Who will be the starting point guard on opening night?

[Tremendous Upside]

If I am Ainge, I am hoping to drive up value in THT and Sexton so I can trade one of them at the deadline.

How do you "drive up" the value of someone who's a borderline NBA player (THT) though? I mean, if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

Making matters worse is that fact that the more THT plays in an on-ball role, the more inefficient he gets. That's not exactly a recipe for driving up his value, as we saw from last season. He had zero market after dominating the ball and putting up some gaudy counting stats. Teams know what he is.

 

[The Jazz Wonderbra]

How do you "drive up" the value of someone who's a borderline NBA player (THT) though? I mean, if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

Making matters worse is that fact that the more THT plays in an on-ball role, the more inefficient he gets. That's not exactly a recipe for driving up his value, as we saw from last season. He had zero market after dominating the ball and putting up some gaudy counting stats. Teams know what he is.

Just like teams knew who Lauri Maarkanen was last year, right? Come on.... players improve all the time in the league. Especially ones that are just 22 years old like THT. Last year, at the beginning of the year, it was painful to watch him. But throughout the year, he improved dramatically imho. His efficiency wasn't amazing, but he started to learn when and where he could get his shots. I can easily see his expiring contract being attractive if he demonstrates he can be a plus value player for a playoff team.

 

[jumpin bean]

without a trade, Sexton and THT run point Dunn goes 3rd

 

[NUMBERICA]

How do you "drive up" the value of someone who's a borderline NBA player (THT) though? I mean, if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

Interesting and relevant point. Since Sexton and Clarkson already have much stronger reputations than THT and THT might be worth retaining and developing on account of his age and obvious on-ball talent, it would probably make more sense to juice Sexton and Clarkson's numbers and trade them while their value is peaked to clear some of the logjam.

For my part, I think the most best thing the backcourt can do this season is to eventually do some weeding and allow Keyonte to get some sunlight.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Interesting and relevant point. Since Sexton and Clarkson already have much stronger reputations than THT and THT might be worth retaining and developing on account of his age and obvious on-ball talent, it would probably make more sense to juice Sexton and Clarkson's numbers and trade them while their value is peaked to clear some of the logjam.

For my part, I think the most best thing the backcourt can do this season is to eventually do some weeding and allow Keyonte to get some sunlight.

You can't really "juice" Sexton's numbers. The dude put up 24 ppg his 3rd year in the NBA. His reputation is what it is at this point and will take a season of him being a starter on a winner to actually change it.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

You can't really "juice" Sexton's numbers. The dude put up 24 ppg his 3rd year in the NBA. His reputation is what it is at this point and will take a season of him being a starter on a winner to actually change it.

I disagree… he does that with some efficiency and on a decent team and he gets juiced real good. Right now he’s a guy that put up volume on a team that won like 20 games and he did it on average/below average efficiency. He goes from good stats on a bad team guy to great stats on a winning team.

Just to calibrate… I’d say his value is like expiring salary and some decent second round picks right now. I think he becomes worth a first pretty quick as a starter with good numbers on a .500-ish team.

 

[416Klawzz]

Then I dont think we need an inefficient chucker that doesnt play defense on the team anymore. When our only other scorer was Donovan then we really needed him off the bench, but that isnt the case anymore and he will lose lots of games for us keeping other more efficient scorers without touches and allow the other team lots of baskets. He needs to adjust his game, but I think he can. He did it for the first quarter of the season or so last year before reverting back to his old style when pretty much our entire roster was out or traded.

Thank goodness you are not the coach or management because they think otherwise of Clarkson and so do I. You probably like useless stiffs like Gobert and Niang and Royce

 

[416Klawzz]

The problem with JC is that he plays the most athletic position in the league and isn't getting any quicker or more explosive (which he's never been anyway).

In the coming years, he'll have to rely even more on various tricks and, frankly, flopping to get his shot off or get to the stripe against physically superior defenders. That kind of stuff usually means stopping the ball, lots of dribbling and upfakes, searching for contact.... while the rest of the players watch. Not the way we're going to want to play with this personnel.

It's not a question of Clarkson wanting to change his game. He has to.

He has tricks many many tricks you don't need to worry about it

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I disagree… he does that with some efficiency and on a decent team and he gets juiced real good. Right now he’s a guy that put up volume on a team that won like 20 games and he did it on average/below average efficiency. He goes from good stats on a bad team guy to great stats on a winning team.

Just to calibrate… I’d say his value is like expiring salary and some decent second round picks right now. I think he becomes worth a first pretty quick as a starter with good numbers on a .500-ish team.

You disagree by just saying what I said in more detail?

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Here's the issue to me: you start Sexton and you're taking a risk because if you lose, you are going to perpetuate the narrative (even if he wasn't the reason). You bring him off the bench and just focus mostly on his strengths and you have a better chance at winning games, which is what ultimately boost his stock the most

 

[FrenchJazzFa]

What make me worry starting Sexton and JC is the lack of passing ability. We have seen it last season, we start very well because Mike was conducting the game. Not sure Sexton and JC are able to provide 5-7 assists per game without TO the ball too much.

 

[NUMBERICA]

Here's the issue to me: you start Sexton and you're taking a risk because if you lose, you are going to perpetuate the narrative (even if he wasn't the reason). You bring him off the bench and just focus mostly on his strengths and you have a better chance at winning games, which is what ultimately boost his stock the most

I need to clarify that my point about juicing Sexton's value wouldn't be contingent on him starting. Mostly just being sure he's getting enough minutes.

Still like Dunn/JC as starters with Dunn as a placeholder and hope that Key pops. But it's basically impossible to get all the combo guards meaningful minutes so hopefully there's an early-season trade that clears out the logjam a bit.