luther

So, with a whole two games to go off, what are your thoughts on how the Wolves should be using their players, either now or after Foye returns?

I've got to say, I'd love to see them start small and quick: Telfair, Foye, McCants, Jefferson, Ratliff. I think that, with McCants' long arms and athleticism, he'd do fine at the SF spot. And I'm interested in the way that both Telfair and Foye could push tempo if they were in the game together. It also gives us two guys capable of making decent entry passes to Jefferson, which is important, as at times so far it seems that some guys haven't got a clue how to pass.

For the first reserves, I'd pull Telfair, McCants and Jefferson, bringing in Jaric, Brewer and Smith. The lineup would be Foye, Jaric, Brewer, Smith, Ratliff. The primary offensive options there are Smith low and Foye from the perimeter. The idea is that Brewer and Jaric could hopefully apply a lot of defensive pressure on the wings and cause turnovers, too, able to gamble with Ratliff a legit shot-blocking threat inside.

The next substitution is Telfair back in or Buckner in for Foye, with Jefferson (or Madsen, or Doleac, situationally?) back in for Ratliff.

Seems to me that this way, we're never at a loss for scorers the way we have been when going without any of our starters. We'd always have two: either Jefferson, McCants and Foye; or Smith and Foye; or Jefferson and Smith.

Personally, I would also like to get Green in there, but based on last night's commentators, the Wolves aren't currently considering that. They said he has struggled to learn the offensive and defensive concepts and so won't get time till he does.

Mateo

Foye / McCants / Gomes / Smith / Jefferson

luther

The things about that lineup that would worry me are:

1) it includes our four best scorers (assuming Green isn't going to be getting time), which hurts our bench's ability to keep it up even more than it already is; and
2) I'm still not totally sold on Foye being a sole ball-handler / PG.

Mateo

Me neither, but I'm even less sold on him as a shooting guard. He doesn't have much of a jump shot, so if he doesn't have the ball he's totally worthless. Might as well stick him at PG. The question is whether he or Telfair should be starting.

Ruff Draft

Cookie deserves to be starting, but right now we need his scoring off the bench. Eventually it may be he and Jefferson up-front for years.

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Mateo

I disagree. I don't think Smith is a good enough scorer that he can be that guy off the bench. He's got a few moves, but he's more of an opportunistic scorer. That's why I think he would be great alongside Jefferson where he can take advantage of the attention Jefferson gets.

If you really insist on having scoring off the bench then I'd go with Foye. Since he's injured, there's your perfect excuse to keep him on the bench when he returns.

I might also go with Gomes off the bench. I'm not sold on him as a full time small forward, though his jumper did look decent the other night. I might go with Brewer for defense and rely on McCants, Smith, and Jefferson for offense in the starting lineup. Then bring Foye and Gomes in at the same time in the second unit (Probably having Smith go to the bench and Jefferson staying on with Theo, bring Gomes in at the 3 for a while until Jefferson gets tired and then move Gomes to the 4 with someone else (maybe Green?) at the 3 for a while).

Avalanche

Run a 3 guard rotation of Foye/Mccants/Telfair... Leave Bassy to start on the bench once Foye is healthy, he can sub either guy either playing with mccants or slotting Foye into SG. Use Buckner and Jaric for Spot minutes.

at small forward start Gomes, try and give as much time to Brewer off the bench as possible, have him playing with the scorers (Foye/Jefferson) while later in the game Gomes can play with the second unit as he seems to be a pretty consistant scorer. Walker for spot minutes

PF start Jefferson, with Smith as his primary back up obviously... for big periods of the game move Jefferson over to Center and have he and smith playing up front together. Gomes can also slot in here if we go small.

C Start Theo, hes looked really good... and as above, use jefferson here for big minutes also

Foye/Telfair/Jaric
Mccants/Foye/Buckner
Gomes/Brewer/Walker
Jefferson/Smith/Gomes
Theo/Jefferson /Doleac

Wont have a set roation on who should play with who as that will change every game

luther

There haven't been many good teams without it. The thing is, your choice of Foye is one I've thought about before, too. I was talking with some friends about how he's almost similar to Vinnie Johnson in that he can play some point, but isn't one. He's a tweener between the spots size-wise. He can score, but hasn't been really reliable (although he's so young, he has plenty of time to prove otherwise on that). But Johnson was a far, far better shooter.

ThE BiG TiCkEt

FOYE - MCCANTS - GOMES - JEFFERSON - RATLIFF

According to me this is the best line-up...

But Foye,McCants,Gomes,Brewer,Jefferson according to you maybe both offensive and hard defensive...with McCants and Brewer's long arms...?

Howewer we need a W...and we need Randy return-back...!!!

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socco

The only change I would make is to put Foye in for McCants.

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Avalanche

I'm really hoping Brewer can work into the starting line up

Foye/Mccants/Brewer/Jefferson/Theo is a great, well rounded line up