Personally I don't see a reason for a benching he just isn't very good, not that he can't but right now he is bringing nothing to the table other than a warm body, but in all that he is not the reason for the struggles!
The reason for the struggles is soft inside, on the glass, and just plan out to lunch mentally! That's the only reason some of the things that took place last night would have happened, the one pass turnovers, getting beat to lose balls, and getting caught looking lost on D!
I think we have 2 starters that just are not producing right now and both have at times showed they have the ability to produce. Even as Marcus was missing shots, he still worked his butt off, not sure I see that with a couple of our starters. I think it is time for Roy to shake up the starting line up and to me the easy move is to sit Meeks and start Issiah. The only concern I have for doing that is Issiah just picks up to many quick fouls and Brice is as well known for getting in to foul trouble and you really want one of them in the game most all the critical minutes.
Right now I am not sure who gives us more Meeks or Joel James but Joel does work as hard as he can, he may not be as fluid but he sure is a bigger body that can bang. Meeks is just a big body that does not seem to want to play physical for some reason. I think it is time Kennedy got sent a message that slow footing on those high picks is hurting this team. This team, un-expected, actually played together better when meeks was out with that bone bruise and Joel was starting. Meeks is supposed to be a NBA early entry canidate, he isn't playing like even a 3rd team all ACC guy, he needs a wake up call.
By the way, this stuff about Brice not being able to play great because meeks occupies to much space inside, that isn't what I see, what I see is brice struggles to cover for a guy that isn't working as hard as he can. Meeks is lazy footin and just seems not engaged in the game. He will block out but not go get the ball, he will hedge on the high screen but jog back to cover the roll down? he is allowing opposing bigs to set down deep and get great position on him rather than moving them out of position for harder looks, that is not the play of a guy destined for the NBA after this season.
The other real concern is Jackson, have hesitated to suggest Jackson be pulled from the starter rotation because his back up is Theo and Theo does not give us a ton of consistent offense, he is the poor jump shooter that has plagued us for a few years now, JP last yr for example. he is a guy defense will drop off of and dare to shoot, Jackson is a better shooter but his head seems blowed up right now. I would sit him, take some of the pressure of his living up to the early entry to the NBA pressure off and maybe let him settle down a little bit. At least Theo will be very active defensively and on the boards where Jackson has not really produced either.
Some times benching a kid is the very best thing you can do for him, it rekindles that fire and takes their mind off of how bad things are and refocuses them on what their head should be on. Clearly we need something to shake things up a little bit with.
The other thing and knowing Roy I am whizzing in the wind on this one but the make up of this team we really should play a lot more zone than we do, teams have a book on our man and our trapping, show any of them the same thing long enough and they will figure out how to attack it and to counter you need to change what you are doing. By far the greatest grip I have ever had about Roy is his heard head stubborn position on his teams playing switching defenses, multple zones mixed in with man to keep teams off balance, to make them use some of the shot clock to figure out how to attack this time. Dean was a master at that, making teams have to think about what to do rather than just going out and getting in rythem. really wish Roy would change his way of thinking on this but know he will not.
