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Just trying to get some opinions on Darko if DMC is drafted (an kept).

First off, will Darko even want to come over with a legit Center to compete with. If he does come over, does a DMC/Love/Milicic trio work? Is a starting combo of DMC and Love too slow to be effective? I assume we trade Al and probably pekovic at some point this offseason.

I personally believe his skill level and unique abilites will allow him to get plenty of minutes behind Cousins and Love. He may even start at the beginning of the season. I am hoping he is getting back in shape, dropping a little weight to be even more effective defensively. I think he could play very well alongside DMC and Love, its just a matter of him accepting a "Odom" role. Further, I hope that us trading Al finally gives KLove the desire to shed the baby fat... perhaps him and DMC could workout together.

Pekovic and DMC would not work, but Pek could be a solid backup to him (If Milicic decides to stay away). We can use the #16 or #23 to draft a backup for Love.

I think Darko is a must resign. Even if we'd keep Cousins Darko would get a lot minutes.

Cousins can also play the PF and Darko the defensive minded C to complement him. Love is the 6th men-energizer from the bench then. Obiously there would be little use for Jefferson and Pekovic then because both of them are too similar to Cousins.

Darko/Cousins
Cousins/Love

Yeah, pretty much. Good luck in Europe.

I think he's shown he can play power forward and if he's willing to do it then he should be welcomed back. The length of him and Cousins would be crazy. And I think he'd start if he's in shape and if Cousins works out I wouldn't be surprised to see Love eventually shipped out.

I really don't care for Darko. I would much prefer to start Cousins and Love with an athletic defender off the bench.

almost seems more trouble than it's worth when we already have Love/Jefferson/Pekovic/Hollins in the pipes; also be nice to have a long athletic SF that can get spot minutes at the 4

nothing Darko did wrong, he did everything right his time here and maybe they want to bring him back for that reason, but from a minutes standpoint I don't know how he fits in right now

There is a great chance that Pekovic gets traded. Given the fact that many top rookies average fewer minutes, I think Darko would still have plenty of time on the floor.

And if Al or Love gets traded, there would be plenty of time to spread around.

Darko is our only big that can play good defense. Keep him. If Darko-Al worked so would Darko-DMC.

Yeah, I still want to bring Darko back. He's a perfect bigman for the triangle. I think right now I'm leaning towards trading Love and Pekovic and starting Al and Darko with Cousins as our third big, and bringing Cousins along slowly, making him earn minutes by improving his stamina and keeping his ego in check.

That's right now. That could easily change tomorrow.

Cousins played one year of college ball (38 games) at under 24 minutes a game. He's not going to be able to come in and play 35 minutes a night, so yes we NEED Darko, and I think he is a must resign.

LOBO 7 wrote:Yeah, I still want to bring Darko back. He's a perfect bigman for the triangle. I think right now I'm leaning towards trading Love and Pekovic and starting Al and Darko with Cousins as our third big, and bringing Cousins along slowly, making him earn minutes by improving his stamina and keeping his ego in check.

That's right now. That could easily change tomorrow.

This.

One of the complaints you've heard from our coaching staff is that we are not long enough down low. That changes with that frontcourt.

Klomp wrote:

LOBO 7 wrote:Yeah, I still want to bring Darko back. He's a perfect bigman for the triangle. I think right now I'm leaning towards trading Love and Pekovic and starting Al and Darko with Cousins as our third big, and bringing Cousins along slowly, making him earn minutes by improving his stamina and keeping his ego in check.

That's right now. That could easily change tomorrow.

This.

One of the complaints you've heard from our coaching staff is that we are not long enough down low. That changes with that frontcourt.

Al + Cousins doesn't make a lot of sense though. There's all this talk of wanting to match up against the Lakers. Well in that scenario the Lakers could just bring in Odom and he would kill us off the dribble. The same could be said for Amare, Lee, and a number of other teams' players. If Cousins is the pick, then I think it's got to be peace out to Al.

Krapinsky wrote:Al + Cousins doesn't make a lot of sense though. There's all this talk of wanting to match up against the Lakers. Well in that scenario the Lakers could just bring in Odom and he would kill us off the dribble. The same could be said for Amare, Lee, and a number of other teams' players. If Cousins is the pick, then I think it's got to be peace out to Al.

Are you saying you'd want Love to guard those guys?

I agree that Darko is a MUST RESIGN. They told him last year he would play a lot when he came here, he did. They have probably already told him he will play more 2010-11.

He fits very well in Rambis' system. He seems to have a high BB IQ. He picked up the triangle offense within a few weeks - Jefferson was still struggling with the passing part of the triangle at the end of the season. Defensively he was very active in patroling the entire paint - reacting well - something no other post player on our team seems to be able to do. Offensively he has great hands and is a good passer but needs to work on his shooting mechanics.

