Duarte surpasses Red Velvet on the depth chart??
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Duarte has been inconsistent in the two preseason games thus far, horrible in game 1 and much better in game 2. But hey, if Huerter needs a bit of a jostle, may as well give it to him. Duarte can hopefully improve the defense of the starters while Huerter would be a scoring kick off the bench (though Monk is already that, and from the wing as well). But despite this small lineup juggle, at this point I'd be more inclined to think that we'll be going with Huerter/Monk and Barnes/Duarte than Duarte/Monk and Barnes/Huerter, regardless of one preseason start.
Huerter will undoubtedly be the Kings starting SG when the season starts. Mike Brown is probably a more stable coach than to turn on a valuable starter after two preseason games, only one of which Duarte played well.
This, along with starting Sasha last game, is to use the limited preseason time to see the newer rotation players in meaningful minutes with Domas and Fox.
likely Huerter isn’t even playing tomorrow
This, along with starting Sasha last game, is to use the limited preseason time to see the newer rotation players in meaningful minutes with Domas and Fox.
likely Huerter isn’t even playing tomorrow
Last edited:
Am I the only one questioning the staff's commitment to generally running the same 5 units in the preseason though? To me, it seems the opposite of what they should be doing. Guys should be in/out with different lineups. Basically mixing and matching is good such as lineup changes, rotation shifts, etc and I don’t think they’ve done it enough in the preseason so far … hope the bench unit changes too & starters start running w/ bench guys more and vice versa.
My thoughts on who should start at the two are well known. I will say that Huerter's defense against D'Angelo Russell was, on a scale of one to ten, negative 3. Mike Brown may be sending a message to his erstwhile rotation players. He may also be giving some of the newer fellows, like Duarte and McGee, extended minutes with the first or second teams to bring them up to speed.
I’m not against Huerter being benched. His defense really is a sore spot in his game (he tries but..) and is attacked by the offense consistently. His performance in the playoffs also left a lot to be desired. If he even played average, we probably move on to the second round.
He is a valuable player, but certainly doesn’t have his spot locked down as far as I’m concerned. Could also be a ploy to get him in the right mindset. Will have to earn his spot. I think we see a trade involving either him or Barnes after the new year. We need a better wingman for Fox.
He is a valuable player, but certainly doesn’t have his spot locked down as far as I’m concerned. Could also be a ploy to get him in the right mindset. Will have to earn his spot. I think we see a trade involving either him or Barnes after the new year. We need a better wingman for Fox.
Much into about nothing here. Just coach brown wanting a better look at a player. It's preseason nothing we see in the way of lineups is meaningful in terms of what we can expect in the regular season. Better to speculate on what order bench players will be coming in rather than replacing starters. And even then I don't see anyone taking Mitchell or Monk's place and doubtful Trey will see fewer minutes.
Pre-season is the best time to tinker and we already know who Huerter is as a player and within the context of this team. He was a big part of our success last season and I think he will continue to be. Additionally, anything Coach Brown can do to get Chris Duarte involved as a key rotation player this season is only going to help us. He and Vezenkov were the main additions to the core roster this off-season so I do think we'll see them getting prioritized during training camp. We'll need these guys in the playoffs when we get there so the time to get the process started on familiarizing them with our system is now. I also expect that the guys getting their minutes or roles changed right now to accommodate Duarte and Vezenkov understand and appreciate this.
He tried it with OZ last season so it's possible. The question is, in what universe was Duarte ever known as a defender? The players on this team that look like they flat out D up are Edwards, Keon, and Davion full stop with maybe Slawson in there although Slawson looks more effort and size based and than anything in particular. But then there's the issues of offense. If this defensive thing is the thing stopping this squad from going anywhere this is a Monte problem, and Monte has to solve it. I still believe this team can be at least average with the right pressure and switch scheme.
Can’t just attribute our entire offensive efficiency and inefficiency in the playoffs on Huerter though. Barnes sucked too and our DHO offense was interrupted by the team that probably had the most knowledge of how to interrupt it (since they do a lot of that themselves). They knew exactly where we would be weak. Even having done that, it took an otherworldly performance from Curry to beat us and I can live with that.
