RealGM

What is the frontcourt situation right now? Is anyone gonna play more than 30 minutes?

I feel like we have serviceable players but with that logjam and frank's inability to get the best out of people, its just going to be a confusing mess of mediocrity.

I'm rooting for Sean but i think we might have another Marcus Williams situation here. damn it frank...

It was encouraging to see (although it's only preseason) that Brook Lopez can do some of the work inside.

As to your question, who knows if anyone will average 30 minutes, this seems like the year of front court by committee.

It would be interesting to see a Lopez / Williams front court, but a Lopez, Boone lineup will lead to insane rebounding numbers too.

I think by the end of the season, Lopez should be starters minute (30+ a game). I think Yi could be at 30+ depending on the team we're playing, but split between the 3 and 4 position. Boone is gonna average 20-30 a game as long as he stays healthy. He'll back up Lopez eventually I'm guessing (but start at the beginning of the season) and then also play the 4 when we want a bruising line up on the floor.

I think Williams has the most work cut out for him. If he doesn't show improvement, I honestly can see us moving him to a lottery team for a pick (Could see the Hawks if they want to move Horford to the 4, Sean at the 5, Smith at the 3, Marvin at the 2, Johnson at the point again) or to a team for a SG or SF with as much upside as Sean does and just hope for the best. I love Sean but I can see him falling out of the rotation the quickest if he doesn't bring it every game.

I used to think Yi would get some minutes at the 3, but after watching him during preseason, I highly doubt it.
His defense is bad, and at times down right horrible.
He seems to be giving decent effort, and at some point in his career I could see him becoming maybe average, but there is no way he should be guarding other SF's.
They will absolutley burn him everytime, and cause our bigs to get into major foul trouble.


Side note:
A trade I wouldn't mind seeing would be Sean Williams for Julian Wright.

vincecarter4pres wrote:I used to think Yi would get some minutes at the 3, but after watching him during preseason, I highly doubt it.
His defense is bad, and at times down right horrible.
He seems to be giving decent effort, and at some point in his career I could see him becoming maybe average, but there is no way he should be guarding other SF's.
They will absolutley burn him everytime, and cause our bigs to get into major foul trouble.


Side note:
A trade I wouldn't mind seeing would be Sean Williams for Julian Wright.

I've thought about that too, but I don't think NO would bite. Their swing man are starting to get up there in age an I think are banking on him progressing a decent amount over the next 2 years. I also don't see Sean being of interest to them with Chandler and West holding down the fort.

But I agree, I would love Wright.

vincecarter4pres wrote:I used to think Yi would get some minutes at the 3, but after watching him during preseason, I highly doubt it.
His defense is bad, and at times down right horrible.
He seems to be giving decent effort, and at some point in his career I could see him becoming maybe average, but there is no way he should be guarding other SF's.
They will absolutley burn him everytime, and cause our bigs to get into major foul trouble.

Thank you.

I wish every Nets fan could see things this way. Yi may have the face-up PF skills that make you THINK he can be a SF, but he is no SF. His overall defense is BARELY adequate for PFs in today's NBA, and for SFs defensively, he would be a slotted spoon.

yeah i think sean had awareness problems on the floor. I really don't see the guy as a 5 though. he just doesnt have the size and mass.

Just my opinion but i dont like Boone at all as a starter. I think for his talent and skill level, he should stay a hustle guy coming off the bench in spurts to grab rebounds and steal a few buckets. In doses, he can be an impact player. But his effectiveness wears off the longer he stays on the floor because he cant consistently be a threat. He grabs a few boards sure, but he doesn't do much more than that. So now that we have the kind of center we want in Brook, i think Boone becomes expendable. With Brook anchoring the middle, we can afford to test drive sean a lot more. But again, just my opinion. I know a lot of nets fans love the guy.

I think our front court should be Brook and Sean with Stro, Yi, and Anderson backing them up. you might say you'd need Boone to guard some center while brook is out, but i'll take the offensive advantages of big guys who could draw the opposing bigs out over that because it's not like boone is an imposing defensive presence anyway. So instead, go with the athletic and skill players.

In an ideal world we would get rid of Swift by any means necasary to keep him out of the lineup so he doesn't eat up the important minutes for our young bigs.

Boone is a better defensive and all around player then Swift, by far anyway, and at this point in their careers he is way ahead of Sean Williams.

I would like to hold onto Sean Williams, but if he was part of the right package deal or a straight up swap for a swingman on their rookie deal that is worth it I would take it.


Edit:Add to this the fact that Yi is basically only effective in a lineup containing Boone or Lopez at center at this time, and it makes Boone even more valuable and Sean more expendable.

A Yi - Williams combo can be effective against smaller frontcourts as well as when / if the Nets decide to up the tempo and try to outrun their opponent.

Yi and Williams both get up and down the court very well (comparatively speaking).

ecuhus1981 wrote:

vincecarter4pres wrote:I used to think Yi would get some minutes at the 3, but after watching him during preseason, I highly doubt it.
His defense is bad, and at times down right horrible.
He seems to be giving decent effort, and at some point in his career I could see him becoming maybe average, but there is no way he should be guarding other SF's.
They will absolutley burn him everytime, and cause our bigs to get into major foul trouble.

Thank you.

I wish every Nets fan could see things this way. Yi may have the face-up PF skills that make you THINK he can be a SF, but he is no SF. His overall defense is BARELY adequate for PFs in today's NBA, and for SFs defensively, he would be a slotted spoon.

But the fact that he is showing effort means it's his technique that's the problem. Remember he is young, hopefully our staff can help him out in that department.

