The Golden State game is the first one of the Thomas era I've been able to watch.
I paid particular attention to size.
My first thought was... I actually like the Smart, Bradley, Thomas, Bass, Zeller lineup. It addresses several of my concerns from earlier in the year. It shouldn't be a surprise that a lineup featuring borderline-proper NBA size would have our most success of the season. We started the season throwing out random arbitrary mis-matched lineups. It was clear from the beginning that injuries and roster consolidation would have an addition by subtraction effect. Some thoughts on our current starting lineup:
#1 - Zeller, though mediocre, is the closest thing we've had to a true center in a long time. He's competent. Proper size.
#2 - Though Turner has taken on ball-handling duties, it doesn't matter much in Brad's version of the pace-and-space offense. My first reaction to the Turner acquisition was that he made Jeff Green expendable. He's playing SF and it's a role that makes sense for him.
#3 - Bass is a competent PF. Not a center. Playing Sully or Oly in that slot would make sense as well. There's minimal difference between the three of them. They all have their pros and cons. None (not even healthy Sully) is a lock as starter... so Bass is just as effective there as anyone we could trot out this season.
#4 - I've always hated Bradley as a starting SG, due to his size. 6'2 180 pounds is too small to be a serious SG. This is negated by Marcus Smart as the starting PG. Smart (6'4 220) is slightly undersized, but he's got enough size/strength and know-how to cause trouble for most shooting guards. It's why a Turner/Bradley starting "backcourt" made sense as well. Turner's size negating Bradley's. Turner could cover the SG's and Bradley could cover the PGs.
So low and behold... Boston has been trotting out the first lineup all season that makes sense from a size perspective.
Bradey (6'2 180) = Point guard size
Smart (6'4 220) = shooting guard size
Turner (6'7 220) = Small forward size
Bass (6'8 250) = Power forward size
Zeller (7'0 250) = Center size
They still are slightly on the small size, but it's the closest we've had to 1-5 proper size since the days of Rondo, Ray, Pierce, KG and Perk.
So instinctively I expected us to use Bradley to guard Curry (6'3 190) and Smart to cover Thompson (6'7 215) even though Smart is technically our PG and Bradley is technically our SG. That's exactly what I saw happening. In the early part of the game, Smart was all over Thompson while Bradley was doing his best to slow Curry. They still outsize us, but it's pretty close to even.
So then, I was curious what would happen when Isaiah Thomas entered the game.
Predictably, that was a bit sketchy. Thomas was doing a fine job scoring, but when it was him and Bradley on the court you had a bit of an issue.
You could have Thomas (5'9 185) do his best to cover Curry (6'2 190). You could have Avery Bradley (6'2 180) do his best to cover Klay (6'7 215)
Now both guys are covering players who are 5 inches taller. That's a significant size mis-match... and when you're dealing with elite shooters, using defenders half a foot shorter means they are basically going to rain barely contested jumpers on us all day. It's the reason why a 7 footer like Dirk can dominate a guy like Evan Turner. Too much size to get up and take uncontested shots. By using Avery and Isaiah, you're basically giving the splash brothers a Dirkvantage. It shouldn't be shocking that those two dropped 57 on us.
So yeah... I'm not sure how you can start Thomas. Playing him and Bradley together is probably going to give most teams a major size advantage. You could maybe negate Thomas' lack of size by starting him with Marcus Smart and sticking Bradley on the bench, but I'm not sure that makes sense either. The Smart/Bradley starting lineup with the micro-microwave off the bench is probably the best play moving forward. Guys like Thomas/Earl Boykins are great at giving you an offensive lift off the bench, but you'll need to be prepared to pay the consequences on the defensive end. I do think the positives outweigh the negatives with Baby Napolean, though. He's a heck of a finisher.