What's your line-up preference?

[zzaj]

If we as fans are lucky,

Lillard
Ant
Hart
Grant
Nurkic

will be the 5 with the most minutes. Hoping for a healthy year from the roster.

[BlazersBroncos]

Anfernee will be starting SG, but I really hope and expect that Chauncey will stagger his minutes with Dame as much as physically possible.

I'd start with:

Dame
Anfernee (this is a given so no point hypothesising otherwise imo)
Little
Grant
Nurkic.


I'm only starting Little over Hart, as Hart looked super in his expanded role last season.

Plus with Dame, Anfernee, Grant and Nurk, only so many mouths can feed offensively. Our bench doesn't have great scoring (particularly with GP2 and Winslow), so I'd rather Hart be ready to take on a much bigger offensive role off the bench.

I think Hart is quite a bit better than Little and much more reliable, but I can get on board with this. Hart showed surprising secondary ballhandler skills last season. Bringing him off the bench to be that guy (Always w/ one of Dame / Ant) may make a good deal of sense. GP2 isnt a ballhandler so having both Hart and GP2 off the bench doesnt really matter.

But even w/ using Hart off the bench, your looking at 2/3rds of his minutes coming at SF. There really isnt any way around that.

For the PO's -

G - Damian Lillard (34) / Anfernee Simons (14)
G - Anfernee Simons (18) / Gary Payton II (20) / Josh Hart (10)
F - Nas Little (28) / Josh Hart (20)
F - Jerami Grant (32) / Justice Winslow (16)
C - Jusuf Nurkic (30) / Drew Eubanks (18)

[donkeylips]

simons and hart, to start the season at least

[B0naf1d3]

Dame (34) / Ant (14)
GPII (28) / Ant (20)
Hart (32) / Nas (16)
Grant (32) / Nas (8) / Winslow (8)
Nurk (30) / Eubanks / Watford

Matchup dependent: Winslow/Eubanks/Watford
Fighting to get on court: Sharpe/Keon/Walker

I am totally fine with starting Ant. But if you can get him to buy into the 6th man role with starter minutes the roster makes so much more sense.

I think it's going to be important to give both Eubanks, and Watford regular minutes because Nurk will miss time, and you want those guys ready to play larger roles to fill in. Prioritize playing Sharpe/Keon and maybe Walker in B2B's, Dame rest games, etc. The hope for the Blazers is one of those guys show they can contribute in a meaningful game.

[BNM]

Dame (34) / Ant (14)
GPII (28) / Ant (20)
Hart (32) / Nas (16)
Grant (32) / Nas (8) / Winslow (8)
Nurk (30) / Eubanks / Watford/ Winslow

Matchup dependent: Winslow/Eubanks/Watford
Fighting to get on court: Sharpe/Keon/Walker

I am totally fine with starting Ant. But if you can get him to buy into the 6th man role with starter minutes the roster makes so much more sense.

I think it's going to be important to give Winslow/Eubanks/Watford regular minutes because Nurk will miss time, and you want those guys ready to play larger roles to fill in. Prioritize playing Sharpe/Keon and maybe Walker in B2B's, Dame rest games, etc. The hope for the Blazers is one of those guys show they can contribute in a meaningful game.

I like this overall, but I'd like to see Dame's minutes reduced to 31 - 32 MPG. I'd also like to see him load managed/rested for about 10 - 12 games, especially back-to-back games. That will open up more minutes/opportunities for the young guys and hopefully keep Dame well rested and healthy.

The Spurs were always good at resting their veterans during the regular season to keep them fresh. This had the added benefit of developing the younger players by giving them meaningful rotation minutes, and not just garbage time, during the regular season.

[GEE]

Anfernee will be starting SG, but I really hope and expect that Chauncey will stagger his minutes with Dame as much as physically possible.

I'd start with:

Dame
Anfernee (this is a given so no point hypothesising otherwise imo)
Little
Grant
Nurkic.


I'm only starting Little over Hart, as Hart looked super in his expanded role last season.

Plus with Dame, Anfernee, Grant and Nurk, only so many mouths can feed offensively. Our bench doesn't have great scoring (particularly with GP2 and Winslow), so I'd rather Hart be ready to take on a much bigger offensive role off the bench.

I think Hart is quite a bit better than Little and much more reliable, but I can get on board with this. Hart showed surprising secondary ballhandler skills last season. Bringing him off the bench to be that guy (Always w/ one of Dame / Ant) may make a good deal of sense. GP2 isnt a ballhandler so having both Hart and GP2 off the bench doesnt really matter.

But even w/ using Hart off the bench, your looking at 2/3rds of his minutes coming at SF. There really isnt any way around that.

For the PO's -

G - Damian Lillard (34) / Anfernee Simons (14)
G - Anfernee Simons (18) / Gary Payton II (20) / Josh Hart (10)
F - Nas Little (28) / Josh Hart (20)
F - Jerami Grant (32) / Justice Winslow (16)
C - Jusuf Nurkic (30) / Drew Eubanks (18)

It has taken some time to digest the off-season changes, but all-in-all... not bad. I would have preferred to go bigger with Grant mostly at the 3, and same with Hart at the 2, but the roster is now set and we're going small.

