darealjuice wrote:We draft 2 of the rawest, youngest players in the draft that we knew immediately would be long term projects, and 12 games into the season everyone is already flipping their **** because they aren't playing much lol. It's pretty mind boggling. Chriss was the least developed player taken in the lottery, and Bender might have been the 2nd least developed, these guys are going to take time to get where they need to be to see significant playing time.
If you look at these kids without your "Rookies can do no wrong" glasses on, you'll see that these kids aren't ready to get 20+ minutes a game. Chriss can't play a lick of defense, turns the ball over like crazy despite having low usage, doesn't offer much on offense outside of the occasional open jump shot or highlight dunk, and still took over the starting job, of which he is undoubtably a bottom 5 starting PF in terms of immediate skill level. Bender has shown flashes of brilliance in limited minutes because he has a high basketball IQ, which excites everyone including me, but he doesn't have the physicality and confidence to be playing extended minutes at his natural position or the raw athleticism to compensate for it, and when we play him out of position on the perimeter he is ineffective because he just floats around the perimeter waiting for a kick out to catch and shoot because he's not strong enough or quick enough to take advantage of small forwards off the bounce yet.
I'm not saying PJ (aka the only guy everyone is talking about when they say vets are taking rookie minutes) has been performing significantly better thus far, because he's sucked too, but is it really hard to under why the guy that just lost his starting job to another one of our young guys prior to this season and has worked his ass off for this organization for years is getting playing time over a rookie that isn't physically ready to compete yet?
Be patient, the real development for Bender and Chriss isn't going to come from an extra 5-10 minutes on the court, it'll come from hours in the gym working on their game.
I think Chriss is playing plenty of minutes, but I don't think he should be playing significantly more minutes than Bender at all. I don't think they are deserving of 20 minutes at all yet. I'd give them each between 7 and 10 minutes, particularly if the game is out of reach. If they play well, give them more, and if not, give them less. While I have always generally agreed with what you are saying, I think now is the time to let them get that court time to allow them to make the mistakes and hopefully learn from them. They will get better in practice and they gym, but some minutes for Bender and even Ulis I think could do them some good, and earn a little goodwill with the fans. I don't think it hurts them to get limited minutes and see what they can do.
I have no illusions that we are going anywhere this season, and I'd rather see Bender start over Chriss. He knows his fundamentals and will learn he needs to get stronger to hold his own going against some of these guys.