The Rebel wrote:The biggest issue to me is at PF, Millsap is getting destroyed on the boards, he is struggling to guard guys, and he has nothing left on offense. He is completely washed and it is obvious when you watch him. Bol is also terrible, I am sorry I know a lot of you guys love him, but he has a long way to go before he is a positive player in this league. Green getting healthy may help, but right now I see that as our worst weakness.
I agree with the rest of your post and even with parts of what you say in that paragraph.
I agree that PF is the maybe the biggest problem, that won't solve itself with time (I think our guard play and team rebounding were by far the biggest problems in the first two games but at least the guard play should get back to normal in time without adjustments). Green is injured, Bol didn't get involved in anything in the few minutes he got and Malones solution with playing Dozier there might not have completely killed us in the games but it also wasn't good except for a few minutes at the beginning of the 4th and long term at some point we will get killed playing this lineup. So I hope Malone will be testing more different lineups to solve it, like giving Nnaji a shot at real rotation minutes or testing MPJ a little more at PF. Otherwise I just hope that Green will give us a needed boost at that position.
Where I disagree is with Millsap. He played a good first game and an average to solid second one, especially offensively. Played within the flow, hit some threes, had some finishes around the basket and moved the ball. The times of Millsap post ups are over, thats right, but that was a weaker part of our offense anyway. Of course he also lost a little on other things on offense, but the dude is still smart enough to do the right things and to not be a liability. I am actually a little surprised, that you point him out for offense after two games where he did exactly what I, personally, think he is supposed to do and he did it with solid efficiency. Defensively his times as our co-anchor next to Jokic are over, too. His rebounding is really falling of. So far I agree. But he still is a rock solid team defender with his positioning, helping (although only within his athletic limitations), communicating and even sometimes the smarts during one on one coverage in the post. He is too slow to guard the perimeter, doesn't have the athleticism to give us more as a help defender and he isn't the one on one defender in the post he used to be but his overall package on D is in my opinion still a solid plus.
That being said that type of player you optimally want as your 10-20 min rotation guy of the bench or as a really low minutes starter. In that scenario you need a better option coming in when he gets out and we do not have such an option. This is were I see the problem. I think Millsap still provides his impact in low minutes but you need AT LEAST the same type of impact for the rest of the minutes at PF too.
Right now the only internal hopes are that Green is that guy, we get a good enough defensive lineup with MPJ at PF or Nnaji is ready to go, but the things Malone is trying I think are about to become a disaster.
Your concerns about rebounding I share, as I said in this post and in a different one in this thread. But I think it is about our team rebounding where Millsap of course is a big part of but not the only part. For me the takeaway of the first two games was more that our rebounding is dysfunctional on the team level than one or more specific players failing on the individual level. But of course Millsap lost impact in that regard too.
It remains to be seen what Malone will do to fix the PF and rebounding situation! I will definitely keep a close eye on it the next few games.
