humanrefutation wrote:jimmybones wrote:humanrefutation wrote:I liked our starting lineup tonight. But this team has to be comfortable going small for stretches to maximize our defense and speed.
No Brook and Bobby lineups - just get killed defensively. No lineups where Pat is expected to be the lead ballhandler. Hell, no lineups with Pat at all.
I want to see more Rollins playing lead guard with the second unit. Hell, put Rollins next to Dame for some possessions if you need to go small.
More AJax and Green, obviously.
And I've been clamoring for this for a while, but I want to see Giannis play the five for a stretch surrounded by the youth.
This, 100%. Brook and Giannis should be the primary bigs and the combos should be Brook/Giannis, Giannis/Prince, Brook/Prince and maybe even sprinkle in some Livingston and Ajax. This is not the 90s, we do not need to always have a massive 6'11+ 5 AND 4
Dre, Trent, Green and some Pat are enough to rotate the wings and Prince is too slow to be a wing but better as a small ball 4. We'd organically get more quickness on the floor with this basic positional downshift.
We far too often use big ass lineups and then do nothing to even maximize the size advantage to make it a plus
Agreed 100%. It was extremely annoying to have Brook and Bobby on the court last night and watch them do nothing but chuck contested jumpers and then get roasted on the other end of the court.
It's like Doc saw Kessler and Markkanen and figured we had to go big for big. Nah man, Lauri might be 7 feet tall, but he doesn't play like a big. You can put Prince or AJax on him and they'd be better off than Bobby trying to chase him around screens.
It seems like it happens all the time. We are the bigger team but don't punish teams inside enough to exploit our size advantage while we are the slower team and teams constantly take advantage of that. We're already slow, but playing bigger than is necessary makes us even slower.
Play Prince as a 4, some teams that are athletic enough everywhere else can use him as primary wing but we are not that team and this feels painfully obvious. Play Pat as a 3/4 and not us a guard and for the love of god never as a PG. Use one of Giannis or Brook at a time as a primary big with 4 guys that can move more often. I know basketball is mostly positionless these days but even if position by name doesn't matter, the lineups and pairings do matter.
-Play 3 guards/wings at all times out of: Dame, Trent, Dre, Green, Wright, Pat (ideally a lot less)
-Your bigs rotation: Giannis, Brook, Prince, Bobby (ideally a lot less). And occasionally you can go smaller with Pat or Dre at the 4.
-Never pair Brook and Bobby lol.
We aren't going to be uber athletic ever with this group but we can certainly lessen the speed disadvantage here through common sense.
