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SUPERBALLMAN wrote:As currently constructed I'd be looking at something like ....

Starting 5

Bryant, Bertans, Bonga, Beal, Wall


2nd unit

Lopez, Hachimura, Avdija, TBJ, Ish


Remaining bench

Wagner, Gil, Mathews, Robinson, Winston

I didn't see that we signed Neto... I guess Matthews is gone? We are keeping 4 PGs?

What's the roster size 15? We can keep 2 Gleague? Maybe Matthews and Winston are Gleague holds?

SUPERBALLMAN wrote:

SUPERBALLMAN wrote:As currently constructed I'd be looking at something like ....

Starting 5

Bryant, Bertans, Bonga, Beal, Wall


2nd unit

Lopez, Hachimura, Avdija, TBJ, Ish


Remaining bench

Wagner, Gil, Mathews, Robinson, Winston

I didn't see that we signed Neto... I guess Matthews is gone? We are keeping 4 PGs?

What's the roster size 15? We can keep 2 Gleague? Maybe Matthews and Winston are Gleague holds?

Ok, now we signed Childs...

Starting 5
Bryant, Bertans, Bonga, Beal, Wall

2nd Unit
Lopez, Hachimura, Avdija, TBJ, Ish

Remaining Bench
Wagner, Gil, Matthews, Robinson, Neto

Gleague

Childs, Winston


????????????

I think Hachimura will be the starting PF with Bertans coming off the bench. I know we just paid Bertans a lot of money, but he just doesn't have the frame to play 34 minutes a game banging against starting caliber power forwards.

Brooks was comfortable starting Hachimura over Bertans last year, and Hachimura has presumably improved a bit, so why wouldn't Brooks continue to start him this year?

To me, the only mystery is who starts at SF. I think the position is wide open. It could be Bonga, Troy Brown, Avdija, or perhaps Bertans. I suspect Brooks himself doesn't know the answer to that question. It'll depend on how they look in training camp. Fitwise, I think Bonga makes the most sense. There's plenty of offense in the starting lineup coming from Wall, Beal, Hachimura and Bryant, so we can afford to sacrifice some offense from the SF position in favor of better defense. Bonga is our best defender. But maybe Troy Brown has made a big leap and will force his way into the starting lineup because he's just the better overall basketball player. We shall see.

nate33 wrote:I think Hachimura will be the starting PF with Bertans coming off the bench. I know we just paid Bertans a lot of money, but he just doesn't have the frame to play 34 minutes a game banging against starting caliber power forwards.

Brooks was comfortable starting Hachimura over Bertans last year, and Hachimura has presumably improved a bit, so why wouldn't Brooks continue to start him this year?

To me, the only mystery is who starts at SF. I think the position is wide open. It could be Bonga, Troy Brown, Avdija, or perhaps Bertans. I suspect Brooks himself doesn't know the answer to that question. It'll depend on how they look in training camp. Fitwise, I think Bonga makes the most sense. There's plenty of offense in the starting lineup coming from Wall, Beal, Hachimura and Bryant, so we can afford to sacrifice some offense from the SF position in favor of better defense. Bonga is our best defender. But maybe Troy Brown has made a big leap and will force his way into the starting lineup because he's just the better overall basketball player. We shall see.

I don't think it matters who starts, but rather who finishes.

Crunchtime, it'll be Wall, Beal, and Bertans for sure. The other two depend on matchups.

If it was up to me:

Wall Neto
Beal Brown Jr
Avdija Bonga
Hachimura Bertans
Bryant Wagner

NatP4 wrote:If it was up to me:

Wall Neto
Beal Brown Jr
Avdija Bonga
Hachimura Bertans
Bryant Wagner

I don't know too much about Neto. Do you think he should get minutes over Ish? I thought Ish was quite good for us last year.

I suspect Avdija will require some seasoning before being relied upon as a starter. Hopefully, he'll at least get the backup minutes at SF rather than being squeezed out of the rotation altogether.

Lopez will play ahead of Wagner, unless Wagner has made a massive leap defensively. If nothing else, you don't pay a guy $7M not to play.

Clearly the keys to the season are now:

1) Wall being healthy and wanting to play.

2) TBJ, Bryant, Bonga & Rui improvements.

How 2 develops will dictate where the minutes go, no? Especially since that covers SG - C.

I would be shocked if Bonga starts over Deni. Why are people making that call?

But yeah we are betting on young players. It was always going to be that way. They need to improve.

prime1time wrote:I would be shocked if Bonga starts over Deni. Why are people making that call?

Because Brooks never starts rookies unless he has no other option. He has three other options at the moment.

nate33 wrote:

prime1time wrote:I would be shocked if Bonga starts over Deni. Why are people making that call?

Because Brooks never starts rookies unless he has no other option. He has three other options at the moment.

That's true but Rui started. And so did Bonga. More so, for all intents and purposes, this guy is not a rookie. He played 59 games last year. IMO, he's too talented to keep on the bench. I look forward to seeing him on the court.

prime1time wrote:

nate33 wrote:

prime1time wrote:I would be shocked if Bonga starts over Deni. Why are people making that call?

Because Brooks never starts rookies unless he has no other option. He has three other options at the moment.

