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Message: [QUOTE="OrangeZeus, post: 2205055, member: 4174"] My guess is the starting front court is Moyer-Thompson-Chukwu. Chukwu gets the start for the first handful of games in the non-conference as a test run. During the test run he needs to show Boeheim three things. 1) He can be a shot blocker/alterer. 2) He can bang down low for rebounds on both sides of the court. 3) He knows his defensive positioning within the zone. Chukwu showed he could do #1 already in his brief stint with us last year. #2 and especially #3 are what he needs to work on if he wants to keep his starting job after the first ~5 conference games or so. If he takes major strides in these areas, he'll continue to start. If he falters, especially once the competition picks up, he'll be relegated to third string center behind Thompson and Sidibe. If Chukwu is legit he gets 28mpg. If he's serviceable he gets 10-15mpg. If he's not ready after his test run he at most 5mpg. So there's a good chance our backups (Brissett, Dolezaj, Sidibe) end up playing more than him even though he's the starter. Wouldn't be the first time that happened for us (just like when Lydon came off the bench in the 2015-16 season). And if any of those three backups really establish themselves, they would have the opportunity to replace someone in the starting lineup. EDIT: Also, I'd rather just see Thompson start at the 5 and learn how to play one position rather than split his time this offseason learning to play two positions. But Chukwu and Sidibe have great defensive potential that could go wasted if we don't at least give them a crack at getting some minutes early on in the season so it will be interesting to see how Boeheim deploys Thompson early in the season and if his defensive role will evolve or not as we get to December/January. [/QUOTE]

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