I don't see Cousins 20+ minutes a game interfering with Darko's minutes. Cousins would likely come off the bench at the beginning of the season behind Darko and whoever we keep between Al or Love. It would not matter if we went with Darko/Love, Darko/Cousins or Darko/Jefferson or Cousins/Love - as long as we get movement in the offense (stagnant when Al is in), consistent shooting and heads-up play from the PG, SG and SF. We just can't go Love/Jefferson another season.

Krapinsky wrote:

Klomp wrote:

LOBO 7 wrote:Yeah, I still want to bring Darko back. He's a perfect bigman for the triangle. I think right now I'm leaning towards trading Love and Pekovic and starting Al and Darko with Cousins as our third big, and bringing Cousins along slowly, making him earn minutes by improving his stamina and keeping his ego in check.

That's right now. That could easily change tomorrow.

This.

One of the complaints you've heard from our coaching staff is that we are not long enough down low. That changes with that frontcourt.

Al + Cousins doesn't make a lot of sense though. There's all this talk of wanting to match up against the Lakers. Well in that scenario the Lakers could just bring in Odom and he would kill us off the dribble. The same could be said for Amare, Lee, and a number of other teams' players. If Cousins is the pick, then I think it's got to be peace out to Al.

That's the thing. Of course we want a bigman rotation that works well both offensively and defensively, but there has been almost no discussion of how we think Al and Cousins would work together. Al is a natural PF and Cousins is probably more of a natural C, but Cousins is pretty quick laterally and could probably do a better job than Al or Love guarding more athletic 4's on the perimeter. I also think that Al would be a good mentor for Cousins, both on and off the court. I'm still not 100% sold on the idea of keeping Cousins, but if we do, I think the importance of Al as a mentor should be considered. If we move Al, and have Love and Darko (and possibly Pekovic) as our other bigs, I just don't see any of them being able to keep Cousins in check the way Al might be able to. This is just a gut feeling, but I think it might be valid.

Klomp wrote:

Krapinsky wrote:Al + Cousins doesn't make a lot of sense though. There's all this talk of wanting to match up against the Lakers. Well in that scenario the Lakers could just bring in Odom and he would kill us off the dribble. The same could be said for Amare, Lee, and a number of other teams' players. If Cousins is the pick, then I think it's got to be peace out to Al.

Are you saying you'd want Love to guard those guys?

No, not really, but I'll take Love playing with either Al or Cousins than Al and Cousins together. Basically all our player suck lol

I think Al and Cousins could play together well for stretches. Great rebounding, and plenty of post offense, and they would have very good size/length as a PF/C tandem. But they would get killed against talented bigs who play on the perimeter who could out-quick them, so they need a 3rd big who can defend those quicker players. That's not Love, but Darko should be able to do that, especially given the summer and training camp to get into real basketball shape.

That said, I'd prefer a Love-Cousins-Darko or Favors-Jefferson-Darko combination to a Cousins-Jefferson-Darko because of better balance.

Well if Rambis put Love on Melo, he should be able to guard a PF lol. Or maybe not...

This team is just in a terrible situation where our best players are bigs, our obvious draft choice is a big, and the guys we want to bring back for the season from Europe are bigs. None of them are agile enough to gaurd the 4's like Green, Lewis, Thomas, Smith.
All of them are talented enough to start, most have defensive concerns. It's just frustrating as a fan to potentially have Al Jefferson / Kevin Love / Pekovic / Cousins / Darko. Thats 5 guys that don't compliment each other very well (especially defensively) and no big's that are quick or agile or long enough to gaurd those tweener forwards.
It seems like one small need the team could still potentially have to another season before we need to address, but I don't want to get caught in the situation Clevland was in when they got killed by Orlando last season because of the matchup problems.
Somethings got to give, and by the beginning of the 2010 season I'm expecting to have 3 of these guys tops.

On a side note, is Anthony Randolph still overvalued in Golden State? Can he gaurd long quick 4's? I'd like to move maybe Pek or Love+pick23 for Randolph + a small asset (sign and trade for morrow might get some positive feedback on this board at least).

Also, I think that a small deal for someone like Travis Outlaw could solve this problem.

Meh. I've said this for the past 2 seasons All of this is solved by picking up a hybrid 4. A guy that can play the 3 and the 4.

Randolph & Clark being the 2 most recent examples of fitting the bill. Clark could probably be had fairly cheap.

Swap love for the 5th, take johnson. Johnson could probably play the 4 against most of the troublesome bigger 3's that play 4 matchups too. He can play the 2 in our offense pretty easily too imo.

Pek for clark.
resign darko
draft dmc
pickup varnado @23
MISC GUARD @16

darko/dmc/al
al/varnado/clark
clark/brewer/johnson
johnson/brewer/#16
flynn/sessions