Songlo11 (53 posts)  11/24/2012 11:14 AM

Jeffery Taylor has been playing pretty decent over his last 3 games averaging over 30 min a game.  What is is value going forward with Gerald Henderson supposely coming back next week.  With Tyrus Thomas out, can Taylor see some time at PF?

kwohlge (7 posts)  11/26/2012 8:38 AM

based on what i've seen, I expect them to play small ball with Michael Kidd Gilchrist at the 4 for a few stretches here and there. Taylor will play the 3 in that situation and they'll either play Gordon/Henderson or super small ball Walker at the 2. Walker/Sessions at point guard.

Dunlap has been playing Sessions as the primary ballhandler with Kemba offguard quite often, so expect to see Taylor take the harder wing assignment (either 2 or 3) while MKG switches to whomever is needed from 2 to 4. In the Raptors-Bobcats game, MKG was guarding Bargnani for a large chunk of the 4th quarter.

basically, regardless of when Henderson comes back, I see Taylor getting 20-25 minutes a game minimum just because of his defensive tenacity; he annihilated DeRozan the other night

mbuser (4375 posts)  11/27/2012 12:52 PM

So is your assumption that Henderson doesn't play a lot moving forward? Who is it that loses minutes so that Taylor keeps those 20-25 minutes at minimum?

vnmslsrbms (65 posts)  11/30/2012 9:13 PM

For player development sake, shouldn't it be one of either Gordon or Sessions taking a seat on the bench more because they only offer short term veteran experience on a roster of young players?  Taylor is providing solid D with outside shooting ability, pretty much surprising the cats by producing what they expected MKG to do.  So what should they do?  I think Kemba could develop into a PG who averages 5 apg, and whose scoring could improve to replace what Ben Gordon does off the bench.  In that scenario Sessions would slide in the PG slot for the bench players, and Kemba could play some SG.  Both Henderson and Taylor can play SG/SF.  With Taylor maybe even playing some PF, or MKG doing so (although at his young age I would keep him from that to avoid wear and tear and the rookie wall).  Taylor may be better suited since he is older.  Flexible roster with still weak post play probably would force them to play small alot.  So with that I think the players losing minutes is Biyombo and Haywood.  Mullens may lose a little.  probably more impacted by matchups that anything else.