FanPost

Experiment - It's SCIENCE!!!

I pretty much swore off writing FanPosts, but reading the comments in the DB, it made me wonder how many experiments I could enumerate.

Here's the list:

Alec Burks at the 1
This one was an unmitigated disaster, but at least it happened. I think we can all reasonably agree that Burks was no better than a below average backup PG. I think he could get better, but it would take quite a bit of work.

Jeremy Evans at the 3
I think we've seen this enough before, honestly, and I'm not a big proponent. I think Evans feels most comfortable defending 4s and going against 4s on the offensive end. He doesn't seem to have the lateral quickness to stay in front of 3s. I think he's a solid backup 4 and that's probably his ceiling until he packs on weight and gets a lot stronger. I doubt he's a legit stretch 4, but I haven't seen him shoot 3s enough to know for sure. He's more like a Ronnie Brewer at the 4.

Enes Kanter as a stretch 4 / shooting 3s
I think most of us would like to see this for 10 or 15 games. We've seen the shooting stroke in flashes, but to see him trying to spot up for 3s consistently would be a good indicator whether this is possible in the future.

Zone Defense
There are lots of NBA teams that are resisting experimenting with zone, but I think it's very important not to let offenses get comfortable and know exactly how you're going to react to what they do offensively. This is an especially important tactic against teams that lack consistent 3 point shooting. Pack the paint, run a zone, and let them shoot themselves out of the game.

BBHFK (or RATED G)
This one seems so obvious to nearly all of us (there are a few RJ sympathizers around still), yet the number is 19 for the year or something, right? I personally would love to see all of the members of BBHFK getting 32 mins/gm. DNPs are unacceptable for Gobert. At least find the guy 6 mins/gm.

Marvin Williams at the 3
If you're Corbin and you're insisting on keeping Burks on the bench, then at least try putting Marv at the 3 and inserting Kanter into the starting lineup next to Favors. Several of us believe that the team's turnaround is 99% Trey Burke returning from injury and Marv playing stretch 4 was merely coincidental timing. Brings to mind the scientific principle of changing one variable at a time.

Gordon Hayward off the bench
I don't know anyone else advocating this, but hopefully it makes sense. I think the team's best lineup could very well be Burke, Burks, Marv, Kanter, Favors. If we're looking for a Manu Ginobili type of player, I don't think anyone on the team lines up that way better than Gordon. Burks gives the lineup another slasher next to Burke, Marv is the spot up shooter and reasonable D (poor man's 3 & D), and Kanter adds offensive rebounding, midrange, and size on defense.

Ian Clark at backup PG
To be honest, I was rather disappointed in his D League shooting, so I'm not a huge advocate of this one. I actually prefer Garrett.

Brandon Rush at the starting 2 or 3
You know Corbin's just salivating at this one. Burke, Rush, Jefferson, Marv, Favors.

Did you know?
Alec Burks and Richard Jefferson have played nearly the same exact number of minutes this year. Who's who and who's played better?


MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS

1070 181 411 0.44 23 67 0.343 158 344 0.459 113 149 0.758 32 91 123 104 30 10 69 86 498

1071 137 312 0.439 59 137 0.431 78 175 0.446 72 93 0.774 11 102 113 71 22 10 53 77 405

What did I miss?
Let me know in the comments. Pretty sure I've seen others that I can't remember at the moment.

All comments are the opinion of the commenter and not necessarily that of SLC Dunk or SB Nation.