Post#9 » by hugepatsfan » Fri Jun 28, 2024 2:49 pm
Just listing everyone at their natural positions...
Holiday / Pritchard
White / Springer
Brown / Hauser / Scheierman / Walsh
Tatum.............................................. Watson (2-way)
Porzingis / Horford / Queta
Those are the 12 roster spots plus Watson presumably signing a 2-way deal. So we have 2-3 NBA spots and 2 more 2-way deals to go.
You just look at the positional by position needs.
Center. With Porzingis out, take him off that depth chart for the first couple of months. And then we know Horford is won't play back to backs. They absolutely, 100% need to sign one guy here to an NBA deal. DUH. And then they absolutely need either another NBA guy or at least a 2-way guy who can play like Queta last year.
Point guard. If there were ever a game where 2 of Holiday/White/Pritchard are out, we'd have to use Springer for actual PG minutes. I know you can play him with Tatum, but that's still not ideal to have Springer playing PG minutes. This warrants another player at least as a backup plan if there's a run of injuries and Springer doesn't work. Can be a 2-way spot.
Power forward. There's no natural backup to Tatum on the NBA roster. Horford can play there in 2 big lineups, but he needs rest days himself already, the older he gets the less athletic he'll get so the PF minutes probably lose effectiveness before the Center minutes, and we already need Horford at center to cover for KP. Maybe Brown or Walsh could kick down here in the regular season, but this isn't ideal. I'd even argue that for a fully healthy playoff rotation, the 8-10 minutes per game Tatum sits come playoff time is the biggest vulnerability because the only real viable option there is Hoford playing in a 2-big lineup which carries some risk.
My guess is that they sign 2 NBA centers. One 2-way PG. And then if they sign a 15th player, it will be a stretch 4 PF type to spell Tatum. The last 2-way goes to whoever.
Realistically, I could see that being completely running it back with Kornet/Tillman for the C spots, Brissett on a new vet min with player option deal, Davison on a new 2-way, and then Peterson for the last 2-way.
My sneaky big "need" for the team though is a PF type to backup Tatum. If Porzingis isn't healthy and you can't get an actual playoff rotation caliber big man (Kornet isn't one, Tillman isn't unless he shoots better) then Horford has to play the 5 before he can fill in as the backup PF. So that's a vulnerability we have. So as much talk as the C spot gets, I'd also prioritize someone better than Brissett if we can find someone.