Clippers vs Kings 10/18 final preseason game

[Livinthedream]

Ben started last night and has played too many minutes to say he is not a problem. He s not a problem if you are content with a .400 season.

But he's not the starter. So who cares. It's the same tired argument. If the key to winning more games would be to not start Ben, the issue would have been solved a long time ago and we'd be in the playoffs. If the key is to find a better player than Ben, well that's still not Ben's fault is it? So why waste time on over analyzing every step he takes on the basketball court?

 

[pshn80]

But he's not the starter. So who cares. It's the same tired argument. If the key to winning more games would be to not start Ben, the issue would have been solved a long time ago and we'd be in the playoffs. If the key is to find a better player than Ben, well that's still not Ben's fault is it? So why waste time on over analyzing every step he takes on the basketball court?

Over analyzing? No, he has been the weak link as a starter, for years, and I hope I can presume he is not starting this season. Otherwise everything is fine.

 

[twslam07]

The Koufos/McLemore thing is getting repetitive. If your just reiterating your opinion, ok, but your posts come across as making definitive statements that involve the team, and you know others have voiced differing opinions about the topic

Ben is an assett and has always been. He's improved a lot from last year. He doesn't need to crack the rotation but I'd hold onto his rights if he keeps making the progress he has. If the team gets real value for him that negates his possible solid future as a 3/D it can be discussed. But that's always been the case

Koufos is really the only player I feel comfortable with starting at center if Cousins goes down, and I feel we have many more options with smaller bigs. But then I feel as if WCS is currently a negative on the floor and needs to earn what minutes he gets, which may just be a philosophical difference as well as a personal difference in how I view Willie. I personally want to see the best team in the court, whoever it is, but I know others disagree.

We do have a lot of options in terms of minutes, and it will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

It is what it is... I can't really help people misinterpreting my posts as definitive statements when it couldn't be further from the truth. Everything above is my opinion (notice the word "I" being used) and recommendations on how I would possibly manage and balance the team.

In my eyes, I see us being more successful with them out of the rotation. I could argue that Koufos instead of Cauley-Stein would be better this year, but I'm having a hard time being content with giving the former 6th pick in the 2015 draft zero minutes. What's the tradeoff? Being (potentially) slightly worse this year but giving a guy with great potential minutes to develop into a very valuable piece for us or being slightly better this year while possibly derailing his development leading us to fail at developing yet another lottery pick. I'll let everyone decide for themselves what they think is the better option for this team.

Nowhere did I say I would give McLemore/Koufos up for free, but giving them up for cap relief and future assets could keep everyone else happy in their current role/the minutes they're getting (which will bring less drama/distractions this season) and set us up better for next year with more cap space and more youth/potential to work with next year.

 

[biltalent]

I really have no idea how these rotations are going to shakeout. Afflalo, Barnes, Casspi, Cauley-Stein, Collison, Cousins, Gay, Koufos, Lawson, McLemore, Temple, & Tolliver combined for 314 minutes per game last year. That's 74 minutes more than what can be played in a game (across 5 positions). It'll be interesting to see what the coach decides and how he's going to manage players that aren't getting as many minutes as they are used to getting.

EDIT: You could potentially just cut the kids out of the equation and go with an all veteran rotation, but I would be very concerned with Cauley-Stein riding the bench all year (considering you're hurting that investment). Every time, I come back to wanting to cut out McLemore & Koufos from the rotation. Koufos doesn't really provide anything different at C than Cousins. Cauley-Stein (at backup C) at least provides a different skillset (while also finding time for him to develop). And Afflalo & Temple are steady vets. One provides great shooting & decent scoring while the other provides great defense, decent shooting, and decent playmaking.

PG - Collison (28 min) / Lawson (20 min)
SG - Temple (20 min) / Afflalo (26 min) / Barnes (2 min)
SF - Gay (30 min) / Barnes (18 min)
PF - Tolliver (18 min) / Casspi (24 min) / Cauley-Stein (6 min)
C - Cousins (34 min) / Cauley-Stein (14 min)

Cousins - 34 min
Gay - 30 min
Collison - 28 min
Afflalo - 26 min
Casspi - 24 min
Lawson - 20 min
Temple - 20 min
Barnes - 20 min
Cauley-Stein - 20 min
Tolliver - 18 min

Even then, it's a very tight minute distribution, but if you're able to move McLemore & Koufos for future pieces (& a rental 3rd C), it makes the rotation a lot easier to work with this season (hopefully avoiding players getting upset with low minutes or inconsistent minutes thus keeping morale high) while helping us in the future. We'll still have plenty of depth...

