He still might only get 20 minutes a game, starting the first and third quarters, and then bring in Noah and Thomas for energy and athleticism off the bench.  I assume he'd see no time in the crunch.  Certainly something to try out and see what happens.  If it fails, we've dealt with slow starts before and always recovered.

http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=2136

The knock against him is that he looks slow and unathletic, and people question how his game will translate to the pros.  But he might do better as a starter, running set plays in a half-court offense, than as a bench player asked to bring energy to the court.  He could also be a starter and not get starter minutes.  

But if he does start, I'm sure the other team will go at him and see if he gets some quick rookie fouls called on him.  And whoever he is covering should run the court and see if he is slow to catch up.  The problem is that the other big men, except for Wallace, seem to be behind in conditioning and/or learning the plays.  Oh well, if nothing else the Bulls have plenty of fouls to give.

These last couple of games of the preseason is when most of the teams start to give their regulars more minutes and are using more of a set rotation...this will show us what Gray can do against some polished starters.

If he stinks up the place tonight, then at least you still have one more preseason game to try Tyrus, Joe, or Noah in the starting lineup.  

I'm hoping for the Milwaukee game, that our regular starting five can be on the floor at least ONE time together

Gordon, Deng, Hinrich, and Wallace-35 minutes each=140 minutes
Nocioni 25 minutes
Thalbo 15 minutes
Duhon 10 minutes

That leaves 50 minutes for everone else. Hopefully, TT will step forward and grab 20 to 25 minutes with outstanding play. At this point, I have no idea how Skiles will divide up these 50 minutes of playing time.

His lack of speed didn't hurt him much.  He was certainly in his spot on offensive sets, was able to make baskets against all competition, usually had good rebounding position, and was there to challenge the shot on defense.  He didn't get the flashy blocks, but he definitely changed shots.  Gray's one negative was being foul prone.  That's not too bad since he was never going to play 40 minutes a game anyway.

Gray is far more ready to start than Noah, I don't care where they were picked.  Not only does he know the plays a lot better, he can contribute consistently in more ways.  Noah might have a back to the basket move, but we'll never see it because he will get stripped every single time he starts backing someone down.  His awareness and decision making is really lacking.  If it was up to me, i'd send him to big man school for the first half of the season and have him learn post moves, how to hold the ball so it's protected, how to distinguish a high % shot from a low one.  It's true that Noah has good ball handling and passing skills, but if he dribbles in traffic and can't see the open man, those skills mean nothing.

Tyrus is disappointing.  He's still depending too much on his athleticism to make up for not being in the right spot.  He's still has really poor shot selection.  He did actually hit a few midrange jumpers, which I didn't see at all last year.  He might be a better option than Gray in the starting lineup, but it's far from clear.