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You know the guy who you hate to watch that the coach/manager plays way too much while the talented youngsters rot on the bench.

I preidict this year that Anthony Tolliver will be that player and see way more minutes than some of us are comfortable with, because Rambis will refuse to use Beasley as a backup 4. This will further complicate our wing glut, and one or more of wes/brewer/ellington/webster will see far fewer minutes than we would like.

Brewer or Darko. I have no worries about Tolliver. I wouldn't be surprised if he is more productive/efficient than Beasley would be.

I've got problem with Tolliver (so far) getting the backup PF minutes. I think it will be either Brewer or Telfair.

Brewer, Telfair for sure.

Maybe Koufos? (the loss of Pekovic's minutes?)

Brewer definitely looks like the early favorite, and if Telfair plays any minutes at all when Flynn gets back, he'll be there too.

As far as Darko, I wouldn't be surprised if fans get really frustrated with his playing time do to poor box scores, but I expect that the dimensions of his game that don't show up on stat sheet and that our other Cs don't have (contesting shots especially) will justify his playing time.

I indirectly got in an argument with Anthony over this very issue today. I see us using all 5 bigs (darko/pek/love/beas/tolly) due to match-up issues and the foul trouble.

Its got to be one of our swingmen. We have too many that deserve minutes, and not enough minutes to truly get the most out of all of them.

I'm going to guess Brewer. If I was running the team, I'd play him a lot over the first month to try to increase his trade value to a contender. I think he will do better than we've seen in pre-season, and I hope he avoids cringe-worthy choices. Longterm, we need to give minutes to Wes Johnson, Martell Webster and Beasley at SF to see whether our investments pay off. Hayward and Ellington are good for back-ups, and we can hope they can find minutes somewhere.

Telfair for sure and whoever proves to be the weak link between Ellington and Brewer. Tolliver should prove his worth. He's your token energy guy, but he has some range and can grab boards.

I find it hard to believe that Telfair plays at all once Johnny is healthy.

Krapinsky wrote:I find it hard to believe that Telfair plays at all once Johnny is healthy.

Good point. I could see him traded to a team who suffers an injury, and we just pick up someone to ride the bench. If its late enough in the season, we may simply try for 10-day contract guys whenever Ridnour picks up minor injuries that limit his minutes.

I can't imagine we'd get anything for Telfair, I'd rather just keep our depth. Our depth is the one thing that might win us a few games this year.

Worm Guts wrote:I can't imagine we'd get anything for Telfair, I'd rather just keep our depth. Our depth is the one thing that might win us a few games this year.

I'd agree. Unless the unlikely event occurs where we can actually get something for him, I'd be fine with keeping him as the emergency PG. Just give him lots of DNPs until he's needed.

I agree with Worm too. Telfair is the perfect 3rd pg to ride the bench for us. There's a 15 man roster limit for a reason.

The obvious answer has to be Brewer. We've already seen Beasley get some back-up PF minutes, and Tolliver looks like a solid contributor. Brewer just looked putrid at times last night.

Telfair will have trade value at the deadline because he's on an expiring deal and he could be part of a larger package to get us a top player.

I think we'd all be willing to use Telfair as salary filler, but I'm specifically talking about trading him just to trade him. I'm fine with keeping him as our 3rd point.

There's also the fact that it's a strong possibility that out of Ridnour, Telfair, and Flynn, Telfair may be the best on the ball defender. Sad, but possibly true.

I say Tolliver with the caveat I am OK with him getting the backup PF minutes (12-15 a night). I'm just afraid he's going to get more than that, and that means SF minutes or Love and Tolliver as PF/C (AGGGH I hate that lineup). Which means fewer minutes likely for Wes and Pek.

Brewer may be that guy too. Wes and Webster have shown better D and much, much better offense at this point. Ellington has dramatically improved his handle and the speed at which he plays and deserves the garbage time. Brewer was our best wing last year, and the new guys are making him look like a fool, which is a good sign.

