bench use positives

[gene kirkpatrick <gk_tyler@yahoo.com>]

Over the first two months, we have seen several positive uses of the bench players.  We have seen the Battie/Potapenko rotation become a rather smooth one and Blount relegated to a distant third.  We have also seen Strickland emerge over Palacio, which seems to be a positive.  Strickland has more experience and does hit a few shots, while driving to the hole as much as Milt, plus defensive pressure--I rate that a positive exchange. Again, McCarty sits and most agree with that.  The next move, I think, would be to use the other two rookies.  Let Kedrick replace Antoine and Paul for their plus forty minutes.  He hasn't proved to hurt us on the court.  And comparisons to slow developers aren't warranted unless we hear that he's slow in his own development; we hear just the opposite from practice.  Then, allow Forte to show just how unready he is behind Kenny.  He has more ability to develop into something special than Strickland or Palacio.  It's not merely that fans want to see the rooks.  It's that they can't mature or help us without game time.  Anyway, I think we need to balance the present with the future a little more.

Obviously, I don't see any problem with analyzing what the coach is doing, the plusses and minuses.  So far, he's doing quite well.  I just think we're leaving too much talent on the bench, talent that can score as well as defend.  We're not losing because of defense anymore.  It's because we lack consistent and varied scoring.  Cheers,  Gene
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