BlakeJesus

What is the ceiling for this team?

Jrue Holiday/Royal Ivey
Jason Richardson/Nick Young
Evan Turner/Thad Young
Thaddeus Young/Arnett Moultrie/Kwame
Andrew Bynum/Spencer Hawes/Lavoy Allen

Andrew Bynum gets a shot to be "the guy", and he's an East Coast dude so I could see a scenario where the fans really back him. Maybe not having to deal with Kobe Bryant and the LA market every day will cure some amount of his "boneheaded-ness"? Supposing he can stay healthy, I definitely believe Bynum has a chance to look really really good.

I also have a sneaky feeling about Evan Turner. There's a lot of things going on around him that play well into what he does, and he should now step into the starting role instead of dealing with the frustrations of being a reserve player. From what I recall he's been pretty consistently publicly irked about not getting starter minutes, and with Iggy out of town I'm hoping this won't be an issue for him. Definitely no aspirations of him being a top 25 player, but things seem to be lining in his favor lately.

What do other people think when they see this rotation? It wouldn't hurt for them to add a capable backup PG, but they look pretty impressive to me.

__________________

TheAnswer

I think they're overrated on paper and will be proven to be overrated once they hit the court.

I do think if Evan Turner plays well (which I atleast expect him to) they'll be a somewhat dangerous playoff team that's capable of an upset or two.

Nothing sticks out though and I thought was gonna be Hawes at the 4? Could've heard it differently.

Salomon

I think the whole "Hawes at the 4" experiment is going to be fairly short-lived. He's too slow footed even at the 5, so basically only the most he can be is a 15-20 mpg back-up. Because of that, it looks like Allen might have to be the starter along with Thad coming off the bench as the sixth man but ideally you hope Moultrie gets a decent amount of minutes and plays well enough to replace Allen in the starting line-up.

BlakeJesus

I really hope they don't think Spencer Hawes can be a quality starting PF in the NBA, that would be pretty disappointing to see. Allen played well during the 76ers playoff stretch, and he's actually a pretty decent fit with Bynum in the context of meshing skillsets. Moultrie might end up being a great value pick if he can come in and give them rebounding and solid scoring off the bench (potentially a starter at some point during the season even), that could be exactly what the big man rotation needs.

It's all speculation until we see how it plays out though, but I like their collection of bigs around Bynum at this point. It's solid, unspectacular, but pretty solid.

__________________

RollWithEm

I see their rotation like this:

PG Jrue Holiday/Royal Ivey
SG Jason Richardson/Nick Young
SF Evan Turner/Dorell Wright
PF Lavoy Allen/Thaddeus Young/Arnett Moultrie
C Andrew Bynum/Spencer Hawes/Kwame Brown

The main offensive problems with last year's team were the overwhelming lack of perimeter shooting and the lack of a post game. They addressed both of those needs in almost the best possible way you can imagine a team addressing those needs. They added one of the top 3 or 4 post players in basketball along with 3 of the league's best (though also streakiest) shooters. Can't do much better than that.

At the same time, they won games last year because of their stingy defense. They clearly got worse in that area. The question with this team in my mind is similar to the questions I had with the Spurs a few years back. Will their tremendously increased offensive ability offset their decreased defensive ability?

As far as ceilings go, I think they could be the 2nd seed in the East and take the Heat to a hard fought six games in the Eastern Finals.

Their floor would probably be 9th or 10th in the conference. That's probably the widest spread of any Eastern Conference team in terms of potential. This will all come down to Doug Collins... and I'm not sure that's a good thing.

__________________
But that's just me.

Bled11Harr3

We are noticeably and painfully thin at the point. For a moment, allow yourself to imagine Jrue Holiday going down with an injury. Scary, right?

RollWithEm

This is true, but couldn't they just sign Leandro Barbosa? He would probably take the veteran minimum just to land back in the league at this point.

__________________
But that's just me.

Wade County

Imagine Leandro Barbosa running the point. Catastrophy.

__________________

RollWithEm

It would be fine for 10 minutes a game. Some other pass-first veterans like Earl Boykins, Jonny Flynn, and Anthony Carter will also be available if they don't think Ivey can get the job done.

__________________
But that's just me.

BlakeJesus

You can say that about a lot of teams, if they get hurt at this position they will be bad. I can't dispute the point, though I do think Evan Turner can handle some extra ballhandling duties if need be, I just don't think you can really predict based off injuries.

__________________

Luke

Somewhere between 44-48 wins and possibly a second round exit. They'll be pretty fun to watch.

__________________
Formerly VanillaPrice

Floods

Bynum out for 3 weeks with a right knee bone bruise.