2023/2024 Depth Chart

Agree with the mins break down others have shared here. Just a few random thoughts I'd like to put somewhere.

DAR, Vincent, JHS
Reaves, Christie, Reddish
Lebron, Prince, Lewis
Vando, Rui
AD, Wood, Hayes

JHS and Lewis shouldn't be seeing non garbage time mins here hopefully.
Reddish and Hayes seems to be decent insurances for injuries at the 2/3 and 4/5 positions.

Guards are an easy thing to figure out... really like the flexibility between them. Christie's growth is a huge factor tbh.

Forwards/Center are harder to figure out. Think it comes down to finding the right combinations of players that work and what you need for the current game. Offensively we can be really dangerous with Wood's talents and Vando/Rui's improvements. Defensively though Lebron needs to play with Vando and Prince (and maybe slimmed down Rui) defensively to chase around the wings. Same with Wood too actually, he needs to be handcuffed with our defensive players.

 

Woike said he's heard good things regarding Prince this summer and that the current starting SF battle (pre-camp) is between Rui and Prince.

When going through the roster, he also mentioned Ham is a fan of Cam. They both agreed on the pod that there's not a clear path for him finding minutes.

 

the only guaranteed starter should be Reaves

 

Pre-season has complicated things in a good way, unless you're Darvin Ham and have to figure out the minute distribution.

Prince has looked like he belongs in the starting 5.

Is Vando's injury going to drop him in the rotation?

Hayes needs to get minutes. That's the one I least expected. How do we get Wood and Hayes minutes? Who gets squeezed?

 

Pimple, do not overthink this (even though I am not sure you are capable of thinking at all).

DAR, AR, Prince, Bron, AD
Gabe, Max, Vando (once back), Rui, Wood or Hayes (I prefer Hayes if he shows any D or Colin in some games)

The rest can battle it out for the gargbage minutes.

Don't f*** this up, you Pimple.

 

ham strikes me as a "you don't lose your spot due to injury" type, so if prince starts with vando healthy, my guess is that was going to happen anyway? i'd still start vando, but it's hard to argue with how well prince fits. i just think the starters need another defender out there. then again, i felt more strongly about it before dlo decided to become a defensive player.

wood. he hasn't shown me much to get excited about, tbh. he can score in isolation against second line players and...that's kind of it? there will be times we can really use that, but not all the time.

my real hope is that the play of these guys can help us sit lebron and AD more. what if we could get their minutes down to 30-32?

the real issue to me is that there are only 144 minutes at the 3/4/5. lebron and AD get 60-65 of them every night.

i guess we could play some really big lineups with prince at the 2, but do you want to do that at the expense of playing one of reaves, dlo, or even max? plus, ham is NOT going to miss chances to run gabe, so you can pencil him in for 24 minutes, i think, minimum.

great problem to have.

 

Will be a lot of next man up (with not much trepidation .... instead a smile) as the random injuries hit.

 

also have the luxury of giving folks time to recover properly. like vando's heel--it can rest until it's fully 100%, and we should be ok for a while.

 

With Wood seemingly guaranteed to get minutes and the team seemingly high on Prince, Prince almost has to take some of those backup 2 minutes from Christie. I wouldn't be mad about that; Prince is probably a better player than Christie right now and 20 year olds tend not to be rotation pieces for contending teams. Christie will still get his opportunities, and hopefully he'll make it impossible for them to keep him off the court like Reaves did.

