Originally Posted by
Boozer
I agree with that. Inserting Andre would make that a bigger line up obviously, and I would count that as one of our medium lineups. Against current competition, that lineup as well as Andre with 2 bigs and Kyle resting has performed well.
That is the beauty of this team and having a player like Kyle. K has many options. I just feel from a defensive and rebounding standpoint we can be better with Kyle at the 3. But even there, if we are facing a smaller team, we may be better defensively with one of the lineups with Kyle at the 4.
It has come down to semantics really and the difference over a literal 4 to 6 minutes. As of right now, Kyle has played a slightly higher amount of minutes at the 4 than I expected, which again is fine. I have no problem saying I projected him a few minutes lower. I just want the team to win first and foremost.
Edit: I failed to address one of your questions. My hope is that the bigs play well enough that K can play the 2 Bigs lineup with Kyle at the 3 as many minutes as he chooses, AND that Andre/Seth play well enough that K can play the smaller/medium lineups as many minutes as he choose. That will be a dominant team.
I have always thought that Kyle would play mostly on the wing with two bigs, for defensive reasons. One thing that has been a pleasant surprise early on, that might make what I thought incorrect, has been the ability of Andre to guard the opposition's 3. Since he has been guarding the pre-season player of the year consistently in practice, he is certainly getting used to guarding a bigger player (and the best one in the country at that.) If he continues to be successful doing that, there may be more line-ups with Kyle as the second biggest player. I am expecting Miles, Mason and Ryan to prove to be so valuable defensively and solid offensively that coach K has lots of great options.
“Those two kids, they’re champions,” Krzyzewski said of his senior leaders. “They’re trying to teach the other kids how to become that, and it’s a long road to become that.”