win-now vs player development

[giberish]

There look to be several rotation spots contested between young players with upside and lower upside veteran who are likely the better players in the short term. For teams expected to be in the lottery the choice to opt for player development is easy, but if you're competing for a playoff spot do you risk the extra losses for player development or give minutes to the low-upside veteran to maximize wins for this season?

Potential examples include (feel free to add more):

Birch vs Bamba for backup C on Orlando
Porter vs Craig/Hernangomez on Denver
White vs various guard on Chicago
NAW and Hayes on NO

[swyftdahoe]

Depends on how long you’ve been on the player development curve. If you’ve been developing a while, it might be time to try winning for a change. You’ve gotta start establishing a culture of winning at one point.

Then again, your decision should also be dependent on your player development capabilities. Clearly, there’s a huge disparity between some teams with the Spurs being perennially great at this and the Raps of recent showing that they know how to maximize their D League team.

[Duke4life831]

If you are in the playoff hunt, go for win now. If you are out of the playoff hunt, focus on player development.

[JonFromVA]

There look to be several rotation spots contested between young players with upside and lower upside veteran who are likely the better players in the short term. For teams expected to be in the lottery the choice to opt for player development is easy, but if you're competing for a playoff spot do you risk the extra losses for player development or give minutes to the low-upside veteran to maximize wins for this season?

Potential examples include (feel free to add more):

Birch vs Bamba for backup C on Orlando
Porter vs Craig/Hernangomez on Denver
White vs various guard on Chicago
NAW and Hayes on NO

Ideally you do both by finding spots or roles where a young player can contribute or at least not hurt the unit when he's on the floor.

[BBgun]

Depends on if we're talking about a fringe playoff team or a true contender Imo. I would certainly focus on giving a big opportunity to guys like Bamba and Fultz for example if I'm Orlando, while still trying to build off last year's playoff success. But for a team like Denver on the other hand, there's no way they should prioritize Porter for this season over players like Craig, Millsap and Juancho when they are realistic contenders.

[The_Hater]

There look to be several rotation spots contested between young players with upside and lower upside veteran who are likely the better players in the short term. For teams expected to be in the lottery the choice to opt for player development is easy, but if you're competing for a playoff spot do you risk the extra losses for player development or give minutes to the low-upside veteran to maximize wins for this season?

Potential examples include (feel free to add more):

Birch vs Bamba for backup C on Orlando
Porter vs Craig/Hernangomez on Denver
White vs various guard on Chicago
NAW and Hayes on NO

Bamba probably wins the back up C spot and Porter is going to get minutes off the bench in Denver because he’s good. They’re going to invest in his upside not just for future seasons, but for the current season.

White doesn’t look like a PG at all to me at all, he’s a 100% gunner who rarely passes, so coming off the bench likely suits him much better anyways.

Hayes needs time to develop sitting on the bench, he’s not very good right now, but NAW will likely force himself into the rotation. Man the Pels are deep.

[IAMZOOTED2]

If you are in the playoff hunt, go for win now. If you are out of the playoff hunt, focus on player development.

Yeah, but for teams mired in mediocrity that may not be the soundest advice. Perennially landing the 6, 7, or 8 slot means you are likely not developing your talent well enough or the players you got are not enough to get it done. Sometimes you gotta take a step back to take two (or three?) steps forward. Personally I would be looking at the people behind the players before I assessed whether or not to forgo development of a player to insert a veteran or vice versa...

[madmaxmedia]

There look to be several rotation spots contested between young players with upside and lower upside veteran who are likely the better players in the short term. For teams expected to be in the lottery the choice to opt for player development is easy, but if you're competing for a playoff spot do you risk the extra losses for player development or give minutes to the low-upside veteran to maximize wins for this season?

Potential examples include (feel free to add more):

Birch vs Bamba for backup C on Orlando
Porter vs Craig/Hernangomez on Denver
White vs various guard on Chicago
NAW and Hayes on NO

Ideally you do both by finding spots or roles where a young player can contribute or at least not hurt the unit when he's on the floor.

