Sending Killian down

[BIG BEN'S FRO]

I am a Killian supporter. I love his D and his passing, but clearly we and he have no confidence in his shot, or even his ability to attack any longer. There is no reason for meaningful minutes. Why not send him down to practice more or at least be out of the rotation. I don’t think this helps his psyche running down the court and then being timid or “fake aggressive” as I call it. Where he deliberately is aggressive because someone told him to do it t rather instinctive. Sigh. Just frustrating.

[MortSahlfan]

I agree, and would hope they did it the minute Burks come back. He needs to have some nice games in the G-League to get some confidence. I was just going to say, "If he'd take the minimum, he'd be a great 15th man" but his negative body language can't be helping the guys on the court, or on the bench. I'd rather give those minutes to another guy or two, Livers and Hami. They give effort, they play defense, which is our biggest weakness, but it will also lead to easy baskets and open up that hoop, and Livers shoots as good as Bey, and never turns down shots, and isn't a 3rd option like Bey, who might have a better year coming off the bench. I think it would be smart to try it out now, as I think it could help our team. Ivey, too, but he'll still finish games, and get his average of 32 minutes/game, which is a lot more than everyone expected (after going back to older posts about rotation/minutes).

But because he's the 7th pick, he's been given every chance and has had the longest leash, but has never met those chances. Sometimes his defense/passing is off, and he's just hurting our team. I know people get sick when Cory Joseph comes in the game, but it does help when a point guard can shoot 40% from 3, and he does have his moments as the most inconsistent play-maker/defender on this team. Sometimes he'll make such a smart veteran play, but then commit a stupid turnover on the next play.

[Kalamazoo317]

Right now having a back up backcourt of Kill and Haimi is really hurting us. We just have poor offense when those two are out on the floor. I'm a Killian fan and am rooting for him and was excited to see him looking like he was turning the corner in preseason, but he's just been trash this season, on offense in particular. Seeing him pass up shot after shot to hit open non-shooters and ruin fast breaks and kill the flow of the offense has been really disparaging. I'd rather him brick everything but at least stay aggressive.

[Invictus88]

Agreed.

There's just no instinct or confidence to try and score. It's all forced and after the fact. If you watch his possessions the pause after he receives the basketball is palpable. Nearly every time as a watcher I'm thinking "Just go! Why are you waiting there?"

The hesitation gives defenders all the time they need to close gaps. It diminishes his ability to distribute the basketball as defenders can then cheat knowing that passing is his first option. Turnovers then follow.

The problem is then compounded by the fact that this hurts his confidence further. Oftentimes his head is down after plays and he tries to make up for it immediately afterwards defensively. Frequently this results in bad, ticky-tack fouls on the other end.

The feedback cycle then repeats anew.

I can't help feeling like this is a similar case to Ben Simmons. For whatever reason there is a mental block offensively that is rarely overcome.

I don't know if sending him down will change anything but it's becoming clear that what is currently being attempted is not working.

[Snakebites]

There's been a lot of discussion about Killian and whether he can ever be a viable player because of his poor scoring game.

That discussion was going on last year and was very valid when his TS% was nearly TWICE what it is now. The kid has made 10 field goals in 10 games.

Stats don't always tell the whole story, but here they really show that this kid has gone off the deep end. Sure- send him down to the G-League. Give him one last shot. But man, it's really not looking good.

[pistonsbball]

It's really rough to watch right now. I too thought he had turned the corner in pre-season. Even with the lessened competition you could see what he was doing would translate. He took the ball aggressively to the hoop and shot the ball with purpose. It's obvious things aren't going to change by keeping on playing him right now. What he's doing is hurting the other bench guys, just aimless dribbling and whipping the ball to half-open shooters, and refusing to shoot himself.

After some time out of the rotation or in the G-League, maybe the solution is to take the ball out of his hands and take away the pressure on him to make a play. Just have him focus on only two things; taking corner 3s and playing defense. Maybe he can start to build the rest of his game from there.

[MotownMadness]

There's been a lot of discussion about Killian and whether he can ever be a viable player because of his poor scoring game.

That discussion was going on last year and was very valid when his TS% was nearly TWICE what it is now. The kid has made 10 field goals in 10 games.

