Weltman has his starting lineup

[thelead]

Fultz (24)
Suggs (21)
Franz (20)
Paolo (19)
WCJ (23)

He mentions it at around the 3:05 mark:

Watch on YouTube

It’s what some of us were expecting anyway but interesting that Weltman clearly stated it. Suggs just turned 21 so I’m thinking he just forgot and WCJ doesn’t turn 24 until next year…. Unless he means JI who is 24 but I doubt it since he’s still secretive when discussing JI’s return.

[pepe1991]

Moronic comment by Weltman, and shows how coach is just puppet and why they elected to select coach without previous coaching experience, because he can be bullied and told what to do.

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.


Suggs and Fultz starting 5 is squivlvalent of starting Reggie Jackson and MCW in same starting 5 . Sentiment is only " expetations" that are subjective thing.

This is "starting 5" is another nugget that somebody in Vegas was banking on when they projected Magic to have 29th record for upcomming season.

Just for sake or argument, what if Hampton goes into a season camp and just kills Futlz and Suggs? HE still isn't starting because it hurts Weltman's ego or?
What if Cole is best guard by wide margin, we still don't start him? What if Isaac is head and shoulders better than Banchero?
What if whoever at C position outplays Wendell, we still not starting that guy?

Fact that we are 22-60 team and have cemented starting 5, handpicked by nothing but ego of president of basketball operations is major red flag for rebuild.

Young lineup means jack s***. Suns had youngest starting 5 in nba history . From that starting 5 grand total of One player stayed long term

[thelead]

Moronic comment by Weltman, and shows how coach is just puppet and why they elected to select coach without previous coaching experience, because he can be bullied and told what to do.

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.


Suggs and Fultz starting 5 is squivlvalent of starting Reggie Jackson and MCW in same starting 5 . Sentiment is only " expetations" that are subjective thing.

This is "starting 5" is another nugget that somebody in Vegas was banking on when they projected Magic to have 29th record for upcomming season.

Just for sake or argument, what if Hampton goes into a season camp and just kills Futlz and Suggs? HE still isn't starting because it hurts Weltman's ego or?
What if Cole is best guard by wide margin, we still don't start him? What if Isaac is head and shoulders better than Banchero?
What if whoever at C position outplays Wendell, we still not starting that guy?

Fact that we are 22-60 team and have cemented starting 5, handpicked by nothing but ego of president of basketball operations is major red flag for rebuild.

Young lineup means jack s***. Suns had youngest starting 5 in nba history . From that starting 5 grand total of One player stayed long term

So you don’t want Wambanyama or Scoot?

[SOUL]

Moronic comment by Weltman, and shows how coach is just puppet and why they elected to select coach without previous coaching experience, because he can be bullied and told what to do.

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.


Suggs and Fultz starting 5 is squivlvalent of starting Reggie Jackson and MCW in same starting 5 . Sentiment is only " expetations" that are subjective thing.

This is "starting 5" is another nugget that somebody in Vegas was banking on when they projected Magic to have 29th record for upcomming season.

Just for sake or argument, what if Hampton goes into a season camp and just kills Futlz and Suggs? HE still isn't starting because it hurts Weltman's ego or?
What if Cole is best guard by wide margin, we still don't start him? What if Isaac is head and shoulders better than Banchero?
What if whoever at C position outplays Wendell, we still not starting that guy?

Fact that we are 22-60 team and have cemented starting 5, handpicked by nothing but ego of president of basketball operations is major red flag for rebuild.

Young lineup means jack s***. Suns had youngest starting 5 in nba history . From that starting 5 grand total of One player stayed long term

Didn't you complain with Oladipo lineup that nobody knew their roles and everybody was fighting for stardom though?

If Suggs is outworking everybody in preseason even if his shot was bad last year, does he not deserve to start because of a bad shot? Can he shoot league average or just below it next year? If our forwards are the one providing the shooting and our guards are setting pace/playing great defense, maybe that'll be our style. We have to play to our strengths because we certainly don't have the shooting that the Warriors do or the star power like Nuggets/Bucks/Sixers with superstars.

And if you set roles/rotations early or what you expect them to be, it lets people settle into roles more easily. It can easily change if it works out or if it doesn't work out. Nobody thought our crappy little lineup last year would have the best +/- and advanced metrics early on, but we found that out just by playing it. Obviously it turned bad pretty quick but.. people said it was too young yet it was actually working for a bit.

