Game #11: ROCKETS (6-3) @ LAC (3-7) FRI 11/17, 7:30 PM

[PeteyPablo]

I read a trade proposal on social media :


Clint Capela for Zubac and Bones

[Clemenza]

If Kobe Brown is not lost, then there's no issue developing him with the primary roster. If he's lost on the floor, then yes, it's better to have him develop with the G-League so he doesn't lose confidence.

That doesn't seem to be the case though, he's looked like he knows what is going on. He's a more mature and developed player, so his body is NBA ready too. You also have to play the long game, many rookies from November to April will be very different players. He definitely has signs of a guy you can develop over the season to even give you some spot playoff minutes if he continues to learn and grow.

Currently I don't believe he's in the G-League because he's lost, he's there because there isn't a plan to give him consistent PT, especially with the current roster trying to figure itself out, so the G-League gives him an opportunity to stay in shape and play in games.

Kobe will get his NBA minutes when he's ready, just like Mann did. But only noncontenders have the luxury of letting you learn on the job. That's what G-League is for. Kobe is a 4, and we don't have any. He'd be playing if we could afford it, but we can't.

I remain hopeful he will be getting meaningful minutes as the season goes on, but he's been a pro for like 6 weeks.

That's something that we, and even coaching staffs can convince themselves to be true, but isn't necessarily so.

For example, here's another mentality towards it:

You win a championship, but our path right now is we have to develop all of these young players," said Malone. "And doing that while not running all of our starters into the ground. That right there is a balance. It's hard, but I have to really remind myself of that and sometimes you have to live with the results. But those experiences, when you stack them up and stack them up, hopefully, by the end of the year, those guys are no longer rookies.

https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/how-the-denver-nuggets-are-prioritizing-development-while-contending-for-championships

Braun shot 40/35/54 his first 20 games of last season, the team was -3.1 in his minutes. Now some people will look at his final season stats (50/35/63) and say, "well of course he got minutes, he was an efficient rookie".

Of course every rookie can't get minutes, but it should be an aim to always incorporate at least one (who is not absolutely lost of course) so that you are also working on in game development along with practice development. In this situation where PJ might just be a negative player who the rest of the lineup around him might have to carry to be positive, Kobe has an even better situation for opportunity.

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

[Clemenza]

well, i'm sure i'm like everyone else in that i'm relieved that we won, but my concerns are still quite concerning, at least to me

- this whole business with tucker: dude is just not doing enough positive things as far as i can see. yet he's getting a bunch of minutes and that's alarming, considering how gluey/connecty/amplifying t-mann has been with any combination of stars.

- powell's another guy who's getting too much time over the less shot-intensive guys. it'd be fine if he was a better 3-point shooter or if he was a better defender, but he's a guy who needs the ball to be effective, doesn't space in an elite way, doesn't board, doesn't pass: all detrimental things for a team that is SUPPOSED to put supporting pieces around the star core guys.

- zu's not getting enough time either, and it's like, basically just shades of yesteryear where marcus morris's presence alone as an ill-fitting piece just detracts from the point of the core, rather than augmenting or amplifying it.

funny thing is that while last year i was adamant that lue had to go, i'm not quite there yet but i'm also like, eh, if he keeps this up then it's gonna really suck. and i know that coaching isn't purely about lineups or rotations, despite what many of us want to believe or are even able to understand from a basketball perspective, but you sure are gonna feel like gigantic sums of money are left on the table with those minute imbalances.

- i'm also pretty concerned about westbrook. he looked more alive than he'd been in years before the trade, and now i just don't see how it's not going to impact him negatively: possibly to the point that he reverts back to his level of play on the lakers. we're really gambling on lue to figure out the starters sooner rather than later, because imo he needs as much time as possible to focus on getting westbrook sorted out in a role that's both good and happy for him. and without that we're gonna have a far less effective guy coming off the bench who instead could very possibly be an absolute chaos creating and pace pushing demon off the bench. i'll say i'm optimistic about his fit with theis, and far more optimistic about it all if powell were moved for an athletic, rim-running PF such that we could go fast with like a theis/PG/bones/westbrook/new guy kinda thing but we're at the mercy of the FO and any available trades in that regard.





so yeah, big concerns for me, which outweigh the positives (kawhi/harden/PG all looking better) and i don't feel great about that.

Kobe Brown is his name and he's already on the team

[og15]

Kobe will get his NBA minutes when he's ready, just like Mann did. But only noncontenders have the luxury of letting you learn on the job. That's what G-League is for. Kobe is a 4, and we don't have any. He'd be playing if we could afford it, but we can't.

