Post#18 » by JamesConway » Tue Oct 3, 2017 11:59 am
Motley had a good performance last night, hopefully he can keep it up. Looked every bit the player that was projected to go in that late 1st early 2nd round-range before the meniscus-injury. Active around the hoop on both ends, stayed in front of smaller players on defense, worked the boards and even had a good drive out of an iso-situation on the left block that lead to an open Clavell-three. He also moved better physically than anything I've seen from him in summer league. Hopefully he's at 100% after his knee injury now. This was a promising first appearance.
Clavell can shoot the ball and make a play off the dribble. He chucked too much but that's just the way it is in preseason and he also got a bit of a reputation for that. I thought he played well though. Wasn't rattled by those missed threes early on at all and finished the game with solid 3 point-%s. At 6'4 he's probably still somewhat undersized for an NBA-SG but given our crazy roster construction he'd be a solid addition to round out our group of guards. Hopefully Dozier (6'6 PG) can get back on the court quickly, he's a candidate for that spot as well. Maybe even both of them.
Re Powell: we need him to get minutes at the PF-position. He has to be on the floor with that contract. I like the energy a Noel-Powell frontline brings and, yeah, from a tanking-POV it's probably not a terrible idea to let those two figure out if they can play alongside each other. The spacing won't be great after opposing teams have done their homework on that unit out but that's the part where they -- especially Dwight -- either make it work or it organically hurts the teams' chances to win. Exactly what we should be doing. But I guess it's always a possibility that Rick just goes away from it quickly if the results aren't there.
Re Dennis: he looked bad on offense, no need to sugarcoat it. Struggled with MIL cutting off his driving lanes, the PnR with Dirk wasn't overly smooth, missed a bunch of threes, got a potential and-one called off for two FTs instead which he both blew. He's ultra-talented but games like that will happen. That's just the way it goes when you put rookie PGs into a starting role in the NBA. Besides that the Bucks also have an awfully long squad on defense even without Giannis/Maker/Parker on the floor, really tough to get easy buckets in the paint against them.
Re Barea/Harris: I hope we don't end up with one of Yogi/Dennis being pushed down in the depth chart because of them. That's just all I'm gonna say.
