2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[omahen]

I think the trap a lot of us fall is thinking this team might be one player when in reality we are much further away.  

-We got away with Powell in the first round but he might be unplayable.  If you want to keep him beyond his contract, he needs to move into the Bobi role.
-We gave Maxi heavy minutes last night and his body typically doesn't hold up to that workload.  He's a rotational bench piece but a really valuable one.
-We rolled out Bertans and both series.  Utah failed to exploit it consistently and Phoenix attacked him right away.  If we can't run sets to get him looks consistently, he's unplayable.
-Josh Green's progress from the regular season seems to have vanished save for one game versus Utah.  He certainly doesn't seem to have taken confidence from that.  
-Dinwiddie regular season versus Dinwiddie in the playoffs is concerning.  He's your bench guy so that's mostly okay, I guess.
-We also gave  Burke and Frank some desperation minutes.  
-I'm going to withhold judgement on Jalen until the series is over.  As is often with him, I have no idea what you should pay him.  It's probably going to be too much and we are all going to need to be happy with that.
-My guess Luka's improved defense is going to get exposed as overstated this series.

Our rotation feels light.  Maybe that gets solved with a healthy THJ, but it honestly doesn't feel like we've skipped a beat with him out of the lineup.  It's very KP'ish.  

And I get the idea that you need to start somewhere, but is Gobert at 38-46m per year that place to start?  That type of money needs to be a Batman or a Robin and not someone you consider taking off the floor.  Is Luka, Jalen, Gobert a championship core?  You still need a big to that rotation for injury protection.  You still need the Robin to Luka's Batman.  You still need to upgrade minutes Bertans and Green are giving you.  

I guess that's a long way of saying we are a good three pieces away and not a lot of ways to get there.

I agree with a lot of points, but just a couple of comments. 
- Maxi played a bit less than 25 minutes last night. That should not be considered as heavy workload.
- Green and Bertans are our 8th and 9th man in the rotation. They played 18 minutes combined and contributed 3 points. Phoenix 8th and 9th man (JaVale and Shamet) played 23 minutes combined and contributed 4 points. 
- I don't agree you need yet another big next to Gobert and one of Maxi or Powell. Suns third big is Biyombo and he plays for vet min. He also played exactly as many minutes as Mavs third big Chriss last night

I would say the only big difference comparing to this Phoenix squad is the center position. Luka and Brunson are roughly equal to CP3 and Booker. DFS and Bullock are roughly equal to Bridges and Crowder. Bench production was roughly equal on both sides.