Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Relevant:

"...Next Phase of the Offseason"
Sean Deveney @ The Baseline

Chronicle article - “It’s early,” Hinkle said. “No player has changed hands yet. No one has even signed a contract yet. Remember two years ago at this time? The only power forward on our roster was Steve Novak.”

Let's think minutes for a second.

PG: Aaron and Kyle will split all 48

SG: Ariza will start, that much we know. James White seems to be next in line, but who knows what our draftees will play like in training camp or what Brent Barry is going to do for the team next year. I'm imagining that Ariza holds 20-25 minutes at the 2, with other minutes spent at the 3. That leaves 10-20 minutes to split between James White and our rooks.

SF: Battier will hold this spot down, possibly switching defensive roles with Ariza depending on matchups. He and Ariza should play 40+ minutes at the 3 spot. The other options are about the same as those at the backup 2 spot. Budinger is 6'7 and seems like he'd slide to the 3 if he can't keep up with the NBA's 2 guards' pace. Our bigs are stretched too thin to slide Carl over to the 3, even though he could pull it off against bigger opponents.

PF/C: Who knows. This is our deepest and weakest position. We have a lot of talent, but none of them can protect the rim. Chuck can dig people out of the post and slide in front of slashers, but, beyond that, we have no shot blocking. Carl can get up, but he hasn't got the timing or positioning polished yet. Scola is crafty and can get steals, but he can't really stop the post up -or- block shots. The scoring load will fall heavily on Luis and Landry, but what we really need is an inside presence: rebounding, changing if not blocking shots and taking up space.

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