Considering the roster, BlazersBroncos seems to be pretty spot on IMO. In short:

PG/SG: Dame / Simons / GPII
SF: Hart / Little
PF: Grant / Winslow
C: Nurkic / Eubanks

Deep bench: Keon, Sharpe, Didi, Walker, GB3, Watford

Again, not bad. But we will have to play ferocious and fast for the full 48 minutes with zero Hero-Ball. If we do that (Dame especially), we just might see some winning basketball again. Pretty scary roster actually, from the looks of it, and I'm definitely warming up to it.

RIP CITY!!!

[Goldbum]

Would you guys want to trade:
Keon+Didi + 2nd acquired from Kamagate
4
Jarred Vanderbilt

I think we lose talent but that really balances the roster...for now.

[GEE]

Would you guys want to trade:
Keon+Didi + 2nd acquired from Kamagate
4
Jarred Vanderbilt

I think we lose talent but that really balances the roster...for now.

I'm honestly not familiar with this cats' game, but to a bigger point... We seem very poised to make a trade in this fashion, at any given time. There's Keon, Didi, and several other young quality backups, with small/short contracts on this roster. Several non-core players that could be packaged with/without picks, to hopefully land another major piece. My wish would be for a starting caliber PF/C, slightly used, 6'10-7'0/230-250lbs, with some star potential. A 2-5 y/o Banchero basically, or a Collins with no screws loose.

[GEE]

Would you guys want to trade:
Keon+Didi + 2nd acquired from Kamagate
4
Jarred Vanderbilt

I think we lose talent but that really balances the roster...for now.

I'm honestly not familiar with this cats' game, but to a bigger point... We seem very poised to make a trade in this fashion, at any given time. There's Keon, Didi, and several other young quality backups, with small/short contracts on this roster. Several non-core players that could be packaged with/without picks, to hopefully land another major piece. My wish would be for a starting caliber PF/C, slightly used, 6'10-7'0/230-250lbs, with some star potential. A 2-5 y/o Banchero basically, or a Collins with no screws loose.

Shifting back to current lineups, I was just thinking... What if Chauncey decides it would be smart to play our deep bench guys, or at least a few of them, on a fairly regular basis? Maybe institute a "Load Management" approach DAY 1, by sprinkling in one or two of those "Deep bench" guys I'd listed as well, to keep our big guys rim-running the court, always with fresh legs for 48 minutes. Wearing out other teams, IMO, may be our best strategy.

[Bigpoppapomp82]

My ideal lineup is

Dame
Ant
Nas
Grant
Nurk

???
GP2
Hart
Watford/Walker
????

[Blazers98]

I would prefer Ant to be used as a 6th man scorer off the bench. We need scoring from the bench and defensively, Dame and Ant are going to hurt us on that end of the court. Also, we need to get Sharpe some PT! He is a lottery pick and it isn't like we are playing for a championship.

[Case2012]

Dame
Hart
Winslow
Grant
Nurk

Ant
Payton
Little
Watford
Eubanks

[BNM]

If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…

Given our lineup Hart has to play most of his minutes at SF. There’s no other solution outside of benching GP.

The real question then becomes who starts at SF, Little or Hart? Personally I’d start Little so Hart is available more on the 2nd unit to help with play making.

The line-up should have a minimum of two play makers at a time whether it’s Dame+Simons or Dame+Hart or Simons+Hart unless there’s an injury or something

In terms of playmaking, Winslow is comparable to Hart. Winslow actually has a higher career AST% (14.4) than Hart (10.6). Neither should see time as the primary playmaker, but both are adequate as a secondary playmaker.

Nurk and Watford are good passing big men and good tertiary playmakers. You don't really want either bringing the ball up the floor and initiating the offense, but both are good at finding open teammates after receiving the ball in the high or low post.

Edit: "If you conservatively slot Dame + Ant + GP for 84 minutes at guard that only leaves 12 minutes per game at SG for Hart…"

This assumes all three play in all 82 games. They won't. For example, if you combine last season's MPG for Dame (36.4), CJ (35.2) and Ant (29.5), it adds up to 101.1 MPG, yet none of the three saw any significant time at SF - and that doesn't even include Powell, or Hart, who both saw significant time at guard (let alone Dennis Smith Jr., Ben McLemore, etc.).

Of course, last season saw significant injuries and trades, but the point remains. You cant just assume there are only 84 minutes to divide between all of our guards. That may be true on any given night, but injuries and rest are part of the game and increase the average MPG of everyone on the roster over the course of an 82 game NBA schedule.

Sure but playmaking isn’t just passing, it’s also putting pressure on the defense and that includes scoring yourself. Hart is by far the 3rd best play on the roster capable of doing that, especially by attacking off the dribble. Winslow is likely to never average 10pm in his career.

Except he already has - 3 times (topping out at 12.6 ppg).

Winslow is fine as a 2nd, or 3rd, playmaker as long as one of Dame or Ant are on the floor with him - especially when combined with Nurk or Watford, who are both good passing big men. I see Chauncey as much more of a "ball movement" kind of coach than the iso heavy diet of Dame and CJ we saw under Stotts.

Winslow and Hart are both capable of averaging > 4 apg (depending on how many minutes they get). Hart is definitely the better scorer. Winslow is a better defender. Both are capable of guarding multiple positions and both are good rebounders. Hart will be in the top 3 or 4 in minutes played (probably around 30 - 32), while Winslow will probably see about 24 MPG. The two of them give Chauncey a lot of versatility. Hart will divide his minutes between the 2 and 3. Winslow will probably spend most of his minutes backing up Grant at the 4. He can play the 3 in a pinch, but between Hart and Nas, we have that covered. Winslow can also spend a few minutes as a small ball back up 5.