Shumpert's emergence has replaced Jefferson in the rotation. With Deron, Korver, Shump, etc all playing so well,(separately and together), there's just not room for RJ. Playoff rotations don't go as deep as regular season ones. I still think even Derrick Williams could be a solid contributor at times, but we just are really deep and have guys who are better than him and RJ.
I think RJ will be seeing more time coming up for sure. If we play Boston, he is going to play more, because they play small quite a bit, to the point where we will probably even have LeBron at the 5 at times, and if Bron is at the 5, RJ will be at the 4.
And against Golden State....I don't see Channing Frye being able to play much if at all. Nothing against him, but they literally LOVE targeting and exploiting him. It opens up their entire offense, and they don't even have to worry about the glass when he's in the game as a big. Rebounding is one of their weaknesses. TT and Love and Bron give that team absolute hell on the glass, but Frye simply does not. He just plays into way too many of GSW's strengths. And that is okay. I appreciate him for his shooting early in the playoffs and likely some of the shooting that is soon to come versus Boston or Washington.
GS is simply going to be a different ballgame. We will be playing a lot of small ball. a LOT of LBJ at the 4.
Kyrie/JR/Bron/Love/TT
Korver/Shump/RJ/Deron
Barring injury, I don't really see much playing time for anyone besides those 9 guys. Maybe some very small spot situational minutes for Frye, or Dahntay, or even Derrick...but that would only be for a few minutes and it would be after some real foul trouble.
Even Deron is going to take a big minutes hit. He will probably play the first 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter, and maybe the end of the third/early fourth...depending on the game...Kyrie's gonna play 40. Deron can't get on the floor with Kyrie at all unless they play Curry and Livingston together which is not unheard of. But Deron is literally probably looking at 6-8 minutes.
Like I said in another thread, whatever defensive strategy we employ is going to involve giving SOMETHING up. There's just no way to have every base covered with this team given how stacked and talented they are.
I wouldn't stray away from draping Green with LeBron. It allows LeBron to rest while neutering Green's biggest skill, which is his playmaking prowess. You turn Durant into the primary decision-maker and scorer. He can do the former but not the latter...he doesn't possess an iota of LeBron's intelligence and court vision. You don't leave him open, obviously, but at the end of the day you do the best you can and make him beat you. If the game is tight then no doubt LeBron will guard him but that's it.
Putting the vice grips on their original big 3 is the key.
I agree with you 100000000%. This is a very very good post.
A very basic overview
Kyrie/Curry
JR/Klay
Korver/Shump/RJ /Iguodala
LeBron/Durant
Tristan/Draymond.
I think you HAVE to put LeBron on Draymond. Same reasons as you said. Kyrie will be on Steph quite a bit, he's gonna have to step up and do it or else things are just too fucked.
JR will be on Klay. That's a fine match-up. He does very well for himself there.
That leaves Durant and Iguodala. That leaves us with Tristan and Korver,RJ, or Shumpert.
I feel like Tristan is going to be on Iguodala. LeBron will be on Draymond. Both Tristan and LBJ(as they are our best defender) will be playing Free Safety and Strong Safety for us. One will be protecting the rim, the other will be flying around trying to disrupt. Iguodala and Draymond are going to be the guys that get the most open shots out of this. That will be out of design, of course.
RJ v Durant- Not ideal....I don't think RJ would be the worst here...thats what we did on Christmas...Durant pretty much had his way with him though. But maybe Durant having isolation success is going to be a GOOD thing. If we can almost BAIT them into an ISO battle...even though they have Durant...we can definitely outscore ISO Durant even if he is lighting it up.
Shumpert v Durant- If Shump were 3-4 inches taller, this would be perfect. But he's not. Shumpert's really a 2. Durant is almost a 7 footer. The size disadvantage will be an issue. I still think Shump can work him a little bit though. Especially the Shump we've been seeing. If we get that Shump..he's my go-to for Durant. He will have to make up for the size issue by utilizing his quick hands, deflecting passes, denying Durant the ball in the first place, poking the ball away, slapping it..anything possible to disrupt.
Korver v Durant- Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I HATE it. I feel like our guys will just naturally end up helping and it will get GS' ball movement started and then things will get ugly as hell.
So when Korver is on the floor in that role...I have an idea...
How bad of an idea is Tristan on Durant? It definitely leaves the rim exposed a lot more...but that usually won't be a problem versus them with this line-up.. puts a lot of pressure on Kyrie to stay in front of Steph. I definitely think Tristan could at least hold his own versus Durant for a little while. No doubt. He's gonna have to figure out a way to get closer than he usually gets on switching to guards, without opening himself up a blow-by....but it's also Durant instead of a craftier, smaller guy so that'll help the cause. This has the potential to cause foul trouble, however. Which is a dangerous game to play. I think this would be a nice wrinkle, for 2-4 minutes at a time, to try to throw them different looks, disguise the coverages, and hopefully force some long misses to get us out in transition.
