Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:I don't have a crystal ball but I told you what I didn't like about Flip one month after he became coach. I told you about Faried about a year and a half before the draft. I did say Wall would struggle and Cousins was going to be a stud.
I don't know what is going to happen with Booker's minutes, but I can do math pretty well. Between PF and C in a 48 minute game, there are only 96 minutes. If you expand and include the SF position, there are 144 available minutes. Starters generally play between 28 and 35 minutes. If I generalize at 30 minutes for those three positions, that's 90 minutes. I don't know Booker will not start, but I would bet my car that he won't. I would bet a lot of money that he won't be a part of those 90 minutes. DCZ, I know for certain that 144-90=54. Fifty-four minutes to be split between the SF, PF, and C backups.
Beyond those numbers, the number of backups at SF, PF, and C is at least 4. Chris Singleton, Jan Vesely, Kevin Seraphin, and Trevor Booker are the four players I have in mind. Forget small ball with Beal at the SF position. Forget Cartier Martin playing any SF, his best position. Because that would make the number larger. Stick with 4 backups at those positions. If you divide the backup minutes among those four, you get 13.5 minutes. Trevor Booker, could conceivably get a double portion of those minutes if Singleton or Vesely or Seraphin play that much less. That is what I do not know. Will Trevor Booker play more than 12-15 minutes? Perhaps he can become a great 20-25 minute sub with others on the bench.
The other things: An injury to Hilario or Okafor opens minutes. Booker could simply outplay Okafor and Wittman would start him in time. Seraphin could possibly slump, but IMO that is HIGHLY unlikely. If anything, Seraphin is going to improve the most. Also, I think Vesely is going to become more useful in time because he has a great court sense and both Nene and Kevin play well off him. Ariza is going to find Vesely with the ball is my prediction. Booker's the odd man out, DCZ. That is how I see it now.
We shall see, DCZ. I don't have a crystal ball but I have had some success predicting outcomes with various personnel.
Reiterating my projection for minutes, I believe you are going to see more 20-24 min players then 30-35 min players.
What makes me say that ? I few things.
One. Its how they finished the year. Take a look. They already started doing this.
Two. The vets are here to stabilize the team, not to take it over.
Three. Its a long season, no reason to overplay older vets who have some injury questions. Same is true of Booker. Plus they have young players to develop and they are most likely going to be a defensive team so keeping everyone fresh will be important.
The players who are not guaranteed many if any minutes are Mack, Martin, AJ Price, C Singleton, Webster. Those are the players who have to fight to earn time. There will be serious competition this year in camp. Specially at SF. I don't think Booker is in that class that needs to worry about getting set minutes.
Line Ups and Minutes
Wall 30 plus. The rest go to AJ or Craw, maybe Mack
Crawford and Beal will split most the mins. 24 and 24. If Craw plays some PG, there is room for Martin or others. Beal may start closer to 14-16 depending on who he performs right out of the gate.
SF ? I assume Trevor get 20 somewhere with 28 avail between C Singleton/Webster/Martin (preseason battle)
Nene 20/Booker18/Ves 10 - Ves is still a young kid. No reason to force things.
Okafor20/Kevin 24/4 minutes for some Ves maybe
Plus they could try some Booker at SF and see how it works if the opportunity presents itself.
This is a basic outline as a starting point that can get tweaked if everyone is healthy. No need to play the front court players to much if they are on back to backs or if they have minor injuries. Its a long season. No need to pull an EFJ and kill everyone by the ASB. I predict Randy will coach smart like a Popovich does.
I say they start with something like this and play the hot player a little more depending on the night, fouls, injuries and match up.