Who Should Be The 5th Starter?

[ShootingtheJ]

All these years all this board preached about was its not who starts but who finishes.Why in the hell does it matter if beasley starts n marjon finishes both should get roughly the ssme minutes anyway.This board has a big time vendetta for beasley and no matter what he does wether its 20/8/5 or plays average D most of you will still find something to complain about with him.JMO.
None of you are at practice so no one knows anything if AG likes the way beasley is practing on D n is showing effort and AG loves his O then he will be the starter

If Beasley puts up 20/8/5 on solid efficiency and average defense I promise you I will not complain about him. I have no issue with Beas, he just shouldn't be starting. If he starts he's playing likely the first 6-7 minutes with the starters at minimum and likely more each game. We saw it last night where he took a couple contested 3s rather than passing the ball and where again he struggled on defense going against the Lakers starters. I have no hate for Beasley, he's just being misused for what his role should be assuming he starts. I blame AG for that much more than Beas, we know who Beas is as a player and it's on the coach to utilize him properly.

Thats the thing though when i head to other boards like post game comments on X from eric or paul or whoever i read something different ....like his D last night was acceptable he didnt get abused was in the right places for the most part.I mean reading this board you would think he sucked last night.Other guys besides beas took contested shots ....i dont know i guess im in the minority who thinks he will have a good year

He's shooting 35% in the preseason, and had been bad offensively the last 2 years. I'm not seeing anything that suggests a sudden turn around. We need a shut down defender in the starting lineup, and we're not seeing that either. Average defense against nobodies isn't what we need.

[HKPackFan]

I'm actually fine with Pat or MJB or AJJ.

I chose Pat because I trust him the most. I would feel better if he's on the second unit, BUT I like him over Malik. Beas I am holding a little bit of hope for, but so far I'm getting ick vibes.

I hope what we saw with him and the starters was preseason nonsense. But not thrilled with Beas as a starter. I could tolerate him being a ball hog with the second unit, I guess? Not sure yet.

I think MJB would be an eventual starter if he can keep progressing. Last night was a good one for him. Maybe he can get really good minutes with his 15-20 game and keep growing up to 24 minutes a game and eventually get promoted to starter when he shows he can be a consistent disrupter and playmaker who works really well as that 5th guy doing the dirty work.

The best of all might be AJJ. His defense, his vision, his BBIQ, etc. He might be a great fit. But he's so far down on the depth chart. He can't even get minutes in a preseason game with the top rotation guys. I don't expect him to vault from 4th quarter preseason minutes to starter in a couple weeks. But he has the potential to be the best.

AJJ:

[MVP2110]

All these years all this board preached about was its not who starts but who finishes.Why in the hell does it matter if beasley starts n marjon finishes both should get roughly the ssme minutes anyway.This board has a big time vendetta for beasley and no matter what he does wether its 20/8/5 or plays average D most of you will still find something to complain about with him.JMO.
None of you are at practice so no one knows anything if AG likes the way beasley is practing on D n is showing effort and AG loves his O then he will be the starter

If Beasley puts up 20/8/5 on solid efficiency and average defense I promise you I will not complain about him. I have no issue with Beas, he just shouldn't be starting. If he starts he's playing likely the first 6-7 minutes with the starters at minimum and likely more each game. We saw it last night where he took a couple contested 3s rather than passing the ball and where again he struggled on defense going against the Lakers starters. I have no hate for Beasley, he's just being misused for what his role should be assuming he starts. I blame AG for that much more than Beas, we know who Beas is as a player and it's on the coach to utilize him properly.

Thats the thing though when i head to other boards like post game comments on X from eric or paul or whoever i read something different ....like his D last night was acceptable he didnt get abused was in the right places for the most part.I mean reading this board you would think he sucked last night.Other guys besides beas took contested shots ....i dont know i guess im in the minority who thinks he will have a good year

From what I've seen people seem to be confusing effort with defensive success. He's trying, he's just not very good defensively. Who else took a contested jumper while Dame & Giannis were out there cause I can't remember a single other example. Brook took alot of 3s but those were mostly open, Jae took a couple open shots too but I don't remember either taking anything that was contested closely but I can remember a couple different examples of Beasley doing that

[GoldenAntlers]

Lol, if he puts up 20/8/5 then I'll be furious because in no universe should Malik Beasley ever have that kind of usage/production unless I'm a tanking team. Both the concerns and "success" qualifiers some of you guys have for him are absolutely wild. He'll be a useful ~20 MPG role guy like he has been his entire career. I couldn't give two **** if that's as a "starter", or coming off the bench. Just like with Grayson, It's irrelevant.

Irrelevant is a bit of a stretch. I'd much prefer he takes the ball out of Bobby's hands than Giannis, Khris, and Dames.

[jakecronus8]

Obviously it's preseason so grain of salt but my initial thoughts on Beasley is he's doing too much. Spot up and d up. That's it.

Loved what I saw from Marjon against LA and I think he took the AG comments on Beasley as a challenge.

