Who starts at PF on opening night

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

"Basically, I want my starting PF to do three things...score efficiently, rebound, and play solid defense."

"But I don't want my PF hanging around the 3-point line and shooting 3.7 threes per game if he's only going to hit around 30% of them"

But you love Anthony B... Nevermind. :dizzy:

Bennett was terrible last year, and this board is divided about whether to give him a pass because he was coming off shoulder surgery, battling sleep apnea, and 20 pounds overweight. I'm discounting last year based on what I saw from him when he was healthy at UNLV.

But I agree that AB has a tendency to drift around the 3-point line too, and that could be an issue. As I look at their two shooting strokes, though, I have much more confidence in AB's 3-point stroke...I like his form compared to Young's.

I don't think the Wolves are likely to go anywhere next year, so I have no problem with an established starter with substandard PF stats like Young beginning the year as our starter. But I want AB to start taking minutes away from him as soon as Flip is comfortable. I have no doubt that given consistent minutes, Bennett can finish higher than 55th and 67th in TS% and rebounding rate, respectively.

[northernhoops [enjin:9491634]]

PHI needs salary we need roster spots how about trading our expirings plus Martin and Shabazz for Young and a bunch of unguaranteed contracts? Then we can go get Blatche and a guy like Jordan Crawford on one year deals

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Well, Bennett would seriously have to earn those minutes, and I doubt that he could. Young is the better player between the two and it's not even close.

Keep in mind Young's TS% and TRB% were career lows on one of the worst teams in basketball history. And previous to his 108 defensive rating, he had posted 104, 100, 103. He was also improving his WS from 6.3, 6.4 and 7.4 before Philly really blew it up.

Playing on a god awful team is a struggle. So while you act like Bennett's rookie season never happened, you fail to look at what Young's done previous to 2013. Not fair, but when you like a guy, you like a guy. It's clear you're a Bennett fan.

I'll also admit I'd love to see what Young would do with a passer like Rubio spoon-feeding him easy opportunities.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

PHI needs salary we need roster spots how about trading our expirings plus Martin and Shabazz for Young and a bunch of unguaranteed contracts? Then we can go get Blatche and a guy like Jordan Crawford on one year deals

Northern, I've stated my lack of enthusiasm for a non-rebounder like Thad Young, so I'm not going to repeat that. But I'm wondering why you would want to give up Martin and Shabazz, and then go out and get Crawford. I have to admit Martin frustrated me last year, but Crawford is almost as ineffective defensively as Martin, and can't touch him offensively. I'd rather stay with KM another year, and also see what Flip can do with Muhammad.

[60WinTim]

When the discussion of Young vs Bennett first arose, it seemed like it was an either/or deal. But it now seems BOTH of them is a very real possibility!

I'd be pretty excited if we wound up with both. Seems to me Barea and Luc are the most like candidates to trade for Young. Giving us:

Rubio / Williams / Shved
Martin / LaVine / Bud
Brewer / Wiggins / Shabazz
Young / Bennett / Hummel
Pek / Deing / Turiaf

The young guys would have to earn their time on the court. Mission accomplished, Flip!

[northernhoops [enjin:9491634]]

PHI needs salary we need roster spots how about trading our expirings plus Martin and Shabazz for Young and a bunch of unguaranteed contracts? Then we can go get Blatche and a guy like Jordan Crawford on one year deals

Northern, I've stated my lack of enthusiasm for a non-rebounder like Thad Young, so I'm not going to repeat that. But I'm wondering why you would want to give up Martin and Shabazz, and then go out and get Crawford. I have to admit Martin frustrated me last yearl, but Crawford is almost as ineffective defensively as Martin, and can't touch him offensively. I'd rather stay with KM another year, and also see what Flip can do with Muhammad.

I'd rather give more minutes to young guys while being more flexible cap wise. Let a guy like Crawford start the year starting and transition to LaVine. I don't know how KMart would handle that. This also opens up a spot for GR3 who I like more than Shabazz.
Rubio Mo
Budinger Crawford or similar (Marshon Brooks or Shannon Brown) Lavine
Wiggins Brewer GR3
Young Blatche
Pek Dieng

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

LST, Cam is right that you can't look at last season to evaluate Young. He was asked to be the lead dog on the worst team in basketball. As a result, his usage rate went up and his percent of assisted shots went down, so he was pushing the limits of his own skill-set in order to try to create offense (for example, he tried to expand his shot out beyond the arc). The result was a career high in scoring, but a career low in efficiency.

I think if Young ends up with us, we get the prior version of him, which is a very solid player. My only issue is that I think he is best utilized as a 6th man PF off the bench. Go big early, then bring him in. His best years with the Sixers were when he came off the bench.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

When the discussion of Young vs Bennett first arose, it seemed like it was an either/or deal. But it now seems BOTH of them is a very real possibility!

I'd be pretty excited if we wound up with both. Seems to me Barea and Luc are the most like candidates to trade for Young. Giving us:

Rubio / Williams / Shved
Martin / LaVine / Bud
Brewer / Wiggins / Shabazz
Young / Bennett / Hummel
Pek / Deing / Turiaf

The young guys would have to earn their time on the court. Mission accomplished, Flip!

I don't see Flip doing this. You basically have four rookies and an average-at-best veteran as your backups.

I think Flip mixes and matches in order to balance things better and allow the rookies to play off the veterans a bit. Unless Wiggins is a train wreck during pre-season, I would prefer to start him at the 3 along with Pek, Martin, Rubio, and whoever our starting 4 will be. Let him focus on defense, cuts, and transition. That takes a bit of a burden off him to start.

[kms789 [enjin:6694798]]

Basically, I want my starting PF to do three things...score efficiently, rebound, and play solid defense. And advanced stats show Thad is substandard in all three areas. His TS% of .512 ranked him 55th among PF's last year, and his rebounding rate of 9.5 ranked him 69th. So in these critical areas, he ranks behind most of the league's backup PF's. And his defensive rating of 108 is not very good.

Why use last year as a measure of Thad Young as a player? He's a 7-year vet, but last year he was playing with D-Leaguers on a team actively trying to lose. His numbers in the stats you mention were much better in prior years when he was playing on a real team. And Defensive Rating is just a reflection of how bad the Sixers were at defense.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Q, I agree with you that Young was overused last year, and that has a lot to do with his poor TS%, but he has never been a very efficient shooter. His career TS% is .539, which would have ranked him 40th among power forwards last year...not very good. And his rebounding has been consistently terrible his entire career, and was only slightly worse last year.

Frankly, his overuse on a bad team allowed him to score 18 points a game last year. more than 4 points more than his career average. I just want us to be honest about Young, because after 7 years in the league, we know what he is. He's an athletic guy who's going to score about 13 points a game inefficiently, rank toward the bottom in PF rebounding, and play slightly below average defense. I know that Bennett is a big risk because of his terrible rookie year, but I would be surprised if he can't improve on Young's career numbers.

I agree with Tim's comment above...we could very likely end up with both of them next season, which will give Flip a good chance to determine who deserves the most minutes. I'm willing to trust Flip with that decision.