I see no real advantage of seeking the most optimal lineup day 1 of the season. Put the guys in that you put draft stock into and tanked a year for. Give them time to mess up, but hold them accountable/sub them out when it becomes obvious their play is a complete negative. It's not rocket science.

I feel like we're one of the few forums that looks at our young players and goes "Nah, don't play them together, they don't have the x/y/z it takes to be world champions" while they're literally 19 and 20 year olds trying to figure out their roles.

[SOUL]

Also maybe Suggs becomes that dirty work guy that every lineup needs. Not every NBA team is having 5 sharpshooters and we've seen the teams with a few stars and "mega teams" struggle this year.

[ibraheim718]

Is he not able to speculate like every single other person in the world? Let him dress it up if he wants to. I highly doubt it has an effect on what Mosley does. Maybe Mosley told him that was his speculation.

[ibraheim718]

Also maybe Suggs becomes that dirty work guy that every lineup needs. Not every NBA team is having 5 sharpshooters and we've seen the teams with a few stars and "mega teams" struggle this year.

He makes big plays often times back to back at the end of close games. The team plays harder and better defensively when he's out there. It feels like some in your fan base want to get rid of him or count him out because he struggles shooting. These guys would've already traded Ja Morant

[SOUL]

Also maybe Suggs becomes that dirty work guy that every lineup needs. Not every NBA team is having 5 sharpshooters and we've seen the teams with a few stars and "mega teams" struggle this year.

He makes big plays often times back to back at the end of close games. The team plays harder and better defensively when he's out there. It feels like some in your fan base want to get rid of him or count him out because he struggles shooting. These guys would've already traded Ja Morant

Yeah, I mean obviously we all want him to not have like historically bad shooting numbers.. but the shot didn't seem broken. I feel like he rushed a bit and forced it at times, but I think he will at least become average or slightly below average which is absolutely fine if he's going to impact the game defensively and doing the little things out there. I've seen way too many rookies get written off after 1 year to panic or worry. I was encouraged in quite a few games by him last year.

[PrimeThyme]

I'm actually starting to think that the addition of Banchero is going to help Suggs tremendously.

Suggs just needs a defined/simplified role offensively next year. Last season he was asked to do too much out the gate as a creator/initiator of offense for this team.

Franz was really the only other starter who could consistently create for himself/others and it was something he was much more equipped to do than Suggs. The fact that he just didn't get those on-ball creator reps in college combined with his injuries just never let him get his footing offensively.

Now you add in a player like Paolo who is going to be able to create offense for himself and others from day one. Paolo/Franz will be able to run plenty of PnP/PnR together (which sounds devastating) and I expect a large chunk of our offense to be generated by those two. This should take significant pressure off of Suggs, and I think a role utilizing him as a slasher/cutter and a player who can attack switches off the dribble (Franz/Paolo PnR's) could be one he excels at. I still think the shooting will come too.

Personally, with the addition of Paolo, Fultz is the awkward fit for me. I'd really prefer to see a 3pt marksman in that 2-guard spot. Seeing if I could get additional value to take on Duncan Robinsons contract would be a potential option for me. I just think we need a floor spacer at one of those spots and I value what Suggs brings defensively over anything Fultz does.

[pepe1991]

Moronic comment by Weltman, and shows how coach is just puppet and why they elected to select coach without previous coaching experience, because he can be bullied and told what to do.

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.


Suggs and Fultz starting 5 is squivlvalent of starting Reggie Jackson and MCW in same starting 5 . Sentiment is only " expetations" that are subjective thing.

This is "starting 5" is another nugget that somebody in Vegas was banking on when they projected Magic to have 29th record for upcomming season.

Just for sake or argument, what if Hampton goes into a season camp and just kills Futlz and Suggs? HE still isn't starting because it hurts Weltman's ego or?
What if Cole is best guard by wide margin, we still don't start him? What if Isaac is head and shoulders better than Banchero?
What if whoever at C position outplays Wendell, we still not starting that guy?

Fact that we are 22-60 team and have cemented starting 5, handpicked by nothing but ego of president of basketball operations is major red flag for rebuild.

Young lineup means jack s***. Suns had youngest starting 5 in nba history . From that starting 5 grand total of One player stayed long term

Didn't you complain with Oladipo lineup that nobody knew their roles and everybody was fighting for stardom though?

