Petrie Identifying team needs (Rim protector!)

Daly mostly played C for this team in terms of matchups, Cousins often times spent his minutes guarding a Josh Smith, Blake Griffin, etc and he was consistently the only big guarding the pick and roll which as I saw more and more of them together, I realized that could be a problem moving forward with that duo.
What? Daly didn't mostly play center while Cuz played PF. Daly often guarded the more mobile or perimeter oriented of the two they matched up against. Amare, Dirk,Aldridge, Griffin(Westphal never matched Cuz on Griffin for any extended period of time), Bosh, Boozer, Pau, KG. Cuz was regularly matched up against the opposing player which was more paint oriented. DA Jordan, Perkins, Bynum, Chandler, Noah, Brooks.

Chuck was brought in to fill in Daly's role. Chuck was brought in to defend the more mobile PF's on the perimeter where he would be included in pcik & rolls or iso face-up situations, was predicted as the starting PF next to Cuz well before training camp by Westy on Grants show, and during training camp both Petrie and Westy said they were extremely confident with the Chuck/Cuz pairing and were very pleased with adding him.
 
What? Daly didn't mostly play center while Cuz played PF. Daly often guarded the more mobile or perimeter oriented of the two they matched up against. Amare, Dirk,Aldridge, Griffin(Westphal never matched Cuz on Griffin for any extended period of time), Bosh, Boozer, Pau, KG. Cuz was regularly matched up against the opposing player which was more paint oriented. DA Jordan, Perkins, Bynum, Chandler, Noah, Brooks.

Chuck was brought in to fill in Daly's role. Chuck was brought in to defend the more mobile PF's on the perimeter where he would be included in pcik & rolls or iso face-up situations, was predicted as the starting PF next to Cuz well before training camp by Westy on Grants show, and during training camp both Petrie and Westy said they were extremely confident with the Chuck/Cuz pairing and were very pleased with adding him.
And there's the problem. How often did Chuck get to play with Cousins with Smart as HC?
 
What? Daly didn't mostly play center while Cuz played PF. Daly often guarded the more mobile or perimeter oriented of the two they matched up against. Amare, Dirk,Aldridge, Griffin(Westphal never matched Cuz on Griffin for any extended period of time), Bosh, Boozer, Pau, KG. Cuz was regularly matched up against the opposing player which was more paint oriented. DA Jordan, Perkins, Bynum, Chandler, Noah, Brooks.

Chuck was brought in to fill in Daly's role. Chuck was brought in to defend the more mobile PF's on the perimeter where he would be included in pcik & rolls or iso face-up situations, was predicted as the starting PF next to Cuz well before training camp by Westy on Grants show, and during training camp both Petrie and Westy said they were extremely confident with the Chuck/Cuz pairing and were very pleased with adding him.
I have a game recorded where Cousins did just that. That was one of the instances where I saw the potential issues of having Cousins guarding PF's and being guarded by PF's not even to mention the pick and roll defense. Those doubles were also coming more quickly when he was being guarded by a PF.

Daly shared time on some quicker players but it was often Cousins guarding them away from the basket or on switches. Check the game with Atlanta that year, Cousins matched up with Josh Smith. Did a decent job too.

Daly and Cousins did look good in some areas but they were exposed in a few other areas every game and that wouldn't have been a successful full time starting combination. Dalembert backing up Cousins would be nice though, and better than Hayes in my opinion as I have stressed for most of the year.

Those are the exact reasons that I thought Hayes was a solid addition, unfortunately Hayes hasn't be used that way much since the coaching change even though when paired together the defense has looked much better inside. If you want to call it filling Daly's role that's fine, I look at it as adding a more complimentary player. I just look at it as a player brought in to PLAY WITH COUSINS, and he hasn't. Until he does and he fails in that capacity, I think he could be a valuable addition to the team
 
I have a game recorded where Cousins did just that. That was one of the instances where I saw the potential issues of having Cousins guarding PF's and being guarded by PF's not even to mention the pick and roll defense. Those doubles were also coming more quickly when he was being guarded by a PF.

Daly shared time on some quicker players but it was often Cousins guarding them away from the basket or on switches. Check the game with Atlanta that year, Cousins matched up with Josh Smith. Did a decent job too.

Daly and Cousins did look good in some areas but they were exposed in a few other areas every game and that wouldn't have been a successful full time starting combination. Dalembert backing up Cousins would be nice though, and better than Hayes in my opinion as I have stressed for most of the year.

Those are the exact reasons that I thought Hayes was a solid addition, unfortunately Hayes hasn't be used that way much since the coaching change even though when paired together the defense has looked much better inside. If you want to call it filling Daly's role that's fine, I look at it as adding a more complimentary player. I just look at it as a player brought in to PLAY WITH COUSINS, and he hasn't. Until he does and he fails in that capacity, I think he could be a valuable addition to the team
Daly and Cuz with JT off the bench alongside Donte as a swing 3/4 to cover the most mobile of bigs would've had you covered just fine defensively for just about any big man matchup.

Switching out Daly for Hayes was one of the worst "trades" that Petrie could've made. I struggle to think of anything beyond leadership that Hayes brings to the table that Daly didn't. Anything positive that Hayes does for your is negated by what you sacrifice in the shotblocking, rebounding and entire offensive department. His passing is good, but Daly proved himself to be a pretty good passer himself last season. With Hayes, you sacrifice too much to justify meaningful minutes for him. Dislike.
 
The problem with Hayes a vet leader is that he's not important enough to the team's play to be heard. He's a bench guy who hardly gets touches on offense. You can't have your vet leader be some guy who will be watching from the bench on your team's final possession.
 
Daly and Cuz with JT off the bench alongside Donte as a swing 3/4 to cover the most mobile of bigs would've had you covered just fine defensively for just about any big man matchup.

Switching out Daly for Hayes was one of the worst "trades" that Petrie could've made. I struggle to think of anything beyond leadership that Hayes brings to the table that Daly didn't. Anything positive that Hayes does for your is negated by what you sacrifice in the shotblocking, rebounding and entire offensive department. His passing is good, but Daly proved himself to be a pretty good passer himself last season. With Hayes, you sacrifice too much to justify meaningful minutes for him. Dislike.
As long as Cousins could stay on the super quick options, which I admit he did fairly well. Problem is it had you toasted when that little bitty guard came around that screen and buried you with mid-range jumpers or with passes to bigs off the pick and roll. The positional help defense was an issue, Hayes is a great positional defensive player, hence why it made sense to bring a player of that ilk onto the team. In a perfect world you have both Daly and Hayes on the team.

For the argument of that being one of the "worst trades". Well, it still seems like more failed usage than anything. If you want to call it a trade you have to look at the results for both sides. Houston had a stellar season that saw them climb to the 14th spot in the lottery. Before Daly? Hey, look at that, 14th spot in the lottery. Not even taking into account that they traded for Marcus Camby who took Dalemberts starting role away. Kings are about where they were as well. Maybe it will work out alright in the end. Houston doesn't pick up Daly's contract and the Kings re-sign him and have both Hayes and Dalembert. The only problem I see is that if Smart is using Hayes this way, I can only imagine how he sees Dalembert.
 
The problem with Hayes a vet leader is that he's not important enough to the team's play to be heard. He's a bench guy who hardly gets touches on offense. You can't have your vet leader be some guy who will be watching from the bench on your team's final possession.
Leaders come in all shapes and sizes. Hayes was on the floor for a few final possessions, I will not understand how you leave your defensive specialist off the floor in final defensive situations though. Happened a few times, but Smart did use him in that capacity a few times. That's what defensive specialist role players are for.