Starting 5 & Bench Thoughts | Syracusefan.com

Starting 5 & Bench Thoughts

OrlandoCuse

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With two exhibition games in the books it appears the most effective starting 5 will be Carlos, JJ, Bell, Donnie and Lampkin. I think those guys have separated themselves from the rest.

The bench is still a bit up in the air. I didn’t see a ton of separation from any of the next group of guys. I think Davis will play a versatile role as the potential 6th man, especially if he can rebound at the 3/4 positions. Seems like it will be a “best man plays” scenario after that. Does Red actually try to play 10 men this year?
 
With two exhibition games in the books it appears the most effective starting 5 will be Carlos, JJ, Bell, Donnie and Lampkin. I think those guys have separated themselves from the rest.

The bench is still a bit up in the air. I didn’t see a ton of separation from any of the next group of guys. I think Davis will play a versatile role as the potential 6th man, especially if he can rebound at the 3/4 positions. Seems like it will be a “best man plays” scenario after that. Does Red actually try to play 10 men this year?
I definitely think Red consistently plays 9 this year. He tried doing that last year until injuries occurred. I’m just not sure who those 9 are. I agree on the top 6 of Carlos, JJ, Bell, Donnie, Eddie, and Jyare. After that, we’ll play another guard and big man. That’s 8 followed by a “wildcard” 9th person in the rotation depending on who’s playing well in practice as well as matchups.
 
Every time I try to envision Monday night, it looks a different way in my head. Those 8 days between game one and two are going to feel like a decade once I get a real idea of what this team is going to look like when it's for real. I am very excited.
 
I agree with the starting 5, but what a fight between Choppa and Lucas for the 3rd guard, both those guys are going to be good, for different reasons. Choppa is the D and energy guy and Lucas is the experience and energy guy. Petar is a nice backup big along with Davis. Neither is a center, but they will likely fill out a 4 man big man rotation with Eddie and Donnie. McLeod will get some minutes at center, because he IS a center. That is a great 8-9 man rotation.
 
Cuffe is not good at decision making. He had some dreadful passes tonight and forced a terrible shot on the baseline with Choppa wide open in the corner. Taylor also had three mindless passes too.
Yes, the players kept throwing these “down the field” passes and I think it only worked once. Nevertheless, they persisted. :confused:
 
Yes, the players kept throwing these “down the field” passes and I think it only worked once. Nevertheless, they persisted. :confused:
I'll take Carlos throwing those all day. Apparently just not the other guys.
 
I agree with the starting 5, but what a fight between Choppa and Lucas for the 3rd guard, both those guys are going to be good, for different reasons. Choppa is the D and energy guy and Lucas is the experience and energy guy. Petar is a nice backup big along with Davis. Neither is a center, but they will likely fill out a 4 man big man rotation with Eddie and Donnie. McLeod will get some minutes at center, because he IS a center. That is a great 8-9 man rotation.
I wouldn't say Choppa is a D guy. He gets turned around on defense all the time. He’s very poor closing out. He’s always in recovery mode. He does bring energy and he can shoot.
 
I agree with the starting 5, but what a fight between Choppa and Lucas for the 3rd guard, both those guys are going to be good, for different reasons. Choppa is the D and energy guy and Lucas is the experience and energy guy. Petar is a nice backup big along with Davis. Neither is a center, but they will likely fill out a 4 man big man rotation with Eddie and Donnie. McLeod will get some minutes at center, because he IS a center. That is a great 8-9 man rotation.

Yep and I'd bet it'll be a matchup thing and who's bringing it today type of thing for who on the bench gets the most floor time. Plus let me add D and rebounding being huge factors as well along with ball movement and flow.
 
I don't see minutes for Kyle barring injury.

his main value is as a defender in the small lineup for a few minutes in a pinch if we need an extra body but not seeing where that would be the case much with so much depth
 
I wouldn't say Choppa is a D guy. He gets turned around on defense all the time. He’s very poor closing out. He’s always in recovery mode. He does bring energy and he can shoot.
Hmmm…I’m not sure what I was thinking there.
 
I read something about Davis being undersized at 6'7 for a PF, and heard some other comments about it. I think that's ridiculous. He's a big body for college. He will be able to impose his will in the paint if he gets hungry and uses his strong body for good positioning.
 
Still hopeful for Petar’s future, but I do not see him as a regular in the rotation this year. David is better on defense/boards and Petar has not had a serious impact on the offensive end just yet either. Not entirely sure about Davis yet either, but he is a step ahead of Petar
 
will we be able to press with this group.

No way.

We have two guys that will either start or are in the rotation that aren't in shape.

There are multiple guys that won't be good at defense in general.

We have to get out of park to first gear, forget pressing.

If you want Carlos picking up someone full court to delay an offense getting into action, that may be it.

We just played two atrocious, atrocious teams.
 
Cuffe is not good at decision making. He had some dreadful passes tonight and forced a terrible shot on the baseline with Choppa wide open in the corner. Taylor also had three mindless passes too.

No way Cuffe can be getting meaningful minutes.
 
No way.

We have two guys that will either start or are in the rotation that aren't in shape.

There are multiple guys that won't be good at defense in general.

We have to get out of park to first gear, forget pressing.

If you want Carlos picking up someone full court to delay an offense getting into action, that may be it.

We just played two atrocious, atrocious teams.

We also had random rotations out there and focus on experimentation vs game plan too. We pushed the pace a lot more last night than in the first game.

I’m not sure guys are that out of shape. We played two much smaller teams that just played small ball. All of our bigs were guarding guys that are wings and lighter and shorter than them.

It’s difficult to get much out of these games from a fan perspective given the opponent and then adding the lineup fluctuations.

We start learning something about the team as whole Monday ( a little at least).
 

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