If Suggs is outworking everybody in preseason even if his shot was bad last year, does he not deserve to start because of a bad shot? Can he shoot league average or just below it next year? If our forwards are the one providing the shooting and our guards are setting pace/playing great defense, maybe that'll be our style. We have to play to our strengths because we certainly don't have the shooting that the Warriors do or the star power like Nuggets/Bucks/Sixers with superstars.

And if you set roles/rotations early or what you expect them to be, it lets people settle into roles more easily. It can easily change if it works out or if it doesn't work out. Nobody thought our crappy little lineup last year would have the best +/- and advanced metrics early on, but we found that out just by playing it. Obviously it turned bad pretty quick but.. people said it was too young yet it was actually working for a bit.

I see no real advantage of seeking the most optimal lineup day 1 of the season. Put the guys in that you put draft stock into and tanked a year for. Give them time to mess up, but hold them accountable/sub them out when it becomes obvious their play is a complete negative. It's not rocket science.

I feel like we're one of the few forums that looks at our young players and goes "Nah, don't play them together, they don't have the x/y/z it takes to be world champions" while they're literally 19 and 20 year olds trying to figure out their roles.

Didn't you complain with Oladipo lineup that nobody knew their roles and everybody was fighting for stardom though?

Oladipo complained. So you had "cornerstone" who thought whole thought process was bu****.

If Suggs is outworking everybody in preseason even if his shot was bad last year, does he not deserve to start because of a bad shot?

Yes, in that scenario he does deserve starting PG. In that case, Fultz is bench player.

If our forwards are the one providing the shooting and our guards are setting pace/playing great defense, maybe that'll be our style.

What forwards will provide you spacing?
Banchero shot 33,8% for 3 at college, where line is foot shorter.
Wendell Cartere is career 29,8% three point shooter who peaked at 32,7%.
Isaac is career 33% three point shooter.
Wagner is only player who can make shots.
leagues average 3 point shooting over last 3 yeras has been close to 36,3%

I see no real advantage of seeking the most optimal lineup day 1 of the season. Put the guys in that you put draft stock into and tanked a year for. Give them time to mess up, but hold them accountable/sub them out when it becomes obvious their play is a complete negative. It's not rocket science.

Who will hold them accountable? Coach who is stripped from main purpose of his job, so he has other people behind him, who make lineup decision ? Don't you see how toxic this Weltman comment is? He pretty much showed that coach has no power on team. Why even have him? Why Weltman isn't coach? Too lazy to travel?


Her'es the crazy idea. Sign f*** shooting guard who will start at his natural positon. There are plenty of cheap optoins who don't command long term salary. ( Bryn Forbes for example or just resign Harris for 1 year , or 1+1 on team option)
Not only that it will help your PG ( Fultz, Suggs, whoever) look better, it will also showcase Banchero in better light.
AND, it will allow you to even play Fultz and Suggs in sporadic ways where you can test them in lineups, without them being runned over by teams that actually have one thing they don't provide- spacing.

I can't imagine how trully horrific this team will be if "masterplan " for this season is to play Suggs & Fultz and bring Cole and Hampton off bench . Those will be the worst guard rotations NBA has seen since 76ers lost 72 out of 82 games. Isaiah Cannan & Ish Smith starting level bad.

How da *** will Suggs ( or Fultz) benefit from playing with each other? One will dribble, other will be spotting up for his 28% catch and shoot? Than next possession they will reverse roles?
How will Banchero benefit from drive & kick game if kick is to 2 guards who can't make jumpshots to save their lifes?
How will Wagner have any driving lines if he is surrounded by 4 sub 33% shooters?

And answer is simple. You won't. You won't develop 6 young players at once. They will step each other's toe and stunt each other's growth because their games overlap and don't compliment each other.
Young players show best development & maturity when they are given structure and defined role. Magic, just seems to repeat their Payton, Oladipo, Hezonja, Harris scenario with new faces, but with same incompetence at top.
Quick fix: trade Fultz , Cole, Hampton and even Isaac for guys who can play with Banchero, Wagner and Suggs and compliment their skillset.

Will it happen? No. Why? Because out front office is too busy plotting their 10- years of nothigness plan before retirment and any "higher risks" would undercut their best efforts to never commit to anything.