If a PG goes down, you have Collison, Lawson, Temple, & even Farmar who could pickup more minutes .
If a SG/SF goes down, Gay, Afflalo, Casspi, Temple, and/or Barnes are more than used to getting more minutes.
If a PF goes down, you have Cauley-Stein, Tolliver, Casspi, Barnes, & Gay who can pick-up more minutes.
If a C goes down, you are either using Cauley-Stein or Cousins (depending on which one got hurt) and the rental 3rd C to log all of the minutes at C (Papagiannis doesn't look ready).

Interesting that you have Tolliver starting. I kind of warmed up to that idea as well after last nights game. He just opens up everything inside for Cuz/Rudy/Afflalo and therefore compliments our starters really well. At first I was bit concerned about his defense but I think he did a good job on Griffin last night as well.
Immediately after he subbed in for Koufos in the first quarter we went on a huge run because Tolliver completely changed how we played defensively pushing Cuz to guard Jordan instead of chasing Griffin on the perimeter, and offensively as well because there was just so much more space.

 

[Kingsfan23]

It is what it is... I can't really help people misinterpreting my posts as definitive statements when it couldn't be further from the truth. Everything above is my opinion (notice the word "I" being used) and recommendations on how I would possibly manage and balance the team.

In my eyes, I see us being more successful with them out of the rotation. I could argue that Koufos instead of Cauley-Stein would be better this year, but I'm having a hard time being content with giving the former 6th pick in the 2015 draft zero minutes. What's the tradeoff? Being (potentially) slightly worse this year but giving a guy with great potential minutes to develop into a very valuable piece for us or being slightly better this year while possibly derailing his development leading us to fail at developing yet another lottery pick. I'll let everyone decide for themselves what they think is the better option for this team.

Nowhere did I say I would give McLemore/Koufos up for free, but giving them up for cap relief and future assets could keep everyone else happy in their current role/the minutes they're getting (which will bring less drama/distractions this season) and set us up better for next year with more cap space and more youth/potential to work with next year.

It is what it is... I can't really help people misinterpreting my posts as definitive statements when it couldn't be further from the truth. Everything above is my opinion (notice the word "I" being used) and recommendations on how I would possibly manage and balance the team.

In my eyes, I see us being more successful with them out of the rotation. I could argue that Koufos instead of Cauley-Stein would be better this year, but I'm having a hard time being content with giving the former 6th pick in the 2015 draft zero minutes. What's the tradeoff? Being (potentially) slightly worse this year but giving a guy with great potential minutes to develop into a very valuable piece for us or being slightly better this year while possibly derailing his development leading us to fail at developing yet another lottery pick. I'll let everyone decide for themselves what they think is the better option for this team.

Nowhere did I say I would give McLemore/Koufos up for free, but giving them up for cap relief and future assets could keep everyone else happy in their current role/the minutes they're getting (which will bring less drama/distractions this season) and set us up better for next year with more cap space and more youth/potential to work with next year.

First, it's questionable which position is best suited for now. IMO he struggles rebounding for a 4 and doesn't have the core strength to be dealing with the brutes. That may change, but as I said I wouldn't feel comfortable with him starting at C if Cousins goes down currently

The few extra wins for this team may be the 8th seed. This team is on the bubble either way. So it becomes a philosophical question about developing youth or winning. For me at this point I want all the bullets in the chambers and want to surprise the league. If Koufos is solid and WCS is still a detriment to me I'd rather have 2K out there. If WCS has 'great potential' should he still be harming the rotation as an older sophomore, like I have seen him doing in Summer/preseason? But this is a philosophic decision that I'm actually waiting for starting against Phoenix, what Joerger will do. He could give WCS 5-10 minutes as 9-10th guy. But hopefully, in time WCS lessens the questions, and lives up to his physical abilities, and the conversation for me can be different. But then I'm not really of the opinion that him not playing significant rotation minutes will stump him, but hopefully inspire him and light a fire under him