Printable View
When everyone is healthy God willing, Pop woul have to figure out the rotation. It's basically the same team plus Cojo. In last year's playoffs, MarcoB didn't seem like he was playing a lot of minutes, but he wound up averaging 15 mpg, which is a decent size role. He was effective in the Portland series, not as much in the others. He did shoot .421% 3 pt which is pretty good. His defense blows, but that matters more against some teams.
As Austin Daye's success against Minnesota brought to light, a player who can shoot, and who the other team is not expecting to be a big factor, can show up really well from time to time.
Cojo is so much better than he was last year or earlier in this season, but he is still not a playmaker and is still a bit hesitant. He has been terrific in the last ten games or so, but we have to bear in mind that when he is on the floor, teams are still not expecting him to be a scorer. That helps his ability to get open and stay open for shots...just as Daye was last night.
Everybody in the Western World knows that if Belli is in the game, it is for the purpose of scoring. If nothing else, the attention that he gets from the other teams' defenses is a help to other potential shooters in the starting line-up. It has taken a bit for Cory to get accustomed to taking the role of scorer when he is in, but he is getting there.
Belli has his uses, Cojo has his uses. They are just not the same uses. If Belli can free up Cojo and Cojo can knock down the shots, it is not a bad combination...except defensively, of course.
I've got a feeling we're going to see a lot of 2 point guard sets (a la the Suns) in the playoffs.
Looking at potential playoff matchups:
- Warriors could potentially exploit it with Livingston/Iguodala(although Iguodala is notoriously conservative on offense)
- Portland doesn't have any notable bench players
- Memphis could take advantage with Tony Allen/Vince Carter
- Dallas' doesn't have notable bench wings
- Houston doesn't have notable bench wings
- Clippers' bench is terrible
So, the size isn't really a concern IMO, unless maybe against Golden State or Memphis..
CoJo by a mile.