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VanillaGorilla said:
Maynor would never start with Lillard barring injury reasons. Not only would it be bad strategically, there's no way Maynor is even close to good enough to move Lillard from starting point guard. I also don't see Maynor playing 28 minutes for us. His role is perfect right now, it shouldn't change.
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Maynor is a 25 year old PG who has only played 3 seasons and missed a lot of games from injury (and being underutilized). He may still have some upside in a bigger role. If I had to roll the dice on who has more potential to improve between Matthews and Maynor, I'd go with Maynor. Matthews is a year older, was undrafted, and has 4 years of starters minutes to show what he's got.

Anyway, it's not that Maynor is good enough to push Lillard to play out of position. It's more like an Eric Snow kind of situation where Iverson could move to SG because he was more effective there. It may be that the team is more effective with Lillard in more of a SG role.

At some point Wes is going to have another injury, and Maynor will get the start. It's going to be interesting to see if Maynor can cement that role as a starter if he gets the opportunity.
 
With Maynor starting, you then have no backup PG, again. And we see how much better our bench/team seems to perform with a good backup PG. It'd be absurd to then alter that by starting him, and making Wes our backup G.
 
It wouldn't bode well for us defensively either. It's just extremely rare for two point guards to start together (on a decent team especially), although pretty much every team utilizes a two PG lineup at some point these days. The Snow-Iverson reference was a good one. I just think Lillard is much better as a PG.

The answer isn't giving Maynor more minutes, it's acquiring a SG who deserves those minutes minutes.
 
I'm sure Maynor and Lillard can play alongside each other occasionally in small ball lineups, but long-term there's absolutely no way those two can be your starting 1 and 2 from a defensive perspective. Teams would quickly adjust and throw large guard lineups at them. The Dubs had to break up Curry and Ellis for exactly the same reason.
 
RR7 said:
With Maynor starting, you then have no backup PG, again. And we see how much better our bench/team seems to perform with a good backup PG.
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Not really. Start Lillard/Maynor, and when one sits you bring in Wes. Always have one of Lillard or Maynor on the court (which we pretty much do now anyway). The only real difference is you play Maynor 10 more mpg, and let him start (and often finish). With Lillard averaging nearly 40mpg, planning around him playing 20 mpg at PG with Wes isn't that hard.

It'd be absurd to then alter that by starting him, and making Wes our backup G.
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It's not absurd to say, "The current lineup of Lillard/Wes with Maynor off the bench works. But maybe Lillard/Maynor with Wes off the bench works even better." Seems like a pretty natural question to ask at this point. Especially given how the league seems to be going away from traditional 6'5 SG's like Roy/Kobe/Wade/Allen.

In the end, it's all about Lillard. Which guy "fits" next to him better? The bigger natural SG who hits 3's well and defends? Or the PG (who at 6'3 has pretty good size), a much better handle, a mediocre outside shot and better passing?

I don't know the answer, frankly. But it's close enough that I'm wondering.
 
Nikolokolus said:
I'm sure Maynor and Lillard can play alongside each other occasionally in small ball lineups, but long-term there's absolutely no way those two can be your starting 1 and 2 from a defensive perspective. Teams would quickly adjust and throw large guard lineups at them. The Dubs had to break up Curry and Ellis for exactly the same reason.
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Monte Ellis wasn't a natural passer. He wanted to be The Man, when Curry was clearly better at that role. Not really the case with Lillard/Maynor. (Also, just going by an eyeball test, although Curry/Ellis are the same height as Lillard/Maynor, it seems like Lillard/Maynor are just stronger/heavier.)

The Sixers had a lot of success in the early 2000's with a starting guard lineup of 6'3 and 6'0. Mavs did it with Terry and Kidd.

It's becoming a waterbug league where 6'2 guys are scoring points, drawing fouls and getting to the line (and passing to teammates a little along the way).

We see Wes Matthews post up smaller guards all the time, and frankly I never feel like it's a huge advantage. Not just because Wes isn't a great post SG, but it just seems like it's not as effective an offense. With the hand-checking rules it just seems like there are easier ways to get buckets/guards in foul trouble. Andre Miller, Ray Allen, lots of these SG's have that play run a couple times a game, but it seems less and less like an option now than it was back in the early 2000's where Bonzi and Smitty made their living there.

If we went that route, we'd definitely have one of the smaller guard lineups in the league. But we'd also have one of the fastest.
 
I'd also add that the Miami Heat had a championship back court of 6'4 and 6'3 (Wade and Damon Jones). Wade started his rookie year at PG (and had a very nice rookie year at 16/4/4), but really blossomed when he moved over to the 2.
 
A Maynor and Lillard backcourt at the end of games is a terrible idea in most instances. Defense. I still feel like you're glossing over defense. Maynor and Lillard are both not good defenders.. Being undersized would make it doubly worse.
 
BrianFromWA said:
Not that it'll happen, but trading Wes to MIL in a Redick S&T while keeping Maynor's cap hold would give us a 3-guard rotation of Lillard/Maynor/Redick and enough to hold on to Hickson's cap hold (whether to keep him or to S&T).
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I love Wes but the heart hustle/defense he brings would be sorely missed if we replaced him with Redick. Redick can shoot the lights out and his handles are better then Wes but his D is very suspect. I'd love to have both Redick and Wes with one of them being the sixth man off the bench.
 
