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Regarding Ryan, I haven’t seen enough from Pippen jr. to keep him on a 2-way, I would rather move Ryan to a 2-way because he wouldn’t crack the rotation currently but this still allows him game time to develop and call ups if any injuries / rest occur.

I’m skeptical of AD at the 5. I would love to know a breakdown of injuries sustained at positions. It’s not just the toll of banging against bruising centres (english spelling), it’s the screen setting, the contesting shots in traffic, it’s being the sole big to crash boards. In my mind AD’s two best individual seasons have been at NO playing with Boogie and then championship year. The problem is fit though as LA’s best players are smaller, so for talent purposes it might be best. I would want some flexibility where against Milwaukee, New Orleans, etc. to play 2 bigs so you don’t have Lebron guarding Zion and Giannis single handedly. I’ve always liked a twin towers approach and think AD as a help defender with another athletic big like Jones gives you significant upgrade on rim protection / rebounding. If only they had a legit centre to play alongside AD!

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I think the final couple of preseason games will go a long way towards determining Matt Ryan's spot on the team. We will see if he can ride the momentum from last game. Really like the way he relocates off-ball.

As for Davis, the injury situation is the gamble. Would indeed be good to quantify how much more likely an injury is by playing center instead of power forward. Could be an argument for making a trade for Myles Turner...definitely going to be keeping a close eye on how the Pacers' season starts out.

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Love the piece. Thank you for explaining all of those transactions. In terms of Anthony Davis, it's no secret that he is best optimized playing center on offense and power forward on defense. A floor spacing, mobile rim protector like Myles Turner would enable that.

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Thank you, much appreciated!! And yes I’m enamored with a Turner/Davis pairing as well…IF they could stay healthy

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Fair point. I'd make the argument to Pelinka that Davis is less likely to get injured guarding 4s. Plus, having Jones and Bryant allows sharing of minutes by some big bodies, might also reduce exposure to injuries.

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Yeah I agree, I think particularly with how Bryant and Jones have looked so far Turner could act as the buffer for Davis while providing some skills LA could really use.

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