tombattor wrote:GreenDreamer wrote:tombattor wrote:There is no need to hate on TA. He's hurt and when he comes back, we can certainly use his energy. He probably won't get a ton of minutes, but he'll be useful in the playoffs. Besides, we're not in this for the regular season anyways. This will free up some extra minutes for Gabe who deserves some burn, so it's not all bad.
At this point, I'm pretty sure we're going to stick with what we have. We're in the "keeping everyone healthy for the playoffs" mode and we pretty much have one of the top 2 spots locked up, so I see no reason to worry.
Tony plays like an idiot. You put idiots on the court vs good team (playoff teams), you advance teh cause of losing games. I'm starting to get the sinking feeling that "We should traded for Nocioni" will be said quite a few times over the next couple of months. Our bench is weak. Our team is the starters and a bunch of guys you shouldn't really expect anything from.
Yes, TA plays like an idiot sometimes, but he can also be our best player off the bench. I'm not sure how closely you follow other teams, but with the exception of players like Manu, most bench players have a lot of major flaws. That's why they are the bench and not starters getting 40+ minutes.
For example, Eddie House is a lights out shooter, but he can't really handle the ball. Does that mean, we should force him to do those things and cut him when he can't? No, we play to his strength and play a ball handler with him, so we can maximize his assets without exposing his weaknesses.
I follow the league quite closely. Well conceived benches have playerts who can fit in with the key players of teh team while filling in a needed role. The best benches usually revolve around one or two really good role players. Last season Posey was our best bench player because of his ability to guard different positions at a high level and his ability to spread the floor, which allowed him to play in big and small lineups effectively.
On our team we have a bunch of guys who are only good in specific situtaions and against certain kind of teams. Eddie House was absolutely useless last night, for example, because of the fact that Utah can put a large backcourt out there. Eddie could gaurd neither Williams, Korver nor Brewer, so he had to sit. That is just the way it works. Tony doesn't spread the floor at all, and so cannot play with Rondo. Not to mention that he really can't run the point, so he can't play with Eddie vs good teams.
Leon looks great against teams with smallish front courts and gets killed by teams with longish ones. Baby has his own significant limitations. Veal can spread the floor and play defense, but his lack of athleticism and rebounding ability really hurts us against some teams. All three of these guys would have a lot more value to us if we had another "all around" big who was our main big off of the bench.
I started a thread about the Spurs model. They are very intelligent in how they have built their team. Their role players fit seammlessly into the whole. Ours do not, and it is not a good situation.
