Yeah, I’m similarly puzzled by this statement, along with the overall fascination with Luke given his weaknesses and lack of high-level abilities in any one area.
Further, there are going to be matchups where Kornet in the double big lineup is just unplayable and you need to go smaller with Stevens or Oshae along with a traditional big. Like, while I prefer Queta over Kornet, I understand why Joe trusts Kornet more, but virtually cutting out Stevens and Oshae except for injuries and SEGABABAS I think is a bad approach when they’re very versatile defenders that are better suited in some matchups.
One thing I wish Luke would do is to get back to being an outside threat. He came into the league as a big man shooter, but has seemingly completely cut that out of his game. If he got back some of that ability he’d be more useful offensively and could continue the maximal spacing our team provides from all our rotation players, except him.
I think there’s too much talk about Kornet’s minutes. He’s the third big. If Al or KP are out, he gets a lot of minutes. If they’re healthy, he generally doesn’t. There have been 23 games — he’s gotten a DNP in 6 of them, including last night (so the Joe has settled his rotation assertion doesn’t stand to scrutiny). In 8 of those games, we been without Al or KP for the entire game or much of a game (at Orlando). In those 8 games, Kornet gets about 16.7 minutes, which seems reasonable because in those games he’s the 2nd big. In the 15 games when those two have been healthy, he’s averaged 5.8 minutes, and had 6 DNPS, or 40% of such games.
It also makes sense to play him a little more frequently when both other bigs are healthy because a) we know Horford and KP are going to miss their share of games, so he’s more likely to need to be ready to step up, and b) there aren’t as many viable substitution options when a big is out. If a wing is out, you can increase the minutes of the other top 7 players in the rotation to help cover, and there are many other wings to backfill. It’s similar with a guard. With a big, if you want one on the floor at all times, as it seems Joe does, you’ve just got Kornet.
All that said, I’d like to upgrade from Luke, but as long as he’s in the team it makes sense that he gets minutes, because he’s the best person to a fill a role that is more likely to be needed on any given night.