I think he made a fair assumption based on what we have seen in preseason, if the Clipper game was the closest thing to a dress rehearsal than WCS is the backup center and Ben is the backup SG(at least for the first eight games). Those guys will surely play short of Joerger severely cutting the rotation down, meaning Barnes or Tolliver start at the 4, Koufos is the backup C, Temple plays backup SG and backup PG.
Kings @ Suns - Game 1 Preview
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I think using the preseason as a gauge for who will and will not get minutes is useful to an extent. Joerger often times gave players the night off or decided that guys like Cousins & Gay are going to get 20-25 min a game. That's not going to happen in the regular season if our team remains healthy. We have 12 players who are used to getting minutes (Collison, Lawson, Afflalo, Temple, McLemore, Gay, Casspi, Barnes, Tolliver, Cauley-Stein, Koufos, Cousins). It's foolish to think that Joerger is going to roll with a 12 man rotation. I'll try my best below to make it work.
PG - Collison (24 min) / Lawson (20 min) / Temple (4 min)
SG - Afflalo (24 min) / Temple (12 min) / McLemore (16 min)
SF - Gay (28 min) / Barnes (16 min) / Casspi (4 min)
PF - Tolliver (16 min) / Cauley-Stein (16 min) / Casspi (12 min) / Cousins (4 min)
C - Cousins (32 min) / Koufos (16 min)
Cousins - 36 min
Gay - 28 min
Collison - 24 min
Afflalo - 24 min
Lawson - 20 min
Temple - 16 min
McLemore - 16 min
Barnes - 16 min
Casspi - 16 min
Tolliver - 16 min
Cauley-Stein - 16 min
Koufos - 16 min
Is this what Kings fans are expecting? I'm certainly not. If we do not make any trades & nobody gets injured, somebody (and more like a few people) are going to get cut out of the rotation. I think it would be interesting to hear who people think or prefer it to be.
PG - Collison (24 min) / Lawson (20 min) / Temple (4 min)
SG - Afflalo (24 min) / Temple (12 min) / McLemore (16 min)
SF - Gay (28 min) / Barnes (16 min) / Casspi (4 min)
PF - Tolliver (16 min) / Cauley-Stein (16 min) / Casspi (12 min) / Cousins (4 min)
C - Cousins (32 min) / Koufos (16 min)
Cousins - 36 min
Gay - 28 min
Collison - 24 min
Afflalo - 24 min
Lawson - 20 min
Temple - 16 min
McLemore - 16 min
Barnes - 16 min
Casspi - 16 min
Tolliver - 16 min
Cauley-Stein - 16 min
Koufos - 16 min
Is this what Kings fans are expecting? I'm certainly not. If we do not make any trades & nobody gets injured, somebody (and more like a few people) are going to get cut out of the rotation. I think it would be interesting to hear who people think or prefer it to be.
So the Suns are a rebuilding Team and we can expect to win by 20?
Strange from my point of view the Suns backcourt is clearly above league average with Bledsoe, Knight and Booker and will cause huge problems, if we defend like we did versus the Clippers. Based on preseason play we also are facing a frontcourt of Tyson Chandler, who can at least contain Boogie, and a potential unicorn player in Chriss, who can stretch the floor for their guards.
We are more experienced and with Tucker eventually not playing are a bit deeper.
I personally don't expect an easy win.
Strange from my point of view the Suns backcourt is clearly above league average with Bledsoe, Knight and Booker and will cause huge problems, if we defend like we did versus the Clippers. Based on preseason play we also are facing a frontcourt of Tyson Chandler, who can at least contain Boogie, and a potential unicorn player in Chriss, who can stretch the floor for their guards.
We are more experienced and with Tucker eventually not playing are a bit deeper.
I personally don't expect an easy win.
K
It will be interesting to see how we use Temple this year against bench spark-plugs (or even starters), we finally have a guy off the bench that can play D and is not a completely awful on offense as a wing in terms of decision making(e.g James Anderson and James Johnson).
The Suns have as much untapped potential as any of the up and coming teams such as the Twolves/Nuggets/Lakers there young talent in Booker/Warren/Len/Chriss/Bender can hang in terms of talent/potential with any of those more publicized young teams.
