At all levels of sports, there is a certian level of gravitas that comes with being a starter. This is especially the case at the professional level, like in the NBA, where being a starter means that you get to have your named called out for thousands of fans to cheer about.
With great power, comes great responsibility. The same goes with being a starter. You need to earn the right to be on the floor first and spend a majority of the game on the court. I'll never get mad at a player earning a payday. But I will quibble over their playing time. And in this post, I want to talk about three specific players who shouldn't be in the opening five.
Kyle Kuzma, Milwaukee Bucks
Kyle Kuzma is the poster child for a thought exercise like this. After spending the entire offseason operating the strangest X account in the NBA sphere, he somehow came back less effective than before.
His points-per-game game and efficiency are the worst they have ever been (the latter says a lot, since he was never viewed as an analytical darling). At this point, him starting games for the Milwaukee Bucks is just a waste, especially when those minutes could go to a more effective role player like AJ Green, or one of their prized youngsters in Nate Ament and Kel'el Ware (if they want to try the double big alignment). You can't even make the argument that the Bucks have him out there because they think he can help them avoid relegation, as the team doesn't even have its own first round pick in the 2027 NBA Draft.
Jalen Green, Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are 1-4 one year after being one of the biggest pleasant surprises in the league. The weird part is that their team is largely the same other than the fact that Miles Bridges has replaced Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale, and Mark Williams has been out of the lineup.
Well, there is one other major change. Jalen Green, who missed 50 regular season games last year, is actually healthy. And unfortunately, this has been subtraction by addition for the Suns. According to Cleaning the Glass, the team is 18.3 points per 100 possessions WORSE when Green is on the floor compared to when he is on the bench.
I'm not saying that Green is complete negative player. However, with Bridges, Devin Booker, and Dillon Brooks all already in the opening unit, the team is much better off having a ball handler and floor spacer like Collin Gillespie than another guy who wants to take questionable shots like Green. This tweet from Sam Quinn sums it up best:
Miles Bridges has historically not been functional without the right point guard. His TS% fell 8.7% without LaMelo last year, 9.8% in 2025.
— Sam Quinn (@SamQuinnCBS) November 3, 2026
Bridges is at 59% TS with Gillespie on and 49.3% with him off.
Devin Booker is at 64.6% TS with Gillespie on and 56.2% with him off. https://t.co/kbDRJESkdd
Klay Thompson, Miami Heat
Speaking of disappointing starts, the Miami Heat are 2-5 after trading the farm for Giannis Antetokounmpo. This slow start has revealed some systemic issues with the team around Antetokounmpo. However, there is one change that could make them a whole lot better: swapping Klay Thompson for Pelle Larsson in the starting five.
Once one of the best 3-and-D wings on the planet, Father Time has caught up to the former Splash Brother, and Thompson is now a shell of his former self. He can't move anymore, hardly does anything other than bomb away 3s, and the Heat are 23.7 points per 100 worse when he is on the floor.
Larsson is one of the most underrated players on the planet. Larsson is a big, strong body, who knows how to fill space and find opportunistic buckets through cuts and putbacks. He's also a pretty good shooter (38.9 percent from 3), burgeoning driver and playmaker, and unlike Thompson, the Heat actually miss him when he's on the bench (on/off rating of plus-11.1 per 100). Thompson is a legend, but it is time for a change of guard. Both literally, and figuratively.
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