Sunday, August 24, 2008

Thaddeus Young is our starting small forward

Via TrueHoop the other day (and as I mentioned in the comments to the last post), we learn that Ed Stefanski reached out to a few Sixers bloggers for a conversation (apparently I didn't make the cut...somehow, with my daily readership of ten, I'm not completely shocked). Good PR move, I guess. But more to the point, the part of his interview that stood out to me was that he basically confirmed that Thaddeus Young would be our starting small forward this year and Andre Igoudala will be our starting shooting guard (from depressedfan.com):
When asked about Thad's transition from the 4 to the 3, it became clear that this could be the critical question of the season. Stefanski said Thad has been working hard all Summer on his handle and the plan right now is for him to play the bulk of his minutes at the three. Later he said definitively that as of now, Iguodala is the starting two guard. The only question is how well Thad will transition.

And in a related bit:
The roster is set, and Willie will be a part of the rotation. How big of a part he plays will depend largely on Thad's development. If he can handle the three, we won't see a whole lot of Willie. If he can't, well that's not a road we want to go down at this point. Moving Iguodala back to the three for most of his minutes would be a huge blow to the step forward this team has taken. There's a very good chance Green could find himself in the starting lineup again. That's not something anyone wants to see happen.