Jimmy Butler: a legit star player, and worthy of being the #1 option on a team. However, he’s essentially a Scottie Pippen level guy. Excellent defender, high energy guy, but not someone who can consistently generate offense on his own.
Bam Adebayo: a legit second option, and excellent big defender. However, not a great offensive player, and struggles to create mismatches offensively. Basically has to feed off of attention given to other players on offense. He is a high-IQ player, and plays good pick-and-roll basketball.
Gabe Vincent: a high-energy role player, who can create offensive opportunities, and play good defense. However, he is under-sized, so he gets exploited by bigger guards, and if the shot isn’t falling, he becomes an offensive liability.
Max Strus: a streaky 3-and-D guy with very little athleticism. Genuinely should be about the 7 or 8 guy in your rotation…. if that.
Duncan Robinson: a good 3-point shooter whose size can present problems defensively, and who has improved his ability to score in more than one way. His defense is not good, his ball-handling is suspect, and outside of scoring, occasionally rebounding, and some hustle plays, his all-around game is very limited.
Kevin Love: used to be a good big man who can shoot the 3, which caused defensive matchup problems. However, always has been weak defensively, is not nearly as much of a threat as he used to be offensively, and at this point of his career probably shouldn’t be in your rotation.
Kyle Lowry: a guy who used to be good offensively because of his high energy, good ball-handling, good decision-making, and streaky 3-point shooting. Plays bigger than his size, but his size is very small. He’s 38 years old, and you gotta commend him for still providing a spark off the bench, but like Love, should not be in the regular rotation at this point.
Caleb Martin: length and defensive ability make him a viable deep rotation player, and occasionally gets hot from 3-point range. Bad ball-handler and decision-maker, and a guy who is only viable in the main 8-man rotation because of his size and defense. Otherwise, if his shot isn’t falling, he’s a dead-space on the offensive end.
Cody Zeller: a big guy………. who should be delivering pizzas, or pulling cats out of trees. If he’s part of your regular rotation, something has gone terribly wrong.
Heyward Highsmith: good defender with some length, but otherwise brings nothing to the table. Maybe useful as a defender to spell other regular rotation players, but shouldn’t be playing on any type of quality roster.
Give this team props for getting here, and it's almost inexplicable how they did it. But I defy anyone to claim another team (at least in the last 40 years) has fielded a more inept roster of players in the NBA Finals.
Bam Adebayo: a legit second option, and excellent big defender. However, not a great offensive player, and struggles to create mismatches offensively. Basically has to feed off of attention given to other players on offense. He is a high-IQ player, and plays good pick-and-roll basketball.
Gabe Vincent: a high-energy role player, who can create offensive opportunities, and play good defense. However, he is under-sized, so he gets exploited by bigger guards, and if the shot isn’t falling, he becomes an offensive liability.
Max Strus: a streaky 3-and-D guy with very little athleticism. Genuinely should be about the 7 or 8 guy in your rotation…. if that.
Duncan Robinson: a good 3-point shooter whose size can present problems defensively, and who has improved his ability to score in more than one way. His defense is not good, his ball-handling is suspect, and outside of scoring, occasionally rebounding, and some hustle plays, his all-around game is very limited.
Kevin Love: used to be a good big man who can shoot the 3, which caused defensive matchup problems. However, always has been weak defensively, is not nearly as much of a threat as he used to be offensively, and at this point of his career probably shouldn’t be in your rotation.
Kyle Lowry: a guy who used to be good offensively because of his high energy, good ball-handling, good decision-making, and streaky 3-point shooting. Plays bigger than his size, but his size is very small. He’s 38 years old, and you gotta commend him for still providing a spark off the bench, but like Love, should not be in the regular rotation at this point.
Caleb Martin: length and defensive ability make him a viable deep rotation player, and occasionally gets hot from 3-point range. Bad ball-handler and decision-maker, and a guy who is only viable in the main 8-man rotation because of his size and defense. Otherwise, if his shot isn’t falling, he’s a dead-space on the offensive end.
Cody Zeller: a big guy………. who should be delivering pizzas, or pulling cats out of trees. If he’s part of your regular rotation, something has gone terribly wrong.
Heyward Highsmith: good defender with some length, but otherwise brings nothing to the table. Maybe useful as a defender to spell other regular rotation players, but shouldn’t be playing on any type of quality roster.
Give this team props for getting here, and it's almost inexplicable how they did it. But I defy anyone to claim another team (at least in the last 40 years) has fielded a more inept roster of players in the NBA Finals.
