Sorry Baby But I like the big Lug.

[billysan]

If Baby can keep hitting the outside jumper, he should keep playing.  As should Scal.  Leon has some good qualities, but when you couple his inability to do anything outside of 5 feet from the basket with Tony Allen and Rajon Rondo's similar deficiencies in range, and you have yourself a pretty big problem in spacing.  The more we can spread the floor (as we did last year with Posey and Brown) the better. 

Leon has to learn to pass. Noone ever thinks he is going to do it, so they double without worry. It's really getting frustrating. As for Scal, I've never seen a more erratic shooter. Because of this, he too is very frustrating.

True.  Scal is hardly good and if this bench was even halfway decent he'd never see the light of day (see last year, and the bench only was halfway decent).  But if Leon's standing at the three point line, no one thinks twice.  At least with Scal a team has to worry about it.  That opens up the floor for the more talented players out there.  Baby's starting to help in that regard too.  He'll help more if he can keep hitting that 16-18 footer.

All of these points are good, but it still leads back to one major point for me. These guys are all 'moderately good' at certain specific roles, they are not complete players. They all lack one or more of the following things: length, passing, shooting range, defensive ability, ball handling, etc that you would like to see from your bigs. This is why they are on the bench and should continue to be used in situational matchups.

Davis is trending upward lately as is Scal, but I will remain cautiously optimistic. These two, and Leon for that matter, have never been consistently productive in their 'roles'. I dont believe more playing time is going to change their individual production significantly to the point where we can consider it reliable.

[housecall]

Baby has taken a step in the right direction by playing as good over the road as at home... he has to stay consistent in playing well for the rest of the season.

[Rondo_is_better]

If Baby can keep hitting the outside jumper, he should keep playing.  As should Scal.  Leon has some good qualities, but when you couple his inability to do anything outside of 5 feet from the basket with Tony Allen and Rajon Rondo's similar deficiencies in range, and you have yourself a pretty big problem in spacing.  The more we can spread the floor (as we did last year with Posey and Brown) the better. 

Leon has to learn to pass. Noone ever thinks he is going to do it, so they double without worry. It's really getting frustrating. As for Scal, I've never seen a more erratic shooter. Because of this, he too is very frustrating.

True.  Scal is hardly good and if this bench was even halfway decent he'd never see the light of day (see last year, and the bench only was halfway decent).  But if Leon's standing at the three point line, no one thinks twice.  At least with Scal a team has to worry about it.  That opens up the floor for the more talented players out there.  Baby's starting to help in that regard too.  He'll help more if he can keep hitting that 16-18 footer.

All of these points are good, but it still leads back to one major point for me. These guys are all 'moderately good' at certain specific roles, they are not complete players. They all lack one or more of the following things: length, passing, shooting range, defensive ability, ball handling, etc that you would like to see from your bigs. This is why they are on the bench and should continue to be used in situational matchups.

Davis is trending upward lately as is Scal, but I will remain cautiously optimistic. These two, and Leon for that matter, have never been consistently productive in their 'roles'. I dont believe more playing time is going to change their individual production significantly to the point where we can consider it reliable.

BBD is a pretty good interior passer. He's got range to about 18-20 feet. He plays hard on D, and really frustrates big, strong C and PF type players. His ball handling is more than serviceable for a big man. I'd say he has more diverse skills and fewer deficiencies than Leon right now, and thus deserves more playing time.... right now.

[billysan]

If Baby can keep hitting the outside jumper, he should keep playing.  As should Scal.  Leon has some good qualities, but when you couple his inability to do anything outside of 5 feet from the basket with Tony Allen and Rajon Rondo's similar deficiencies in range, and you have yourself a pretty big problem in spacing.  The more we can spread the floor (as we did last year with Posey and Brown) the better. 

Leon has to learn to pass. Noone ever thinks he is going to do it, so they double without worry. It's really getting frustrating. As for Scal, I've never seen a more erratic shooter. Because of this, he too is very frustrating.

True.  Scal is hardly good and if this bench was even halfway decent he'd never see the light of day (see last year, and the bench only was halfway decent).  But if Leon's standing at the three point line, no one thinks twice.  At least with Scal a team has to worry about it.  That opens up the floor for the more talented players out there.  Baby's starting to help in that regard too.  He'll help more if he can keep hitting that 16-18 footer.

All of these points are good, but it still leads back to one major point for me. These guys are all 'moderately good' at certain specific roles, they are not complete players. They all lack one or more of the following things: length, passing, shooting range, defensive ability, ball handling, etc that you would like to see from your bigs. This is why they are on the bench and should continue to be used in situational matchups.

