Da_Reel_Kboy wrote:Still not entirely convinced though... Warrick is more of a traditional PF than Hedo, and Nash has played his entire career with a "traditional" pf. If Hedo starts, and plays the role as a "non-traditional" pf, I am not sure how that would affect us. Would Nash be able to run the plays as efficiently? I dont know.
Anyway, why cant Warrick replace the scoring we lost when losing Amare? Basically all he has to do is run the pick and roll, finish hard at the rim (which he is probably better at than Amare), and hit the occasional mid range shot.
I would've liked us to go with a traditional lineup but it's clear with our style of basketball we keep implementing, we have to throw out terms like "traditional" lineups. Last season we had guys like Dudley and Hill playing PF in short stints and I expect that to be the case with Hedo, only for a slightly prolonged "stint". I think Hill will start but will sit probably after the first 5min, allowing Hedo to shift down to his natural position and bring either Frye or Warrick off the bench to fill in the 4.
The PnR will probably still be there with Lopez in the lineup so Nash will still have his opportunity to run his plays. Additonally, with Hedo in the lineup, that gives us another playmaker and shot creator and this takes a lot of pressure of Nash which means even though we lost one of our best weapons (Nash/Amare PnR), we've added a whole dimension to our offensive system (Hedo) that we've missed since JJ was still a Sun.
Warrick doesn't have the strength or the touch of Amare to finish with a high percentage shot consistently. If you notice, Amare's PnR rarely culminates in a dunk, but rather lay ups in contact or with Amare maneuvering around the defenders for the easy score. Obviously you'll see a lot of Amare's PnR finish with a dunk in the highlights, but if you take into account all the PnR plays that ends with Amare scoring, only a small percentage end in a dunk. Only 16% of Amare's offense comes from dunks, while 51% comes from his jump shot and 30% are from shots close to the rim. If you consider 61% of Amare's offense is assisted then really, only about 10% of Amare's PnR's end with a dunk. Finishing hard at the rim is not as easy as just jumping and expecting to dunk on everybody. Obviously Warrick won't replace Amare's offense but you can expect him to score in the double digits (10-12ppg depending on PT). So when I say Warrick will replicate Amare's PnR, I mean he'll play Amare's role as a PnR player, setting screens, slipping screens and be available for a PnP but we should not overestimate his PnR abilities yet just because he's a good dunker.
I'd like Warrick to come off the bench with the starting lineup since his skills are better matched with Nash's passing while Frye's talent as a 3PT shooter and ability to play off the bench with little drop in production, means that Frye can play just fine with or without Nash (but with Dragic).
BurningHeart wrote:The PFs during the 2005/2006 year were not particularly "traditional"
True, but our rebounding (Trix+Diaw=18.7RPG) and offense (35.1PPG) in the front court allowed us to play a less than "traditional" front line. Our tempo and spending little time on the defensive end meant we got away with a lot of fundamentals defensively.
) but I'm certainly intrigued to see what this new lineup could do.
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