So is this really the best chance to win a series?

[Strenuus]

Julius Randall is the same age and has had much fewer games. And already half his games played he's had double doubles. Vonleh was picked only two spots or so over him

lol. You didn't read my entire post. Not surprised your confirmation bias got the best of you.

 

[KingSpeed]

I don't mind sitting Vonleh for Harkless, but not for Leonard.

But Leonard has played better than Harkless all year. Look at Harkless' numbers. They're awful.

 

[kjironman1]

But Leonard has played better than Harkless all year. Look at Harkless' numbers. They're awful.

Exactly! Why would you sit Meyers over Harkless? He has had like two good games this season i'll give him that but Meyers had been solid in as many as 20 games this year.

 

[Draco]

To be fair. Not many players don't get lost playing the Spurs but yes i am sure Meyers would get caught out of position numerous times. This would happen to Plumlee and Davis also. As it does to every team they play.

There would be a difference with Meyers. Ed might give up some open long two's where Meyers would get burned for layups while fouling.

 

[Draco]

Meyers has played well lately. We need him to become the third option offensively. We need a big who is a threat to score. I love Ed but he isn't going to be a consistent scorer. I think the frustrating thing with Meyers for most is that if he just developed a move or two down low he becomes a force offensively and makes the Blazers Play him. He becomes a huge mismatch offensively if he develops the post game. The big guys like Jordan Drummond Bogut Howard do not want to be at the 3 pt line and undersized bigs cannot play him inside if he develops that skill. As he is, he only provides floor spacing because his defense is poor when in pick and roll and some of the decisions he makes make you go WTF is he thinking. Also it is extremely frustrating watching a guy 7 ft 1 have 17 blocks on a season with as many minutes as he gets. With that said, there are plenty of guys in the league worth starting even though their defense is poor. The offense just has to outweigh the defensive issues and mental mistakes.

In terms of potential playoff match ups, I think you start Meyers instead of Mason against the Warriors because Bogut just wants to stand in the paint. I also think you start Harkless and Aminu or Aminu and Crabbe in this series. I think you keep him off the bench against the Spurs. Against the Clippers you start him at center and bring mason off the bench. Jordan is just like Drummond or Howard and is a nightmare matchup for Plumlee. Also clippers tend to trap guards like lillard and curry with Jordan. Meyers would be an escape pass that can get wide open shots (the same shots he likes to take anyway). I could see the Clippers putting Blake on Meyers. Meyers needs to never be on Blake griffindefensively. Against OKC I think you start both mason and Meyers as ibaka and Adams are not really huge threats offensively. I would play Mason on Ibaka and Meyers on Adams.

Good post. Yeah I agree with the matchup although I wonder if that's more how the minutes get handed out by the end of the game and less whom we start. Does Stotts like starting Vonleh because it gets the opponent over confident and leaves so much firepower on our bench?

A few problems with starting Meyers in place of Mason. Mason really helps the offensive ball movement with traps and his, passing, movement, dribbling. Mason is better at pushing pace which we can do to tire out opponent starters than get to our superior bench. Meyers hasn't started all year; Mason has good chemistry with our starters. I tend to think we would've experimented starting Meyers at center this year if we were gonna do it at all in the playoffs. Meyers also commits so many fouls it's better to have him ease into the game against backups instead of getting two quick fouls early and screwing up the rotations all night. With DameCJ both starting we don't need Meyers shooting there as much as on the second unit.

 

[Draco]

Exactly! Why would you sit Meyers over Harkless? He has had like two good games this season i'll give him that but Meyers had been solid in as many as 20 games this year.

Defense, speed, rebounding. If Harkless was hitting three's he'd be the clear superior option.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Exactly! Why would you sit Meyers over Harkless? He has had like two good games this season i'll give him that but Meyers had been solid in as many as 20 games this year.

Sit, maybe not. Start - yes. Give Leonard the bulk of his minutes against the other team's back-up center. Leonard has been playing better...but the eye-test says he is doing it in low pressure situations.

 

[KingSpeed]

Good post. Yeah I agree with the matchup although I wonder if that's more how the minutes get handed out by the end of the game and less whom we start. Does Stotts like starting Vonleh because it gets the opponent over confident and leaves so much firepower on our bench?

A few problems with starting Meyers in place of Mason. Mason really helps the offensive ball movement with traps and his, passing, movement, dribbling. Mason is better at pushing pace which we can do to tire out opponent starters than get to our superior bench. Meyers hasn't started all year; Mason has good chemistry with our starters. I tend to think we would've experimented starting Meyers at center this year if we were gonna do it at all in the playoffs. Meyers also commits so many fouls it's better to have him ease into the game against backups instead of getting two quick fouls early and screwing up the rotations all night. With DameCJ both starting we don't need Meyers shooting there as much as on the second unit.

He started the beginning of the year until he got hurt.

 

[Draco]

He started the beginning of the year until he got hurt.

Meyers hasn't started in place of Plumlee once. Learn the game then post. Checkmate.

 

[Strenuus]

Meyers hasn't started in place of Plumlee once. Learn the game then post. Checkmate.

