How do you deduce he is a great shooter? 17% from 3 point range and 25% mid-range? Granted Rudy at the 3 works at times but it is a huge match up problem against stronger Small forwards like Prince and Lamar and even Richard Jefferson. Bayless can get the rim with ease but as a point guard, as a 2 Im not so sure, and he has yet to display that he can run the offense without looking for his own shot and his shot has yet to fall in the regular NBA season as well as a subpar preseason this year trying to run the point. Martell will be back to form and I see him starting and a second group of blake, rudy, batum, outlaw and Pryz that can run if Blake pushes it and Outlaw rebounds….both big IF’s.

Part of the reason I liked those players is that they all can play some point guard. But I’m not sure that really helps anything. Although having good ball handlers on the floor has to be of some benefit. I didn’t break down the units…lets see…Roy, Blake, Nic, Lma, Joel are starters and Andre, Bayless, Rudy, Outlaw, GO are the 2nd team. That 2nd team would be running and gunning wouldn’t they. 1st team all control. I like it.

Bayless is great at doing this:

Blake and Bayless are the shooting guards and can handle that.

1) Brandon at the point puts too much ball handling and playmaking load on him, when he should just be required to score the ball since that’s what he does best

2) Bayless at the 2 creates major defensive matcup problems and makes the lineup smaller. If he plays 2, then the PG will have to guard the opposing 2, and if its anyone other than Brandon/Rudy (as stated already a bad idea), then that’s a matchup problem also

3) Blake at the 2 – see Bayless at the 2 but with much more disastrous results, Stevie can’t guard Aaron Brooks let alone Kobe

4) Rudy at the 3 doesn’t work either. He’s to small and not strong enough to stay with the Carmelos of the world. We can intentionally play some small ball to exploit matchups, but playing Rudy at the 3 made his #s drop last year

I have an idea, why don’t we have this roation

PG – Miller/Blake
SG – Roy/Fernandez
SF – Batum/Webster/Cunningham
PF – Aldridge/Outlaw/Howard
C – Oden/Przybilla

seems pretty good to me

Great shooter? I will need to witness it before I buy it.

What would be nice to see more of this year is more matchup substitution rather than always going with time slotted, robotic subbing. In other words, work the matchups, rather than exhibiting preprogrammed behavior which allows other coaches to plan for mismatches in their favor.

We have a great degree of flexibility, let’s use it to our advantage as a way of probing for the other teams weaknesses.

How about Outlaw against slower defenders, Bayless against quicker, thinner guards, Rudy against players whose concentration has a tendency to wander, Martel against poorer perimeter defenders, Batum against the other teams best wing scorers, Blake against guys who like to help, Priz against guys who try to draw fouls, Oden against players who like to score in the post, Andre against the savvy penetrating point guards, Daunte and Jeff against more physical players, Jeff inside, Daunte outside, and Juwan on players that deserve to receive a veteran foul or two. Brandon and Lamarcus can be wild cards.

And above all, when a player is on a roll, let them play. When a player is not playing well, get them out of the game. It was amazing to watch last year as our substitution patterns would go directly against these basic rules. Too many times I would have to yell at my TV, and that just is not right, because my TV had nothing to do with the crazy substitution patterns.