I say start Q at the 2 and use Jamal as offense off the bench

Jamal will start this year. The question that might be up in the air is Q going to start over Jeffries, or Balkman. Q seemed like he was unsure if he is going to start during his interview in summer league.

Jamal is IMO a good player off the bench. He doesn't work in the SL, cuz he is a volume shooter and we will have Zach and Curry taking most of the touches. You need high % shooting and guys that will catch and shoot out there with him. We don't have a SF who can do that, but I still think the SL works best if you have Steph, Q, Jared, Zach and Curry. Jared is the problem on offense, until he can prove that he's solved his shooting problems. I think he actually has a shot at doing that. From what I saw of him last year his problem seems like it had to do with his form. His judgement on the distance and touch of his shots wasn't that bad, but he'd be off to the right or left a lot. I saw that late in the season his form looked a bit better and he surprised me with some good shooting at times. He's got more of a shooting touch than Balkman at this point, tho he's a poor finisher. I can't explain why he misses so many layups.

Back to Jamal. He's probably going to do much better this year due to what I think will be a greater focus on PG play. I think he's gonna look to setup the other players more. I also think last year was an off year for him shooting wise. He did tho, make a change in his approach at one point. He started to drive a lot more and use the little floater and pull up jumper more. He was VERY effective in doing that, so I hope continues to do that.

Posted by MS:

I would like to see this lineup at some point during the game, and even move q in for collins sometimes

Crawford, Collins, Balkman, Lee Curry

If you want to let jamal and eddy operate i think thats fine, but as far as energy a little defense and allowing the baby bulls to be scorers its a good mix of finishers, defenders, and energy

Based on the rotation I would think we'd see something a bit more like JC, Mardy, Balk, Lee & Zach. Smaller quicker but still with a focus inside.

I'd start Jamal at PG & trade Marbury if i could, but Isiah would never do that, so I think Jamal's role is best suited coming off the bench as a backup combo G & starting Q Rich at the 2.

Posted by BigC:

Jamal will start this year. The question that might be up in the air is Q going to start over Jeffries, or Balkman. Q seemed like he was unsure if he is going to start during his interview in summer league.

I hope Balkman Starts and Q comes off the bench...... the guy has one guard skill, spot up shooting........... he isn't a guard.



[Edited by - Anji on 07-17-2007 5:07 PM]

Posted by Anji:

Posted by BigC:

Jamal will start this year. The question that might be up in the air is Q going to start over Jeffries, or Balkman. Q seemed like he was unsure if he is going to start during his interview in summer league.

I how Balkman Starts and Q comes off the bench...... the guy has one guard skill, spot up shooting........... he isn't a guard.

[Edited by - Anji on 07-17-2007 4:32 PM]

WE have to play to our strenghths. Nobody on our team is going to stretch out the defense with their shooting(hopefully one day it will be Nichols) so we have to play to our strengths. With a line-up of Curry, Zach, Renaldo/Lee, Q and Steph you will have some obvious flaws but they can really dominate on the boards. At least one advantage.

I think you have to keep his minutes synched up with Curry, and Mardy as much as possible.

That probably means you start him and bring Mardy in the game for Steph later in the game when Craw is in.

on this team, THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE but to start jamal.

the ONLY slightly viable option is quentin but considering isiah "longs" for jamal, i don't expect anything more than him starting at the sg position, near the top in minutes, and no lower than #2 in fga's.

Posted by djsunyc:

on this team, THERE IS NO OTHER CHOICE but to start jamal.

the ONLY slightly viable option is quentin but considering isiah "longs" for jamal, i don't expect anything more than him starting at the sg position, near the top in minutes, and no lower than #2 in fga's.

I would have to agree that at one time Isiah was "rock hard" for Jamal Crawford, however the sitauation has drastically changed from last season with the Zach deal.

With another post presence, Isiah is not so desparate to cover up Eddies poor passing ability with Jamal's off balance chucking. We also don't need someone to feed Eddy as badly because we have another player to feed. Marbury pick and Roll's with Zach are going to be very effective.

Additionally, both Renaldo Balkman and David Lee have another year of experience and will be pusing Curry for minutes at the 4/5 and Balkman will be taking more minutes at the 3, leaving less for Crawford. At the same time nate has another year of experience and will be pushing crawford for minutes.

Additionally, Q's back may be better which will also be pushing jamal for minutes.

That being said, although Isiah doesn't need Crawford nearly as much as last year, we likely will be seeing a decent amount of his game, at least in the beginning.

If Q is healthy and Jeff is improved in terms of his shooting and overall confidence, that's a helluva lineup.

Jeff supposedly has been nasty in the offseason, but I want to see it before I buy into that.