HandDownManDown wrote:Everyone here is grasping for straws, and doesn’t fully understand where things are now.
We will be straight up purchasing 1-2 starters a year. This year it was Ashworth, Baylor before him, Hawkins before that. When you factor in guys like Johnson and McAndrew - expected to be impact players from the moment they get here, a la Art/Trey/Nembhard - we don’t need future starters the way we used to. In fact it would be better to hire specialists who realize their role than wanna be feature players who can’t feature.
Whether or not Green stays isn’t as large a matter as what minutes he can give NOW. And that’s in question. Making a few hustle plays doesn’t make you playable, just ask Fred.
The evidence we have is that Green is in for a spot weld to hold things together for a quick minute or two. I’ll leave it to Mac to know whether or not he’s capable of more - and with our situation of our bench being what it is and the 4 spot being what that is, it’s damning that he can’t get in.
If we are looking to buy 2 starters (or more) a year, then we might be in trouble, but I can see us looking for one person as immediate fit for some need every year. This year was a bit of an exception in that we had 3 legitimate NBA prospects possibly coming back and needed to fill holes around them, but even then we only bought a PG
Anyway, I do think there is still a need to develop players and get them to learn to play. Remember Kalkbrenner didn't start as a Freshman, and played 13-14 mpg or so. Trey only started 13 games his freshman year, so there's still a need for development to take place, and in particular there are guys who are good athletes and have skills, but need physical development
Outside of the past few games the 4 spot has been a solid contributor this year, and I think they'll get back into the flow here as well
A quick comparison:
Kaluma last year:
30 mpg, 11.8 ppg, 6 rebounds a game, 1.6 assists, Usage 23.2%
Miller + Traudt this year:
34.7mpg, 9.5 ppg, 5.7 rebounds a game, 1 assist, Usage 12.5
and that's including the downturn these past few games. They are being productive with having almost no plays run for them and deferring to every other guy on the court for offense
But with all of that said, I'm hoping that we work Green in more and play Traudt more as the backup 5 also. Dropping Bello's minutes to around 20mpg helps us in a number of ways and think he's more effective like that