Royce “Shaquilee” O’Neale competently manned the starting shooting guard spot last night as Donovan Mitchell got moved fully to the point guard role. That’s great. I love it when rookies play unexpectedly large roles for their team, especially when the rookie is undrafted. The only problem is, Alec Burks is getting completely marginalized.
Burks played nine minutes to O’Neale’s 35 and that fact raises conflicting emotions within me. I want Burks to not be marginalized. I also want O’Neale to play big minutes and show the other 29 teams in the league that maybe they should have drafted him instead of whatever rando bust they squandered their second-round pick on. Can both of these things happen? I think they can, because Burks (SG) and O’Neale (SF) play separate positions, but if you play both those guys too much then you end up marginalizing fan favorite Joe Ingles and you also end up marginalizing Jae Crowder. No matter how you divide up the minutes, you’re marginalizing somebody. Good thing Thabo Sefolosha is out for the season or there’d be even fewer minutes for all these guys.
The only solution is to trade O’Neale to the Bucks for Thon Maker. It’s really the only way. Please make this trade.