[pepe1991]

Also maybe Suggs becomes that dirty work guy that every lineup needs. Not every NBA team is having 5 sharpshooters and we've seen the teams with a few stars and "mega teams" struggle this year.

He makes big plays often times back to back at the end of close games. The team plays harder and better defensively when he's out there. It feels like some in your fan base want to get rid of him or count him out because he struggles shooting. These guys would've already traded Ja Morant

Yeah, I mean obviously we all want him to not have like historically bad shooting numbers.. but the shot didn't seem broken. I feel like he rushed a bit and forced it at times, but I think he will at least become average or slightly below average which is absolutely fine if he's going to impact the game defensively and doing the little things out there. I've seen way too many rookies get written off after 1 year to panic or worry. I was encouraged in quite a few games by him last year.

That's actually worst.
When Lonzo couldn't shoot it was very obvious issue. His form was disaster, he couldn't even see the rim up until last milisecond of a shooting motion and his broken jumpshot ( ball swing over own head) prevented him to ever shoot if he drives on his right. Because of that awful ballswing motion.



There isn't anything wrong or broken about Suggs. He just isn't good shooter.

[SOUL]

I think we're basically arguing the same thing but you're going at it the impatient way. "Don't even see if it can happen, trade them because I KNOW it won't work" versus actually seeing if something can be made together.

All of these teams have different issues with overlapping skillsets. Ours would be shooting. But again, doesn't mean they have to be traded. One can start and one can come off the bench.

KPJ and Green may not work, but they are going to try it. Both are going to be ball dominant, no defense playing guards. The alternative is not worth just shopping a young talent because "I know it won't work".

Giddey and SGA may not work, but they are going to try it. They are also both ball dominant and Giddey can't play off ball or play great defense.

Mobley and Allen literally went back to the 90s when nobody was playing big lineups anymore and made it work.

Detroit is going to have Ivey and Cade who are also both not great shooters and want the ball in their hands. Best believe they will be playing together.

Losing a potential asset is what can get us in trouble. Several of these guys are at their lowest in value so actually seeing what improvements have been made is beneficial to a young team. Maybe one of Suggs or Fultz isn't cut out as a starter but can be a real game changer from the bench.

What is the rush? Rushing is what leads to a doomed rebuild and you turn into New York Knicks who always want to trade everybody and win with 3rd bananas like we tried to do with Vuc, Gordon and Fournier - all who have shown that they are at best 3rd-4th options on championship level teams.

80% of the Celtics board wanted Smart, Brown, or Tatum traded during the season when they were treading below and around .500 and they did exactly what they should've done. Stayed put. At least with their young guys and tried to see what would happen. And they were in a much more critical position of needing to win and having high expectations. We are literally a team that just won the #1 pick and had 20 wins.

[SOUL]

It's kind of why I find basketball boring nowadays. I like what the Cavs did last year even if they faded down the stretch. They found their style and played it. Or teams like the Clippers who had injuries all year and just put a bunch of scrappy guys together and made it work. There were a few other teams that were interesting but for the most part it was a bunch of bad-middling teams chucking threes while the rest rode their stars.

Everybody is trying to play like Golden State without having those pieces. You can acquire someone like Duncan Robinson and have them lose their mojo completely or Brogdon go from 38% for his career to 31%. That's why it's a dangerous game to chuck pieces aside if they are valuable in other ways just to get someone to space the floor. We will definitely need spacing and three point marksmen in the future, but what I definitely won't advocate is for us to blow our wad right now and trade pieces who are still showing who they are for guys that don't fit the timeline.

Ideally, guys like Fultz, Cole, Hampton, Okeke, Bamba (S&T?) show what value they are to this particular team, and then we can package or trade for guys that make more sense. But just doing it at this juncture for the sake of an optimal lineup seems shortsighted.

[j_n]

I wouldn't read too much into it, I expect us to sign a vet SG, and if Suggs can't co exist with Fultz he'll probably come off the bench as a sixth man which is a role think he can excel in.

[fendilim]

Moronic comment by Weltman, and shows how coach is just puppet and why they elected to select coach without previous coaching experience, because he can be bullied and told what to do.

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.


Suggs and Fultz starting 5 is squivlvalent of starting Reggie Jackson and MCW in same starting 5 . Sentiment is only " expetations" that are subjective thing.

