I'm not sure the rotation gets shortened that much in the playoffs. Daniels has been a solid, stabilizing presense in the second unit. His defense has been very solid, and he doens't screw too many things up...
TA will likely be the odd man out.
I can feel myself transforming into a Marquis hater/TA apologist, but I have to continue my mantra here: Marquis at his current levels of production doesn't belong in the rotation. Look at how bad Marquis Daniels has been in 12 March games (coinciding with the arrival of Nate Robinson and Michael Finley):
FG% .386 MPG 19.8 PPG 4.1 RPG 1.4 APG 1.0. He's also averaging more fouls and turnovers than boards and assists.
On the season, his per-minute averages across the board are either career worsts (points, rebounds, FTAs, steals) or worse than his career averages (fouls, assists, TO%). His PER (9.5) is by far the worst of his career.
TA has been pretty mediocre to poor for most of his career, but he */hasn't strayed as far into Scalabrine-ville as Daniels has this season, especially recently. I'm willing to accept a few more fouls and turnovers from TA, to get more rebounds, points, steals, energy and overall impact.
Who knows? Maybe I'm underestimating Daniels intangibles (his unadjusted +/- is the best of the bench squad).
But this is all statistical. Marquis's job out there is essentially to handle the ball and make the smart play. He usually does that. Having him out there lets Nate just focus on scoring. TA doesn't do that.
Plus, I don't anticipate Marquis pulling some boneheaded TA play in a tight playoff game that potentially costs us.
Finally, who the heck cares about TA? He's squandered chance after chance to become the main 2/3 guy off the bench for us. Quite frankly, a few good weeks of basketball shouldn't have changed Doc's mind about him.
Topic: Is Marquis Daniels the odd man out when the rotation shortens? (Read 5024 times)