Thursday's Friday Funkadelic

[Lipoli390]

Q - My thinking behind starting LaVine or Shabazz over Martin isn't tied to whether they can get enough minutes to develop individually. My point is that I'd like to see the young guys we envision as our starters 2-3 years down the road start developing as a unit by playing together. Sort of like Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka. Or Jordan, Pippen, Grant. Etc. If LaVine and Shabazz look horrible in practice or preseason or if Martin looks enormously better than Either one, then I'm fine starting Martin with Wiggins, Ricky and whoever else we have out there. But otherwise, let's put the core on the floor together who we expect to be our core starters down the road.

If it were up to m, my opening game starting lineup would be as follows:

1. Rubio
2. LaVine
3. Wiggins
4. KG
5. Towns

My primary rotation guys off the bench would be: Shabazz, Martin, Bjelica and Dieng. That would mean we'll have some minutes without a natural PG on the floor. But if we're going with our best players, then I don't see many minutes this season for Tyus Jones or Lorenzo Brown. Note also that I've left Pek our. I like him when healthy, but I don't think he'll hold up physically.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

Who said give LaVine a spot? I think make it his or Shabazz's job to lose. There is no better way to learn then doing. LaVine played out of position all last year and really finished strong. Shabazz was killing it before his injuries. He shot over 5 tenths better from the field and was hitting at the same % on 3's as Martin and grabbing twice as many boards per minute. When you look at it that way you shouldn't just had it to Martin.

ugh Shabazz in the starting lineup would be awful. 4 post players with a guard who can't stretchthe floor?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

While I hear the argument for letting our young core players play together as much as they can with an eye toward contending 3 years from now, I'm all about winning now and putting our best players on the court, assuming all are healthy. And as much as I love Town's potential, he simply isn't physically strong enough right now to start and play heavy minutes at C. I think he has enormous potential to be an unbelievable stretch center after he gets stronger, but I left Vegas concluding that PF is his better position right now. And I'm also heartened by reports that Pek will be resuming basketball activities in September...it's really starting to sound like that surgery may have fixed things for him. If so, I like Bleedspeed's starting lineup:

Pek
KG
Wiggins
Rubio
LaVine or Martin, depending on who is better in pre-season, hopefully LaVine

It's hard not to get excited about a bench of Martin, Towns, Muhammad, Bennett/Payne, Bjelica Dieng, and Jones/Brown...lots of depth and options for Flip.

[Coolbreeze44]

Who said give LaVine a spot? I think make it his or Shabazz's job to lose. There is no better way to learn then doing. LaVine played out of position all last year and really finished strong. Shabazz was killing it before his injuries. He shot over 5 tenths better from the field and was hitting at the same % on 3's as Martin and grabbing twice as many boards per minute. When you look at it that way you shouldn't just had it to Martin.

Good point

[Lipoli390]

While I hear the argument for letting our young core players play together as much as they can with an eye toward contending 3 years from now, I'm all about winning now and putting our best players on the court, assuming all are healthy. And as much as I love Town's potential, he simply isn't physically strong enough right now to start and play heavy minutes at C. I think he has enormous potential to be an unbelievable stretch center after he gets stronger, but I left Vegas concluding that PF is his better position right now. And I'm also heartened by reports that Pek will be resuming basketball activities in September...it's really starting to sound like that surgery may have fixed things for him. If so, I like Bleedspeed's starting lineup:

Pek
KG
Wiggins
Rubio
LaVine or Martin, depending on who is better in pre-season, hopefully LaVine

It's hard not to get excited about a bench of Martin, Towns, Muhammad, Bennett/Payne, Bjelica Dieng, and Jones/Brown...lots of depth and options for Flip.