That's true but Rui started. And so did Bonga. More so, for all intents and purposes, this guy is not a rookie. He played 59 games last year. IMO, he's too talented to keep on the bench. I look forward to seeing him on the court.

I agree here. I would be surprised if Avdija is not a much better player already than Bonga. And with Bertans + Troy coming off the beach, it would make sense for Deni to start. He is a good complement to Rui and can thrive as a secondary play maker on the start unit

prime1time wrote:

nate33 wrote:

prime1time wrote:I would be shocked if Bonga starts over Deni. Why are people making that call?

Because Brooks never starts rookies unless he has no other option. He has three other options at the moment.

That's true but Rui started. And so did Bonga. More so, for all intents and purposes, this guy is not a rookie. He played 59 games last year. IMO, he's too talented to keep on the bench. I look forward to seeing him on the court.

Rui started because he had no other options. Bertans can't log starter's minutes at PF.

Bonga started, but he wasn't a rookie.

I don't think Avdija will be better defensively than Bonga, and that's what the starting lineup needs more than anything else. Usually rookies are awful defensively.

Frichuela wrote:

prime1time wrote:

nate33 wrote:Because Brooks never starts rookies unless he has no other option. He has three other options at the moment.

That's true but Rui started. And so did Bonga. More so, for all intents and purposes, this guy is not a rookie. He played 59 games last year. IMO, he's too talented to keep on the bench. I look forward to seeing him on the court.

I agree here. I would be surprised if Avdija is not a much better player already than Bonga. And with Bertans + Troy coming off the beach, it would make sense for Deni to start. He is a good complement to Rui and can thrive as a secondary play maker on the start unit

We don't need a secondary playmaker on the starting unit. We have Beal for that (assuming Wall is still on the team).

Now, if we send Wall away, that changes things. We will then be on a bit longer of a time horizon then and it might make sense to sacrifice wins now to develop Avdija for the future.

Wall/Beal/Bryant is good enough for mid 40s win total in the East.

Anyone think TBJ could start at PG if we deal Wall?


TBJ, Beal, Avdija, Hachimura, Bryant


Neto, Robinson, Bonga, Bertans, Lopez


Ish, Winston, Mathews, Gil, Childs, Wagner


????

Having Beal and Avdija as additional playmakers could take pressure off TBJ, and having his length and defense on the perimeter would be a benefit. This would put our last 3 1st round picks all in the starting lineup.

SUPERBALLMAN wrote:Anyone think TBJ could start at PG if we deal Wall?


TBJ, Beal, Avdija, Hachimura, Bryant


Neto, Robinson, Bonga, Bertans, Lopez


Ish, Winston, Mathews, Gil, Childs, Wagner


????

Having Beal and Avdija as additional playmakers could take pressure off TBJ, and having his length and defense on the perimeter would be a benefit.

If we were to trade Wall for Sato + Porter, it could look like:

Sato/Ish/Neto
Beal/Troy
Porter/Avdija/Bonga
Rui/Bertans
Bryant/Lopez/Mo

The second coming of everybody eats!

nate33 wrote:

NatP4 wrote:If it was up to me:

Wall Neto
Beal Brown Jr
Avdija Bonga
Hachimura Bertans
Bryant Wagner

I don't know too much about Neto. Do you think he should get minutes over Ish? I thought Ish was quite good for us last year.

I suspect Avdija will require some seasoning before being relied upon as a starter. Hopefully, he'll at least get the backup minutes at SF rather than being squeezed out of the rotation altogether.

Lopez will play ahead of Wagner, unless Wagner has made a massive leap defensively. If nothing else, you don't pay a guy $7M not to play.

This is just what I would do. The Lopez deal was awful, he wouldn’t not play on my team, and Avdija would play simply because he was the 9th overall pick and we gotta see what we have.

I’m just going off of ESPNs RPM stat which has Neto ranked at the top for point guards every year for DRPM and in the starting caliber range for PGs overall. We haven’t had a guy like that since Satoransky. It’s always mediocre guys like Frazier, Smith, IT, Napier, Burke, Jennings, and whoever else.

Neto also is a pretty solid 40% 3pt shooter that can shoot off the dribble or play off ball and spot up. Also regularly has a good assist-turnover ratio.

Neto is the type of guy that can spot start and give you a chance to win despite not being flashy at all whatsoever. He’s another Satoransky level player.

nate33 wrote:

prime1time wrote:

nate33 wrote:Because Brooks never starts rookies unless he has no other option. He has three other options at the moment.

That's true but Rui started. And so did Bonga. More so, for all intents and purposes, this guy is not a rookie. He played 59 games last year. IMO, he's too talented to keep on the bench. I look forward to seeing him on the court.

Rui started because he had no other options. Bertans can't log starter's minutes at PF.

Bonga started, but he wasn't a rookie.

I don't think Avdija will be better defensively than Bonga, and that's what the starting lineup needs more than anything else. Usually rookies are awful defensively.

We will see. It's tough to project European players. I think it's going to be tough to keep Advija on the bench. And Bonga is so limited offensively. His ceiling is a 3 and D guy. I also think he lacks basketball awareness. So even if he starts, like last season, I highly doubt he finishes games. Not including the player that wants to be traded, in terms of all-around play Advija is one of our top 5 players.

We're still badly lacking a power athlete for frontcourt defense - not even a Tyler Bey type.