Al Needs to Come off the Bench and Play the 5!

[KeepBigAl]

No disrespect to Al - he is still a useful player - but RW has earned the starting center job.

At his age, Al is better suited to the 5 - perhaps he can work back in his solid mid-range jumpers vs opposing centers vs trying to always launch 3s as a stretch 4. He's also slowed down a step on defense.

Unless there is a specific matchup, let's lose this double big lineup and start GW or Tatum at the 4.

[todd_days_41]

I think this is painfully obvious. The problem? The only decent PF we have on the team is Grant Williams, who should be a bench player himself.

[Surferdad]

I think this is painfully obvious. The problem? The only decent PF we have on the team is Grant Williams, who should be a bench player himself.

Tatum can and has played the 4.  Easy to argue that he's a PF in the modern NBA.  Grant is better at SF, based on what I've seen in recent games. I think with his lost weight he is a bit quicker than he used to be.

Regarding Al Horford, it is indeed sad to see him drop in effectiveness.  His shot is terrible now, but he is also clearly a step slower on defense.  Yeah, move him to the backup 5.

[Who]

Agreed.

I'd love to see us go small with Tatum at PF and Jaylen at SF. I still believe that is our strongest configuration with them moving forward. It best enables us to get the necessary ball-handling, passing and team speed alongside them by having two guards next to them

My first preference would be for Pritchard to start at PG with Smart at SG. My second preference would be for Josh Richardson to start and for Nesmith to get backup SF minutes.

G: Pritchard, Schroder
G: Smart, Josh Richardson [no Romeo]
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

or

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Josh Richardson, Romeo
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

The third choice if Udoka wants to stay big to start is to start Grant Williams at PF instead of Horford and then be willing to go small in the 2nd unit.

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Jaylen, Romeo
F: Tatum, Josh Richardson
F: Grant Williams, Nesmith
C: Rob Williams, Horford

Something like that. Or Tatum at backup PF with Nesmith at SF - you get the idea.

Overall, my first preference is with Pritchard because I believe it gives us our best balance of perimeter shooting, ball-handling, team passing and team speed.

[blink]

Agreed.

I'd love to see us go small with Tatum at PF and Jaylen at SF. I still believe that is our strongest configuration with them moving forward. It best enables us to get the necessary ball-handling, passing and team speed alongside them by having two guards next to them

My first preference would be for Pritchard to start at PG with Smart at SG. My second preference would be for Josh Richardson to start and for Nesmith to get backup SF minutes.

G: Pritchard, Schroder
G: Smart, Josh Richardson [no Romeo]
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

or

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Josh Richardson, Romeo
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

The third choice if Udoka wants to stay big to start is to start Grant Williams at PF instead of Horford and then be willing to go small in the 2nd unit.

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Jaylen, Romeo
F: Tatum, Josh Richardson
F: Grant Williams, Nesmith
C: Rob Williams, Horford

Something like that. Or Tatum at backup PF with Nesmith at SF - you get the idea.

Overall, my first preference is with Pritchard because I believe it gives us our best balance of perimeter shooting, ball-handling, team passing and team speed.

personally I like that 2nd lineup:  Smart, J Rich, Jaylen, JT, Timelord
I think J Rich has been a bit underappreciated this year, but he has played pretty well when he gets extended minutes.

[slamtheking]

Agreed.

I'd love to see us go small with Tatum at PF and Jaylen at SF. I still believe that is our strongest configuration with them moving forward. It best enables us to get the necessary ball-handling, passing and team speed alongside them by having two guards next to them

My first preference would be for Pritchard to start at PG with Smart at SG. My second preference would be for Josh Richardson to start and for Nesmith to get backup SF minutes.

G: Pritchard, Schroder
G: Smart, Josh Richardson [no Romeo]
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

or

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Josh Richardson, Romeo
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

The third choice if Udoka wants to stay big to start is to start Grant Williams at PF instead of Horford and then be willing to go small in the 2nd unit.

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Jaylen, Romeo
F: Tatum, Josh Richardson
F: Grant Williams, Nesmith
C: Rob Williams, Horford

Something like that. Or Tatum at backup PF with Nesmith at SF - you get the idea.

Overall, my first preference is with Pritchard because I believe it gives us our best balance of perimeter shooting, ball-handling, team passing and team speed.

I'm with you on the bolded part.   However I think the better option for the starting guards are Smart and Richardson with Timelord starting at center.  the youth hasn't shown enough to be starting nor do we have 4 quality starters where you could slip in a lesser player as a starter to develop.

bench would be DS, GWill and Horford as the primary backups which is pretty decent with Romeo, PP as next in line.  Nesmith, for all his energy, is just too all-over-the-place still but I have hopes that he will work himself into a rotation player by next season.  Freedom would be coming off the bench for situational matchups.

[jpotter33]

Agreed.