Sadly Telfair is our best on ball defender. And AJ freaking Price made him his bitch over and over.
Our wings really need to stop leaving shooters open to help. That was the glaring mistake from an otherwise nice performance vs Indy tuesday night.

And tolliver it is. Way to go gardy, oops I mean Rambis. Sit the face of your franchise and throw a journeyman out there and hope carl landry (who?) doesn't absolutely destroy him in the 4th quarter when your sorry ass team can't buy a defensive rebound. Tolliver did some nice things at times and ugly things at times, but he isn't the future of this franchise.

Love started forcing things when we got down 7 out of frustration. A good coach will take him out for a couple minutes, settle him down, set him straight, and put him back out there. A terrible coach will sit him for most of the 2nd half and just let that youthful frustration simmer.

This team's success rests on our core players learning how to win games when the going gets tough. Sometimes that means you lose, but you learn together.
Rambis pissed away another opportunity for growth tonight. Does he honestly envision Tolliver closing out games if we become a successful team? We traded our franchise player in jefferson, for whom we had traded a hall of famer, for peanuts, to open the PF minutes up for Love this year. 30 minutes into the year and he's already being benched for last year's hot d-league pickup. Is that the (de)evolution of this franchise? Garnett<Jefferson<Love<Tolliver?

Brewer should not be playing at all. I would be surprised if we could trade him for a bag of balls at this point. He is just awful both offensively and defensively. That backdoor cut he got beat on by Casspi was just awful. even in junior high they teach you that to play good off-ball d you always need to see both the ball and your man at the same time if you aren't close enough to put a hand on them, and the replay showed brewer had no idea what casspi was doing for a good 4 or 5 seconds before he got beat. He may be athletic, but when It's his 4th year and he gets beat on a backdoor cut in the final minute of a tight game you have to question if he will ever get it.

Johnson needs to play alot more when he is fully healthy. He was all-around just flat out impressive even though his shot wasn't falling. Active on d, rebounding, moving without the ball. Ellington has come a long way and plays hard and smart, he just doesn't have the talent to be more than a role player, even though he's a much better shooter than he showed tonight.

We need a playmaker and things we can go to when we need a basket. Beasley showed some nice moves at points if he can learn to slow down a little and finish more consistently. Love/Ridnour pick and pop is a deadly combo. Wes can get his jumper off over anyone. It just pisses me off when we are relying on anthony tolliver post ups and ellington dribble handoffs at the end of a close game while love and wes rot on the bench.

younggunsmn wrote:And tolliver it is. Way to go gardy, oops I mean Rambis. Sit the face of your franchise and throw a journeyman out there and hope carl landry (who?) doesn't absolutely destroy him in the 4th quarter when your sorry ass team can't buy a defensive rebound. Tolliver did some nice things at times and ugly things at times, but he isn't the future of this franchise.

Love started forcing things when we got down 7 out of frustration. A good coach will take him out for a couple minutes, settle him down, set him straight, and put him back out there. A terrible coach will sit him for most of the 2nd half and just let that youthful frustration simmer.

This team's success rests on our core players learning how to win games when the going gets tough. Sometimes that means you lose, but you learn together.
Rambis pissed away another opportunity for growth tonight. Does he honestly envision Tolliver closing out games if we become a successful team? We traded our franchise player in jefferson, for whom we had traded a hall of famer, for peanuts, to open the PF minutes up for Love this year. 30 minutes into the year and he's already being benched for last year's hot d-league pickup. Is that the (de)evolution of this franchise? Garnett<Jefferson<Love<Tolliver?

It has nothing to do with who is the future of your franchise. Why? Because the future is just that....the future. It has to do with who was playing well tonight, and the answer was clearly Tolliver. Would I have liked to see Love back out there? Probably. But you can't really argue with the fact that he was riding the hot hand, plus the fact that Tolliver was one of the very few Wolves giving effort on the defensive end.

I'm going to attribute your post to frustration more than anything. Everything else I agree with.