VanillaGorilla said:
A Maynor and Lillard backcourt at the end of games is a terrible idea in most instances. Defense. I still feel like you're glossing over defense. Maynor and Lillard are both not good defenders.. Being undersized would make it doubly worse.
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I agree, while Maynor/lillard are both listed as 6'3 so they are not undersized at PG but whoever is at SG would be abused like there is no tomorrow (already happens at times when they are both on the court).
 
Rhal said:
I agree, while Maynor/lillard are both listed as 6'3 so they are not undersized at PG but whoever is at SG would be abused like there is no tomorrow (already happens at times when they are both on the court).
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Which SG will abuse Lillard that is not already abusing every other SG in the league anyways? A lot of the great SG's score at will because of their quickness not because of their size. Maybe in those cases we are better off. Anyways I would not do it all game long but sometimes smaller players bother bigger players more than bigger players. They certainly do LMA.

I will take small quick PG's over big, bad passing, and bad dribbling SG'd down the stretch of a game anytime.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Which SG will abuse Lillard that is not already abusing every other SG in the league anyways? A lot of the great SG's score at will because of their quickness not because of their size. Maybe in those cases we are better off. Anyways I would not do it all game long but sometimes smaller players bother bigger players more than bigger players. They certainly do LMA.

I will take small quick PG's over big, bad passing, and bad dribbling SG'd down the stretch of a game anytime.
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You already have a small quick PG, Lillard. I'd rather have the big, good shooting SG who can play defense.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Which SG will abuse Lillard that is not already abusing every other SG in the league anyways? A lot of the great SG's score at will because of their quickness not because of their size. Maybe in those cases we are better off. Anyways I would not do it all game long but sometimes smaller players bother bigger players more than bigger players. They certainly do LMA.
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Asking Lillard to guard 2s for the rest of his career doesn't seem like an especially good recipe for team success. Just because lots of other mediocre 2 guards are getting beat on doesn't mean you throw in the towel and give up playing D at that spot too. Small lineups are fine in small doses and very particular circumstances, but this is not a good "general" long run strategy.

I will take small quick PG's over big, bad passing, and bad dribbling SG'd down the stretch of a game anytime.
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Sounds like a false choice to me. Wouldn't you rather just get a big 2 who can dribble a little and play a little bit of D to pair with Damian?
 
This is why I hope Elliot Williams can come back healthy next season. I know it's a long shot, but I love the idea of a Lillard/Maynor/Matthews/Williams four guard rotation. Williams is 6'5" and as athletic as anyone in the league. He had a reputation as a good defender in college, and in his very limited NBA action, he showed an ability to create his own shot and score against anyone (21.3 PTS/36).

The best part, if he is healthy, we get him for free without giving up anything. We don't have to trade anyone and don't have to overpay for a mediocre free agent. We could use our cap space on a defensive minded center and draft BPA with out 1st round pick. You could start Wes and Lillard, and mix it up throughout the game. You could go small, with Lillard/Maynor, go offense/defense late in the game, bring in Williams for instant offense when no one else can get anything going. I know it may never happen, but I'm really pulling for Williams to put these injuries behind him so we can see what he can do.

BNM
 
Nikolokolus said:
Asking Lillard to guard 2s for the rest of his career doesn't seem like an especially good recipe for team success. Just because lots of other mediocre 2 guards are getting beat on doesn't mean you throw in the towel and give up playing D at that spot too. Small lineups are fine in small doses and very particular circumstances, but this is not a good "general" long run strategy.



Sounds like a false choice to me. Wouldn't you rather just get a big 2 who can dribble a little and play a little bit of D to pair with Damian?
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Kind of why I have said about 20 times we should only do it in small doses, and yes I would rather have a big SG that can dribble , shoot, pass, attack the basket, and play D. How long do I have to wait before we get one?
 
Watching him at the game last night, I remarked that more and more, he is starting to remind me of Dwayne Wade.
 
roywonder07 said:
That shooting form of his, just looks like it'll go in every time.
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It basically does! Almost every jumpshot he misses either rims in and out or goes right off back rim. That's a sign of a terrific shooter and if he gets even better which I think he will, then he will be unguardable.
 
He's got such great body control and the ability to make such difficult shots finishing with either hand.
 
magnifier661 said:
The guy is just fucking money. His swag is off the charts. He's gonna be something truly special. He will be a superstar.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
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He is easily my favorite Blazer since Clyde "The Glide" Drexler!
 
magnifier661 said:
Not in person. Did you notice that I said "in person"? I did see Roy light up lakers once in Portland; but most games I saw live was meh.
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I thought you were at the Roy game with me. Now I remember you we're actually there for Game 6.
 
KingSpeed said:
I thought you were at the Roy game with me. Now I remember you we're actually there for Game 6.
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I would have loved to experience that moment. I could only imagine how special that was cause I cried watching it on t.v.
 
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