Mailbag: Basketball starting 5?
I got an email from John this morning suggesting we talk about our ideal starting five on the basketball court this season. John suggested "Teague at point, Williams at SG, Johnson & Aminu at forwards, w/ Walker at center."
While I appreciate the sentiment, I think I'm going to have to wait until at least Saturday after the Black/Gold scrimmage to put Walker in my starting five. I also think Ish still has to be in there. There are several tough decisions to make with all the depth, but I think I'd go with Ish at the point, Teague at the two (Williams isn't a bad choice, but I think Teague fits this role a little bit better), Johnson & Aminu at forwards, and Chas playing center. I can't kick him out of that job yet.
Your turn. Leave you're starting 5 in a comment, and assuming we get a decent number of comments I'll try to tabulate our consensus starting five. The floor is yours.
10/22/08, 12:44 PM
1- Teague
2- Williams, but I hope clark has improved so he can take more minutes from hale
3- johnson
4- aminu
5- walker
It will be interesting to see if walker/woods are ready for the physicality of playing center in the ACC
10/22/08, 1:26 PM
Teague/Smith (I believe they can really switch out and you can go with either depending on matchup), Williams, Johnson, Aminu, Chas (I'm hoping Walker provides some healthy competition to improve both of them and maybe even that walker will take over that spot).
I've gotta admit, being from Wilmington originally I'm pulling for Walker to succeed big time.
10/22/08, 4:42 PM
I've heard that Woods is actually further along in his development as a big man and is more ready to play right now. Thoughts?
10/22/08, 8:29 PM
Ish
Teague
Farouq
James
Chas
Bench order
LD
Tony
Weaver
Clark
Hale
Walker
TWoods will play before Walker at this point in time
10/22/08, 8:40 PM
1-smith
2-teague
3-farouq
4-jj
5-chas
10/22/08, 8:49 PM
Ish
Teague
Johnson
Aminu
Chas
10/22/08, 11:05 PM
ish
teague
josh j
aminu
chas
with quick substitutions from ld for aminu possibly.
ty, harvey, and woods will see good playing time.
clark will not see the floor tons. not with the place that teague should be right now....
10/23/08, 9:16 AM
1- Chris Paul
2- Josh Howard
3- Johnson
4- Aminu
5- Duncan
10/23/08, 12:16 PM
Ish
Teague
Johnson
Aminu
Chas
I think the first subs will be LD and Woods. What an energy boost those guys will bring! I can see an Ish/Teague/LD rotation in the backcourt akin to what Skip did with CP3/Gray/Downey, with Jeff playing the role of Taron, able to play either guard spot depending on which backcourt partner is in at the time.
I'm most curious to see which bigs can play together. Guys like Woods, Weaver, Chas, and Ty will probably get more minutes if they can sub in at a forward spot and play alongside another big.
10/24/08, 12:27 PM
Teague
Williams
Aminu
Johnson
Walker
From what I can tell Ish is a great kid with plenty of hustle plus speed, however he is weak on Dfence, poor shooting, and prone to being reckless w/ his ball handling and passing. I feel Teague is as fast as Ish plus he brings a whole lot more firepower both offensively and on defense. Putting Williams at SG gives us a defensive stopper who can occasionally get hot offensively. Play to our strengths
on this team with (2) interchangeable forwards in Johnson & Aminu. Place Walker in the middle and let him block any shot attempted in the paint.