TrueLAfan wrote:In terms of court production, Powell 2025 looks/looked almost exactly the same as … Powell 2023. And Powell 2021. Which were (very) slightly better than Powell 2020 and 2022. I mean, in terms of on-court play, Powell didn’t step up as much as play more every game. It’s great that he maintained his productivity, and I totally get his “addition by subtraction” comment about PG … But, no. He wasn’t the main driver of our exceeding expectations. He was a part of it … like Harden playing 79 games and finishing 5th in the league in minutes played. And Zu having a career year. Those things don’t happen in a vacuum and they matter less looked at separately. Lue’s work with the team—and that means working with Van Gundy as well, which I think was a big plus, was a factor. I’m always leery of people that blame coaches because of “what they see.” Coaches see more and know more about players than we ever will, and sometimes take the heat for their players. Lue is a good coach … good enough so replacing him is unlikely to help in any real or meaningful way, and is—at least—as likely to hurt us, IMO.
I’m not sure what we should do in the offseason. An offensively productive big would be a huge deal. I just don’t know what we can get for the MLE. Santi Aldama is pretty out of reach. Maybe take a flyer on Yabusele? He played well this year--but it was on a crap team. Boucher? Will Portis maybe want to move? Is John Collins out of reach?
My guess/feeling is that the plan will be to modify the supporting pieces some. Coffey and Simmons are FAs; I suspect we’ll try to keep Coffey. Among our young players, I think Cam Christie is the biggest hope; I think it’ll be a dogfight for one team position between Flowers, Baldwin and Lundy. I don’t see a lot of plus movement from Kobe Brown; maybe a bit more from Jordan Miller, but not much. Thing is, the ceiling for most of those guys is Amir Coffey. The problem is a) we’ve already got an Amir Coffey-level player named … Amir Coffey. And, b) it’s very much a crapshoot if they even get to that level. A grade B Amir Coffey is not going to help us.
A player I continue to want—even though he didn’t play a minute last year—is Saddiq Bey. The Wizards chose to keep him out because why the f$%& not when you’re the worst team in the league. He can play some small ball 4. He’s tough as nails. Smart player. I’d dangle a couple of our newer 2nd round picks and someone like Jordan Miller and/or maybe Eubanks to get him.
But, yeah, lot of questions. Still, like I said, I still enjoyed the year.
It was a hell of a season, and fun. The team had an identity, and showed they can be a top-tier team. Better than I thought it'd be, and I was on the mid-40s wins train. Everyone got proven wrong.
Yabusele: Wanted him last offseason, and still want him now. When the Sixers were semi-whole or whole, he was productive. He should be brought in as the starting 4 next to Zubac. Kawhi goes back to primary SF.
Would love Portis here.
Bey, I'd definitely be interested in at this point.. would bring shooting, defense and size at 3/4.
Bottom line, team still needs some more decent, true size/length at PF/C around Zubac that play on both ends, and help for Kawhi/Harden at lead guard offensively. Would not mind at all Collin Sexton coming in.