I think he meant overall. I re-read your quote and I couldn't discern if that part of your comment was just about plumlee or as a whole, so I could see the confusion. Meyers has started 10 games this year, fwiw.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Yeah he does. With Plums the defender doesn't care about the pop and they cheat around him Same with Davis. No chance whatsoever that he is going to catch and shoot. So he can't break the double at all. The screen becomes ineffective. I see it time and time again.

In my eyes the pick and roll option seems more effective than pick and pop at keeping defenders from doubling Dame (even with LMA this was true). Plums is a threat the rumble to the hoop for a dunk, and both he and Davis can operate the play from the top of the key if Dame is smothered, provided he can get the pass off. Meyers is a threat from outside, but he won't shoot AT ALL if anyone taller than 5'0" is closer than six feet away. The scouting report is clear now; forget Meyers; he's neutralized by literally anyone running at him, and doesn't pass fast enough to make defenses pay for switching.

 

[Draco]

Thinking about this more Stotts should start Harkless. You can call Mo or Rouq the SF/PF both are interchangeable in those forward spots. We've had some very successful games with that lineup.

Plumlee - Meyers
Harkless - Davis
Aminu - Hendo
CJ - Crabbe
Dame

That's consistently been our 9 best players this year. I know we wanted to develop Vonleh, and we've done it for over 60 games. Harkless is only 22, he's handily outplayed Vonleh and it would be interesting to see what he can do before we have to decide on resigning him this summer. That lineup still leaves Plumlee with our starters, Davis able to help Meyers on defense with PF's, and Meyers the chance to play against second units where he is more effective. Stotts should start the above rotation now on games we are rested to get practice before the playoffs. It likely helps us win a few games and possibly stay out of the 7/8 seed too. On back to backs we can give Vonleh some minutes.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Roberts has been playing really well for us, but I know it's too early to put him in as Dame's backup.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Roberts has been playing really well for us, but I know it's too early to put him in as Dame's backup.

No, it's not too early; it's just unnecessary since CJ handles backup PG duties. But personally, I'm still not particularly comfortable with CJ running the offense. For my money, he dribbles himself into corners or traps way too often when manning the point.

 

[Draco]

Roberts has been playing really well for us, but I know it's too early to put him in as Dame's backup.

Yeah he has been doing well I think we could give him a 5-10min run on a back to back and give DameCJ a bit more rest. I was surprised to see Roberts is 30 second oldest on the team besides Kaman. He didn't make into the league until he was -27

 

[Draco]

No, it's not too early; it's just unnecessary since CJ handles backup PG duties. But personally, I'm still not particularly comfortable with CJ running the offense. For my money, he dribbles himself into corners or traps way too often when manning the point.

CJ has been phenomenal. No he's not a perfect player every guy has faults. At PG he allows us to have big defensive SG/SF and is 6'3" himself which really helps our second units defense.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

CJ has been phenomenal. No he's not a perfect player every guy has faults. At PG he allows us to have big defensive SG/SF and is 6'3" himself which really helps our second units defense.

CJ has been phenomenal. CJ scores very well. CJ is bigger than most PGs. None of that negates any of what I said; when it comes to actually running the offense while Dame's off the floor, CJ has plenty of room for improvement, and I don't know that we wouldn't actually be better served to play Roberts during some of those stretches.

 

[Strenuus]

CJ has been phenomenal. CJ scores very well. CJ is bigger than most PGs. None of that negates any of what I said; when it comes to actually running the offense while Dame's off the floor, CJ has plenty of room for improvement, and I don't know that we wouldn't actually be better served to play Roberts during some of those stretches.

I really want to try this experiment of running Roberts on the point. I think he can more than hold his own with the second unit. Why we haven't? Probably for cohesions' sake.

 

[KeepOnRollin]

I really want to try this experiment of running Roberts on the point. I think he can more than hold his own with the second unit. Why we haven't? Probably for cohesions' sake.

I too wouldn't mind Roberts getting minutes. I understand why Stotts doesn't do it though. It is almost impossible to have a 10 man rotation in the NBA now-a-days and keep everyone happy with the minutes they should get. 9 man rotations are basically the norm (some teams even only go 8 besides blowouts). When we play Mo and Nards we basically are at 10 and we don't do that all that often because of multiple reasons so we are basically asking for 11 man rotation if we go with Roberts. Just not going to happen for the guy outside of injury I am afraid.

 

[Strenuus]

I too wouldn't mind Roberts getting minutes. I understand why Stotts doesn't do it though. It is almost impossible to have a 10 man rotation in the NBA now-a-days and keep everyone happy with the minutes they should get. 9 man rotations are basically the norm (some teams even only go 8 besides blowouts).

I guess my thinking is, why can't we just keep CJ at the 2 in the 2nd quarter and then take CJ out when Dame comes back in for Roberts and put in Crabbe at the 2. It doesn't really change a whole lot.

At least make it an experiment after we clinch or something. If it doesn't work, go back... but I think Roberts deserves a few "meaningful" minutes.