Some rotation questions

[60WinTim]

Here are a few "ponderings" that have crossed my mind:

1) How much of a hit will Brewer's offensive production take with Love no longer on the roster? If there is a wing to be moved, Brewer might be most logical choice...

2) While Shabazz showed more confidence in Summer League, will he earn minutes in the rotation? Other than being aggressive around the basket, he doesn't contribute much else on the court. Does he earn minutes ahead of Martin, Wiggins, Bud, Brewer, or even LaVine? (heck, even Mo is likely to see some minutes at wing!)

3) Assume for a moment our starting PF is Young (or Thompson). Who's the backup PF? Is this where Turiaf sees minutes, with Pek and Deing at C?

Thoughts?

[Monster]

Its interesting to think about but I think we have to see who is really on the roster first.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

1. Corey Brewer had a career high in dunks last season and the best FG% of his career. It simply does not happen without Kevin Love's defensive rebounding and outlet passing. I strongly expect him to come down to earth this season - we already know his shooting won't get better. This makes him a good "sell high" candidate as opposed to just a contract dump. I would want something of value in return.

2. Assuming we get Wiggins and keep Budinger, it's very difficult to see Shabazz getting a lot of playing time. But injuries will happen and my guess is Flip will be more likely to play him regular minutes than Adelman.

3. Mbah Moute, Hummel, and Dieng could all play some minutes backing up the 4. I actually don't like a Young/Pekovic 4/5 combination. We will get killed on the offensive glass and neither are shotblockers, as Thad is too small to match up against a lot of starting 4's in the West. He's better off as a 4 off the bench where he can lend stability to the second unit and provide some scoring punch. But it's most likely going to be a PF by committee approach for us.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

"3. Mbah Moute, Hummel, and Dieng could all play some minutes backing up the 4. I actually don't like a Young/Pekovic 4/5 combination. We will get killed on the offensive glass and neither are shotblockers, as Thad is too small to match up against a lot of starting 4's in the West. He's better off as a 4 off the bench where he can lend stability to the second unit and provide some scoring punch. But it's most likely going to be a PF by committee approach for us."

With all due respect, I 100% disagree here. We're not going to be elite on the offensive boards, but that's mainly because Love won't be here anymore. Pekovic is still amongst the best offensive rebounders in the league and Young will do fine enough. We'd also have an elite rebounder for his position at point guard, not to mention Wiggins is above average on the glass for a wing (6 RPG at Kansas).

Though Young's not as good of a player as Love, he's a much better defender than Love. Young can also play away from the rim leaving space for Pekovic to operate. Not to mention Young's a good passer for a PF in his own right. I really don't see what's to not like about the potential duo unless you buy into Young's size over his skill.

Young isn't a bench player. He's a starting caliber player that would be a great target for Rubio in transition and in the halfcourt. I'd rather take advantage of that instead of downgrading him to a scoring punch off the bench. Save that for LaVine, Williams and Muhammad.

[Lipoli390]

If we trade for Wiggins, I don't expect Brewer to be on this team next season. He'd be the perfect complementary piece to include with Love in our package to the Cavs. As Q indicated, Brewer's offensive production was inflated dramatically by Love's defensive rebounding and outlet passing. Brewer might be the asset that convinces the Cavs to include Waiters along with Bennett and Wiggins in their package to us. I agree with Q that it would be PF by committee with Dieng, Turiaf and Bennett dividing minutes at that position. If we end up with Thad Young, then he would probably log most of the minutes at that position.

I still think including Tristan Thompson in the deal instead of Waiters makes the most sense for both teams. If included in the deal, Tristan would be our starting PF at over 30 minutes per game.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Mmm, may be I said that wrong Cam. I meant to say that we would get killed by the other team on the offensive glass.

I just don't think Young and Pekovic work that great together. Whatever Young does better than Love in terms of chasing quicker 4's, he gives up in terms of defensive rebounding ability. And Pek is a good, not great, defensive rebounder. And Young doesn't have the length to challenge folks at the rim, so that problem remains unsolved.

