Daniel Theis Germany vs Czech Republic -17 points - 6 rebounds and 2 blocks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oz-0KHfF_I

Some nice stuff by Theis on this film.  One thing I noticed is that he looks like the biggest guy on the floor for either team, but in the NBA he's a PF because he's not quite tall/long enough for center and doesn't have the 250# of bulk to hold his ground against monsters like Embiid and Drummond, etc.

I realized, not too far into his NBA career, that he really isn't an NBA center, and can't play significant minutes at 5.  He's good at what he does, VERY high BBIQ and plays great fundamental basketball, he's just not right-sized to play 5 in the NBA.  With the departure of Horford and Baynes and Morris we are VERY thin at 4.  This is a golden opportunity for Theis to really up his minutes and, hoping, his production by playing the position I feel he should have been playing all along, 4.


bob


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bobheckler wrote:Some nice stuff by Theis on this film.  One thing I noticed is that he looks like the biggest guy on the floor for either team, but in the NBA he's a PF because he's not quite tall/long enough for center and doesn't have the 250# of bulk to hold his ground against monsters like Embiid and Drummond, etc.

I realized, not too far into his NBA career, that he really isn't an NBA center, and can't play significant minutes at 5.  He's good at what he does, VERY high BBIQ and plays great fundamental basketball, he's just not right-sized to play 5 in the NBA.  With the departure of Horford and Baynes and Morris we are VERY thin at 4.  This is a golden opportunity for Theis to really up his minutes and, hoping, his production by playing the position I feel he should have been playing all along, 4.


bob


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Depending on R Williams and Poirier, maybe we'll see more of Theis at 4.

Theis played very little at PF last year when he was in small ball lineups.  He rarely played PF as a traditional PF that was paired with a center (Horford or Baynes)

See the lineups for Boston last year

https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advanced/?sort=TEAM_ABBREVIATION&dir=-1

Morris ate up most of the PF minutes and both JT and GH got minutes at the 4 as did Semi.

In order for GH to get back to being closer to 30 MPG, he has to play some minutes at the 4 as does JT.  Then you have the rookie Grant Williams and Semi Ojeleye.  When Boston went big last year Theis was not part of those lineups.  

The minutes Theis gets will be dependent on how the rotation minutes at the 5 are distributed. He is the only so-called big on this team that can play as a stretch 5.   There is going to be a battle for backup minutes at the 5 and Stevens is going to roll out 50 or more lineups to figure out how they play together.  Last year he used around 77 different 5 man lineups.

We lost two high quality defensive centers.  Kanter. Williams and Poirier will be fighting for minutes.  Once Brad realizes what a liability Kanter is defensively, he will give RW and VP a chance to prove they can defend.   I think Theis will get most of his minutes at the 5 but perhaps that will play out more on the offensive end.  

Any combination you can come up with will likely be tried.  

Does anybody have thoughts about why Theis, a PF was not part of any lineups that included Horford or Baynes?  It was odd to me when I watched the team last year thinking that Theis would be a complimentary player when paired with Horford.

I think I may have found an answer to my question.  In 2017-18 Boston did play Horford and Theis together and they had horrible defensive ratings.