I was looking at this season with two scenarios:
1) Samba is one of our nine best players, plays back up at the 5 (behind Kofi) Trent/Ayo/Feliz get most of the 1 and 2 minutes. Giorgi/TJ/KN/DW/AG get the 3 and 4 minutes (and a couple at the 1/2)... but one of those five guys doesn’t make the nine man rotation.
2). Samba isn’t one of our nine best. In this scenario, Giorgi plays ~20 minutes at the 5, KN and TJ play majority of the 4, DW and AG get minutes at 3 (along with potentially TJ/KN getting minutes there as well).
Long story short, I think we are far more likely to have a nine man rotation than ten. This news solidified the nine unless Verdonkulous or Kouma surprise.
I personally think it’s a good thing for Giorgi to get serious minutes at an offensive position where he excelled last year. I think this guarantees Kipper a spot in the rotation, but probably keeps most of his minutes at the four, which is probably not great for him.
Even tough it’s a few dominoes down the line as it relates to the rotation, I think this puts the most pressure on Griffin to perform for us to succeed.
Go Illini. Good luck Samba.