Originally Posted by
Olympic Fan
I will be interested to see how Lance Thomas is used in the new rotation.
Look, we all know that Lance is offensively challenged -- and after three years, none of us expect him to suddenly blossom as a scorer.
But he did improve last season as a rebounder and he brings an interesting defensive skill-set to the table. The fact is that physically, Lance is a 6-8 small forward who has been asked to defend in the post almost exclusively in his Duke career.
This year, he can present some options with sharing the 3/4 position with either Singler or Kelly. To me, such a combination would mean that Singler/Kelly will play the 3 on offense, while Lance handles the 4. But in most defensive situations, Singler/Kelly will guard the bigger players, while Thomas has the combination of length and quickness to guard even the best small forwards.
Of course, a lot of that depends on how much we get from Zoubek/Mason/Miles in the post. If that trio can combine to play close to 40 minutes at the 5, then Lance can play a role more suited to talents.
One final point. We really shouldn't get too hung on defensive matchups -- not after last season when Duke switched on almost every screen, forcing Singler to guard guards and our guards to guard big men. It worked pretty well, especially after Elliot moved into the starting lineup and there were no more "small" players to exploit on switches ... and with Lance getting more minutes than Brian at the 5, there were no big men to exploit either.