Knightro wrote:I'm thinking about the future with Bamba here.
He's going to be the starting center for this franchise for the next 5-10 years. There's basically no scenario where he plays PF long-term. He's only going to be bigger as his body fills out.
Vucevic is only going to be blocking his path to a starting spot for so long. Bamba's gotta learn how to defend centers sooner than later. I'd rather him get pounded on by bigger bodies this year and start to get a sense of how hard he needs to work in the weight room and how he can attack stronger players offensively than I would him chase around finesse 4s.
Get him as prepared as possible for taking over the starting C spot next season.
Meh, if you want to make the tank argument, then I can go along with that. I can't emotionally take any more tanking, but I can see the strategic wisdom of it.
But I feel like almost all development-based arguments I see here tend to massively overstate the impact of a relatively small number of minutes or shot attempts during a player's early years. If I remember correctly, Lebron played some pg as a rookie, and Dwight played a lot of pf his first year. Vooch, on the other hand, has only ever played minutes at center for us. And it seems unlikely that any of that mattered long term.
If a few minutes of Bamba at pf helps us win games, then I think we should do it. If it hurts our chances of winning, then I think we shouldn't do it. But I think it takes some voodoo logic to make the case that a few minutes at pf this season will have some significant impact on his long-term development as an NBA player.