that production and burn some energy on a nightly basis is a huge help.

Wizop wrote:

Nuntius wrote:That's a good point. We don't have a player who can guard the big wings that have primary ball-handling/scoring duties like LeBron, Durant and Giannis.

who does? can you name a few players other than those three who can guard those three? we also got schooled by Drummond but it is generally accepted that the only answer there is to play someone he can't guard at the other end and we do have that. I'm more worried by the Kennards of the league.

Basically, what Scoot said. No one can stop those guys, of course, but some players can slow them down a bit.

Nuntius wrote:

Wizop wrote:

Nuntius wrote:That's a good point. We don't have a player who can guard the big wings that have primary ball-handling/scoring duties like LeBron, Durant and Giannis.

who does? can you name a few players other than those three who can guard those three? we also got schooled by Drummond but it is generally accepted that the only answer there is to play someone he can't guard at the other end and we do have that. I'm more worried by the Kennards of the league.

Basically, what Scoot said. No one can stop those guys, of course, but some players can slow them down a bit.

Yeah. It may not help on a single night basis, but on a B2B? Or in a 7 game series? It can slowly chip away and help.