If ever there were a chance to shine

I’m sure a few of our readers in San Antonio knew this before the news came out this morning, what with Manu’s propensity to swim the Riverwalk when in town to stay in shape, but for those of you somehow unaware Tony, Timmy, Manu, and RJ did not travel to Pittsburgh with the rest of the team.

I wouldn’t expect much in terms of crisp execution tonight as the bench and other roster hopefuls will be getting extended minutes against a somewhat weak Cavs team. What I do expect is for Pop to come away from tonight’s game with better sense of who will be playing off of the bench and in what order (as much of a idea as he ever has) and what he wants to do with the end of the roster.

Blair is going to get his minutes and stats for sure since he’ll be playing at home, but who else is going to step up? The onus is clearly on Cousin, Gee, Gist, Jerrells, Temple, and Simmons. If any of these dudes want to make the team “tonight, tonight won’t be just any night.” (I think I just outed myself as a high school drama geek). With eleven fully guaranteed contracts on the books already, and a stated desire to carry only 13 or 14 players going into the season we are going see a bunch of cuts in the upcoming days. Here’s what I think it’s gonna come down to: Simmons/ Gee, Temple/ Jerrells, and Gist/ Cousin, and whomever plays best tonight will be giving themselves a huge bump up the proverbial slope. [ED. – Anyone have any clue what Brad just said?]

I know what I said here, but now I’m thinking maybe it’s gonna be Jerrels, Gist, and Gee…gotta love the J/ Soft G sounds.