So lets compare our 2012/13 54 win team roster to next years roster.
2012/13PG--J.Kidd/R.Felton
SG--JR.Smith/I.Shumpert
SF--Melo
PF--K.Thomas/A.Stoudemire/M.Camby
C--T.Chandler/R.Wallace/K-Mart
Bench
S.Movak/C.Copeland/Q.Rickardson
Now we had a lot of guys moving around like J.Kidd probably played more SG than PG and Melo played a lot of PF but i'm just putting the guys names down that had a lot to do with the 54 wins.
2015/16
PG--J.Calderon/J.Grant
SG--A.Afflalo/L.Galloway
SF--Melo
PF--K.Porzingis/D.Williams
C--R.Lopez/K.O'Quinn
Bench
L.Amundson/C.Early/L.Thomas/R.Ledo?
From what Phil says we're still gonna sign a backup center so O'Quinn will be more of a PF/C but these are the guys that we'll be seeing the most. If everyone buys into the system especially Melo and Melo is 100% healthy then why can't that team win 40 games?? They're just to new of a team to expect 54 wins obviously but this team could surprise some people especially if Porzingis and Grant can give us some good minutes.
Couple of fixes:
PG - Felton/Prigioni
SG - Kidd/JR/Shumpert
SF - Shumpert/JR/Novak
PF - Melo/K-Mart
C - Tyson/Amare
Our top 8 in minutes played that season were JR, Melo, Felton, Tyson, Kidd, Novak, Prigioni, Shumpert in that order. Shumpert is the only one that played fewer than 1000 minutes (996 to be exact). Right off the bat, Robin Lopez is a significant downgrade from Tyson Chandler. He's a worse scorer, a much worse rebounder, and a worse defender. Melo was 28 years old and had probably the best season of his career; today he's 31 and coming off of knee surgery. I wasn't a fan of Felton going all the way back to his first (half)season with us but I'm not a fan of Afflalo either so they're basically a wash. Kidd, even that late in his career, was almost still better than Calderon will be this year at 34 and still suffering from an Achilles injury. And that bench blows ours away. JR, Prigioni, Novak, Amare, and KMart blows our current one out of the water.
I actually like this team better. But I always thought that team was a fluke. Melo and JR had arguably their best individual years of their careers and we were stacked with spot up shooters and smart vets. This team has more athleticism, playmaking, and versatility. But we won't come close to that win total.
VCoug wrote:Couple of fixes:PG - Felton/Prigioni
SG - Kidd/JR/Shumpert
SF - Shumpert/JR/Novak
PF - Melo/K-Mart
C - Tyson/Amare
Our top 8 in minutes played that season were JR, Melo, Felton, Tyson, Kidd, Novak, Prigioni, Shumpert in that order. Shumpert is the only one that played fewer than 1000 minutes (996 to be exact). Right off the bat, Robin Lopez is a significant downgrade from Tyson Chandler. He's a worse scorer, a much worse rebounder, and a worse defender. Melo was 28 years old and had probably the best season of his career; today he's 31 and coming off of knee surgery. I wasn't a fan of Felton going all the way back to his first (half)season with us but I'm not a fan of Afflalo either so they're basically a wash. Kidd, even that late in his career, was almost still better than Calderon will be this year at 34 and still suffering from an Achilles injury. And that bench blows ours away. JR, Prigioni, Novak, Amare, and KMart blows our current one out of the water.
I said underneath the starting lineup that we had guys moving around a lot and J.Kidd played mostly SG so you didn't need to post changes.
What about the team in between.
