foucault87
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I want to comment on the Allen/Mobley thing. In general, zagging when everyone is zigging is not a bad thing. The important thing is to make sure you have flexibility in your roster and a coach willing to use that. The example that always stands out to me is GSW in 2015. They blitzed the league with the Barnes 4 Dray 5 lineups all year. Then they get to the finals and suddenly a Mozgod is destroying them. Kerr went to his bench and threw Speights and David Lee in there, who had barely played all year, and suddenly they are playing a more traditional 2 big lineup and matching the Cavs size. Obviously, no Love or Kyrie mattered, but I think that adjustment was also a very important change.
Point of all this is, I dont think we can just say "Allen/Mobley is a garbage frontline, we need to jettison Allen for the first mediocre 3nD wing we can get." I actually think what we should be doing is getting a strong 3rd big that can shoot a bit and slot at 4/5. That is, we dont need a Nic Batum who is a 3/4 pretending to be a small ball 4/5 but a true big man. There are 96 minutes available at 4/5. We know Allen is at his best in around 28-32 mpg. That is fine, we need to acknowledge that to maximize him which JBB's 4 man rotation failed to do during the playoffs. If Allen plays the maximum of those minutes and we pencil in 32-36 per game for Mobley split at 4 and 5, there are somewhere between 28 - 36 mpg for other players. If we give another 12 or so to a small ball 4 (Wade? Lamar?), we just need a third big to eat up the remaining 16-24 mpg. Suddenly, this seems very reasonable.
If we get a stable 3rd big man who can play those minutes and keep Allen in a range where his motor can be running the whole time and Mobley doesnt have to overextend himself, we will be well poised. This is exactly what Mil has been doing with the Giannis/Blopez/Portis trio. We already kind of do this with the guards where Levert gives us 28 mpg as a 1/2/3 when Garland and Mitchell need to rest (and can sometimes slot next to them at 3 for stretches). You need less depth for this in the frontcourt as you only need to really cover 2 positions and can get away with a lot of 1 big lineups. If we get that third body, I think our big guys will both look better than we have seen this year. This is why JBB's screw up with K Love makes me so mad. He would've been perfect for this like he was last year but this guy is so in over his head he might as well be coaching curling on a basketball court.
Couple good targets have been brought up. Saric and Eubanks seem like solid buy low options. I have always like Dario's game and I think as a passing/shooting big, he does a lot of what we want in that third big. I do wonder how he holds up post injury but that remains to be seen. Eubanks is a bit more low profile but also a good candidate. My personal favorite is Naz Reid who I think covers everything we would want.
Point of all this is, I dont think we can just say "Allen/Mobley is a garbage frontline, we need to jettison Allen for the first mediocre 3nD wing we can get." I actually think what we should be doing is getting a strong 3rd big that can shoot a bit and slot at 4/5. That is, we dont need a Nic Batum who is a 3/4 pretending to be a small ball 4/5 but a true big man. There are 96 minutes available at 4/5. We know Allen is at his best in around 28-32 mpg. That is fine, we need to acknowledge that to maximize him which JBB's 4 man rotation failed to do during the playoffs. If Allen plays the maximum of those minutes and we pencil in 32-36 per game for Mobley split at 4 and 5, there are somewhere between 28 - 36 mpg for other players. If we give another 12 or so to a small ball 4 (Wade? Lamar?), we just need a third big to eat up the remaining 16-24 mpg. Suddenly, this seems very reasonable.
If we get a stable 3rd big man who can play those minutes and keep Allen in a range where his motor can be running the whole time and Mobley doesnt have to overextend himself, we will be well poised. This is exactly what Mil has been doing with the Giannis/Blopez/Portis trio. We already kind of do this with the guards where Levert gives us 28 mpg as a 1/2/3 when Garland and Mitchell need to rest (and can sometimes slot next to them at 3 for stretches). You need less depth for this in the frontcourt as you only need to really cover 2 positions and can get away with a lot of 1 big lineups. If we get that third body, I think our big guys will both look better than we have seen this year. This is why JBB's screw up with K Love makes me so mad. He would've been perfect for this like he was last year but this guy is so in over his head he might as well be coaching curling on a basketball court.
Couple good targets have been brought up. Saric and Eubanks seem like solid buy low options. I have always like Dario's game and I think as a passing/shooting big, he does a lot of what we want in that third big. I do wonder how he holds up post injury but that remains to be seen. Eubanks is a bit more low profile but also a good candidate. My personal favorite is Naz Reid who I think covers everything we would want.