Game 26 : Indiana Pacers (12-13) @ Detroit Pistons (6-18) - 8:00 PM

[ducler]

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[boomershadow]

Good to get a win and stop the skid. That's a lot of minutes for Sabonis against a team like the Pistons though.

[Topofthekey]

Why did Myles play only 24 minutes? Did he get injured or something

With Myles playing only 24 minutes, Goga should have played way, way more than 2 minutes, unless he's injured

Bjorkgren's treating the regular season like an 82 game playoff series

He really, really needs to pump the brakes on this tight 8 man rotation that he favors. Goga and Sumner needs to play

[Scoot McGroot]

My crazy out of the box thought: Start Sumner instead of Justin. I love the McDermott in the lineup with Sabonis idea. Those two usually play very well together. I also like the idea of playing Justin and Aaron together a lot, too, as I think that they just produce exponentially when they play together, rather than just the individual sum of themselves. They seem to just do much better together. My thought would be to pull Sumner to the bench early, while letting him be a guy to focus on the tougher guard assignment for a few minutes, and then pull Sumner to the bench early for Justin. Justin would still play 30+ minutes in this type scenario, and it would simply force us to play Sumner some each half. Maybe it’s only around 10 minutes total a night, depending on how it runs, but then to get McConnell/Aaron minutes, we’d HAVE to pull Brogdon for some rest, and keep him closer to 32-34 minutes a night. But this would allow Justin time to play with the starters and with the bench, and allow his positional flexibility to run up and down the court depending on how we stagger individual substitutions throughout the night.

I hate this idea, though, for the simple fact that Justin has earned a starting spot and the respect that goes with it. If he’d see this as not a demotion, but recognizing just how key he is to the roster for not just himself, but the entire locker room, I’d love to do it.

[Topofthekey]

I am inclined to agree that the team should try slotting Sumner in the starting lineup

Actually, I think they've already tried once, but somehow didn't continue with it

But yes, I like the idea of letting Sumner start

As for the demotion for Justin, well, it's just a question of when, isn't it

Warren and LeVert are expected to be the starters once they're back

[Scoot McGroot]

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[pacers33granger]

My crazy out of the box thought: Start Sumner instead of Justin.

I'm on the fence here. Justin has played very well, but he's supposed to be coming off the bench anyways. And Sumner needs some minutes where he can be the 5th guy and play more freely. My main concern is that the offense is already sketchy most nights with Justin and inserting Sumner makes that worse.

[Scoot McGroot]

My crazy out of the box thought: Start Sumner instead of Justin.

I'm on the fence here. Justin has played very well, but he's supposed to be coming off the bench anyways. And Sumner needs some minutes where he can be the 5th guy and play more freely. My main concern is that the offense is already sketchy most nights with Justin and inserting Sumner makes that worse.

Yeah. I have to agree for the most part. My thought was that mostly Sumner would just play the first 5 minutes of each half, unless he earned more minutes, and would take pressure defensively off either Brogdon or Lamb/McDermott. The way Justin has shot, and flowed freely through the offense this year has been underrated, so it would be hard to do something like this. My thought is that Justin could help jumpstart Aaron off the bench, and he would still play major minutes, and crunch time minutes with the starters instead of Sumner, while maybe avoiding a little foul trouble. It would also force Nate to pull about 5 minutes off of each of Brogdon and McConnell for Sumner, and help keep each fresher at crunch time, or allow McConnell to be more of a dynamic short term force, rather than “adjusted to”.

It’s not great. It’s an adaptation. Mostly, it’s just a ploy to help out until Levert and/or Warren return. Though, I don’t have even the slightest belief that this “solution” is to something that Nate would even view as a “problem”. It appears he’s more than happy with playing Brogdon a ton of minutes.

[pacers33granger]

My crazy out of the box thought: Start Sumner instead of Justin.

I'm on the fence here. Justin has played very well, but he's supposed to be coming off the bench anyways. And Sumner needs some minutes where he can be the 5th guy and play more freely. My main concern is that the offense is already sketchy most nights with Justin and inserting Sumner makes that worse.

Yeah. I have to agree for the most part. My thought was that mostly Sumner would just play the first 5 minutes of each half, unless he earned more minutes, and would take pressure defensively off either Brogdon or Lamb/McDermott. The way Justin has shot, and flowed freely through the offense this year has been underrated, so it would be hard to do something like this. My thought is that Justin could help jumpstart Aaron off the bench, and he would still play major minutes, and crunch time minutes with the starters instead of Sumner, while maybe avoiding a little foul trouble. It would also force Nate to pull about 5 minutes off of each of Brogdon and McConnell for Sumner, and help keep each fresher at crunch time, or allow McConnell to be more of a dynamic short term force, rather than “adjusted to”.

It’s not great. It’s an adaptation. Mostly, it’s just a ploy to help out until Levert and/or Warren return. Though, I don’t have even the slightest belief that this “solution” is to something that Nate would even view as a “problem”. It appears he’s more than happy with playing Brogdon a ton of minutes.

Yeah it's one of the few potential realistic tweaks that hasn't been tried while we're waiting on guys to get healthy. I worry primarily about playing from behind all night though. We've still got some major issues starting slowly and most nights we don't it involves Justin hitting a three or two. Caris/TJ can each replace the offensive production in different ways if Justin goes to the bench.

Sumner could be a spark, but I'd expect that maybe 1 out of every 5 times at most. In theory he could help Brogdon as he does have some ballhandling skills, though I wouldn't necessarily want him handling the ball much early in a game. Overall I think he could be an interesting 5th guy in the fully healthy starting lineup but I have concerns with him as a starter where we are utilizing another bench guy.

[Topofthekey]

My crazy out of the box thought: Start Sumner instead of Justin.

I'm on the fence here. Justin has played very well, but he's supposed to be coming off the bench anyways. And Sumner needs some minutes where he can be the 5th guy and play more freely. My main concern is that the offense is already sketchy most nights with Justin and inserting Sumner makes that worse.

The same can be said for Jeremy Lamb

He's at his most effective when he's allowed to handle the ball and create for himself a bit, and given the green light to shoot when he sees fit

He doesn't get to do that when he's starting with Brogdon. One thing I noticed about Lamb is that he's a bit passive when he's in the starting lineup. Probably out of a desire to be a good teammate

Staggering Brogdon and Lamb may help the team's offense, which as you said has been sketchy sometimes recently

[Wizop]

Red Auerbach convinced me decades ago that starting your best 5 players does not create the best rotation.

Sent from my phone.

[Topofthekey]

They just showed a graphic in the screen about Lamb

Apparently when he starts, he averages something like 9 points on 47% or something

When he comes off the bench, it becomes something like 16 points on 58% shooting

[Pacers Forever]

Topofthekey I agree with you that Lamb seems passive. I like when he gets in the motion offense and drives into a short jumper or floater. He seems very good at that. I don’t like situations where he isn’t moving although they said tonight he’s shooting over 50% from 3.