I remain hopeful he will be getting meaningful minutes as the season goes on, but he's been a pro for like 6 weeks.

That's something that we, and even coaching staffs can convince themselves to be true, but isn't necessarily so.

For example, here's another mentality towards it:

You win a championship, but our path right now is we have to develop all of these young players," said Malone. "And doing that while not running all of our starters into the ground. That right there is a balance. It's hard, but I have to really remind myself of that and sometimes you have to live with the results. But those experiences, when you stack them up and stack them up, hopefully, by the end of the year, those guys are no longer rookies.

https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/how-the-denver-nuggets-are-prioritizing-development-while-contending-for-championships

Braun shot 40/35/54 his first 20 games of last season, the team was -3.1 in his minutes. Now some people will look at his final season stats (50/35/63) and say, "well of course he got minutes, he was an efficient rookie".

Of course every rookie can't get minutes, but it should be an aim to always incorporate at least one (who is not absolutely lost of course) so that you are also working on in game development along with practice development. In this situation where PJ might just be a negative player who the rest of the lineup around him might have to carry to be positive, Kobe has an even better situation for opportunity.

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

Well, I wouldn't say he's better than Theis, and they are different positions and skills. Theis is a C who can play PF vs the right matchup. Kobe is a forward.

Theis is taller, longer wingspan, is a shot blocker, a 9 rebs/36 guy. Kobe doesn't have the length, he's not a shot blocker and he's not that level of rebounder. He does seem to have the modern NBA combo forward skillset though.

[Roscoe Sheed]

Kobe will get his NBA minutes when he's ready, just like Mann did. But only noncontenders have the luxury of letting you learn on the job. That's what G-League is for. Kobe is a 4, and we don't have any. He'd be playing if we could afford it, but we can't.

I remain hopeful he will be getting meaningful minutes as the season goes on, but he's been a pro for like 6 weeks.

That's something that we, and even coaching staffs can convince themselves to be true, but isn't necessarily so.

For example, here's another mentality towards it:

You win a championship, but our path right now is we have to develop all of these young players," said Malone. "And doing that while not running all of our starters into the ground. That right there is a balance. It's hard, but I have to really remind myself of that and sometimes you have to live with the results. But those experiences, when you stack them up and stack them up, hopefully, by the end of the year, those guys are no longer rookies.

https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/how-the-denver-nuggets-are-prioritizing-development-while-contending-for-championships

Braun shot 40/35/54 his first 20 games of last season, the team was -3.1 in his minutes. Now some people will look at his final season stats (50/35/63) and say, "well of course he got minutes, he was an efficient rookie".

Of course every rookie can't get minutes, but it should be an aim to always incorporate at least one (who is not absolutely lost of course) so that you are also working on in game development along with practice development. In this situation where PJ might just be a negative player who the rest of the lineup around him might have to carry to be positive, Kobe has an even better situation for opportunity.

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

I agree- Brown should play over PJ, but he is too small to guard real bigs and Diabate is still too raw to play much- he is too thin and weak

[HardenGoat]

I read a trade proposal on social media :


Clint Capela for Zubac and Bones

Theres about 7.4 million missing in filler. Tucker goes too? I think that’s an upgrade and good fit on both ends but costly.

[madmaxmedia]

That's something that we, and even coaching staffs can convince themselves to be true, but isn't necessarily so.

For example, here's another mentality towards it:

https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/how-the-denver-nuggets-are-prioritizing-development-while-contending-for-championships

Braun shot 40/35/54 his first 20 games of last season, the team was -3.1 in his minutes. Now some people will look at his final season stats (50/35/63) and say, "well of course he got minutes, he was an efficient rookie".

Of course every rookie can't get minutes, but it should be an aim to always incorporate at least one (who is not absolutely lost of course) so that you are also working on in game development along with practice development. In this situation where PJ might just be a negative player who the rest of the lineup around him might have to carry to be positive, Kobe has an even better situation for opportunity.

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

Well, I wouldn't say he's better than Theis, and they are different positions and skills. Theis is a C who can play PF vs the right matchup. Kobe is a forward.

Theis is taller, longer wingspan, is a shot blocker, a 9 rebs/36 guy. Kobe doesn't have the length, he's not a shot blocker and he's not that level of rebounder. He does seem to have the modern NBA combo forward skillset tough.

I guess none of us would really know until he got the minutes, but it's not easy for a rookie without standout physical attributes to step right in and hit the basic NBA big man averages and play solid defense for 30 MPG, every night. I'm hoping to see him play more as the season goes on, but not surprised he's not playing much so far.

[esqtvd]

That's something that we, and even coaching staffs can convince themselves to be true, but isn't necessarily so.

