2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[SleepingHero]

Agreed. 

And by "replacing Maxi" I want to clarify that we're talking about Kleber the backup center, not Kleber the guy who can play the 4.

Precisely that. Even in that role the Bamba fit is iffy just because of how horrendous his defense is. He's an above average shot blocker, but he seems to be cut more from the Hassan Whiteside cloth of defense vs. the Rudy Gobert cloth just from impact metrics.


Still. He's a legit 7ft guy with a ginormous wingspan that can hit a spot up 3 pretty regularly. Those don't grow on trees and he's still only 23. He still has time to learn how to win and become a force at the 5, even if only for a couple of years.

I think you can exclusively view Bamba as a C here defensively, Maxi's ability to guard forwards / some wings needs a different replacement if we were to move on from him. I'd just keep Maxi though.

Maybe you can find someone in the draft to slowly grow into a replacement role though over the next years

Yeah I wasn't trying to imply I viewed Bamba as a potential/realistic 4 here (though how funny would it be to roll out a starting lineup of Bamba+Boban). 

If anything, I was trying to point out that Bamba has really only 2 things he's actually good at; spotting up behind the 3pt line and occasionally blocking a shot. Of the roles we currently have on the team, only Maxi's one really plays to those strengths consistently. Maxi of course brings A LOT more defensively and would still be the starter, but if we're looking to get 40-50% of what Maxi brings on defense and also bring in a guy who loves to camp around the 3pt line then Bamba kind of makes sense.


With that said I think that spot is currently Bertans' for the foreseeable future. And it's probably better that way.