[Fotis St]

Nothing more clear than AJ Green at the SG position. We need long archers to destroy the Giannis wall. Low usage, great character, elite 3p shooter, good size athleticism... good effort, he is absolutely fine letting fly 6-7 3p attempts per game. Green is a huge anti wall tool. Beasley forces things too much, so I think ideally Green is happy with his small role 3p catch&shoot.

Pay attention to details ... He doesn't just make 3Ps he hits "nothing but net". He is an elite 3p shooter and I love players being elite at anything.

Another detail is that defense is not that much needed at the SG position. Which SGs do our rivals have? Derrick White & Tyler Herro, aren't any physical monsters who can destroy you with their speed. So the offense , the 3p Shooting is more important for our team in my expertise opinion.

We have a wall breaker, it's Dame.

I'm going Marjon, but possibly AJJ by the end of the season.

What if Marjon man doubles Dame ? Can Marjon punish them ? I think not. Space the hell out the court so Giannis AND Dame can attack the paint.

Quoting myself to highlight what we just saw at the 1st game of preseason. As I suspected, teams will trap Dame and we need 3p specialists to punish them. They trapped Dame and we missed alot of wide open 3s ... We need to start AJ Green to see how everything glues.

[Ron Swanson]

Lol, if he puts up 20/8/5 then I'll be furious because in no universe should Malik Beasley ever have that kind of usage/production unless I'm a tanking team. Both the concerns and "success" qualifiers some of you guys have for him are absolutely wild. He'll be a useful ~20 MPG role guy like he has been his entire career. I couldn't give two **** if that's as a "starter", or coming off the bench. Just like with Grayson, It's irrelevant.

Irrelevant is a bit of a stretch. I'd much prefer he takes the ball out of Bobby's hands than Giannis, Khris, and Dames.

Again, you guys are way too concerned over this complete non-issue.

[Prez]

I agree the 5th starter isn’t a huge deal in the RS but it does matter in the playoffs. Dame/Beasley is just clearly a suboptimal defensive backcourt and I think you’ll really see the limitations hunted by the elite playoff opponents.

Beasley can get his 15-16 FGA/36 min off the bench. Get Dre or MarJon in the starting 5 and see if you can mold a legit 16 game defensive wing out of one or both of them. That should be one of the top priorities for the regular season. If you can go into the playoffs with some level of confidence that one (or both) of those two guys can credibly guard Tatum/Jimmy and you don’t need to tax Middleton, that is massive. And if you find out they’re not ready, get active in the trade market mid season.

[skbucks1985]

I think its going to be Beasley vs Philly in 10 days. He's started the 3 preseason games, he played with Giannis and Dame last night. I also think that if Marjon or AJJ play well that could very easily change. And if Beasley's warts manifest themselves and AJJ or Marjon aren't playing well, Pat is always there in the wings.

[Ron Swanson]

Problem isn't gonna be the lack of minutes given to AJJ and Marjon (they'll get theirs in a long, load-managed season). It's gonna be when/if neither of those guys are ready for playoff minutes, a lot of people are gonna immediately default to crucifying Griffin cuz that's what we always do with every coach in the history of Bucks basketball when they don't "play the young guys", rather than coming to the logical realization that 1st and 2nd year players most often aren't playoff caliber rotation guys. They've got plenty of time between now and the trade deadline to figure out who the other closing-5 wing is (which again, it's probably just gonna be Pat anyways).

[MickeyDavis]

Hard to say how any of them would fit in with the starters because none of them have ever played with the starters. We were close last night but Giannis/Dame/Mids/Brook haven't played together yet. I suspect in the final tune up on Friday Mids will play and so will the 5th starter designate.

But we're going to see a lot of different starting lineups this year. I anticipate Giannis and Dame will be in the 67-70 game range. Mids probably less, he doesn't really need to get to the 67 threshold.

I'm honestly way more interested in who plays the final 6 minutes than the first 6 minutes.

[-Jragon-]

Problem isn't gonna be the lack of minutes given to AJJ and Marjon (they'll get theirs in a long, load-managed season). It's gonna be when/if neither of those guys are ready for playoff minutes, a lot of people are gonna immediately default to crucifying Griffin cuz that's what we always do with every coach in the history of Bucks basketball when they don't "play the young guys", rather than coming to the logical realization that 1st and 2nd year players most often aren't playoff caliber rotation guys. They've got plenty of time between now and the trade deadline to figure out who the other closing-5 wing is (which again, it's probably just gonna be Pat anyways).

Other teams seem to get at least one young contributer to a playoff run. Why not us? Some teams are getting it from undrafted guys -- we have 1st and 2nd round dudes with attrubutes.... with this team we need hustle and D; offense will be icing on the cake.

