What starting lineup do you like for this team?

[BDeCosta26]

I guess if it was me I'd go, as it stands today (this is about to get seriously convoluted)..

Smart/Thomas/Rozier
Bradley/Smart/Hunter/Young/Rozier
Crowder/Young/Turner/Jones/Jerebko
Lee/Olynyk/Sullinger/Jerebko/Johnson
Johnson/Zeller/Olynyk/Mickey/Jerebko

I think I probably have too many players, cause I didn't skip anyone but Thornton and Babb. But you get the point, we need a couple shaping moves.

I imagine Johnson is going to be playing a bunch of his minutes (which I bet aren't huge) at the 5 because he can get away with it a lot the way the league is today and he's our best interior defender. Lee will get good minutes if he's here, because he's a legit talent who can do 16-10 every night. You'd think Zeller gets almost all the minutes behind Johnson at the 5, but KO has been working out with the team all summer and CBS really values what he can do if he's aggressive enough. He best compliments both Zeller and Johnson so you gotta think he gets a lot of minutes at the 4. But then what about Sully if Lee and Olynyk plus Jerebko playing 3-5 for whatever minutes he can get, what does he get? And then Mickey, who I think is the best shot-blocker we have and could get decent minutes at the 4 and 5 if we didn't already have so many guys.


Summer league showed me that they're expecting Smart to play a much bigger role on the offensive side of the ball. I think they should double-down on that, and dump Turner even if it's just for a conditional 2nd. You can't play Turner in a line-up with Thomas much, and you can't do it with Smart a lot if you want him to be an offensive focal-point. I guess we'll try combining ET, Bradley, Sullinger, Olynyk, Zeller or Jones and picks for something decent in the scoring wing or rim-protecting department. Who knows though, once we get a little more shape here I'm still gonna love watching these guys play.

[crimson_stallion]

I think they should double-down on that, and dump Turner even if it's just for a conditional 2nd. You can't play Turner in a line-up with Thomas much, and you can't do it with Smart a lot if you want him to be an offensive focal-point.

Why not?

I imagine the theory is that both guys need the ball in their hands, and that may be true, but they don't both need the ball in their hands all the time.

After Thomas, Turner is probably the best passer and ball handler on the team right now.  I don't think it hurts having two guys on the court who can hand the ball and set up the offence.  If anything I think Thomas helps to make up for Turner's outside shooting problems.

Ditto when Smart and Turner are on the court.  Smart is a solid passer and ball handler, but not a great one - having Turner on the court just gives you an extra guy who can take some pressure off him from time to time.  On the other hand Smart can help take pressure off Turner defensively. 

I think Turner has the potential to compliment both of those guys, just depends what type of gameplan you're playing.

[BDeCosta26]

I think they should double-down on that, and dump Turner even if it's just for a conditional 2nd. You can't play Turner in a line-up with Thomas much, and you can't do it with Smart a lot if you want him to be an offensive focal-point.

Why not?

I imagine the theory is that both guys need the ball in their hands, and that may be true, but they don't both need the ball in their hands all the time.

After Thomas, Turner is probably the best passer and ball handler on the team right now.  I don't think it hurts having two guys on the court who can hand the ball and set up the offence.  If anything I think Thomas helps to make up for Turner's outside shooting problems.

Ditto when Smart and Turner are on the court.  Smart is a solid passer and ball handler, but not a great one - having Turner on the court just gives you an extra guy who can take some pressure off him from time to time.  On the other hand Smart can help take pressure off Turner defensively. 

I think Turner has the potential to compliment both of those guys, just depends what type of gameplan you're playing.

Yeah, he can. Especially with Smart this season because I think Stevens wants to slowly acclimate Marcus to that kind of featured role at this level, so Turner still gives us value in that respect. But my issue with him playing with Thomas, or what they hope Smart becomes, is that ET is just too ball-dominant.

In short spurts, since they are both capable passers, they can play together. But Turner can't do much offensively besides score inside and pass, both of which require the ball in his hands. Thomas doesn't always need the ball in his hands, he's a good shooter who can move without the ball, but then he's just Nate Robinson. To be at his best, IT needs to be running P&R's, slashing to the hoop and getting to the line. That's how he can give you 20 points almost every game. Making him play off the ball (which you more or less have to do with Turner on the floor too) takes that dynamic away. They can play together, we saw it last year. Just only in short bursts.

