Post#155 » by NyCeEvO » Sun Nov 16, 2014 8:02 pm
Just finished watching the game.
IMO this game is perfect summary of who we are as a team. Under normal circumstances, we simply don't have enough to hang with the legit contenders.
We can look for as many excuses as we want but I don't think we loss this game because the players are still reeling from JJ's comments. We won games at the start of the season in good fashion partly due to the level of competition we were playing against and partly due to pretty hot shooting.
Now, we're missing a lot of 3s and don't have the defense to stop the opposition.
The Blazers were missing Aldridge and Batum and there was never a point throughout the game where I felt like they were really going to lose the lead. This was a wire-to-wire loss that proved that we just don't have it. This game looked like we lost simply due to the fact that 1-15, we don't have more overall talent and we definitely don't have the defensive personnel to really make some noise.
You can't pin this loss on one particular player for playing poorly.
But here are some bigger questions that Billy King should really be thinking about....
If when we can't beat the good teams at our healthiest level, how should we approach this season and the next 2 years off free agency (since we're trying to put ourselves in position to have a great team after the '16 offseason)?
- If we're really trying to create a team that wins now and thus becomes a more appealing destination for FAs, we need to have a team that has one identity.
Brook Lopez is a great player and Plumlee is a good asset, but Brook has been getting benched at the end of most of our games for a multitude of reasons and Mason (IMO) doesn't fit the identity of Hollins' system.
If one of our top 3 players can't help us closeout games on a regular basis, his impact on the floor better extremely high so that we're usually in a position to blowout teams or you have to seriously question whether what he brings to the table is best for this team.
We need all of our top players out there at the most crucial times of the game, and if we have to bench a max contract guy (Lopez) for a guy making the MMLE (Mirza) just because of defensive mobility, we need to really sit back and think about whether we're getting maximum yield for our investment in Lopez.
I'd consider trading him for a player who better fits our identity and our defensive needs even if that player doesn't have as much individual talent as Lopez, since that player's impact on our team identity could have a greater impact than Lopez does.
As I've stated before, I simply don't think Plumlee fits the identity of Hollins system and if we're set on keeping Hollins, I'd trade Plumlee while some GMs think he should be having a breakout year. The longer we wait and the more he continues to play like crap under Hollins, the more his value decreases.
Overall, I think our big men situation is what is going to do us in. We don't have the lateral quickness on our defensive rotations. Usually, by the 2nd or 3rd pick below the foul line, the opposition has a guy that's wide open for a layup and we can't stop them.
While KG has the proper defensive techniques, he no longer has the athleticism to rotate fast enough. Lopez is simply too slow to stop it and Plumlee doesn't know wth is going on.
Good interior defense + good offense from our wings would be enough to be win on most nights and could produce a high 40s/low 50s win team. But without interior defense, I see this team maxing out at low 40s simply because we can't stop anyone.
Last year, we had more overall talent in Pierce, Livingston, and Blatche so often times we could win on talent alone even though we knew it wouldn't amount to much in the playoffs. Stripping this team of the extra talent means that we have to really optimize our lineup in order to play at a very high level.
If we don't make changes, you better get used to short winning streaks because we just don't have the firepower.
A quick aside: Look at the Warriors and the Blazers...these teams are really deep and yet we still have a higher payroll than them and every other team in the league. If only we had a GM who could maximize on our talent-to-dollar ratio....
