(08-19-2024, 01:09 PM)mvossman Wrote: This is more a question of depth than who gets penciled in as the backup PF.  Maxi is probably the guy penciled in there, but my guess is that Naji plays more actual minutes in that role.

The question is what happens when say both Maxi and PJ are out?  My guess is that the forward rotation will be 2 of Naji/Luka/Klay for any meaningful minutes (assuming Omax is not ready).  That makes the lineup a little smaller, but really with Lively/Gafford at center its bigger than anything they WCF team could put out there.  What backup PF are going to get that we would rather have on the court than one of those three guys?  

I agree with your first point that its not really about backup PF minutes (or in my mind the backup PF position at all).  This team has enough size that they can afford to miss a couple of players and still put a reasonably sized team on the court.  I'm not sure why folks are still obsessed with making this team bigger.  In the playoffs our easiest series was against the biggest team in the NBA (and that was without Maxi for most of it).  The teams we struggled with (OKC, Boston) played much smaller.  Besides, Naji is bigger than DJJ, Klay is bigger than THJ and Grimes and Din are as big or bigger than Green, Exum and Hardy.  We already got bigger.

(08-19-2024, 01:22 PM)Ghost of Podkolzin Wrote: How can you count on Luka or Klay to get minutes at PF?  If you do the math, we need 1,700 minutes of backup PF.  That's a hole that can't be schemed.  If you give Naji half his minutes last year for PF, you're still lacking 1,100 minutes.  You can't count on Maxi.

(08-19-2024, 02:21 PM)mvossman Wrote: Klay is never playing the 4 in that scenario as he is always playing with either Luka or Naji.

Why can't Luka play PF defensively?  He is bigger than most of the folks we are talking about, including our current starting PF.  The 5 man lineup with the 13th most minutes was Maxi/Luka/Green/Timmy/Kyrie.  Who do you think was guarding the opposing PF in that lineup (which was +17 net rating in small sample).  Is something like Lively/Luka/Klay/Grimes/Exum really that bad?  You can totally get away with that.

(08-19-2024, 01:09 PM)mvossman Wrote: 1  This is more a question of depth than who gets penciled in as the backup PF.  Maxi is probably the guy penciled in there, but my guess is that Naji plays more actual minutes in that role.

2 The question is what happens when say both Maxi and PJ are out?  My guess is that the forward rotation will be 2 of Naji/Luka/Klay for any meaningful minutes (assuming Omax is not ready).  That makes the lineup a little smaller, but really with Lively/Gafford at center its bigger than anything they WCF team could put out there.  What backup PF are going to get that we would rather have on the court than one of those three guys?  

3  I agree with your first point that its not really about backup PF minutes (or in my mind the backup PF position at all).  This team has enough size that they can afford to miss a couple of players and still put a reasonably sized team on the court.  I'm not sure why folks are still obsessed with making this team bigger.  In the playoffs our easiest series was against the biggest team in the NBA (and that was without Maxi for most of it).  The teams we struggled with (OKC, Boston) played much smaller.  Besides, Naji is bigger than DJJ, Klay is bigger than THJ and Grimes and Din are as big or bigger than Green, Exum and Hardy.  We already got bigger.

(08-19-2024, 05:09 PM)F Gump Wrote: 3 " I'm not sure why folks are still obsessed with making this team bigger." -- I would say it as "retaining the size advantage we have and not squandering it with gimmick lineups."

(08-19-2024, 11:36 PM)SkenfromLMF Wrote: 1 I would like to think that Grimes will fill holes at SG/SF and really focus Naji as the backup 4 with success.

2 My REAL hope is that DJJ absolutely craters in LA and they want to move off his contract
sufficiently to willingly take a Powell, Lawson, Hardy package (might have to be Exum for hard cap purposes) .

3 Not sure a DFS for Powell/Maxi is a positive step, but I would at least give it some consideration if Maxi really is cooked. To that end I really want Maxi to NOT play the 4 much at all.

4 With all that said, please don't make me wish we could get Grant Williams back.

(08-20-2024, 01:54 AM)F Gump Wrote: If Naji can play well at the 4, and if Grimes magically reverts to form after an incredibly bad showing last season, then yep it all looks good on filling the various backup needs. But I also fear those are really big if's.

(08-20-2024, 10:12 AM)mvossman Wrote: I can understand there being some concern with Naji defending the 4, but I think you are overstating how bad Grimes was last season.  In NY, he shot over 36% on very high volume while playing quality POA defense.  The volume is a big deal.  Its probably a better indicator of the space he creates than his three point percentage.  Our three and D players mostly shoot wide open shots.  Grimes shot over 43% in NY last season on wide open shots (he shot 44% in his first two seasons).  The Grimes that played in NY last season would be very valuable on this team.  He is the perfect fit next to Luka.
Then he got traded to Detroit, a place he clearly didn't want to be.  He played 6 terrible games there until they shut him down.  I don't know if he was bad those 6 games because he didn't want to be there, or was dealing with a knee injury or just a bad stretch, but I'm not that worried about him "magically" reverting from 6 games in Detroit to the player he was for 2.5 seasons in NY.

(08-22-2024, 09:23 AM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1826371667381420075


Suns releasing EJ Liddell and Nassir Little.

(08-22-2024, 11:25 AM)SleepingHero Wrote: Suns are S/W the 3 year deal for Little with this move. Crazy to eat that deal but I guess that's how desperate they've become.

(08-22-2024, 12:54 PM)Ghost of Podkolzin Wrote: I assume there are no buyers for Beal or they would have moved his contract.  What a terrible trade that was.  If their big three were a Venn diagram, there'd be 85% redundancy.