This is "starting 5" is another nugget that somebody in Vegas was banking on when they projected Magic to have 29th record for upcomming season.

Just for sake or argument, what if Hampton goes into a season camp and just kills Futlz and Suggs? HE still isn't starting because it hurts Weltman's ego or?
What if Cole is best guard by wide margin, we still don't start him? What if Isaac is head and shoulders better than Banchero?
What if whoever at C position outplays Wendell, we still not starting that guy?

Fact that we are 22-60 team and have cemented starting 5, handpicked by nothing but ego of president of basketball operations is major red flag for rebuild.

Young lineup means jack s***. Suns had youngest starting 5 in nba history . From that starting 5 grand total of One player stayed long term

thats just the projected starting lineup. Doesnt necessarily mean we will roll with it to the end. LOL

[fateis007]

I don't see anything he said being wrong.

Fultz is making 20 mill a year, he is our starting point guard.
Suggs was just taken 5th in the draft and has the defense and size to play SG, and is not going to be benched for Cole/RJ
Franz is obvious
Paolo is obvious
WCJ was are most consistent player besides franz last year and is also on a fresh contract (no way we Bamba isnt moved to bench)

This is def the lineup their rolling out with, and i didn't need the GM to state the obvious.

Now the question is, will Suggs be able to make his shot respectable? If so, then you have 4 guys that can shoot from the outside and spacing wont be an issue.

From there you adjust and replace as needed. This is a 20 win team guys and we added 1 real game changer and lost all our vets.
People need to stop acting like we are going to the playoffs and not still building our team and evaluating. Worse comes to worse, we replace our guards with floor spacers and let Franz/Paolo handle the offense. But for now, you don't bench your guard best defender or a guy you're paying 20 mill too.

I am sure our coach has A LOT of input on drafting Paolo, and in that sense, has probably discussed these type of things and has a ton of dialog with Weltman. So he could literally just be pointing out what the Coach has planned. Who cares if the guy is involved. He is the damn president of the team.

People overthink things way to much. My god, its just basketball

[pepe1991]

It's kind of why I find basketball boring nowadays. I like what the Cavs did last year even if they faded down the stretch. They found their style and played it. Or teams like the Clippers who had injuries all year and just put a bunch of scrappy guys together and made it work. There were a few other teams that were interesting but for the most part it was a bunch of bad-middling teams chucking threes while the rest rode their stars.

Everybody is trying to play like Golden State without having those pieces. You can acquire someone like Duncan Robinson and have them lose their mojo completely or Brogdon go from 38% for his career to 31%. That's why it's a dangerous game to chuck pieces aside if they are valuable in other ways just to get someone to space the floor. We will definitely need spacing and three point marksmen in the future, but what I definitely won't advocate is for us to blow our wad right now and trade pieces who are still showing who they are for guys that don't fit the timeline.

Ideally, guys like Fultz, Cole, Hampton, Okeke, Bamba (S&T?) show what value they are to this particular team, and then we can package or trade for guys that make more sense. But just doing it at this juncture for the sake of an optimal lineup seems shortsighted.

All sports were more fun in 80s and 90s because they were semi professional in terms of data, money and numbers invested into it so there was more freedom from experimenting.

Bit thrivia basketball history story.
There is documentary called 250 stairs, you can find it on youtbue, about Yugoslavia basketball youth team going into "preparation" for World cup in 1987.
So their head coach brings them at top of the mountain Igman ( nowdays used for nordic skying ).
There was infamous steep stairs , 250 of them
To even get to the mountain, 19 years old kids were boarded on open wagon of train that was used to transport animals.

this is how it looks nowdays, when they have been fixed a bit, still awful climb




So head coach of youth Yugoslavia team built practice about them having 3 major attemps to cross stairs at one workout. First they were allowed to make 3 breaks . Next time two . In last week they had to cross them at once.

One player, attemping that last , zero- breaks- cross fell in arms of a doctor , so exhausted that coach actually thought he died. That player was... Toni Kukoc.
Other players were: Hall of famer Dino Rada, one of most decorated Europe coaches Aleksandar Đorđević, hall of famer Vlade Divac, my former coach Zoran Kalpic among others.
In free time, they were showing them 1985 finals Celtic- Lakers on VHS. One tape, one game. Nothing else.

