12-24-2023, 09:10 AM
(12-24-2023, 08:17 AM)Winter Wrote: It seems to me Exum's ability to move the ball and get others involved should play into the math. I seem him finishing games for the simple reason that he has so many positives and so few negatives. But he might be better managing the second unit for the first three quarters if everyone is healthy.
Given Kyrie's health, it may not matter. Exum is so versatile he's likely to get the starting job to cover for someone else's health.
Covering for someone’s health is basically how we got here. Exum has started the last nine games and is 16/4/4 with fantastic shooting. The first two games he started in place of GWill when he was out. The last seven he replaced Kyrie. 82games is updated through Friday. We have 21 minutes of Kyrie, Exum, Luka, DJJ and Lively this season. O is 158 and D is 80. One thing the 82games stats make clear is that Exum is better when he’s the two next to one of the stars than he is as the PG without those other guys.
I read where Cooperstein thinks DJJ will start and Williams will come off the bench when everyone is healthy. The conundrum is the more DJJ looks good as a starter, the more difficult it is to keep him this summer. But, if you move him to the bench when he’s playing really well as a starter, that probably doesn’t help either. 82games lists GWill as the SF next to DJJ as the PF when they play together (but GWill is the PF when he’s not in with DJJ). GWill is dramatically more effective as the PF than he is as the SF. If we have played any minutes of Irving, Exum, Luka, GWill and Lively it isn’t many. 82games lists the top 20 lineups for players and that group isn’t in Exum’s top 20 lineups (six minutes for the 20th most used lineup). I suspect Coop is right that if we ever get to full health it will be GWill to the bench.
Mixing Green, THJ and GWill in with the other five gives you lots of workable solutions. To Chicago’s point, if we could ever also mix in Maxi (but not as the center), that would be potentially strong too. But what really needs to happen is finding a defensive center to mix in off the bench. That would solve a lot of our bench lineup issues.