Smart vs George. Yeah that is going to play out well.
You start Turner. Doesn't matter if this weakens the bench.
A good start to the game is important for a reason. You don't need George to start getting on fire early
We got off to a 20-13 lead in the 1Q when Marcus was in with starters so I don't see the issue?
He got taken out at halfway mark because of 2 fouls, but up to that point Paul George's stat line was:
1-2 for 2 points, 2 boards, 2 turnovers, 2 steals. Not exactly getting on fire early.
Yeah, I have no idea what Triboy is griping at. Smart made everything really hard on George, even ripping him on an iso. Triboy has also said that Mickey could lockdown George so consider the source.
How many pts did George score? How many did Smart?
In addition how many times did the Celts need to keep one eye on George/double team him once he got the ball?
Do you not think this affects the rest of the lineups play?
Bottom line is, you don't start nor for a long stretch of time place a 6'3 SG/pg on a 6'8-6'9 legit sf. Even if he is not scoring 40 he is hurting you in other ways
george struggled when Smart was in. when turner covered him he quickly got hot.
This is not your best Triboy.
I disagree
Ok by your approval let's leave smart out there vs Durant, Lebron, batum etc and see what happens
there's a risk to this, but I do not think it's a big deal. Smart's defense will help, while he did not shut George down, he was our best defender against him yesterday. There are two problems with this,
A. Indiana set multiple picks for George, so it's not the usual one screen that Smart deals with where he runs the screener over or fight the one screen, he is running against 2 screeners.
B. Smart's offense, it's a problem, because you switch offense for defense. While Turner could've helped a little bit on the offensive side, George will score on Turner a lot easier than he does against Smart.
I do think Smart should be in there PURELY for defense if your assignments are George, Durant or even LeBron. Don't even think about shooting that 3 ball lol.
Tonight's game I would actually change the lineup to Turner however because of Durant's height. 6'10 over 6'4 is just too much in my opinion. Quite honestly, I rather do a starting lineup of
IT/Smart/Turner (or Jerebko)/Sully/Amir for this Thunder game. Smart can guard Westbrook on defense and whoever starts at SF will guard Durant
bottom line is, the Indiana game was our first game without Crowder so it's too early to tell what is going on with Brad's decision. I think we judge during this stretch without Crowder and see what our record is
So why start Turner vs Durant vs smart?
George is only about 2 inches shorter
Why not start smart vs Lebron (nobody has been able to answer)
Smart also did very little on the offensive end. He did not get to handle the ball. Just stay in the corner
We need to play to players strengths as best as possible instead of having them do things they will never be good at. It's like asking dwade to be a 3 pt shooter.
We won't start Smart on LeBron, because Crowder will be back by the time that game happens (if it does). We don't play the Cavs again this season unless it's in the playoffs.
As to not playing to strengths, if we start Turner, we aren't playing to his strengths because the Amir/Sully combo crowds the paint and takes away a lot of Turner's room to operate. Moving Smart to the starting SF might not be playing to his strengths but it allows everyone else to continue to play to theirs.
This is my thought as well.
However I think there is another issue at play, the bench rotation.
With Crowder and Oly out Coach has elected not to play Mickey, Young or Hunter. He did go to Mickey against Utah and Rozier the last few games, but sparingly.
What is it that he doesn't see from Mickey that makes Zeller (the world's softest 7 footer) a preferred option?
How bad do Young and Hunter have to be that Cody Clarke was called on to back up Crowder?
If it is this bad Brad should talk to Danny about bringing in some help on draft night.
On an entirely unrelated note Jerebko stepped up big last night.