The Current Starting 5

[amour217]

While we lost to the Suns last night, I am really liking the current starting five (with Crash starting in place of Dudley when he comes back, of course).

If you look at the box score, our front line completely dominated the boards with almost 30, and 6 offensive boards by Nazr. Unfortunately the Suns were money at the charity stripe and, as usual, we stunk there...plus they just shot better overall. I think with rebounding/scoring performances like last night, combined with improved free-throw shooting will make that starting 5 a beast.

Now how about that bench, by the way? I loved the pickup of Boykins as the backup PG and hopefully he becomes acclimated with the Bobcats' schemes. But lemme admit this: great job off the bench by Jeff McInnis last night: 7 points and 5 assists in 13 minutes of play from the 3rd guard. He was played just right and stepped up well.

Overall I think our bench can be very good once they settle in...but the most important part is our Starting 5...let them play, let them gel, let them get used to each other so we can actually put up a fighting chance of matching up well with teams!

[ammofan]

I really like this lineup too......but it might be too late for Sam to realize that this is the best lineup!

[TheBeagle]

I've been clamoring for this lineup for well over a month now, and I think it will pay dividends eventually. When playing against western conference teams, as we've learned on this road trip, we can't play uptempo with them, as we tend to get outplayed at that speed. If I remember correctly, this was a reason Vincent wanted McInnis in the starting lineup in the first place, to create a small, quick lineup, which never really happened.

When we pick our spots, we're a really good uptempo team, we just can't play that way for 40+ minutes and hang with many teams (especially west. conf. teams). With the more traditional lineup of having 2 bigs in the post, and a younger, quicker Raymond at PG, I believe we'll be a more effective team, though until GW comes back, it will be a struggle night in and night out to get a W.

It's a shame Vincent couldn't make this change happen a month ago. Who knows the extra wins we might have?

[davcbow]

We have all been wanting this line up since Nazr came to the Bobcats. I hope V sticks with it when GW comes back.

[dvdbumpus]

Felton has also been playing noticeably better..

[WarioVsMooChicken]

Maybe cause he is actually playing his position.

[BIGCatBobcat]

13 mins is perfect for Jeff unless Ray or Earl is playing lights out. I like the starting 5 we need a deeper rotation. I want Dudley getting mins, Ryan getting solid mins, of course Matt needs to be out there a ton so he can heat up because seriously we are paying him pretty damn well.

[davcbow]

I agree, give the new guys more minutes and give McInnis less. Duds if he is going to be GW's back up then he needs more experience. I hate that GW had to go down for Duds to gain minutes, but if V will do it right playing Duds more will gain him experience and GW will have fresher legs in the 4th...