Ofc, they showed up for that World cup in best shape of their lifes ( if they menaged to survived) and just wracked competition. Toni Kukoc made 11 out 12 threes against USA


Nowdays... you have 14 years old kids treated like Lebron James in a moment they showcase talent where they could be worth millions.
So whole process takes away "romantic" stories of a sport that we had in past. We will never have another story how future Hall of Famers were trained on top of a mountain and traveled through Eastern Europe with sheep.

[drsd]

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.

And-1

Look: GMs do not set rotations. Nor should they.

If Coach Mosely decides that winning is a team goal, then he would start Isaac and bench Banchero. Your argument of Hampton. And even, what if M-Wagner finds his inner Dream, he would start at C.

No starter slot in this roster is set, except one: F-Wagner will start. That's it. The other 13 players are competing for 4 starting slots. And we as fans should relish in that internal competition.


..

[pepe1991]

Moronic comment by Weltman, and shows how coach is just puppet and why they elected to select coach without previous coaching experience, because he can be bullied and told what to do.

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.


Suggs and Fultz starting 5 is squivlvalent of starting Reggie Jackson and MCW in same starting 5 . Sentiment is only " expetations" that are subjective thing.

This is "starting 5" is another nugget that somebody in Vegas was banking on when they projected Magic to have 29th record for upcomming season.

Just for sake or argument, what if Hampton goes into a season camp and just kills Futlz and Suggs? HE still isn't starting because it hurts Weltman's ego or?
What if Cole is best guard by wide margin, we still don't start him? What if Isaac is head and shoulders better than Banchero?
What if whoever at C position outplays Wendell, we still not starting that guy?

Fact that we are 22-60 team and have cemented starting 5, handpicked by nothing but ego of president of basketball operations is major red flag for rebuild.

Young lineup means jack s***. Suns had youngest starting 5 in nba history . From that starting 5 grand total of One player stayed long term

thats just the projected starting lineup. Doesnt necessarily mean we will roll with it to the end. LOL

President of basketball operations isn't payed to make starting lineups or should have ANY say about lineups in general. Period.
If he wants to control lineups, fine, exstend his powers and become head coach. If not, stay in your line.

This is such a usless "debate" to have. People to this date still mock Kings for having delusional owner who tried to implement his "knowledge" on team and proposed cherrypick defense. This is less outrageous but still identical level of lack of self awarness and pure incompetence at top level.

GM and PoBO are payed to build roster and structure, hire coaches , make trades, draft well, give contracts ,make sure things work smoothly, listen to trades and decide when it's time to cash in assets , and when it's time to stay put.
What ISN'T their job is anything that happends in practice or games. Games, record and results is live representation of what they implemented.

[pepe1991]

Fact that we are 5 months away from opening night and have president of basketball operations talking about "starting lineups" before free agency tells me a lot what i pretty much knew . Weltman is hands on in every aspect of this team and all post failures are direct result of his misjudgments.

And-1

Look: GMs do not set rotations. Nor should they.

If Coach Mosely decides that winning is a team goal, then he would start Isaac and bench Banchero. Your argument of Hampton. And even, what if M-Wagner finds his inner Dream, he would start at C.

No starter slot in this roster is set, except one: F-Wagner will start. That's it. The other 13 players are competing for 4 starting slots. And we as fans should relish in that internal competition.


..

What his comments mean is that he has zero desire to do anything in free agency, while he is one of 3 Gms who have money.

Why? Because he doesn't "feel" like doing anything, as usual.

Whole Weltman experience to me is egomaniac on ego trip thinking he is smarter than everybody else , but making moves Average Joe or team on autopilot would make.
First year- resign everybody.
year two- do nothing
year three- do even less
year four- whole lockerroom demands trade- try again
year five- back at doing nothing
year six- pretend you have top sercret... to draft 1st overall player who was viwed as 3rd best prospect
year six- continuation-still doing nothing

Notion that he he actually belives Suggs- Fultz- Franz- Banchero- Wendell Carter is "good lineup" tells me everything i always knew about him and Hammond. They simply don't get modern basketball.

NBA top 4 teams this year.
Miami Heat- allstar ballhandler, allstar big, former allstar guard- lot of shooting around especially from guards
Dallas- Luka Doncic + ballhandlers and shooters
Warriors- superstar Curry and his shooting + defense and shooters
Boston Celtics- self creation of two wings + shooting and defense