[-Jragon-]

Lol, if he puts up 20/8/5 then I'll be furious because in no universe should Malik Beasley ever have that kind of usage/production unless I'm a tanking team. Both the concerns and "success" qualifiers some of you guys have for him are absolutely wild. He'll be a useful ~20 MPG role guy like he has been his entire career. I couldn't give two **** if that's as a "starter", or coming off the bench. Just like with Grayson, It's irrelevant.

Irrelevant is a bit of a stretch. I'd much prefer he takes the ball out of Bobby's hands than Giannis, Khris, and Dames.

Again, you guys are way too concerned over this complete non-issue.

Yeah.. if Beas does that like 1 time, Giannis and Dame give a look to Griff and he sits lol.. He'll either "get it" now or later but we shouldn't be concerned about that. It probably won't be possible as Dame and Giannis will probable only pass to Khris/Beas when they WANT them to shoot.

[-Jragon-]

Dame can probably get open 3s and free throws at will; so needing another "shooter" idk. I'm not sure the 5th starter necessarily needs to be a floor space. Imagine Dame gets trapped and Marjon/AJJ is wide open. He grabs it and takes a couple dribbles into the paint and finishes... then on the other side he forces a turnover and runs the floor.... Like are we really going to be mad he's not hitting 3s? It seemed more important when it was Giannis getting triple teams and Donte bricked another 3. 5th starter: play solid, disruptive D and be a threat in any way on offense and it might be enough. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[emunney]

Guess it's my turn to zig when everybody else is zagging. I think MarJon is at his best when he's aggressive trying to get to his shot with 2-3 dribbles. I don't want him doing a lot with the ball but I do want him looking to score -- take the open 3, or look to get downhill, either to the rim or into his 15 foot pull up, every time he gets the ball. He's got a long, explosive first step, and he's smooth rising up when he's going toward the rim. He could be a real weapon against a rotating defense but he's got to *always* be ready to attack. I also think his ball-handling has improved to the point where he's got his head up and can do simple dump offs if he draws too much defense to allow him to get his shot. FWIW, I think in time he's going to be a good enough one-on-one scorer to punish mismatches, either by blowing by bigs or punishing guards in the post, but that's for later.

Not that his skills are perfect at this point, he still has work to do, but his biggest problem right now is inconsistent mindset/confidence.

[emunney]

Also, absolutely none of this is going to matter when we get late in the 4th in a playoff game and just spam empty side PnRs over and over.

[Daver]

Nothing more clear than AJ Green at the SG position. We need long archers to destroy the Giannis wall. Low usage, great character, elite 3p shooter, good size athleticism... good effort, he is absolutely fine letting fly 6-7 3p attempts per game. Green is a huge anti wall tool. Beasley forces things too much, so I think ideally Green is happy with his small role 3p catch&shoot.

Pay attention to details ... He doesn't just make 3Ps he hits "nothing but net". He is an elite 3p shooter and I love players being elite at anything.

Another detail is that defense is not that much needed at the SG position. Which SGs do our rivals have? Derrick White & Tyler Herro, aren't any physical monsters who can destroy you with their speed. So the offense , the 3p Shooting is more important for our team in my expertise opinion.

We have a wall breaker, it's Dame.

I'm going Marjon, but possibly AJJ by the end of the season.

What if Marjon man doubles Dame ? Can Marjon punish them ? I think not. Space the hell out the court so Giannis AND Dame can attack the paint.

Quoting myself to highlight what we just saw at the 1st game of preseason. As I suspected, teams will trap Dame and we need 3p specialists to punish them. They trapped Dame and we missed alot of wide open 3s ... We need to start AJ Green to see how everything glues.

Think starting green in terms of spacing would be a awesome idea he shoots better from 3 than sny other player we have the spacing with green starting would be amazing

[neiLz]

Just glad we have an entire regular season to figure this out. Reading this thread makes me think the bucks are going into game 7 of the finals.

[-Jragon-]

How slow would we be if Jae started next to Dame and Khris.. he has the most starter/playoff experience

[-Jragon-]

Just saw an interesting idea that is crazy enough that it might work. .. hmmm.. this internet dude said something like this:

1st unit
Dame
MB
Jae
GA
BROOK

2nd unit
Cam
Beas
KM
AJJ or Rolo
Bobby

Sub them out in a full line change like the 80s Cavs ornsome Hockey team -- this would actually bring continuity/ same guys running plays with the same guys. Let the 1st team play Lillard /Stotts pick and roll ball and the 2nd team play Fear the Deer Karl/Ray/Big dog/Cassell off ball screens ball. Teams will feel like we have 2 starting lineups that have 2 different teams with different sets of plays to defend Set A and Set B ... how will they prepare for that? Both teams have some All Stars /borderline all stars.

I know it's crazy but it's pretty creative and probably would save wear and tear while being effective. Are Beasely/KM REALLY going to be happy watching our 2 all world players play keep away? Or do we let them Manu off the bench and score even more points and get more shots?

How to sell it to KM? Tell him in those 22 minutes he and Beas get 90% of the shots... with the 1st unit you get 30 min and 20% of the shots