FanPost

Random Thought on a Slow Day


So with all this chatter over our starting lineup this season, I thought I'd take some time to think a little outside of the box. Our best 5 players will probably look something like this:

PG: Ridnour
SG: Johnson
SF: Beasley
PF: Love
C: Darko

But then there is all this talk about guys not being able to play together or at a certain spot (i.e. Beasley and Love). Well my solution after the jump.

Extremely extremely simple solution:

On Offense: On defense:
PG: Ridnour PG: Ridnour
SG: Wes SG: Wes
SF: Love SF: Beasley
PF: Beasley PF: Love
C: Darko C: Darko

Beasley, by most accounts, is able to play more to his strengths at the PF position. But the drop off in his defense moving from PF to SF is not that huge. And a lot of it could be learned with some consistency and good rotations.

Love on the other hand, has a pretty good game for a SF. He doesn't have the agility that is ideal for the position, but he has the range and the ability to pass or put the ball on the floor. On defense, he is more suited to guarding the PFs of the world than the Melos of the world.

We are obviously making some concessions with this lineup, but it's a great way to put our best players on the floor. We also get a huge advantage in size and rebounding. Put Flynn in for Ridnour and we've got a pretty good uptempo team as well (it's not bad with Ridnour though). Swap in Martell for Beasley at times and Pek for Darko and we can effectively keep Love and/or Beasley on the floor for most of the game while getting our core guys (Webster, Brewer, Johnson, Beasley, Love, Darko, Pek) the minutes they deserve (perhaps more). Not quite a perfect version of Kahn's uptempo team, but I'd rather put our best talent on the floor than our fastest talent... and we're really not that unathletic.

Kind of a long explanation for such a simple idea, but what do you guys think? Do we gain more than we give up by doing this? Does this strategy help Love and Beasley coexist better? Or are Love's SF weaknesses too great to overcome on offense?

Another random thought: Beasley really should benefit from not having Wade. Why? Because he'll get more chances earlier in the shot clock and he won't be reuquired to clear out of the lane so Wade can bowling ball his way in. He's a pretty bad midrange shooter considering his volume and this seems like a really easy fix or maybe even an automatic, "I no longer play with Dwyane Wade" fix. Same goes for Darko. Both of these guys have to learn to attack the basket as they both have the tools necessary to do it. I think the biggest problem Rambis will face this year is getting guys to get comfortable playing to their strengths and not playing to what is easy or what they have become comfortable with. These guys have a chip on their shoulder and something to prove so hopefully it'll make his job a little easier.