Given that Garcia (lockerroom leader), Salmons (about at Crawford's level), and Donte (cheap) all play considerably better defense than Crawford, JC is the guy who should go for defense.
Here's an idea of just how stupidly we are threatening to construct this team:
Shots per game last season:
Kings Team: 85.1
Thornton: 17.5 (with Kings)
Evans: 16.4
Cousins: 12.4 (should be going up)
Salmons: 12.3
Hickson: 11.7
Crawford: 11.5
Fredette: 20.7 (college)
Garcia: 8.2
Thompson: 7.1
Hayes: 6.3
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Total: 103.4 + Jimmers 20.7 (college) + any that Donte, Whiteside, Honeycutt or Thomas could expect.
So how's that work? How to balance that back to 85 per game? Well let's see:
1) we bench Jimmer. No shots for you rook. Might as well head back to Utah and enjoy that hot fiancee of yours. See you next year. But that still leaves us at 103.4.
2) Donte, Whiteside, Honeycutt, Thomas etc.? No shots for you. Not a single one. No garbagetime at all. And yet we're still at 103.4.
3) So we'll somehow strip Salmons of 3-4 shots without him going pouty...but of course Cousins/Reke are liekly to pick those right up just a normal development. Which would still leave us around 103.4.
4) So...let's entirely bench Cisco and Thompson. No minutes, no shots at all. We're going with the 7 man rotation baby to keep all our chuckers happy. That's save us 15.3 shots and get it down to 88.1. And then we'll steal three more from Chuck Hayes, because hey, Chcuk doesn't like to shoot anyway and won't mind averaging 3ppg for his 5mil a year.
Whew! Alright! Did it! Yes I completely trashed the rookie seasons of all our rooks, kicked 3 of our best chemistry guys right off the team in Cisco, JT and Donte, sent Whiteside back to NBDL purgatory, and am now running a pure 7 man rotation full of selfish chuckers squabbling over the ball during a compressed season featuring a constant stream of back to backs and even back to back to backs, but I got all these fools their shots, and that's all that matters.
Obviously every player is going to shoot alot less and i'm sure the coaches are going to be emphasizing passing alot more from the scorers. The thing is all of our scorers are great scorers, but they are also all solid and willing passers. Reke 5 asts, Jimmer 4.3, John 3.5, MT 3.5, and Jamal would be added at 4 a gm for his career. So its not like the guys are all going to be whining and crying over not getting their "set" shots from last year or the year before, because i dont think thats the case, they all have passing in their arsenal to make this work. Im hoping they will all be able to look past the fact that numbers arent everything, especially when you want to win and play team ball.
Donte,Whiteside,Honeycutt,Thomas will all be lucky to get on the court let alone get a shot up. With the talent we have theres no reason to play them unless injuries occur, or the coaches see something amazing in practice. Most of them will prolly end up in the NBDL to develop for the future.
I can see Salmons going pouty out of everyone, because i think i vaugely remember him pouting back in the day when not getting enough touches or something. But hes a vet and im sure he'll get over not averaging 17 pts a game, just like Reke will have to get over not averaging 20.
If theres one player out of Thompson, Greene, Cisco i'd like to keep, it would be Cisco for the leadership reasons you aknwoledged and being here since the semi-golden days.
Do you really expect Thompson,Greene and Cisco to get minutes considering how deep our team is? They had a hard enough time finding minutes the last cuple years when we werent deep.
Also Jimmer had the green light to jack 48 footers in college.. Theres no way he'll have as much freedom this year with all this talent. Which meens you can replace those shot attempts with asts knowing Jimmers attitude and work ethic.
I see nothing wrong with this type of depth, especially if we are going to be an offensive powerhouse team this year, which it is looking like we are. Yes it would be lovely to have Battier,Afflalo,Prince,AK, inserted into the lineup instead of a guy like Jamal.. But from the looks of it thats not reality this season unless we make some major trades.
I'll take the playoff vet, 6th man of the year that understands his role as consolation.