The two biggest question marks going into the offseason are going to be Barnes and Keegan. I think everyone is pretty much in the agreement that if Barnes walks, we'll hold no ill-will towards him because he's been a loyal player who's at the end of his prime. However, what he brings to our team is extremely important. He's our starting SF who handles the opposing team's best wing each night. He's also only one of two players on the team who can consistently create their own shot. Those two things are really valuable. We're a better team with Barnes but if he decides to leave, it'll be 100% up to Keegan to fill in his shoes. Keegan would need to make a considerable jump in his game. I don't know that he can put it all together in his 2nd year. We've seen him "expanding" his game lately, but that mostly just consists of 1 new move each game that we didn't see before.
Scenario A) But in a perfect world where Keegan suddenly becomes an on-ball 18ppg scorer as our 3rd option in his 2nd year and Barnes leaves in FA, I would move Keegan to Barnes' spot and Sasha to Keegan's current spot as the starting F. I would only be giving Sasha around 20-25mpg and having Lyles come off the bench with around 25mpg. I'd also close out games with Lyles instead of Sasha. I think Lyles brings more to the table at the end of games. Sasha is mostly his 3pt shooting.
Scenario B) However, if we go into next year with Barnes, Lyles, AND Sasha, I'd probably have Sasha be part of our early bench sub and bring him in for Keegan. Maybe at the half-way mark of the 1st quarter, we'll get the lineup of: Mitchell, Huerter, Barnes, Sasha, and Sabonis. Then off the bench it'll be: Mitchell, Monk, Sasha, Metu, and Lyles. But I'd sub Sasha out early for Edwards. I see him getting around 15mpg if this scenario.
Glad I'm not the coach. Now I see why Brown constantly experiments with different lineups and players. Each player brings in something different, but you also have to consider the matchup on the other side too.
