garrick wrote:Hitachi77 wrote:Mr Puddles wrote:
I actually have mixed feelings about Eubanks having the odd good game. On the one hand, I'm always happy when a Suns player performs well. On the other hand, I've seen enough of Drew that I don't want him anywhere near our playoff rotation.
Whenever Drew has a good game, it seems to buy him another 10 games of good will with Vogel. For the life of me, I can't think of any reason why Eubanks is out there instead of Young. Young has done the little things well when he's out there, like boxing guys out, while Bol is still out there for the athletic rebounds and blocks. The Eubanks / Bol combo is just a couple of poko sticks bouncing around getting out muscled for rebounds by chizzled players known for their bear-like strength, like Luke Kornet.
Yup agreed. In the remaining matchup vs Denver, I say put him in, to see if last game wasn’t a fluke. If he plays well, play him vs Denver in a potential series. If not, don’t. Don’t play him against anyone else, except in the rare situation where Nurk and Bol are getting killed and we need to find a miracle spark somewhere. Some for Okogie.
I think both Nurkic and Jokic do decent against Jokic because Jokic doesn't have the foot speed to blow past them and especially Nurkic can use his size to body Nurkic up.
In similar fashion Jock looked like a decent player when matched up against Jokic in the post season and got that huge 8m contract from the Rockets but has been pretty disappointing so far this season. Denver might be the one team where our centers do relatively well?
Yeah and just to add to that. Eubanks in particular seems to really struggle adding value in space. That’s why he had almost nothing in a full quarter of play yesterday. Without KP playing, Boston’s offense is purely around the perimeter guys. So Eubanks job in that matchup is to float around a bit, help defense, rebounds, close out on 3 point shooters etc. I don’t think he’s effective at all in that role. But against Jokic, his job is clear. Follow around Jokic, put a body on Jokic, etc. that’s it.
Ironically, with KP playing, Eubanks role would be the same as it would be vs Jokic, but like you said, KP is quicker. Others like Giannis are much quicker. So Eubanks would very likely struggle there too.
So yeah, that matchup vs Denver is looking outstanding. We have guys who play Jokic well and they basically have no one to deal with our big 3. That doesn’t mean it’s an auto win for us at all, there are many ways we could still lose. But the matchup looks very good.