Stats don't always tell the whole story, but here they really show that this kid has gone off the deep end. Sure- send him down to the G-League. Give him one last shot. But man, it's really not looking good.

[Snakebites]

There's been a lot of discussion about Killian and whether he can ever be a viable player because of his poor scoring game.

That discussion was going on last year and was very valid when his TS% was nearly TWICE what it is now. The kid has made 10 field goals in 10 games.

Stats don't always tell the whole story, but here they really show that this kid has gone off the deep end. Sure- send him down to the G-League. Give him one last shot. But man, it's really not looking good.

Right?

I feel like that tells the story like nothing else quite does. Ben Simmons is lighting it up compared to Killian. Lighting it UP.

[MotownMadness]

I would definitely send him down to the g league. Hes not really hurting us from doing anything good this year but he can certainly screw up other players potential playing that bad.

Give him one more shot for like 5games next year to see if he got any better and if not he'll at least be a salary filler in a trade or something.

[bstein14]

Not sure what you guys are talking about its just small short term shooting slump. He'll bounce back soon. Now would be the perfect time to lock him up on a cheap long term extension for a deal similar to what Bagley got.

[Manocad]

Assuming Burks is back and functioning even remotely normally, hell yes send Killian to the G-league. It sure as hell can’t make anything any worse.

[breezypeezy]

But trade/gift him to a different organizations G League team.
No sense having our developmental guys thinking his level of shooting is in any way acceptable.
He has become addition by subtraction already.

[Manocad]

But trade/gift him to a different organizations G League team.
No sense having our developmental guys thinking his level of shooting is in anyway acceptable.
He has become addition by subtraction already.

I'm not worried about that. A) He's shooting 17% and B) these aren't children. They know what good/acceptable and bad/not acceptable shooting is.

[mattao313]

Technically if you look at his games played he's only a sophomore player give him more time....lol

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[Uncle Mxy]

Technically if you look at his games played he's only a sophomore player give him more time....lol

Technically, he blows chunks.

[FloridaMan78]

Technically if you look at his games played he's only a sophomore player give him more time....lol

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People compared the Hayes situation to Dinwiddie or Middleton, but in reality they didn’t have half the games played that Killian did.

The Killian situation is more like Stanley Johnson situation with the Pistons holding on for too long.

[Moses ShamMoses]

I'd be ok with sending Killian down to the G-league. He does need to work on his offensive game and overall confidence. Seems like a reasonable place to do it.

[Manocad]

Technically if you look at his games played he's only a sophomore player give him more time....lol

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People compared the Hayes situation to Dinwiddie or Middleton, but in reality they didn’t have half the games played that Killian did.

The Killian situation is more like Stanley Johnson situation with the Pistons holding on for too long.

Dinwiddie played 46 games for the Pistons, Middleton played 27, both were traded and then blew up for another team. Congratulations--you just supported the point about giving up on Killian too soon.

For the record, Johnson played 267 games with the Pistons over the course of 4 seasons; Killian has played 102.

[bstein14]

Middleton actually looked like an NBA player his rookie year with Detroit(yes he was older). He also caught onto that Giannis work ethic in Milwaukee... and he didn't care for Drummond either so that actually could be part of the problem. Maybe Middleton is the guy Drummond hit for taking his rebound away. Drummond and Middleton both came in as rookies the same year so they were probably paired together a bunch.

Dinwiddie made some comments about SVG about how he hated the practices of being run into the ground it sounds like he just wasn't ready coming into the league for an SVG type coach.

If I was GM, we wouldn't have picked up Killian's 3rd year option either. Lots of people here thought I was stupid for saying that over a year ago but the reality is Killian has never looked like an NBA player to me. He was shellshocked coming into the league and has never looked comfortable out there. If you're going to have to play 4 on 5 on offense you'd better have an elite defender and Killian isn't that either. He lacks NBA speed, quickness, athleticism, and skill. If we turned down his 3rd year option we could have easily retained him this past summer for a deal similar to what Knox got. Now Weaver is probably lining up to sumbit the $10 qualifying offer to him after his 4th season with us Killian is going to make $30+ million over 5 years in the league when most teams would have waived him after two years.

[buzzkilloton]

Just cut him he sucks balls.