RealGM

I am assuming that Lillard starts at PG, Grant at one of the Forward spots and Nurkic at C.

How would do you think should start at SG and SF? Should Simons start or come off the bench as 6th man? Should someone else start at PF and Grant at SF?

Lillard, Payton, Hart, Grant, Nurk

my personal preference is to bring Simons off the bench. I can see Winslow most useful as the secondary ball-handler next to Simons in that second unit. I think Payton is a bit small to play SF full-time so I went with Little at SF alongside Hart at SG.

A Dame/Ant backcourt would be on par with the CJ backcourt defensively.

A Dame/Hart backcourt is much better defensively & not far off offensively. Little makes the most sense starting at SF.

Dame / Hart / Little / Grant / Nurk
Ant / GPII / Winslow (Sharpe?) / Watford (Walker?)

Dame, Ant, Hart, Grant, and Nurkic

Ant is going to start at SG, but if I had my way:

G - Damian Lillard (34) / Anfernee Simons (14)
G - Gary Payton II (20) / Anfernee Simons (18) / Josh Hart (10)
F - Josh Hart (20) / Nas Little (22) / Jabari Walker (6)
F - Jerami Grant (32) / Justice Winslow (10) / Jabari Walker (6)
C - Jusuf Nurkic (26) / Drew Eubanks (16) / Justice Winslow (6)

I want to get Walker some run, I think he will be a net positive from the jump. Kid understands his role, plays with effort, good defender, knows when to cut, can hit a 3. Of Sharpe, Brown and Walker I am most confident and Walker taking minutes this season.

Winslow spent 25% of his time last year as a small ball C and I hope we continue that - I trust his defense there more than Watford at this point, and think he can pass well from the high post (Like Nurkic).

Love keeping Jusuf around 26mpg until playoff time, his body just cant handle much more.

I've mentioned it in other threads... Ideally, I'd like to stagger Dame's and Ant's minutes as much as possible. I think the best way to do that is have Ant in the 6th man role, but still getting 30 - 32 MPG.

So, start:

Dame
Hart
Nas
Grant
Nurk

With Ant, Payton and Winslow leading the second unit. This roster also allows plenty of opportunity for 3-guard line ups of Dame/Ant/Hart or Dame/Ant/Payton. I'm fine running a 3-guard line up at various points during the game, I just don't want to go back to a micro-sized line up of the Dame/CJ/Norm days when all three were starting and averaging 34+ MPG.

Nas should start if healthy and further developed. Starting Ant makes no sense. Pair Ant with GP that’s lethal off the bench

How do we start Hart at SG while still giving GP2 20mpg and Ant 32mpg?

I dont see a feasible way to do so, unless he is getting 10mpg or less at SG.

i think they will start who they pay the most money to

DAME
ANT
HART
GRANT
NURK


unless someone flat out out performs HART or ANT, i dont see it any other way

BlazersBroncos wrote:How do we start Hart at SG while still giving GP2 20mpg and Ant 32mpg?

I dont see a feasible way to do so, unless he is getting 10mpg or less at SG.

If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…

Given our lineup Hart has to play most of his minutes at SF. There’s no other solution outside of benching GP.

The real question then becomes who starts at SF, Little or Hart? Personally I’d start Little so Hart is available more on the 2nd unit to help with play making.

The line-up should have a minimum of two play makers at a time whether it’s Dame+Simons or Dame+Hart or Simons+Hart unless there’s an injury or something

Jsun947 wrote:

BlazersBroncos wrote:How do we start Hart at SG while still giving GP2 20mpg and Ant 32mpg?

I dont see a feasible way to do so, unless he is getting 10mpg or less at SG.

If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…

Given our lineup Hart has to play most of his minutes at SF. There’s no other solution outside of benching GP

Or Sharpe if we are going to try and get him some minutes. I think Hart is our SF along with Little

Jsun947 wrote:

BlazersBroncos wrote:How do we start Hart at SG while still giving GP2 20mpg and Ant 32mpg?

I dont see a feasible way to do so, unless he is getting 10mpg or less at SG.

If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…

Given our lineup Hart has to play most of his minutes at SF. There’s no other solution outside of benching GP.

The real question then becomes who starts at SF, Little or Hart? Personally I’d start Little so Hart is available more on the 2nd unit to help with play making.

