Luke & Wally - Together at Last

I don't think we need another 3. Supposedly Hughes can play the 3, although I have serious doubts about that. I think we have ways of playing without a traditional 3, just as we have ways of playing without a traditional point guard. Imagine a big lineup of Snow, Hughes, Gooden, Marshall and Z. Or even a bit bigger with Snow, Hughes, Gooden (3), Pollard (4), Z. OR Snow, Hughes, Marshall (3), Pollard (4), Z. OR Snow, Hughes, Gooden (3), Marshall (4), Pollard (5). Did I mention Varejao?

The overall team concept was to get longer and more athletic, while maintaining the ability to shoot. It is assumed that athleticism increases the ability to play defense, and allows for more flexibility in terms of substitutions and matchups. Whether Mike Brown knows how to exploit this is up for debate. Big Z kind of throws a wrench in this strategy, and Marshall's conditioning was also problematic last year, but now we could potentially field an all athletic lineup of Hughes, Brown, Lebron, Gooden, and your pick of Varejao or Pollard. That lineup wouldn't be huge up front, but overall would be bigger and faster that any lineup another team could put on the floor. The only spot wanting there would be a more athletic
center. Perhaps that's why they are looking at this Jones guy, although the improved Marshall, or the scrappy Pollard might be just the right fit.

Back to the question of resting Lebron though: I think that the main issue when we take Lebron out is not worrying about replacing his ball handling, but rather his athleticism and energy. So I say you make sure that when Lebron is rested, Hughes and Gooden must both be on the floor. So my small, non-Lebron lineup might be Snow, Brown, Hughes, Gooden, and Varejao. And my big non-Lebron lineup would be Hughes, Brown, Gooden, Varejao, and Z. The small lineup features ball handling and athleticism. The second lineup sacrifices some ball handling but replaces it with size AND scoring. I don't see why we can't manage to play ten minutes of basketball with one of these lineups.