Who's sick of the 3-4 guard lineups and "search" for the right combination??

[Veteran_Picksetter]

Dunlap has a mandate to develop players, but I don't think playing Gerald Henderson, Jeff Taylor, and MKG at power forward is really the way to develop them. I want them to develop as wings.

It's clear that Dunlap has too many decent guards/wings to juggle, and too many big men of equal mediocrity to choose from...

Should we trade a couple of guys for filler or draft picks in order to help Dunlap tighten the rotation and get into more traditional lineups??

Do you feel that 8-9 certain players have clearly emerged and it is time to completely bench the rest?? It's not like any of the lineups are winning games.

Thoughts??

[Veteran_Picksetter]

Okay there's currently a duplication of the word "develop" in that previous post, but I can't edit it out. Weird.

[ncstamey]

I'm torn on this one. If you would have asked me a couple weeks ago I would absolutely agree with you, but it seems like the only way we can stay close in games is by having some combination of 3 of sessions/walker/gordon/henderson out on the floor. Granted we are not winning many games with that line up but we are remaining competitive.... and they do need to do that. Developing the younger guys at their respective positions is something I'm all for but if we are getting killed on a nightly basis then (IMO) there are negative repercussions there too.

I do wholeheartedly agree that we should get rid of Henderson or Gordon before the deadline in a trade for some sort of resemblance of a big man/post threat which would help keep the line-ups more traditional.

[QC Thundercats]

I don't like it either, but that's the only way we're gonna score.

All our bigs combined (without Mully of course) average about 25 per game. Our 2 starting guards by themselves average more per game. Forget that, our 2 backup guards average more per game than our entire front court.

But I wouldn't just trade for filler, that doesn't really help us long term. Any kind of asset we can acquire would be better.

[KGE]

I think we need to be competitive and the small lineup appears to at least let us stay in games.

I do think we need to trade for a Center, and I would trade anyone except Kemba or MKG to get a true starting center.

[StakJak]

Rant Alert:

I fucking hate the small-ball movement, the hybrid and stretch 4s, and playing James + Melo at the 4. If GMs are willing to take the old-school route of drafting power fowards like Zebo and Millsap, we'd have more youngster big men emulating there game after old-school 4s instead of having the entire youth of basketball wanting to be Kevin Durant. Saber-metrics and Hollinger analytics may favor stretch play and guard prominent teams, but if we had more Bynums and Lopez's...the success of this endangered species would increase projected and actual productivity for that type of player and the NBA wouldn't be so heavily guard-scewed.

Kind of a selfish want on my part...a movement in that direction (which we have some control over) would change things in the NBA, but for now, the statistics favor front-to-basket players and GMs will always play the numbers. I just like some semblance to basketball in the 90s and not have zero conventional bigs in the future.

[Veteran_Picksetter]

But I wouldn't just trade for filler, that doesn't really help us long term. Any kind of asset we can acquire would be better.

Maybe I should have written "filler + draftpicks or cap space" instead of the way I worded it.

Or trade 3 decent guys for 1 good guy. Something like that.

[Veteran_Picksetter]

Rant Alert:

I fucking hate the small-ball movement, the hybrid and stretch 4s, and playing James + Melo at the 4. If GMs are willing to take the old-school route of drafting power fowards like Zebo and Millsap, we'd have more youngster big men emulating there game after old-school 4s instead of having the entire youth of basketball wanting to be Kevin Durant. Saber-metrics and Hollinger analytics may favor stretch play and guard prominent teams, but if we had more Bynums and Lopez's...the success of this endangered species would increase projected and actual productivity for that type of player and the NBA wouldn't be so heavily guard-scewed.

Kind of a selfish want on my part...a movement in that direction (which we have some control over) would change things in the NBA, but for now, the statistics favor front-to-basket players and GMs will always play the numbers. I just like some semblance to basketball in the 90s and not have zero conventional bigs in the future.

I hear ya, but heck, with our team I'd be thrilled if we simply stuck with a stretch 4 and Center instead of all this "6'5" and 6'7" wing as the PF" nonsense. I just don't think it's good for the kids to learn so out of position. And it's not a sustainable model.

[StakJak]

I hear ya, but heck, with our team I'd be thrilled if we simply stuck with a stretch 4 and Center instead of all this "6'5" and 6'7" wing as the PF" nonsense. I just don't think it's good for the kids to learn so out of position. And it's not a sustainable model.

Makes for a good convo on the NBA forum...but the topic was too tempting. I guess if it lessens our offensive limitations...this year, ok. But I'd like to have a sit-down with Cho and say "look buddy, I ain't tryin to watch no small-ball pussy shit..it's for the kids! ...maybe MJ should enlighten him on real NBA ball. *Not assuming Cho is small-ball guy...but I'll be damned if 2 years from now MKG is playing power forward.

[SWedd523]

Hard to not do a league-wide small ball movement when there's one, maybe two "star" Centers in the league and just a handful of "star" 7 footers


Teams play small ball because they have to balance size and talent