The line-up should have a minimum of two play makers at a time whether it’s Dame+Simons or Dame+Hart or Simons+Hart unless there’s an injury or something

In terms of playmaking, Winslow is comparable to Hart. Winslow actually has a higher career AST% (14.4) than Hart (10.6). Neither should see time as the primary playmaker, but both are adequate as a secondary playmaker.

Nurk and Watford are good passing big men and good tertiary playmakers. You don't really want either bringing the ball up the floor and initiating the offense, but both are good at finding open teammates after receiving the ball in the high or low post.

Edit: "If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…"

This assumes all three play in all 82 games. They won't. For example, if you combine last season's MPG for Dame (36.4), CJ (35.2) and Ant (29.5), it adds up to 101.1 MPG, yet none of the three saw any significant time at SF - and that doesn't even include Powell, or Hart, who both saw significant time at guard (let alone Dennis Smith Jr., Ben McLemore, etc.).

Of course, last season saw significant injuries and trades, but the point remains. You cant just assume there are only 84 minutes to divide between all of our guards. That may be true on any given night, but injuries and rest are part of the game and increase the average MPG of everyone on the roster over the course of an 82 game NBA schedule.

BlazersBroncos wrote:Love keeping Jusuf around 26mpg until playoff time, his body just cant handle much more.

FWIW, I don't think his per game average should come down really, Nurkic is best when he is engaged the entire game, but I think we should pro-actively give him a lot more off days to rest than your typical player, because fatigue is another issue for him.

JRoy wrote:Lillard, Payton, Hart, Grant, Nurk

I like the commitment to defense but..

soobias wrote:i think they will start who they pay the most money to

DAME
ANT
HART
GRANT
NURK


unless someone flat out out performs HART or ANT, i dont see it any other way

I do think the highest paid players are heavily pushed to start and this is more likely.

BNM wrote:

Jsun947 wrote:

BlazersBroncos wrote:How do we start Hart at SG while still giving GP2 20mpg and Ant 32mpg?

I dont see a feasible way to do so, unless he is getting 10mpg or less at SG.

If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…

Given our lineup Hart has to play most of his minutes at SF. There’s no other solution outside of benching GP.

The real question then becomes who starts at SF, Little or Hart? Personally I’d start Little so Hart is available more on the 2nd unit to help with play making.

The line-up should have a minimum of two play makers at a time whether it’s Dame+Simons or Dame+Hart or Simons+Hart unless there’s an injury or something

In terms of playmaking, Winslow is comparable to Hart. Winslow actually has a higher career AST% (14.4) than Hart (10.6). Neither should see time as the primary playmaker, but both are adequate as a secondary playmaker.

Nurk and Watford are good passing big men and good tertiary playmakers. You don't really want either bringing the ball up the floor and initiating the offense, but both are good at finding open teammates after receiving the ball in the high or low post.

Edit: "If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…"

This assumes all three play in all 82 games. They won't. For example, if you combine last season's MPG for Dame (36.4), CJ (35.2) and Ant (29.5), it adds up to 101.1 MPG, yet none of the three saw any significant time at SF - and that doesn't even include Powell, or Hart, who both saw significant time at guard (let alone Dennis Smith Jr., Ben McLemore, etc.).

Of course, last season saw significant injuries and trades, but the point remains. You cant just assume there are only 84 minutes to divide between all of our guards. That may be true on any given night, but injuries and rest are part of the game and increase the average MPG of everyone on the roster over the course of an 82 game NBA schedule.

Sure but playmaking isn’t just passing, it’s also putting pressure on the defense and that includes scoring yourself. Hart is by far the 3rd best play on the roster capable of doing that, especially by attacking off the dribble. Winslow is likely to never average 10pm in his career.

We’re talking about rotations when everyone is healthy so minutes when players are injured is a different conversation.

Let's see who is healthy first.

Nurk and Little are likely going to be injured as they always seem to be.

I'm hoping for:

Lillard/Ant/GP
Hart/Ant/GP
Little/Hart

I love having defensive players for those last play of the game stops!

Anfernee will be starting SG, but I really hope and expect that Chauncey will stagger his minutes with Dame as much as physically possible.

I'd start with:

Dame
Anfernee (this is a given so no point hypothesising otherwise imo)
Little
Grant
Nurkic.


I'm only starting Little over Hart, as Hart looked super in his expanded role last season.

Plus with Dame, Anfernee, Grant and Nurk, only so many mouths can feed offensively. Our bench doesn't have great scoring (particularly with GP2 and Winslow), so I'd rather Hart be ready to take on a much bigger offensive role off the bench.