 

Ok, it's time for this. After the 5 first preseason games, I think some conclusions can be drawn:
- our big 4 and Rui are a lock at top minutes as expected
- Prince is going to play a key role. Gabe was injured but should be the main guard backup
- Wood looks to be in front of Hayes in the big man backup, but playing a lot at the 4. Curious to see the dynamic when Vando returns
- Max got a lot of burn, with the starters too. I think he's in front of Cam but Prince played some 2 as well

A rough idea on the rotation so far:
Dlo 20, Reaves 6, Gabe 22
Reaves 24, Dlo 10, Prince 4, Max 10
Prince 20, Rui 28
LeBron 32 Wood 16
AD 32 Wood 6 Hayes 10

This gets:
AD/LeBron 32
Reaves/Dlo 30
Rui 28
Prince 24
Gabe/Wood 22
Max/Hayes 10

I think Vando eats Hayes' minutes and some of Prince, for now.
Wood-AD is a pairing we will see a lot, I think
We played a LeBron, Prince, Rui, Wood, AD lineup in one of the games, Warriors I think. Maybe just experimenting but it's super big and can work against teams who don't have crazy quick guards like Boston or Pels.
We may have Max and Cam playing in turns with each taking one game and sitting the other.

We can definitely not miss a beat with a couple of injuries of any non-star in the team. And compete with anyone with one of AD/Bron out. We're only a bit too thin in the 1, we have JHS who doesn't look ready and absolutely no one else. If Dlo/Reaves go down together we are in trouble, but apart from that we are well covered for whatever the season brings.
There's no reason to be out of the top 2 seed if no major injuries. Let's get it!

 

A lot of work invested in that post! I can respect that. Me..I don't really care..we are pretty loaded IMO..let the 82 game regular season, sort out the playoffs rotations.

We look pretty damn deep and versatile to me, whoever Darvin decides to roll with, Im cool. I'm ready for the season opener!

Lakers in 6!!!

 

Seems like Prince starting isn't just a function of Vando missing time with this injury. That DLo/Reaves/Prince/LeBron/AD lineup is dynamite offensively. I wanted Vando to start, but maximizing your overpowering offensive lineups might be the best way to get through the slog of the regular season. I think AD + league average size or better in any of our lineups gives us a decent floor defensively.

 

i think dlo looking better on defense than ever helps me be ok with not starting vando. that and prince is a solid defender in his own right.

i still think vando is maximized by playing him with those 4 offensive monsters, and prince can play with any lineup.

 

Also, Prince fits better in the 5-out Ham is implementing this year.
Vando really needs to get better offensively or he'll establish himself as an energiser from the bench and defensive specialist in some matchups. Probably it will be the latter

 

After the first 2 games, we clearly have a problem in the non-Lebron minutes. I blame Rui, Reaves and Dlo.

I would stash Gabe with LeBron. He's not a great creator but does all the little things which you need if LeBron is in the court, so fits good with him, kind of like Chalmers.
That should free Dlo and Reaves to play most if not all minutes that LeBron doesn't.

LeBron can play with anyone so you can put any 2 or 3 of Hayes, Wood, Reddish or Prince with him, so that Dlo, Reaves, Rui and AD play more together


This is how I would start to address this major issue

 

After a week of games and with Vando out longterm:

DAR / Gabe
Reaves / Max
Prince / Cam
Lebron / Rui
AD / Wood / Hayes

Guards:
Free Max. Fix Reaves. Less Gabe.

Wings:
Less Cam.
I’d consider playing Prince some at SG to help with the guard play. Also more Rui here, he might get squeezed with the AD/Wood pairing.

Center:
Less Hayes, more Wood.
AD/Wood pairing has been dynamic. Though Wood can’t be our last line of defense, he needs to be handcuffed with another of out defensive guys.

We have good depth and it’ll come in handy for injuries. But we need to tighten the rotation some. Its hard for guys to get into rhythm playing spot mins here and there.

 

What I don't get is we moved AR to the bench, which was a good move... he's killing it, because he and DLO couldn't play together. What changed? Now they're playing together off the bench.

 

i wonder if lebron suggested this move. not kidding.

 

We need to get some continuity and stop changing lineups every time.

Start Dlo, AR, Bron, Vando and AD to build up from last year.
Have Mays come off the bench as Gabe/Schroeder placeholder.
Prince and Cam as the wing stoppers
Rui to show the scoring punch we got from him last year
Wood to bring some scoring and rebounding.

I can't understand why this group wouldn't be fighting for top 6