This reasoning is kind of killing me... there isn't just one issue obviously... the data set is clear that the lineups with Royce in for Mike with the starters are so so much better than the current lineup. It gets hard to get to those lineups in game flow if you don't start that way. But there is also some psychology/ripple effects here:
- We know Joe works really well with Rudy and the starters... having him out there has a better chance to get him going and feeds the big fella so it gets Rudy going.
- If Rudy is getting the ball more he is more engaged on defense... in a perfect world he just plays defense and doesn't need this, but we've seen this with other bigs and with Rudy before. Rudy can get fed.
- Royce gets to start and guard the best perimeter guy, which takes a load off of DM and Ingles... DM can now likely hide somewhere and save his energy. These guys aren't robots... it is hard as hell to be really good on both ends of the court with the energy it takes. So now Royce is used more properly and we've lightened the loads of the other guys. Royce needs to be better than he has recently, but has a history of being quite good.
The argument for Mike is that he is a better creator... but that unit doesn't need a lot of creation... and Mike has been the most inefficient creator of those guys. He's a worse spot up shooter than Joe and Royce...
So you push Mike to the bench... he will have a chance to maybe find himself a bit. His creation will help that unit... and his size won't be as big of an issue. You may lose him... but he's already been pretty bad and historically he's an average efficiency scorer... so NBD if you lose him... he's been well below that. He's been nicked up so less minutes isn't a bad thing.
So while this solution isn't the cure all... it has a chance to fix some of our many issues. Its like if you were in a horrible accident and had lots of injuries... treating your head wound won't fix your broken leg, but you should address the head wound right?