I'd love to see us go small with Tatum at PF and Jaylen at SF. I still believe that is our strongest configuration with them moving forward. It best enables us to get the necessary ball-handling, passing and team speed alongside them by having two guards next to them

My first preference would be for Pritchard to start at PG with Smart at SG. My second preference would be for Josh Richardson to start and for Nesmith to get backup SF minutes.

G: Pritchard, Schroder
G: Smart, Josh Richardson [no Romeo]
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

or

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Josh Richardson, Romeo
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

The third choice if Udoka wants to stay big to start is to start Grant Williams at PF instead of Horford and then be willing to go small in the 2nd unit.

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Jaylen, Romeo
F: Tatum, Josh Richardson
F: Grant Williams, Nesmith
C: Rob Williams, Horford

Something like that. Or Tatum at backup PF with Nesmith at SF - you get the idea.

Overall, my first preference is with Pritchard because I believe it gives us our best balance of perimeter shooting, ball-handling, team passing and team speed.

personally I like that 2nd lineup:  Smart, J Rich, Jaylen, JT, Timelord
I think J Rich has been a bit underappreciated this year, but he has played pretty well when he gets extended minutes.

Yep, this. I’ve always been a Richardson fan, so this has been my preferred starting lineup from the get-go. And his improved shooting this year makes it only more obvious to go this route, along with the absolute monster perimeter D this group would bring.

My second preferred lineup would be replacing Al with Gwill. No PP starting (but more off the bench with his shooting abd penetration), and for God’s sake let’s just trade Schroeder already.

I think there may be a team or two that the two big lineup with Al May still work, but Ime simply has to move away from starting Al consistently. Just not enough shooting and Al is simply not a stretch 4 at this point in his career. He also needs less minutes.

[smokeablount]

I think Grant plays well with the starters and I like a bench nucleus of Horford, Shroeder and JRich. Pritchard takes over for Shroeder next year

[Goldstar88]

Still think that Tatum should be the PF with Grant backing him up. Then Timelord and Horford can split the minutes at C. I’d like to see How the team looks with Richardson starting. He doesn’t seem to have many off games and he always plays hard on both ends.

[nebist]

Al playing the 5 nearly exclusively has been the obvious move since he was acquired. The fact that we're still trying to make him a primary 4 is unfathomable.

With Timelord's emergence and increased minutes, it's even more glaringly obvious than pre-season that Al should be our bench 5 (brief spot minutes at the 4 would be fine).

[Csfan1984]

I like the main ten to be

PP/Schro
Smart/Josh
JB/Langford
JT/GW
TL/Al

Mix in Freedom and Nesmith at certain games for 11th and 12th man.

[CFAN38]

AL is currently playing 30mpg at 35 years old this just seems like to many minutes at this point in his career.


I agree he needs to play the 5. The Cs have taken two bigs in Rob and AL who should be assets in that they can switch and instead made AL a liability by forcing to not switch but instead defend the perimeter in his primary match-up. With the current roster I would start Richardson and start giving him more of an on the ball role like he had in his last season in Miami when he averaged over 4 assists per game.

Long term this team among other things really needs a big wing to go along with the Jays. At this point we all know the likely candidates Harrison Barnes, Jerami Grant, or Kyle Anderson.   

[RodyTur10]

Agreed.

I'd love to see us go small with Tatum at PF and Jaylen at SF. I still believe that is our strongest configuration with them moving forward. It best enables us to get the necessary ball-handling, passing and team speed alongside them by having two guards next to them

My first preference would be for Pritchard to start at PG with Smart at SG. My second preference would be for Josh Richardson to start and for Nesmith to get backup SF minutes.

G: Pritchard, Schroder
G: Smart, Josh Richardson [no Romeo]
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

or

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Josh Richardson, Romeo
F: Jaylen, Nesmith
F: Tatum, Grant Williams
C: Rob Williams, Horford

The third choice if Udoka wants to stay big to start is to start Grant Williams at PF instead of Horford and then be willing to go small in the 2nd unit.

G: Smart, Schroder [no Pritchard]
G: Jaylen, Romeo
F: Tatum, Josh Richardson
F: Grant Williams, Nesmith
C: Rob Williams, Horford

Something like that. Or Tatum at backup PF with Nesmith at SF - you get the idea.

Overall, my first preference is with Pritchard because I believe it gives us our best balance of perimeter shooting, ball-handling, team passing and team speed.

TP. Excellent suggestion. I'd go for the second option with the caveat that Schröder gets traded.
So Pritchard is the first guard off the bench. On paper that defensive first unit looks terrifying.
Lets try whether it works!

G: Smart, Pritchard
G: Richardson, Langford
F: Brown, Nesmith
F: Tatum, G-Will
C: Timelord, Horford

In fact after calming down from yesterdays abysmal performance I realize we SHOULD try something like this before we make any drastic changes to our team (Schröder can still go though, he's a good player but has no future with the Celtics).