re: Of the first 34 picks in the 2020 NBA Draft.....

My view is that:

1) SVG is trying to establish an identity of defensive dominance -- a tough, gritty, physical team. We were so bad defensively last year, and he wants our guys to believe that we are a good defensive team (which we actually seem to be).

That probably wasn't going to happen playing NAW and Lewis a lot. While the little we saw of NAW in the preseason looked better than last year, NAW definitely played defense last year like a rookie -- he wasn't good. And the fact that he actually seems to have lost weight isn't going to help with the physical aspect either. When he plays, Lewis is also going to play defense like a rookie.

2) As part of developing the tough, gritty team that he wants us to be, our guys need to be in fantastic shape. Since we play games every other day, the only way to improve the physical conditioning of our guys (especially Zion) is to play them long minutes, to really get them tired every game.

So, yeah, I think that SVG likely has good reasons for what he's doing -- it's part of developing a championship culture. But will I be concerned if this situation is the same in 2-3 weeks? Yeah. NAW and Lewis can't develop in practice this year, because the team plays games every other day and basically only has light practices on the other days. The only way that NAW/Lewis are going to develop is on the floor.