If Murray continues to emerge (and we all expect him to) then those shots will have to be taken away from someone else and the two prime candidates are Barnes and Huerter. What value does Huerter bring if his shot attempts begin to decline in favor of Murray’s increasing? It’s not like he isn’t valuable by any stretch of the imagination, but if we keep him, then Barnes has to go. Whoever replaces Barnes would have to compliment some of the teams weaknesses along with Huerter’s… primarily defense and especially on the perimeter. Barnes is declining and so is his defense, so he is my prime candidate to move (his deal is friendly enough), but I certainly wouldn’t be astonished if Huerter was moved instead. We are still that one critical piece away from truly being perennial contenders. Not a star player perhaps, but the one that does all the necessary dirty work.
If Murray continues to emerge (and we all expect him to) then those shots will have to be taken away from someone else and the two prime candidates are Barnes and Huerter. What value does Huerter bring if his shot attempts begin to decline in favor of Murray’s increasing? It’s not like he isn’t valuable by any stretch of the imagination, but if we keep him, then Barnes has to go. Whoever replaces Barnes would have to compliment some of the teams weaknesses along with Huerter’s… primarily defense and especially on the perimeter. Barnes is declining and so is his defense, so he is my prime candidate to move (his deal is friendly enough), but I certainly wouldn’t be astonished if Huerter was moved instead. We are still that one critical piece away from truly being perennial contenders. Not a star player perhaps, but the one that does all the necessary dirty work.
Not that I think Duarte is the guy to take Huerter’s place, but ideally we have a starting lineup of…
PG - Fox
SG - 3&D SG
SF - Murray
PF - 3&D, Rim Protecting PF
C - Sabonis
Huerter and Barnes are solid players and contributed to this team’s success but if we want to take the next step, finding these types of players would certainly help.
PG - Fox
SG - 3&D SG
SF - Murray
PF - 3&D, Rim Protecting PF
C - Sabonis
Huerter and Barnes are solid players and contributed to this team’s success but if we want to take the next step, finding these types of players would certainly help.
I didn't really pay much attention to him, I just remember fans pretty much saying he's not a SF. So far it looks that way. In just breezing through some of Duarte's advanced numbers his box score and win share numbers on D were below Buddy's last season. It's a tough call though because Duarte was injured last season and hasn't been a full time starter so the defensive numbers might reflect that and advanced numbers are always somewhat relative to situation.
Kevin doesn't seem super stoked about coming off the bench. Saw this posted to the Kings subreddit:
On the other hand, Mike Brown sounded complimentary of Duarte here starting at the 3:08 mark when asked about how he liked Chris with the starting group:
On the other hand, Mike Brown sounded complimentary of Duarte here starting at the 3:08 mark when asked about how he liked Chris with the starting group:
- said Chris was really good with the starting lineup
Huerter has ridiculous offensive gravity. Just him being on the floor and him being an incredible off-ball mover opens room to collapse the paint for Fox and Domas. We share the ball incredibly well, but the real basic reasoning for our offensive dominance last year was we had 2 paint dominators in Fox/Domas that were incredibly unselfish paired with 3 elite floor spacers to give them that space and basically always force favorable match-ups.
He's also an excellent passer and underrated on-ball player in general. Almost any time he'd get to create a bit, something good would happen. But he's so good as an off-ball star, that he
I'm not against replacing Huerter and I've even said this off-season that I think Monk could be a hidden offensive star with the right minutes, but that doesn't make what Huerter brings any less valuable. He's an above-average starter/top 75 player in the league that fits perfectly with our 2 best players. That's not easy to just dump and trade away.
He's also an excellent passer and underrated on-ball player in general. Almost any time he'd get to create a bit, something good would happen. But he's so good as an off-ball star, that he
I'm not against replacing Huerter and I've even said this off-season that I think Monk could be a hidden offensive star with the right minutes, but that doesn't make what Huerter brings any less valuable. He's an above-average starter/top 75 player in the league that fits perfectly with our 2 best players. That's not easy to just dump and trade away.
Good finds here. Very much sounds like Brown has told Huerter he's coming off the bench and he's just doing the polite media thing and deflecting it. To some extent, Huerter can't complain too much, he was one of the main culprits why we lost in the playoffs last year, just being unplayable on both ends. I just hope we're not being too short-sighted here and risk souring the relationship of a very good player because of one bad playoff series. And I do think he could be real dominant with that 2nd unit offensive grouping and maybe even play more of an on-ball/lead type of role.