Aldridge, Lillard, matthews and Batum took much of the scoring load last season. Because of that, we had 2 20+ scorers and two others above 15 a game. My question, if the bench is actually good, is will the starters be fine scoring less to have a more dynamic team? Obviously we could have all star snubs because of it, but our team would be so much stronger. Anyone?
Our guys care about winning. I think that's the most important thing. I think they also realize that they were all exhausted by the end of the season. A bench is a must.
It's also up to Stotts to actually use the bench, and forget about past transgressions of said bench. I'm a little skeptical of that.
If the guys don't get mentioned in the all-star race, that might be an issue. But really Damian and LaMarcus are the only guys in that conversation, and they aren't going anywhere anyway.
I agree with this... I'm just thinking we may see a 2000 blazer team with over 7-8 player averaging double figures.
they only had 3 player who averaged more than 15 ppg. LaMarcus, Damian and Wesley. Nic didn't average 15 (and never has).
Nic did however have 2 triple doubles, at least one 9/9/9 game, a lot of games just under double digits and a 5x5 game. Against Haifa, we had 121 pts with high scorer being Rolo with 13...that's an unselfish team. I'm not worried at all about scoring this season. I think our starters will still play 34 minutes a game most nights.
Id say that's more about how bad the competition was more than we were unselfish. They all knew they could get points at will.
LaMarcus had 5 assists at halftime..yeah the competition was bad but credit unselfish play. There was a ton of ball movement.
I don't think we see very many/if any lineups consisting of 5 bench players. I think the way Stotts has rotated in the preseason won't change. Some minutes might go up or down, but we will see the bench play with starters often. It's a great way to keep players happy, and good for keeping consistent play. Natural a system like this will mean less touches for certain players. Aldridge and lillArd will get theirs when they are on the court, Batum and matthews will see their shots go down. But Mathews is a player who will make the most out of his opportunities, and Batums scoring going down allows him to be more of a facilitator.
Or the team stops having those long droughts where they don't score and the overall team scoring average goes up. This would give the starters the same numbers and the bench a few points. If they went from 106 a game to lets say 110 a game this would make them extremely hard to beat.
Agreed. Stotts seemed almost bewildered last year when he had to look to the bench for help. Like he was picking names out of a hat rather than looking at matchups or lineups. It's a question of awareness and imagination. Some coaches see a team of 12 players, all with unique skill-sets and capabilities. Some coaches see a team of 5 players, 1-2 backups, and 5 guys they practice against.
yeah, I don't think it's about the numbers for any of these guys. They are pretty well locked in on what they need to do to be successfull.
