What to make of James Farr and Edmond Sumner, plus why are the Browns so bad today?

Joel
Basketball is back! Let's conversate, boys and... well, just boys. I don't think there's too much to be taken from the dominance by the big men, but Trevon Bluiett's debut was encouraging. We knew he could shoot and knew he could get buckets going to the rim, but it was nice to see him doing it in a game that mattered.

Brad
What was more impressive to me was that Bluiett didn't take a lot of shots to do it. He let the game come to him and in doing so still set a debut record. In recent years we've seen ballstoppers put up big numbers with, in some instances, a volume scoring approach. This wasn't that. One game, but still good to see.

Bryan
With the caveat that it is one game against extremely low level competition, Bluiett and Reynolds both showed extremely encouraging signs last night. If Blueitt can score even close to as efficiently as he did last night and Reynolds can make people guard his mid-range jumper, this is going to be a hard team to stop. It is only one game, so I am not by any means saying that will be how the season plays out for those guys any more than I am saying that Macura will struggle from the field and O'Mara will average a foul a minute all year. They are encouraging signs that can hopefully be built upon.

Joel
What I liked is that we had about four guys who could have scored on any possession, but nobody seemed to be unduly hunting shots. I would have been tempted to go for 30, but we seemed to be fairly disciplined on the offensive end.

What are we making of James Farr? Is he going to be a defense and rebounding guy now, or do we still have hopes that he becomes a viable offensive force? Somebody mentioned in the comments the idea of starting Farr and bringing Reynolds off the bench to use his energy as a change of pace and keep him out of foul trouble. That doesn't sound hateful to me.

Brad
That depends on how Reynolds would play if he starts. If he brings that energy from the jump, get him out there. Some guys, and James Posey comes to mind here, do seem to do better when they have a chance to see the game develop around them for a couple of minutes before they get out there and get after it. If that's the case with Reynolds that would be the only reason I would see to start Farr.

Bryan
If on merit alone, I see no reason to start Farr. However, if he can "hold the fort" as it were for a few minutes while Jalen warms to the game, it could be a huge boon for X, especially if not having to adjust on the go can help keep Reynolds out of foul trouble. I think they are both big players for us this year if we are to succeed, so I don't care it they have to play piggyback, whatever makes them the most productive should be the way Mack leans.

WCD
I would love to see them work in a duo sort of role. Both players are immensely talented, but I would start Reynolds on Tuesday.

Joel
This team is silly deep, which leads us right into the question of Edmond Sumner. Where do his minutes come from? We're going to get more out of Dee in an average game than we did Friday, Abell can defend and shoot it, Randolph can defend and distribute (as long as he doesn't get overaggressive), Myles can shoot, Macura can score it, Austin can manage the game... we're already crowded in the backcourt, and Sumner was a Mr. Basketball finalist, McDonald's All-American nominee, and general stud in high school. How do we get him onto the floor?

Brad
Can he play quarterback for the Browns? I was wondering that as the game went on. I think he takes the place of the player with the weakest strength. If, hypothetically, Macura's shooting isn't as good as Austin's management, Sumner takes JP's minutes. Does that make sense?

WCD
I think that makes sense. Sumner is a freshmen with plenty of time to develop. Our roster is deep so there is no need to shove him out onto the court. If I was Mack, I would make sure that he sees minutes in every game and takes someone's place for a bit of time, but right now I do not see him getting significant minutes.

Bryan
The thing with having such depth and versatility is that it should easy to feed the hot hand. However, I fear that it will be easy for someone to go through an extended cold streak and be out of the rotation for so long it is hard to establish much of a rhythm. I would say Sumner, Macura, and Myles would be the three I am most concerned with on this, so I am hoping that no matter what happens, Mack can get everyone at least enough minutes to stay sharp, if not be major contributors.

Joel
By the time we're back here doing this again, we'll have seen two more games and likely Sumer's debut. Will we have learned anything major from it? Probably not, but I'm excited for it just the same.