Certainly is. When you have a player willing to take the time to do so when he has struggled recently with the new system, you know he's devoted to the team and wants to play. Great to see Ike wants those minutes on the floor rather than the bench.

Don Nelson On Ike Diogu
“Ike will definitely be part of our eight-man rotation, and we were able to start him in the second half to take advantage of key matchups. He worked well with Troy Murphy when they were both in and we were able to take advantage of the inside-outside game with Murphy outside and Ike inside.”

Ike Diogu On tonight's game

“We were feeling good. We just got out and ran. We capitalized on that and got some easy buckets in transition and everything opened up.”
“Basically, guys are running up, advancing the ball and getting easy lay-ups and that’s what this offense is all about. We take advantage of what each guy can do, rather than focus on a certain individual. We all know who our guys are going to be in crunch time, but as far as regular offense goes, once we secure the rebound, we run. Guys like Monta (Ellis) were able to get easy baskets and so was Pietrus.”

Like I said in the beginning, if dun didn't do well at PF and Nelson gave a slight chance to Diogu, he might just show how good he can be. It is now up to Nelson to use Diogu often and at least 30mins would be good, which hasn't happened yet. Against the Jazz, who have a fairly big and talented frontline, Diogu will be key because he is the only one that can cause inside mismatches and force double teaming from the Jazz

migya wrote:Against the Jazz, who have a fairly big and talented frontline, Diogu will be key because he is the only one that can cause inside mismatches and force double teaming from the Jazz

Yeah, Dun won't be effective against Boozer. No way. Ike will have the chance to show his stuff against him...

And if Dun plays at PG, I don't see him having much succes against them. Too good defensevely for him. Too slow to stop them.

TMC wrote:

migya wrote:Against the Jazz, who have a fairly big and talented frontline, Diogu will be key because he is the only one that can cause inside mismatches and force double teaming from the Jazz

Yeah, Dun won't be effective against Boozer. No way. Ike will have the chance to show his stuff against him...

If he does well, Nelson will likely reward him from here on.

Run and gun really will be important for the team against the Jazz because that could be very effective against them. The Jazz don't seem particularly fast

Derek Fisher's hands are too quick and pesky to let Mike Dunleavy bring the ball up. Baron Davis would punish him... but not Mike.

They'll probably let him handle against Deron Williams, though.

Anyone still wanna take back their trade ideas on Ike?

xBayAreaWarriorx wrote:Anyone still wanna take back their trade ideas on Ike?

Not if nelson continues to go against what he previously said about who the players who will get major time will be. Diogu was not on that list but his performance has made nelson give him a bit more time.

Just over 20 minutes a game is not my idea of being used well though! The way Diogu has been playing, he deserves 30 minutes a game

NOBODY is getting 30 minutes a game. Nelson's swapping lineups all the time during the game. Its a better stradegy.

Montgomery was the kinda coach who gave 5 players 30 minutes each.

#32 wrote:NOBODY is getting 30 minutes a game. Nelson's swapping lineups all the time during the game. Its a better stradegy.

Montgomery was the kinda coach who gave 5 players 30 minutes each.

1 win - 2 losses so far!

When you see two players, like Diogu and Biedrins, play well and two player, like dun and Murphy, relatively ineffective, you go with the players that are performing well! Diogu and Biedrins should have both got over 30 minutes today

Neither got 30 minutes in the 15-point stomping of the Blazers yesterday. That didn't seem like too bad of an idea.

You gotta go with the players that are performing the best! If Nelson does that and makes the players that are not performing so well earn their minutes, things will only get better. Murphy should not have got anywhere near the minutes that Diogu got in this game against the Jazz

#32 wrote:NOBODY is getting 30 minutes a game. Nelson's swapping lineups all the time during the game. Its a better stradegy.

That only works if you're as deep as the Blazers were when Mike Dunleavy was coaching them... they had 11 players able to start for most teams in the NBA, so they played them all under 30 min (Rasheed and Pippen were barely playing 30 min, and they were the two that played the most).

As for us, we're not deep enough. We have to play at least three guys (Baron, J-Rich, Ike) around 35 min per game (not always, obviously, it would have to be reduced if they ain't playing well) if we want to win against good teams... if not, we'll keep getting wins against bad teams, and having a losing record overall.

As for me, this should be the rotation:

pg.- Baron / Monta
sg.- J-Rich / Monta
sf.- Pietrus / J-Rich / Barnes
pf.- Ike / Murphy
c.- Biedrins / Murphy

The rest of the players shouldn't see the court. As I said before, Baron, J-Rich and Ike would have to play around 35 min... with Biedrins and Monta in the high 20's... the rest of the minutes should belong to Murphy and Pietrus, with occasional minutes for Barnes.

That's the only lineup that I consider able to get us some quality wins (and I'm not forgetting Dunleavy... I would just trade him for anything: expirers, picks, your name it...)

Hard to disagree with you TMC but not so sure about Pietrus either so far.

As for Dun, anything for him right now may seem alright. I'd go for future 2nd rounder - Bet someone would bite

migya wrote:Hard to disagree with you TMC but not so sure about Pietrus either so far.

Keep in mind that, although Pietrus would start, Monta would play a lot more minutes than him. I just like having someone coming from the bench to change the game... Monta would play starter minutes even if coming from the bench.