re: Pelicans' rookie Kira Lewis Jr. is a student of the game

How are you going to compare Hayes who is as raw as you can get for a freshman big man going into a rookie season to a Kira who has been a starter and a leader of that bama squad for 2 seasons now. Kira is as polished as you can get for a sophomore coming into the league. He has no major flaws in his game.

Lewis is not, NOOOOOT, Hayes.

Well Kumar basically just said he'll be with the team. But that doesn't necessarily mean on the court. Unless he earns it in practice.

It’s not meaningless. It gives us a framework to figure out where the minutes are coming from. You’re convinced Kira plays, and I’m not saying you’re wrong, but if he plays he’s taking minutes from someone, so who and why?

I would think since P&R is Kira’s strength you want to play him with Zion or Jaxon and shooters. I’m also curious to see if his speed means you don’t need Zion to leak out for fast breaks and Kira can play the streaker. Pairing him on a bench unit with Zion and Zo makes a lot of sense.

Also, this GLeague discussion is moot. 2 Way contracts are practically full roster spots with the new rules for this season. They basically are letting teams expand their roster this year with the 2 way players in case of a COVID incident taking out half your team. Most teams will probably keep everyone with the team while COVID is a threat.

We certainly have a crowd in the back court, but if you allocate 10-12 minutes per game to Kira, which seems reasonable, as Bledsoe’s back up,then I guess they come from Lonzo and or NAW’s lead guard minutes.

I’ve never thought Nickeil’s future was at point guard and the drafting of Kira only reinforces that belief. I think he and Lonzo will both see more time off ball as spot up shooters and (in NAW’s case at least) wings who can penetrate against close outs and be secondary creators.

Yeah the way I see it, if you want to put traditional position labels on it, Bledsoe will be the starting PG with Lewis as his backup, while Lonzo will be the starting SG with NAW as his backup. JJ will be relegated to pretty much only the shooting specialist role. Hart will get minimal minutes at SG with most coming at SF behind Ingram.

But everyone except JJ can play point and I think that's what has people twisted. SVG said even before he got the job that he can see 2 ball handling guards together on the court, especialy with Ball's skill set. He basically said he's the transition PG while someone else would be the half court PG.

And Melli, Hayes, and especially JJ (because he isn't playing more than 20 mpg this year, and likely less than that)are heading for minute reductions. That's why you can't look at last year. Melli and Hayes were pressed into so many minutes at center with Favors missing time, and Melli got even more minutes with Zion missing time.

Hart is the only reserve from last year who will still see those minutes, and the majority will be at SF out of necessity.

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Why don't you want Zion leaking out for fastbreaks?

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I'm not sure I'd say I don't want him leaking out, because that does put so much pressure on other teams. But yes

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So he can actually concentrate on finishing defensive possessions?

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Barring injuries I would be very surprised if our top 8 in minutes aren’t:

Ingram
Zion
Ball
Bledsoe
Adams
Hart
Redick
Melli

In some order.

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I think people are misunderstanding what I'm saying.

And I don't disagree with your top 8, especially to start the year. I even think NAW will be 8th or 9th and be the swing guard backup to start (he and JJ will be 8 and 9 I think; or 7 and 9 depending on Melli or other front court options)

When I say less minutes for JJ, I don't mean less minutes than Lewis. But he's another year older and we had less (quality) depth last year at guard. I think he'll get at minimum 14, but at most 20.

I just don't think he'll be the highest or second highest played reserve this year. I think he falls around 7-9.

But I do think to start Lewis will also get 8-10 minutes. He'll have a role and play. He won't be g league and he won't get near 0.

As the season goes on I definitely expect his role to expand though, getting 14-18 minutes near the trade deadline.

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and we had less (quality) depth last year at guard

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Did we? Depth is basically the same, or maybe even leaning towards last year to me.

Still have Ball, Hart, JJ, lost Jrue added Bledsoe (a wash in terms of depth), still have NAW, lost Moore added Kira.

How are we deeper at guard this year?

ETA: I think you're expecting a bigger year 2 jump from NAW than I am, and also Kira to produce this year (which I'm not convinced of).

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Kira will not play in the g-league, this guy will be in the rotation often and early. Griffin didn't draft this guy with the intention of him not playing this year.

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This.

No one drafted 13 or better in many years has played in the G-League and Kira isn't either.
13 seems to be the cutoff point of guys that you expect to draft and get minutes without wasting time in the G-League.