For example, here's another mentality towards it:

https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/how-the-denver-nuggets-are-prioritizing-development-while-contending-for-championships

Braun shot 40/35/54 his first 20 games of last season, the team was -3.1 in his minutes. Now some people will look at his final season stats (50/35/63) and say, "well of course he got minutes, he was an efficient rookie".

Of course every rookie can't get minutes, but it should be an aim to always incorporate at least one (who is not absolutely lost of course) so that you are also working on in game development along with practice development. In this situation where PJ might just be a negative player who the rest of the lineup around him might have to carry to be positive, Kobe has an even better situation for opportunity.

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

Well, I wouldn't say he's better than Theis, and they are different positions and skills. Theis is a C who can play PF vs the right matchup. Kobe is a forward.

Theis is taller, longer wingspan, is a shot blocker, a 9 rebs/36 guy. Kobe doesn't have the length, he's not a shot blocker and he's not that level of rebounder. He does seem to have the modern NBA combo forward skillset though.

Let's not forget Bones is next up for development minutes. He just turned 23 in September and is temporarily caught up in the logjam. But if we don't get Harden/Westbrook right and find a way to get Zubac back down to 25 mpg, we'll be playing a whole teamful of G-Leaguers soon enough, lol.

[esqtvd]

Read on Twitter

[esqtvd]

that many zeroes is called a gazillion

Read on Twitter

/photo/1

[KL2]

So they’re letting him save face by making it sound like he made the decision? Huh?

Read on Twitter

[Clemenza]

That's something that we, and even coaching staffs can convince themselves to be true, but isn't necessarily so.

For example, here's another mentality towards it:

https://www.nba.com/nuggets/news/how-the-denver-nuggets-are-prioritizing-development-while-contending-for-championships

Braun shot 40/35/54 his first 20 games of last season, the team was -3.1 in his minutes. Now some people will look at his final season stats (50/35/63) and say, "well of course he got minutes, he was an efficient rookie".

Of course every rookie can't get minutes, but it should be an aim to always incorporate at least one (who is not absolutely lost of course) so that you are also working on in game development along with practice development. In this situation where PJ might just be a negative player who the rest of the lineup around him might have to carry to be positive, Kobe has an even better situation for opportunity.

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

Well, I wouldn't say he's better than Theis, and they are different positions and skills. Theis is a C who can play PF vs the right matchup. Kobe is a forward.

Theis is taller, longer wingspan, is a shot blocker, a 9 rebs/36 guy. Kobe doesn't have the length, he's not a shot blocker and he's not that level of rebounder. He does seem to have the modern NBA combo forward skillset though.

Kobe Brown is not a center, he's a true power forward. And my comments are more in line with TJ Tucker coming in and taking his minutes

[Clemenza]

So they’re letting him save face by making it sound like he made the decision? Huh?

Read on Twitter

I believe this is the case. The "Four Horsemen" thing was DOA and not working so they had no choice but to flip it into a "Big 3" scenario with PG, Kawhi, and Harden. Russ plays faster than Harden but he's still too erratic and out of control at times. I'm sure they huddled up, told Russ the deal, and said he can come out of this as a hero if an announcement is made that "He wants to come off the bench" to make the rotations easier. But its strictly a Big 3 plan now going forward. Lets hope for the best

[madmaxmedia]

Well said.. and also, if we can cut to the chase and fess up, Kobe Brown is already better than PJ and the newly acquired Daniel Theis. Its also becoming a Clipper thing when a player gets hurt then the fans start speculating on who to bring in to fill in, and usually its players that are out of the league like Hassan Whiteside, Wayen Gabriel, Nerlens Noel, Daniel Theis, etc. and if you ask me, Diabate and/or Kobe Brown is already better than these guys. But we gotta do the song and dance that our youngsters suck and these players that are out of the league(for a reason) are somehow the better move or option than what we already have marinating on the bench. Plus it doesn't help that if we do acquire one of these players Ty Lue will instantly move them ahead of everybody, even consistently yanking Mann out the game for a washed PJ Tucker, and play them just off the older age factor alone. Its maddening

Well, I wouldn't say he's better than Theis, and they are different positions and skills. Theis is a C who can play PF vs the right matchup. Kobe is a forward.

Theis is taller, longer wingspan, is a shot blocker, a 9 rebs/36 guy. Kobe doesn't have the length, he's not a shot blocker and he's not that level of rebounder. He does seem to have the modern NBA combo forward skillset though.

Kobe Brown is not a center, he's a true power forward. And my comments are more in line with TJ Tucker coming in and taking his minutes

Now this is something they should try, as PJ Tucker is killing us at both ends. Even if only until Plum gets back.