BizarroJerry wrote:I think thibs will audition belly for a starter position. I like gorgui a lot but I wouldn't mind them getting equal minutes to start the season
Ick. I normally agree with you Lloyd Braun, but you pulled a Newman on this one. Don't fix something that's not broken. The starting five finished the year strong and have looked good in pre-season. Belly has to earn his way and shouldn't be handed anything. He was nothing special last year. I'm willing to give him the benefit of a one year adjustment to the league. But at his age, he needs to show something this year or he'll be playing overseas in 2017 IMO. If he can become the player we thought he'd be, he'll force his way into a greater role. But nothing wrong with making a guy earn it.
I could see Belly starting in some match ups if there is a really bad matchup for Towns and Dieng. I think Dieng's game is a good fit with the starters and Belly's 3 point shooting ability to create for others fits better with the bench. Last night he ran a pick and roll with Aldrich. He has fed Bazz for a couple post ups. I think both Dieng and Belly can be nice compliments and play with a lot of players but until Belly shows he can give you good play night in night out Dieng should be the starter because he has shown that ability to be a pretty consistent contributor for multiple seasons as a rotation guy. I think everyone is glad we have both guys they can be a real key to this squad and they give some different strengths and the nice thing is both guys give you plenty of size at the PF position (or if Dieng plays C and Towns is PF) which is not something this team is used to until somewhat recently.
BizarroJerry wrote:I think thibs will audition belly for a starter position. I like gorgui a lot but I wouldn't mind them getting equal minutes to start the season
Ick. I normally agree with you Lloyd Braun, but you pulled a Newman on this one. Don't fix something that's not broken. The starting five finished the year strong and have looked good in pre-season. Belly has to earn his way and shouldn't be handed anything. He was nothing special last year. I'm willing to give him the benefit of a one year adjustment to the league. But at his age, he needs to show something this year or he'll be playing overseas in 2017 IMO. If he can become the player we thought he'd be, he'll force his way into a greater role. But nothing wrong with making a guy earn it.
I could see Belly starting in some match ups if there is a really bad matchup for Towns and Dieng. I think Dieng's game is a good fit with the starters and Belly's 3 point shooting ability to create for others fits better with the bench. Last night he ran a pick and roll with Aldrich. He has fed Bazz for a couple post ups. I think both Dieng and Belly can be nice compliments and play with a lot of players but until Belly shows he can give you good play night in night out Dieng should be the starter because he has shown that ability to be a pretty consistent contributor for multiple seasons as a rotation guy. I think everyone is glad we have both guys they can be a real key to this squad and they give some different strengths and the nice thing is both guys give you plenty of size at the PF position (or if Dieng plays C and Towns is PF) which is not something this team is used to until somewhat recently.
I'm on board with that Monster. I'm not trying to be be too down on Belly. I know some players including Pek struggle their 1st year coming over from Europe and then settle in their 2nd year. I'm hoping that's the case with Belly. I just like the idea of making guys earn it at this point - especially considering the starting five has had some success albeit still a small sample. Based on the stats Q has been throwing out there, we're going to need Belly to be a player this year or our 2nd team is going to stink again and then we'll be faced with guys questioning Thibbs for playing the starters too much. I wonder if there might be another roster move before the season starts. Do we have an extra spot with KG gone? Could we upgrade someone i.e. Payne once final cuts are made by other teams? IDK.
BizarroJerry wrote:I think thibs will audition belly for a starter position. I like gorgui a lot but I wouldn't mind them getting equal minutes to start the season
Ick. I normally agree with you Lloyd Braun, but you pulled a Newman on this one. Don't fix something that's not broken. The starting five finished the year strong and have looked good in pre-season. Belly has to earn his way and shouldn't be handed anything. He was nothing special last year. I'm willing to give him the benefit of a one year adjustment to the league. But at his age, he needs to show something this year or he'll be playing overseas in 2017 IMO. If he can become the player we thought he'd be, he'll force his way into a greater role. But nothing wrong with making a guy earn it.
I could see Belly starting in some match ups if there is a really bad matchup for Towns and Dieng. I think Dieng's game is a good fit with the starters and Belly's 3 point shooting ability to create for others fits better with the bench. Last night he ran a pick and roll with Aldrich. He has fed Bazz for a couple post ups. I think both Dieng and Belly can be nice compliments and play with a lot of players but until Belly shows he can give you good play night in night out Dieng should be the starter because he has shown that ability to be a pretty consistent contributor for multiple seasons as a rotation guy. I think everyone is glad we have both guys they can be a real key to this squad and they give some different strengths and the nice thing is both guys give you plenty of size at the PF position (or if Dieng plays C and Towns is PF) which is not something this team is used to until somewhat recently.
I'm on board with that Monster. I'm not trying to be be too down on Belly. I know some players including Pek struggle their 1st year coming over from Europe and then settle in their 2nd year. I'm hoping that's the case with Belly. I just like the idea of making guys earn it at this point - especially considering the starting five has had some success albeit still a small sample. Based on the stats Q has been throwing out there, we're going to need Belly to be a player this year or our 2nd team is going to stink again and then we'll be faced with guys questioning Thibbs for playing the starters too much. I wonder if there might be another roster move before the season starts. Do we have an extra spot with KG gone? Could we upgrade someone i.e. Payne once final cuts are made by other teams? IDK.
I think there could be some players cut from other teams that would be interesting to consider most of them younger players though but some could have some experience. Them not going through all the team workouts and training camp and preseason with the team would be a negative though.
The reality is this team has the ability to have 3 open roster spots to fill if they want to. KG's spot is open. They could let go of Payne and they could also get an injury exception spot for Pek if they want to do that. I felt like Lucas had the inside track on the open roster spot but he has only played in 2 preseason games. There are only 2 preseason games left so we will find something out soon enough.
