Hesh wrote:Yup, in a nutshell this is what we've come away with so far this season.
I'm still perplexed with the roster construction in regards to TJ and Warren, Bender and Chriss, and Ulis. We've done it to ourselves again (well McD has). TJ has been great and all he needs to add to his game is a 3ball or elite defense to round off his game. Not necessarily adding both but just one of these would be enough to call him a surefire starter for any NBA team. But if he does improve in any of these categories, what will become of the starting SF situation for us since we drafted JJ with the 4th pick that we tanked for. No way we're giving up on him.
Then there's Bender and Chriss, another clash at the same position. McD was under the assumption that they could play multiple positions but it looks like both are pure power forwards.
Then there's Ulis. Trading away the best buddy of our franchise star (probably inevitable, who may not even find another NBA team) right after the Morri situation, as if he didn't learn from the previous mistake of pairing people who are close.
I know this has all been discussed before, but it's actually what worries me the most going forward.
I think that TJ's the major thing we've come away with so far, but I'd also say Booker is taking another step toward stardom, we're starting to see some development from Bender, and JJ seems to be coming along. I've been a little disappointed with Quese's season as a whole, but he also had a solid stretch of games before he got hurt.
I'm not too worried about roster construction at this point though. JJ and TJ are the only ones that worry me a little because they both don't get any respect for their perimeter jump shot, but I'd say Josh is more confident in his outside shot and more likely to get it to a passable level. They should be able to share the court more if/once that comes.
I personally think Bender should be more of a center than a power forward when it's all said and done. He lacks the strength to get it done in the post on offense and defense right now, but he's starting to rebound the ball better, his speed and ball handling (as it develops) will be a lot more effective against bigger centers than modern power forwards, his defensive versatility and ability to switch allows us to have a lot of different looks on defense, and he would make the defense pick between either taking the rim protector out of the paint or letting Bender drill open 3s. I think we'll see much more of him and Quese on the court together after the all star break too.
Ulis is probably going to be on the roster for awhile, but I don't think we look at him as more than a potential back up. Seems like the word out of the organization has been that they know they have big holes at PG and Center going forward and plan to address them, which signals to me that they don't consider him as an option for our future starting point guard.