The Suns have as much untapped potential as any of the up and coming teams such as the Twolves/Nuggets/Lakers there young talent in Booker/Warren/Len/Chriss/Bender can hang in terms of talent/potential with any of those more publicized young teams.
Because Barnes/Casspi/Gay or Tolliver at PF are our best bets against most teams smaller lineups. Out of those guys Barnes seems to be the one with the best resume as a defender, who can hit some threes.
Like most teams we will start big with DMC + KK and sub in our smaller and more mobile spacing lineup, which will play the most minutes.
Everything would change in our favour, when Willie could show, that he can contribute more than some solid pick&roll defense. But preseason didn't get the hopes up in that regard.
Like most teams we will start big with DMC + KK and sub in our smaller and more mobile spacing lineup, which will play the most minutes.
Everything would change in our favour, when Willie could show, that he can contribute more than some solid pick&roll defense. But preseason didn't get the hopes up in that regard.
Not a question of wanting. Question of what Joerger has said. And while Barnes is still a battler on defense, he's lost some lateral quickness with age so its one of those things that makes a certain level of sense...if you don't mind having a former swingman playing "power" forward.
But its also Willie's fault. Since the arrival of this new coach I have not seen him do anything to explain to the coach that the position is his. And once its not his, well, our options are various but awkward.
But its also Willie's fault. Since the arrival of this new coach I have not seen him do anything to explain to the coach that the position is his. And once its not his, well, our options are various but awkward.
That may be your opinion but that's not what we are going to see happen. I don't know how much clearer signs need to be to conclude Koufos and Boogie are our starters at 4 and 5. This is not a "we shall see...." situation. This is the line-up we are going to roll with. Certainly you are entitled to think this is not an ideal pairing based on last year, and I concur with you to a degree. But last year is not this year, and there are few other variables you have to factor in before saying those two cannot be effective together:
Then you have Willie who on raw potential with a coach who didn't think much of him put up FAR better numbers in his rookie season than Tolliver ever has in his journeyman career:
- We are playing a slower pace (more catered to Koufos skills)
- We are playing in more structured system (one Koufos knows)
- Koufos is leaner than he was last year (more agility)
- Boogies is leaner and healthier than last year ( more agility)
Then you have Willie who on raw potential with a coach who didn't think much of him put up FAR better numbers in his rookie season than Tolliver ever has in his journeyman career:
- Tolliver career stats: 6.0 PPG 3.5 RPG 41% FGs 10 PER
- Willie rookie stats: 7.0 PPG 5.3 RPG 56% FGs 15 PER
If we see that Tolliver and Cousins are both shooting bigs, then it would be reasonable to alternate them so that they never play at the same time, and we can use Willie/Koufos as our non-shooting bigs. Koufos is good all-around, can't shoot. Willie is athletic, can block, but has difficulty with rebounding. But Willie and Koufos cannot occupy the floor at the same time. Either way, we have two bigs on the floor at all times. But we can choose to go small by pushing our SFs to PFs when we want to. Ideally we would see Willie develop a post game as an answer to small-ball: quick enough to guard stretch 4s, big enough to punish the stretch 4s on the block. While shooting would be a nice cherry on top, we have a nice safety net with Tolliver and our SFs that can masquerade as 4s, if we ever need shooting, so we can afford to have Willie develop a post game first.
I guarantee you if you look up the Dubs PPS from corner three, it will be higher than 1.24 PPS. So your reference is misleading, intentionally or unintentionally so. As far as Tolliver having a "hot spot" I will concede this point FWIW. But in general the short corner three is almost every shooter's "hot spot" whether from right or left side of the court, because (1) shorter shot than wings and top of key and (2) a lot of those shots come on swing pass resulting in an uncontested attempt.
You're arguing a point that really isn't there. The percentage Tolliver shoots from the corner is a very efficient shot in today's basketball. A team would take 1.24 points per field gold attempt all day. There's really no denying that fact.
And to answer your question, Golden State's percentage is a tiny bit lower than Tolliver's "hot spot" so remind me never to take your "guarantees" too seriously
And to answer your question, Golden State's percentage is a tiny bit lower than Tolliver's "hot spot" so remind me never to take your "guarantees" too seriously
If you can't have a little blind optimism before the first game of the season when can you have it?
On that note....We win by 40 and Big Papa becomes the first Kings rookie since Jason Thompson to record a 20/10 game in his NBA debut!
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