ET could excel running a 2nd unit offense on a contender. But with us, he can't really do that because of IT, who's a much better player. I think he has value, Stevens has brought out the best in him so far in his career and he can even still play his role with us this year. It's just that when you consider how crunched our roster is and what guys are expendable, he is at the top of the list. If we can't package a few of our guys to bring back a better single asset, we need to look at who we can dump to round out this roster.

[D.o.s.]

Smart/Thomas/Rozier
Bradley/Smart/Hunter/Young/Rozier
Crowder/Young/Turner/Jones/Jerebko
Lee/Olynyk/Sullinger/Jerebko/Johnson
Johnson/Zeller/Olynyk/Mickey/Jerebko

I think I agree with this. The rest of the post is good, just trimmed for space.

[GzUP617]

-Rozier  / IT4  (PG/ball handlers)
-Smart  / Hunter    (2 guard / off-ball)
-Young  / Crowder  (SF/Wing)
-Olynyk  / Lee / Jerebko / Mickey   (PF/Swing)
-Johnson / Zeller   (Center / bigs)

 I'd trade AB, Sully, Turner for 1 player/1 spot, waive PJIII and go forward with a 13 man roster with 2 spots reserved for the typical 10 day contracts (injury insurance) and/or room to receive multiple players in possible potential trades.

 I know my lineup is an unpopular one, but my reason is I'm all in the development of our young guys and was never cool with the idea of sending our rookies to the D-league, which does nothing for them really. Giving heavy minutes to guys who won't be here past this year, I'll never get down with that.


 

AB 24y.o.
ET 26y.o.
Sully 23y.o.
KO 24y.o.
AJ 28y.o.
IT4 26y.o.
Lee 32y.o.
Jae 25y.o.
JJ 28y.o.
Zeller 25y.o.
PJ3 23y.o.


Let's get real, it's not about wanting the young players to play, you want to get rid of players you don't like. AB is as young/younger than all those players you didn't put up to be sent out except for Sully and he is only a few months older than he is! Sully is younger than all of them except for Smart/Young and the rookies! ET is only 26, not even in his prime and the same age as IT4! If playing young is what you really want then everyone must go b4 Sully/KO/AB/PJ3 and  2ndyr/rookies!

Forgot to add PJ3s age...

I said my points above,  I actually like all our guys, but to an extent. Our roster is filled with guys who will be gone after this year, Amir, Jerebko, Turner, Lee,   than you got the guys who are limited in what they bring and have low upside that they shouldn't be playing minutes unless aiming for a mediocrity year after year with no consolation prize of a high draft pick.  (AB, Crowder, Zeller, PJIII these guys are what they are at this point).  Our best player is an undersized PG who's best served off the bench because of his defense deficiencies.

We expect Ainge to trade up and or trade for a proven all star but he really doesn't have pieces to make this happen(not even if we combine players w/ picks). 

No way a proven all star is coming here in a trade or free agency unless we draft said talent, at this point let's hope we get lucky like Morey did with Harden because a free agent is only coming here when we have that one piece to make us attractive.

I'd much rather go the Timberwolves route of rebuilding than 2014-2015 Boston Celtics season did for us. I'm not sure what we're doing, Ainge has no clear direction, he's playing all sides.

[slamtheking]

Smart/Thomas/Rozier
Bradley/Smart/Hunter/Young/Rozier
Crowder/Young/Turner/Jones/Jerebko
Lee/Olynyk/Sullinger/Jerebko/Johnson
Johnson/Zeller/Olynyk/Mickey/Jerebko

I think I agree with this. The rest of the post is good, just trimmed for space.

Smart/Thomas/Rozier
Bradley/Hunter/Young
Turner/Crowder/Jerebko/Jones
Lee/Sullinger/Mickey
Johnson/Olynyk/Zeller

Removing the overlaps, I think this is more or less how it plays out.  obviously Stevens will have a lot of mix-and-match opportunities.  I'd prefer to have Crowder starting over Turner but Crowder's offense isn't up to what Turner can bring and Turner offers ballhandling that Smart doesn't provide yet.

someone will go since that's 16 players.  got to have a multi-player deal in the works.  if not, I could see Turner or PJIII moved in a deal for a future pick (turner for a second, PJIII for a second that never conveys).

I think by next year, Rozier could seriously move to first guard off the bench.  would not mind seeing a deal using IT and AB to get a wing.  Next year has a lot of picks to either make room for or to make some deals.  a big logjam coming next offseason if Danny can't consolidate assets.

[D.o.s.]

Yeah the ballhandling is a concern, and I think Lee would be at the 5 with Johnson at the 4, but with a lineup like that we'd be feeding it to the low post 9 out of 10 plays anyway, and I don't think we need ET's blackhole to make that work.