I'd be fine with that starting lineup. And I also like the bench.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Martin has zero leadership qualities. He shouldn't be considered as a vet leader to play with one group over another. He is what he is. He scores the ball and as he's aging he's doing it with more jump shots because he can't get to the rim that well. He's a floor spacer and scorer. That's it. He can't handle the ball well, he's still not a good defender and he looks for his shot before others. He's never been a leader. I don't think he's a steadying veteran presence if that's what you're hoping for on a young unit for example. I think if Towns and KG is the starting frontcourt then Martin will start because someone has to score on that starting unit and Martin is still the most reliable guy on the team to do that. With 4 defense oriented guys on the court in Ricky/Wiggins/KG/Towns it makes sense to have a guy who can get you 20 reliably with that unit. If Pek starts I think we'll see Lavine because we won't be as desperate for scoring and Lavine simply brings more to the table than Martin overall.

[bleedspeed]

Khans I agree with your post. I think to make the most out of KG's time left in the league you want and having Rubio you want to play Wiggins, Towns, LaVine, and Shabazz as much with them as possible. That makes Martin the lead of the second unit.

[Carlos Danger]

Martin has zero leadership qualities. He shouldn't be considered as a vet leader to play with one group over another. He is what he is. He scores the ball and as he's aging he's doing it with more jump shots because he can't get to the rim that well. He's a floor spacer and scorer. That's it. He can't handle the ball well, he's still not a good defender and he looks for his shot before others. He's never been a leader. I don't think he's a steadying veteran presence if that's what you're hoping for on a young unit for example. I think if Towns and KG is the starting frontcourt then Martin will start because someone has to score on that starting unit and Martin is still the most reliable guy on the team to do that. With 4 defense oriented guys on the court in Ricky/Wiggins/KG/Towns it makes sense to have a guy who can get you 20 reliably with that unit. If Pek starts I think we'll see Lavine because we won't be as desperate for scoring and Lavine simply brings more to the table than Martin overall.

I agree with a lot of what you wrote. I don't think Martin is a classic "leader". However, he is a proven guy. In fact, if we go by stats (and most of us do), he still grades out as one of our better players. And let's not overlook he's an excellent Free Throw shooter as well (best on the team last year). That's a lot of free points which can determine wins or losses.

Since he's not getting any younger - why not ride that horse until it breaks? I think this is a contract year with a Player option next season. He's going to motivated to play well and put up big numbers. If he gets hurt or plays poorly - we have LaVine ready to step in. There should still be plenty of minutes for LaVine this year between backup SG and PG. If he plays well, next year it's his turn. At the end of the season tell Martin if he accepts his player option, he'll be coming off the bench. Win/Win.

I felt like last year we really missed having scorers. It seemed like Wiggins was forced into being "the guy" because we really had nobody else - especially after Bazz went down and Pek wasn't playing. I felt like that's part of why his efficiency numbers were not great. I think when you have a natural scorer on the court like Martin, it takes a lot of pressure off other guys. They can let the game come to them vs. forcing things. I'd be fine if our young guys volume stats went down, but their efficiency stats went up. I think Martin could help in that regard.

[bleedspeed]

CD - Isn't Martin on of the worst clutch players in history? I remember reading something about that after Love's last year with the team.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

While I hear the argument for letting our young core players play together as much as they can with an eye toward contending 3 years from now, I'm all about winning now and putting our best players on the court, assuming all are healthy. And as much as I love Town's potential, he simply isn't physically strong enough right now to start and play heavy minutes at C. I think he has enormous potential to be an unbelievable stretch center after he gets stronger, but I left Vegas concluding that PF is his better position right now. And I'm also heartened by reports that Pek will be resuming basketball activities in September...it's really starting to sound like that surgery may have fixed things for him. If so, I like Bleedspeed's starting lineup:

Pek
KG
Wiggins
Rubio
LaVine or Martin, depending on who is better in pre-season, hopefully LaVine

It's hard not to get excited about a bench of Martin, Towns, Muhammad, Bennett/Payne, Bjelica Dieng, and Jones/Brown...lots of depth and options for Flip.

Offensively it's easier to get excited about that bench, but I still think it's a train wreck defensively, especially with our coaching staff.