Young is a good player, don't get me wrong. But in terms of fit, I'd rather have him as a super-sub off the bench, especially since so many other teams tend to downsize their second units. He would still get plenty of time with Rubio.

[worldK]

1. Brew had a great season last year and was a guy the benefited the most from love's rebounding and outlet passes. We know that and so do other teams. I think it would be difficult to sell high on brewer like q says. He has been in the league long enough for teams to know what he is and love certainly and Rubio to an extent made brewer much better than he is. He is more likely gone if we are trading a wing. I could see reasons to keep martin and bud over him if we get wiggins.

2. I don't think shabazz gets to be a regular rotation guy to be honest. If its wiggins and Martin as the starting wings, then bud will definitely be the third wing and I could see lavine playing over buzz and even playing 2 pg together in Rubio and mo. Mbam might earn some situational minutes as well to match up againts a top wing. Bazz probably is the 10th or 11th man and teams usually play 9 guys regularly.

3. I will be happy if Thad young is our starting pf. He is undersize and not a shot blocker but he is a decent to good defender being one of the steals leader and plays good team defense. He and pek fits nicely on the offensive end. Rebounding is the biggest loss we will have to swallow in trading away love. We ain't going to get,a love caliber rebounder in a trade so it's something that should be expected.

[Monster]

To me Brewer's value stays the same to me he is an aggressive play his butt off guy that can play defense is an elite steals guy both in playing passing lanes and taking balls away from guys. Yep he isn't a good shooter and no he isn't the defender Tony Allen is, but I'll take him as a rotation player. He is skilled enough and knows how to play enough to have on the floor while he plays harder than anyone on the floor. I'm not saying keep him at all costs and I agree he probably duplicates what Wiggins will do (Wiggins might be better than Brewer very quickly) but I still value him the same Love or no Love. I know the outlet passes thing was good, but I still value Brewer.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

To be honest though, teams aren't going to be able to commit multiple guys to the offensive boards because a Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/Young fast break is going to destroy them if they over-commit. I think having athletes helps get rebounds even if they aren't as much as Love can get us so adding Wiggins over Brewer's cherry picking and going from Love's 12 boards a game to Young's 6 certainly isn't ideal, but it's not total disaster either. You'd be swapping 15 boards for 9 and who knows how many more Pek can actually grab with Love not in the lineup. I think we'd be really good man on man and recovering on the defensive end with the athletes we would have which is going to help limit the opposing team's effective scoring ability about the same as the defensive rebounding production we are going to lose. I think if we are really getting our butts kicked on the boards Flip could actually go big with a Rubio/Wiggins/Young/Dieng/Pek lineup if he had to. It'd be a trade off in terms of what you would get out of Young or Thompson. Young can give you 18 and 6 and Thompson can give you 12 and 9. I would personally rather have the more proven scorer because we are about to lose the most effective scoring big in the league and Young can make up a decent chunk of that. Also, I think Brewer becomes a net negative without Love because he can no longer cherry pick which is half his offense and he's not particularly strong to fight in the trenches for boards. He's a guy that I just don't think would bring anything useful to this team other than playing hard and I think we already have a couple guys that can play in that role while contributing more on the court. I think Wiggins could be a more effective Brewer out of the gate in every aspect of the game and we already have multiple guards and wings looking to come off the bench.

[Monster]

My thought on Shabazz is they had him go to work on his post game in SL and a chunk of that time he was going up against PFs. I wonder if they figure he will be able to use most of the wings that will be guarding him especially if its off the bench. If they put Bazz in the post Young might be a good PF to have with Bazz becasue he moves without the ball and can hit jumpers plus Thad can guard some SFs. He is a versatile player there is some intrigue to how some of these guys COULD fit together. Flip used some interesting lineups back when he was with the Wolves.