^^^ Also people, don't forget I did say "depending on what team we're playing." I'm sorry, Yi can guard Radman when he's on the court playing the 3. It's all about matchups is basically what I meant. Every now and then we may go big to force the opposition to go big against us. This may mean putting something like Harris/Carter/Yi/Lopez/Boone on the floor to provide mismatches galore on offense. Obviously this will force our players to be more aware on defense, but Yi WILL see some time at the 3 every now and then. Will it be most of the time? By all means no, but we guys like him and Ryan Anderson allow us to force teams to match up with us instead of us putting guys on the court that match up to them.

Preludepunk27 wrote:^^^ Also people, don't forget I did say "depending on what team we're playing." I'm sorry, Yi can guard Radman when he's on the court playing the 3. It's all about matchups is basically what I meant. Every now and then we may go big to force the opposition to go big against us. This may mean putting something like Harris/Carter/Yi/Lopez/Boone on the floor to provide mismatches galore on offense. Obviously this will force our players to be more aware on defense, but Yi WILL see some time at the 3 every now and then. Will it be most of the time? By all means no, but we guys like him and Ryan Anderson allow us to force teams to match up with us instead of us putting guys on the court that match up to them.

I like that line-up, I think if we ever use a line-up like it, we should play zone on defense, that helps cover up Yi and keep him from guarding a true "3". Also the fact that we would have three real good rebounders will solve the problem of rebounding out of the zone.

i can't think of a single player who has gotten better under lawrence frank.

Also, vince4pres..i dont understand how you can say boone's offensive and defensive game is much better than sean and stro. what can boone do on either end that it leave those guys in the dust? boone has no offensive game of his own. his offense consists of a few oopsy daisy buckets and his D is soft. I guess he's a bit better at positioning but he's also played 5 times as much as sean. I'm sure sean could catch up if given the time. As a rookie, he can't pay for every mistake like Frank likes to make him do. It's counterproductive. if not given good teaching in practice, he needs time on the floor.

Besides, in rebuild mode, now's the time to let those guys develop on the court.

Also, im not sure how you know in which lineup Yi is effective. Being that Yi can't play the 3 most of the time, he would not be included with that lineup anyway so if thats the case, your point there is moot.

Care to name all of the great players that have gotten worse under Frank?

It boggles my mind that when a player improves with Frank as a head coach it's because of "natural growth" but when a player underachieves / sucks, etc. it's Frank's fault...

Actually It can be Franks fault.

You have to put that person in a position to improve or play better.

Example: Having S.Will Guard KG or Beasley should produce some decent results, but having S.Will guard Perkins or Big Baby he is going to be tossed around.

All I'm saying is that Frank can't be blamed for every player's failure, he might contribute to why they fail in certain instances but IS also responsible for why they succeed in others.

I understand many posters want Frank gone, but Frank does both good and bad things and in order to accurately judge his coaching ability you have to acknowledge that.

People just want to make Frank the scapegoat for EVERYTHING that goes wrong... the problem is that's just wrong.

S.I.C. GM wrote:Actually It can be Franks fault.

You have to put that person in a position to improve or play better.

Example: Having S.Will Guard KG or Beasley should produce some decent results, but having S.Will guard Perkins or Big Baby he is going to be tossed around.

Perkins I could understand, but my sister could guard Big Baby even with the huge weight advantage.

But I don't think that makes the player "not progress" or "get worse." That's just dumb coaching and I think slightly off the point.

Preludepunk27 wrote:^^^ Also people, don't forget I did say "depending on what team we're playing." I'm sorry, Yi can guard Radman when he's on the court playing the 3. It's all about matchups is basically what I meant. Every now and then we may go big to force the opposition to go big against us. This may mean putting something like Harris/Carter/Yi/Lopez/Boone on the floor to provide mismatches galore on offense. Obviously this will force our players to be more aware on defense, but Yi WILL see some time at the 3 every now and then. Will it be most of the time? By all means no, but we guys like him and Ryan Anderson allow us to force teams to match up with us instead of us putting guys on the court that match up to them.

Very true.

Fair enough.

I was more talking on a consistant basis, but in very few instances he could.

Also Anderson isn't really a good defensive player by any means, but he is still better then Yi.

Preludepunk27 wrote:

S.I.C. GM wrote:Actually It can be Franks fault.

You have to put that person in a position to improve or play better.

Example: Having S.Will Guard KG or Beasley should produce some decent results, but having S.Will guard Perkins or Big Baby he is going to be tossed around.

Perkins I could understand, but my sister could guard Big Baby even with the huge weight advantage.

But I don't think that makes the player "not progress" or "get worse." That's just dumb coaching and I think slightly off the point.

It does affect the player because Frank benches them when they dont give him the results he is looking even though he put them in that situation.

Like having Yi defend Chandler. Chandler is quick and will succeed in D'antoni's system. The guy runs all over Yi. Now Yi is label a bad defender. Yeah Yi isnt a great defender.

NetsForce wrote:Care to name all of the great players that have gotten worse under Frank?

It boggles my mind that when a player improves with Frank as a head coach it's because of "natural growth" but when a player underachieves / sucks, etc. it's Frank's fault...

I think it's fair to say we've had some decent prospects in the past few years. And If it's not the coach's responsibility to develop these players, who's is it? It's not ALL his fault because obviously the responsibility also falls on the players. But i dont think we just had 5 years of lazy bums either. I'm not saying all of them need to be stars to validate him as coach, but a coach needs to be able to work with what he has. With new players, this takes time, but i don't think he has the patience or the know-how/leadership to develop players. He's great at knowing identifying problems but he's not any good at actually taking the appropriate steps to solving them.

Besides the first few months with him when we hit that streak, we've been trying to go 60 in first gear. We need a new driver.

And also, being that frank is below average at player development, i dont think he is the coach especially for a team that's rebuilding.