I think that is sometimes better for a player's development anyway. If a rookie is clearly not ready to be a starter and you throw him in for 30 MPG, he could develop bad habits, hurt his confidence, etc. Playoff teams typically don't have a top rookie that is projected for stardom, those are typically the guys that can possibly be ready to start from Day 1 and can do enough good things to outweigh the bad.

You also don't want a guy to learn how to play defense on the job, in a primary back up role.

[basketballRob]

There look to be several rotation spots contested between young players with upside and lower upside veteran who are likely the better players in the short term. For teams expected to be in the lottery the choice to opt for player development is easy, but if you're competing for a playoff spot do you risk the extra losses for player development or give minutes to the low-upside veteran to maximize wins for this season?

Potential examples include (feel free to add more):

Birch vs Bamba for backup C on Orlando
Porter vs Craig/Hernangomez on Denver
White vs various guard on Chicago
NAW and Hayes on NO

Bamba probably wins the back up C spot and Porter is going to get minutes off the bench in Denver because he’s good. They’re going to invest in his upside not just for future seasons, but for the current season.

White doesn’t look like a PG at all to me at all, he’s a 100% gunner who rarely passes, so coming off the bench likely suits him much better anyways.

Hayes needs time to develop sitting on the bench, he’s not very good right now, but NAW will likely force himself into the rotation. Man the Pels are deep.

Clifford has already said, Bamba would be the backup.

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[Statlanta]

Depends what the situation is around the league.

Danny Ainge was the king of the last era because he was selling when people were buying.

and obviously Masai has near limitless job security because he bought when people were selling.

Generally go win now because, less social/PR stigma, and likely higher TV revenue

In a year like this I would sell(player development) because everybody thinks they can be a champion.

[fianchetto]

There look to be several rotation spots contested between young players with upside and lower upside veteran who are likely the better players in the short term. For teams expected to be in the lottery the choice to opt for player development is easy, but if you're competing for a playoff spot do you risk the extra losses for player development or give minutes to the low-upside veteran to maximize wins for this season?

Potential examples include (feel free to add more):

Birch vs Bamba for backup C on Orlando
Porter vs Craig/Hernangomez on Denver
White vs various guard on Chicago
NAW and Hayes on NO

There is no panacea solution with this. It's circumstantial and I think coaches feed very much off of what players give them on a game-by-game basis. You play well in 10 minutes/game, you get 15 the next game kind of thing.

Also depends very much on personality, maturity, and playing the game the right way. Veteran players who provide good leadership on the court (defensive communication, team focus, etc) would get more minutes in spite of poorer play, and young players who play the game the right way could also get more minutes.

In general, though:

top 10 team: postpone the young guys' development
middle 10 team: use the strategy I described above
bottom 10 teams: more play for the young'ns

[Mrakar]

I love what Pels have done this offseason. They bring in veterans (good players also willing to help young guys), and they are at the same time developing while keeping team competitive.
I think that losing too much can affect players career big time. Developing young guys in bad situation can have bad results.
Naw will get minutes this season, he will contribute from the bench and we will see what happens after.
Hayes is just too raw. If he for example started and Pels didnt trade for Favors he wouldnt have anyone to learn from.
I think you can learn watching from the bench (Just see how ready Ben Simmons and Blake Griffin were after 1 season spent on sidlines comparing to other rookies. One can argue both of them didn't improve at all that much after 2nd season(simmons is still young but u get the point))

[udfa]

For me the question isn't win-now vs player development, but using playing time to reinforce the culture I want instilled into my team. I expect this is how a lot of coaches operate as well. It's dangerous to reward a player who isn't fulfilling the responsibilities required of him as a professional, like preparing thoroughly for games, practicing hard, being attentive to instruction, taking care of his body, and executing offense and defense as designed. Fans frequently get upset at coaches for playing a dead-end veteran over a promising young player who might actually be more effective than the vet, but playing time is the only hard currency coaches have for addressing professional and attitudinal inadequacies.

If no one is in need of discipline, then I would lean toward playing whoever was most effective. That's a philosophy that anyone can understand and appreciate. If you're not effective enough to beat out someone in the rotation then you'll only get spot minutes until you demonstrate the requisite ability.