Start Zaza

[Ikeatlanta]

I know this sounds crazy but seeing how bad our bench play is wouldn't it be wise to start Pachulia at Center and bring Horford off the bench to help with Bench play. I would give Horford the bulk of the minutes but at least we give Al some shine vs. 2nd teamers and also give us a fighting chance when our starters are on the bench. Also Pachulia's mistakes might be overshadowed by the strong play of our starting 5. Your thoughts

[JackB1]

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I know this sounds crazy but seeing how bad our bench play is wouldn't it be wise to start Pachulia at Center and bring Horford off the bench to help with Bench play. I would give Horford the bulk of the minutes but at least we give Al some shine vs. 2nd teamers and also give us a fighting chance when our starters are on the bench. Also Pachulia's mistakes might be overshadowed by the strong play of our starting 5. Your thoughts

This makes no sense. You start your best players.

I have a better idea......get a decent FA to backup Al. Zaza wouldn't start at my local gym.

[exodus]

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This makes no sense. You start your best players

Tell that to Manu and the Spurs. Do you think Finley is better than Manu?

[Traceman]

than he has been off the bench this year. I don't know if I would "punish" Horford for Zaza's poor play but I would not dismiss the idea out of hand. It might be a way to get Zaza playing better.

[Ikeatlanta]

Exactly, I don't have it at the top of my head, but i would love to know what our record has been with Horford starting vs. coming off the bench. We are definitely not getting a legit big man this year so the best thing to do might be to ugrade our bench play by making one starter come off the pine. Horford makes the most sense because it might help him with foul trouble. The other option is just to play Joe Johnson 48 minutes

[Ikeatlanta]

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than he has been off the bench this year. I don't know if I would "punish" Horford for Zaza's poor play but I would not dismiss the idea out of hand. It might be a way to get Zaza playing better.

I dont necessarily think it is punishing Al if he ends up getting the same amount of minutes but we need to do something.

[Swatguy]

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I know this sounds crazy but seeing how bad our bench play is wouldn't it be wise to start Pachulia at Center and bring Horford off the bench to help with Bench play. I would give Horford the bulk of the minutes but at least we give Al some shine vs. 2nd teamers and also give us a fighting chance when our starters are on the bench. Also Pachulia's mistakes might be overshadowed by the strong play of our starting 5. Your thoughts

That is a very good idea. Particularly against "bigger" (frontcourt) teams as San Antonio. It could extend Al's minutes saving him from fouls. It also should be opportunities for Salim and Mario defending Damon and Parker.

Good thinking.

[Ikeatlanta]

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That is a very good idea. Particularly against "bigger" (frontcourt) teams as San Antonio. It could extend Al's minutes saving him from fouls. It also should be opportunities for Salim and Mario defending Damon and Parker.

Good thinking.

The fact its a good idea means Woody hasn't thought of it so we'll see what he comes up with tonite

[Admin]

You do realize that the Spurs have put Manu back into the starting lineup and ever since that game have only lost that one game, to the Celtics, right? I think that was a failed experiment by Pop and not one that I would repeat with Z.

[Ikeatlanta]

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You do realize that the Spurs have put Manu back into the starting lineup and ever since that game have only lost that one game, to the Celtics, right? I think that was a failed experiment by Pop and not one that I would repeat with Z.

I don't mean to make this a Spurs thread, but they only won a championship with Manu coming off the bench. All am sayig is that its worth a try, but if we win tonite with Horford starting then I guess it shows why am not coaching and Woody is

[txsting]

I would like to see a little more of Zaza alongside Horford, when we need size. This has only been done for 34 minutes this year (82games.com), but we have a +2 in those minutes.

[Admin]

The MAJOR problem with Z is that he is a black hole on offense and he can't stretch the D at all with his outside shooting and Horford vastly outplays him in every aspect of the game so it would really be counter productive to bring him off the bench.

[Traceman]

he gave us last year as a starter or the 12/8 he gave us the year before? He did that in only 28 mpg. His 47% shooting percentage wasn't great for a Center but it was a heck of a lot better than the 39% he is shooting now.

Again, I am not advocating that we start Zaza but it is something to consider if it might get him going again. He has REALLY sucked this year and he is simply not THIS bad of a player.

[Admin]

I agree that he is better than he has played, but he isn't valuable enough in my eyes even at his best to justify sending Al, Smoove, or Marvin to the bench in order to start him.

He has had decent numbers the past couple of years for us but, without looking up his stats, I believe that has come with a high percentage of shots (plus misses with offensive rebounds) relative to our possessions.

If he could be a 12/8 without needing the play to be run through him then I would definitely start him but if he wasn't a volume shooting big man he wouldn't average nearly what he has.

[Traceman]

Like I said, I don't know that I would "punish" Horford (or anyone else) so that Zaza can start (I know you don't see it as punishment Ike but ask Ben Gordon or Ginobili if they would rather start or come off the bench).

However, Popovich's bringing Ginobili off the bench and starting the lesser Finley did result in SA winning the title last year and Gordon has been better off the bench too, even if he doesn't like it.

I think it is a tough call. I would give our current lineup at least the next 5 games to see if we can get on a roll but if we can't get it going at home, I might give it a shot.

[BossTweed]

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he gave us last year as a starter or the 12/8 he gave us the year before? He did that in only 28 mpg. His 47% shooting percentage wasn't great for a Center but it was a heck of a lot better than the 39% he is shooting now.

Again, I am not advocating that we start Zaza but it is something to consider if it might get him going again. He has REALLY sucked this year and he is simply not THIS bad of a player.

Yeah, I think this is definitely an interesting idea. Because if starting Zaza got him back to where he would give that 12/8, it would probably be worth the hit to Al's ego that he would be the "backup" even though Al would be getting the same amount of minutes.

[DJ_Money]

We tried this for a few games earlier in the year after Z got back from his knee injury. It went terribly. In fact, I believe Z started vs. SA. They had something like a 12-0 rebounding advantage before Woody called a TO and put Al in.

[hawkman]

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I know this sounds crazy but seeing how bad our bench play is wouldn't it be wise to start Pachulia at Center and bring Horford off the bench to help with Bench play. I would give Horford the bulk of the minutes but at least we give Al some shine vs. 2nd teamers and also give us a fighting chance when our starters are on the bench. Also Pachulia's mistakes might be overshadowed by the strong play of our starting 5. Your thoughts

This makes no sense. You start your best players.

I have a better idea......get a decent FA to backup Al. Zaza wouldn't start at my local gym.

Za Za would hang 50 and 20 on the weak comp at your gym. Don't ever underestimate the skill of an NBA player. Heck, a guy like Steve Kerr could go to any gym/court in the country and give those guys 40pts. I'm not really a big Za Za guy but the guy didn't average 12 and 7 for us because he sucked.

[DrReality]

I think it's a good idea. Kind of a reverse psychology. Shoick them and they'll be delirius and we'll get out to a big lead. NOT.

[gsuteke]

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I would like to see a little more of Zaza alongside Horford, when we need size. This has only been done for 34 minutes this year (82games.com), but we have a +2 in those minutes.

Beat me to that one.