[JoeyAinge]

I really can't believe some of you think sully wouldn't start over Lee. Lee couldn't get playing time over Mo Speights, and Ezeli all year. Sully would without a doubt get playing time over The two of them. Think what you want but sully is possibly or best player, not saying much but he is, and if not it's Smart or IT, but big men, it's def sully.

[JoeyAinge]

Smart/Isiah/Rozier
Avery/Hunter/Young
Turner(needs to go)/Crowder/Jerebko
Sully/KO/Mickey
Johnson/Lee/Zeller

End of games

Isiah
Smart
Crowder
Sully
Johnson

[konkmv]

Smart young crowder sully johnson... and yes i like young

[D.o.s.]

I really can't believe some of you think sully wouldn't start over Lee. Lee couldn't get playing time over Mo Speights, and Ezeli all year. Sully would without a doubt get playing time over The two of them. Think what you want but sully is possibly or best player, not saying much but he is, and if not it's Smart or IT, but big men, it's def sully.

That has much more to do with the emergence of Draymond Green and Lee's injury than talent. Not to mention Speights is a backup 5, a position Lee didn't play.

Also Lee played nearly twice as many minutes as Ezeli last season, so I'm not sure your statement is particularly grounded in reality.

[slamtheking]

Yeah the ballhandling is a concern, and I think Lee would be at the 5 with Johnson at the 4, but with a lineup like that we'd be feeding it to the low post 9 out of 10 plays anyway, and I don't think we need ET's blackhole to make that work.

fair enough.  Amir and Lee would be interchangeable between the 4 and 5 when on the court together I think.  the ballhandling is what concerns me.  no issue keeping turner off the floor or moving him but we're really lacking a really good ballhandler.  IT's the closest we have and he's mediocre at best.  I know a lot of people here bashed Rondo but one thing no one could argue was that the guy was a top ballhandler/passer and the difference between him and what we have now is significant

[harrisun37]

Its interesting how unclear and interchangeable our starting lineup could be. Almost more important to me is to make sure certain pairings see a lot of minutes together. For example, IT and Lee (as has already been stated in this thread) looks like a great pairing. I also really like the Smart Hunter pairing, but Hunter will probably not see a ton of minutes.

[BDeCosta26]

Yeah the ballhandling is a concern, and I think Lee would be at the 5 with Johnson at the 4, but with a lineup like that we'd be feeding it to the low post 9 out of 10 plays anyway, and I don't think we need ET's blackhole to make that work.

fair enough.  Amir and Lee would be interchangeable between the 4 and 5 when on the court together I think.  the ballhandling is what concerns me.  no issue keeping turner off the floor or moving him but we're really lacking a really good ballhandler.  IT's the closest we have and he's mediocre at best.  I know a lot of people here bashed Rondo but one thing no one could argue was that the guy was a top ballhandler/passer and the difference between him and what we have now is significant

I think your right about Lee and Johnson being interchangeable. I think Johnson's ability to hit the open three and his superior athleticism make him a better fit at the 4 offensively, plus Lee has a deft post game that allows him to camp near the block, and on defense Lee isn't good at guarding either position, but he's not really better at one than the other and is big enough to do both. Johnson is a good enough interior defender to play the 5 a lot. So pigeonholing them into one of those slots doesn't reflect what's really going on.

The ball handling is a legit concern, but as Dos said in certain line ups (like most featuring Lee) we won't require an elite ball-handler. Plus, I think we're confusing Smart's ability as a ball-handler/playmaker with the opportunities he had last year to do so. Stevens had him playing with Turner or IT almost all the time last year. He wanted Smart to play elite defense, get comfortable with the speed of the NBA game, and develop his shot to a respectable level. He can handle more PG duties than he was allowed to last year right now, without further development. Plus, with Thomas, Rozier, Hunter (who seems like at the least capable of initiating offense) and KO's sh

[krich1187]

I think Ainge could do well to move Turner, Bradley, and Olynyk for a scoring wing who is more prepared than Hunter/Young to contribute now. As far as a starting lineup the only players I would want starting every game are Smart and Amir. Without making a move here's what I like:

1st unit:

PG - Smart
SG - Bradley
SF - Crowder
PF - Johnson
C - Lee

2nd unit:

PG - Thomas
SG - Turner
SF - PJIII
PF - Sullinger
C - Zeller

Reserves:

Rozier, Jerebko, Olynyk, Young, and Mickey

When doing this I just realized how miserable Stevens may be just coming up with a starting lineup.