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Apollo wrote:
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And yeah, I don't expect big changes in our offence, and we already have to incorporate JV more. Means Sullinger basically can't fit with our starters on either end, and only really fits as a bench big who takes post duties when JV is off the court. That's not a bad role, but I wouldn't spend that much to see if he fits like that, especially since he'll be a terrible fit defensively with basically any group we throw out there.
And btw, I've been championing playing inside more for years. However you can't lose perspective. You don't need to add a guy like Sully to be able to do that. We did it fine in the playoffs last year, and in fact many of our best units had 4-out lineups with shooters/wings around JV or Biz. Why? Because if you want to execute well in the halfcourt and utilize the interior, you need the threat of shooters to pull defenders away from the post and make them hesitate on their doubles, not to mention having more athletic players who can read the doubles and decide when it's good to cut. Sullinger can't provide any of that. That helps increase the efficiency of your slow-it-down, pound them inside (even the way guys like DeMar and Lowry attack the rim) offence by giving guys space to get into the paint, and the time to react properly to the way the D shifts. Sullinger can occasionally get hot from outside, but mostly teams will not care about him being planted there, and the shooters in our starting unit aren't good enough to run him and JV on opposite blocks...they won't have any space to make moves and the D will be able to shrink passing lanes to cutters by protecting the paint and not worry about shooters that much.
Oh, and the guys we drafted are what? Both very athletic open court players who can defend in space and play at/above the rim. They are both lean, fast and strong. They are the antithesis of what Sully is physically as big men. It cements my thoughts that with JV regaining a bit more speed as he leans down, they want their bigs to be able to keep up with the faster game...doesn't mean we won't still play slower, but just that we want to be less exposed than we would having slower bigs. Meaning you can stay big when the other team goes "small" to speed up the game and you'll be able to keep winning the battle inside while they won't be able to effectively shift the pace in their favour if your bigs can get up and down the floor well enough (which Sully can't).
Again, if Sully would be cool with a more limited bench role basically replacing JV offensively, I guess that's an ok stopgap....but honestly the way Sully plays, it wouldn't be all that different from having Scola in there defensively (especially early season Scola when he was still rebounding well enough) while not actually being that big an improvement offensively (Sully is horribly inefficient despite his toolkit).
And all this doesn't even get into durability concerns where again, his weight adds extra concern.
Rant over.
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