08-05-2024, 08:38 AM
(08-05-2024, 12:00 AM)F Gump Wrote: Given that Naji and Grimes are his best (non center) defensive options off the bench.
Their "best (non center) defensive options off the bench" should be Maxi, Exum, Naji, and Grimes, all potentially 3-and-D players. The value of Naji and Grimes - both no more than backups on worse teams - and their ability to fit well in the various available backup minutes here remains to be seen. Accordingly, their minutes are very much TBD.
You mention what happened last season with new imports, but that was a crappy team being remodeled, and Kidd had few holdovers he could trust from the prior year. That's all changed for this fall - now he starts with the return of essentially a full NBA Finalist, with plenty of players to fill the minutes once you include Klay,* and a team that was great leading to the playoffs, so I expect he'll lean on that existing given until he figures out who he can trust to mess with a winner. The new guys are just icing on the cake, potentially.
* The players Kidd knows who can provide all the minutes they need for a game - Luka 36 Kyrie 34 Klay 32 Gafford 24 Lively 24 PJW 32 Maxi 18 Exum 18 Hardy 10 (and maybe SD at about 15, because he's a returnee). That leaves no "room" for Naji and Grimes to begin with, nor Omax or Powell either, and no minutes they have to fill, so they will have to outcompete someone already entrenched for some of their minutes.
Maxi plays around 20% of the minutes provided to one position. Stating his minutes by game ignores the fact he won't be playing a reliable number of games. As situated, Maxi will play limited games; whatever he provides should be looked at as pennies from heaven, but not predicted.