Davis is trending upward lately as is Scal, but I will remain cautiously optimistic. These two, and Leon for that matter, have never been consistently productive in their 'roles'. I dont believe more playing time is going to change their individual production significantly to the point where we can consider it reliable.

BBD is a pretty good interior passer. He's got range to about 18-20 feet. He plays hard on D, and really frustrates big, strong C and PF type players. His ball handling is more than serviceable for a big man. I'd say he has more diverse skills and fewer deficiencies than Leon right now, and thus deserves more playing time.... right now.

Agreed, right now. I am happy to ride his recent improved productivity, for now. I just dont trust it to continue.

[Rondo_is_better]

If Baby can keep hitting the outside jumper, he should keep playing.  As should Scal.  Leon has some good qualities, but when you couple his inability to do anything outside of 5 feet from the basket with Tony Allen and Rajon Rondo's similar deficiencies in range, and you have yourself a pretty big problem in spacing.  The more we can spread the floor (as we did last year with Posey and Brown) the better. 

Leon has to learn to pass. Noone ever thinks he is going to do it, so they double without worry. It's really getting frustrating. As for Scal, I've never seen a more erratic shooter. Because of this, he too is very frustrating.

True.  Scal is hardly good and if this bench was even halfway decent he'd never see the light of day (see last year, and the bench only was halfway decent).  But if Leon's standing at the three point line, no one thinks twice.  At least with Scal a team has to worry about it.  That opens up the floor for the more talented players out there.  Baby's starting to help in that regard too.  He'll help more if he can keep hitting that 16-18 footer.

All of these points are good, but it still leads back to one major point for me. These guys are all 'moderately good' at certain specific roles, they are not complete players. They all lack one or more of the following things: length, passing, shooting range, defensive ability, ball handling, etc that you would like to see from your bigs. This is why they are on the bench and should continue to be used in situational matchups.

Davis is trending upward lately as is Scal, but I will remain cautiously optimistic. These two, and Leon for that matter, have never been consistently productive in their 'roles'. I dont believe more playing time is going to change their individual production significantly to the point where we can consider it reliable.

BBD is a pretty good interior passer. He's got range to about 18-20 feet. He plays hard on D, and really frustrates big, strong C and PF type players. His ball handling is more than serviceable for a big man. I'd say he has more diverse skills and fewer deficiencies than Leon right now, and thus deserves more playing time.... right now.

Agreed, right now. I am happy to ride his recent improved productivity, for now. I just dont trust it to continue.

I don't trust it to continue, either, but I don't think he'll regress. I also find myself wondering if the things Leon lack are easily taught. You can't really teach someone to have sharp focus at all times on the defensive end, can you? So will that ever improve?

[orrzor]

How many teams though have a bench filled with even 2 or 3 reliable players? Seems if they were consistent at their jobs, they would be starting, except for noteable exceptions like Terry or Ginobili.

[billysan]

How many teams though have a bench filled with even 2 or 3 reliable players? Seems if they were consistent at their jobs, they would be starting, except for noteable exceptions like Terry or Ginobili.

I think most teams have at least one player they can bring off the bench as a starter at one position without a big downturn in performance. None have more than 2 I would guess. It is of course impossible to replace a superstar.

[Roy Hobbs]

Another good night for BBD.  This is by far the most consistent stretch of his career, and I've been very impressed.  Overall, I've been a BBD doubter, but his play has started to make me come around. 

He's shot 75% over the past four games.  That's a very small sample size, but it's a major step in the right direction.  After shooting 34.1% in December, he's up to 48% in January, which includes a 1-for-12 game which appears to be an aberation.  Again, I'm impressed.

[Fafnir]

The best part of tonight is that he attacked the weak interior D of the Kings. Good awareness of the opponent. Against better shot blocking he'd have had more trouble and might have better taking a jumper when he was open.

[Bankshot]

Big Baby is looking gooood!  Anyone see that fallaway jumper?  His jump shot is helping him expand his game.  He faked the jumper and then beat his man off the dribble for a layup.   Like I've been saying, the kid is developing a nice all around game.  His game reminds me of a young Antoine... nice passer, good footwork, jumpshot (BBD should stay away from the 3s though ), bit of an inside game.  I'm really liking what I see from this kid.

Keep it up BBD!

[billysan]

With the Pistons up tonite, expect another big game for BBD. He performs well against this team for some reason. I wonder what fires him up? Maxiell? Sheed? There is 'something' there IMO.

[RebusRankin]

I'd take a repeat of the game he had last winter in Detroit.

[Bankshot]

I'd take a repeat of the game he had last winter in Detroit.

Not a great game, but had a big impact down the stretch in the 4th quarter after Perk got tossed with a basket and clutch rebound.