I don't realistically expect any of the core guys to play above their level (we kinda just hope it's enough to avoid the play-in), but who's realistically breaking out?
The only real candidates we have to "break out" are Minott, Milton or guys who will mostly either be injured (Clark) or in Iowa (Miller).
As for Minott's role in the rotation, barring an awful summer league or training camp, I wouldn't dismiss it for a couple of reasons:
1. I'm not sold on Reid taking all of the available backup PF minutes. With how injury prone KAT has become, Kyle might spend a decent enough time backing up PF anyway.
2. Kyle at SF might not perform as well.
3. I'm not sold on Troy Brown at all, so the opportunity to get those minutes behind McDaniels will be there, especially since McDaniels is still a foul machine as it is. The opportunity to break out will be there if he plays well. Short of Milton playing so well that we're comfortable with him getting as much PT as Conley, I think we know what we're getting out of everyone else. We're betting on health and chemistry with everyone else, not the idea that someone's gonna take a massive leap overall.
I'm not sure what you mean by playing above one's level since at least two of our starters in Ant and Jaden haven't really established their level yet. So are you suggesting neither of them will improve over last year? And KAT was injured most of last season so we don't have a large sample size yet if this core group together.
Having said that, I consider myself a pretty damn good pessimist, so it probably wouldn't surprise me if we are all wringing our hands in January hoping that Josh Minott and Shake Milton will ride to the rescue when half our starting 5 are either under-achieving or injured.
Wild wolf what is your definition of a “break out” player?
Someone who takes a major leap in some aspect of his game that we didn't expect. I can't call Ant a breakout player. He's done it. Most of the other guys are known commodities. Maybe if Jaden takes a massive leap offensively, I guess that counts.
