B is not a fit with Z??

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Arre teams doubling Z by not guarding B?

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What? People are saying this because they’re both fairly high usage players who live near the basket. BI plays further back but not further back enough to give Zion space to work. Also both require the ball to be useful and neither are plus defenders. This means that they often trade off scoring which works often but isn’t an optimal setup. Ideally you want your two best players to complement each other more than that.

Spacing. BI is not a great fit in modern basketball. His favorite shot is a turnaround fadeaway middy. The absolute dumbest shot in basketball period. High risk low reward.

I’ve flip flopped on him because he is a good player, but on Tuesday I saw him pass on a wide open 3 just to dribble into the lane and take a contested 2 I gave up on him. That’s who he is and it isn’t a great fit. We are better with Trey starting next to Z.

It’s not rocket science. When one of them is the PG, it means that the other is off ball. Zion is worthless sitting in the corner, and to a certain extent so is BI, or at least it’s not worth $50 million. On top of that, Ingram still reverts to his ISO comfort zone far too often which breaks the flow of the offense and leads to him taking contested 2s instead of open 3s.

Because Zion doesn’t have more skills, BI is the one that needs to change his game the most to fit and he just hasn’t changed enough yet and the rate of change makes it questionable if he ever will. An example of what his game should look like is what CJ has done this year.

But his talent, when he is on the court, can transcend that, so you need players who are willing to adapt to his game.

BI can't or won't

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This is the part I take issue with. BI fits the modern game just fine

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He doesn't fit with this team and what this team should be doing, no.

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Zion is just an oddly shaped piece that makes it harder to find things to fit around him

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Trey fits like a glove with Zion.

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Zion is the one who causes fit problems across the roster.

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And he's your best player, so the rest of the team needs to conform and be constructed around him. If dudes don't fit with Zion, the last thing you want to do is give those dudes max contracts.

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In simplest form, in the modern NBA you can't build a contender around two stars who don't shoot 3-pointers and aren't great defenders. Math doesn't work...

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JMO: Even if we all agreed that BI should be traded...the problem is...I don' t think other teams believe BI is as valuable as some of us do. His actual trade value might surprise many of us...on the low side.

Ask yourself this...IF the Pels didn't already have BI...would they, in the least bit, be interested in trading for a "BI" type player, given the current state of the NBA game?

Can't imagine a team that would want BI at where his pay will apparently soon be...unless of course, they can unload some of their less-desirable players in return. My suggestion...trade the guy...and just take the beating you're gonna take in the trade. The alternative is far worse. JMO

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An example of what his game should look like is what CJ has done this year.

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OK, then trade CJ and go get someone to take the #2 spot on this team from BI and make him a #3 role player.

BI is not a role player. CJ, for the first time in his career, was a role player this year. He's always been the #2 on the team, even when he's been here b/c Zion or BI were always hurt. This was the first year he was truely not the #2 guy, and that makes it a hell of a lot easier to just shoot 3's and layups.
21% of his shots this year were mid range shots during the 35 game window with a healthy Zion and BI after christmas until BI was hurt on 3/21. In the 12 games without BI, he went nucleur from 3 shooting 11 a game and hitting them at 48%, but his mid range game jumped up to 34% of his shots. Wierd huh. The previous year when he was mainly the #2 all year, 39% of his shots were mid range shots.


CJ's role changed, which is why his shot chart changed. Yes i still give him credit for changing that shot chart, but the #3 role plays a huge role in it.

If you guys want to replace BI with a 3 point shooting role player, like Trey, then CJ is going to take more mid range shots b/c he's going to be the #2 guy again.
CJ is an elite #3 guy to have, and i'd like to keep it that way. If BI isn't the #2 guy we need, then we need another #2 guy, not another #3. It's why I say Lauri or KAT can replace BI b/c they can be the #2 guy b/c they are capable of getting their own shot off whenever they want. CJ can struggle when someone big gets switched onto him, and he reverts to either a step back 3 that gets challenged or a running mid range shot b/c he cant take a jump shot and rise up over defenders like BI can.

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Pick your star and build a complimentary team around them.

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every championship team has two stars. You can't just rely on 1 guy in the clutch, and that other star needs to be able to get his own shot off, and hit it. I know no one wants to call Middleton a star, but he played like one in order for them to win a championship. You have to have that other guy. It can't just be 1 guy and role players.

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OK, then trade CJ and go get someone to take the #2 spot on this team from BI and make him a #3 role player.

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I've been saying for over a year that CJ is the guy that goes when the money forces decisions to get made. I am not in the trade BI camp, at least not the Addition by Subtraction camp where a good starter like Jarrett Allen is the best player you get back. Maybe I should be, because I can see it being addition by subtraction, but if you trade a quarter for 3-4 dimes, I don't see an easy path to add another quarter to the team in the future, and stacking quarters matters in the playoffs.