"I'm pleasantly surprised about (I was flat out wrong)" thread
Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2022 10:16 pm
I was just thinking since we're finally showing some signs of life, especially kawhi's performance, that the team certainly feels like it has some legs underneath it - which I don't think we could safely say up until this point. Sure, we had some really important wins but for the most part everything has felt rather tenuous.
But, you know, we're fans, we don't know everything the team is planning for, and the best we can mostly do is speculate and discuss. And in lieu of things looking pretty good (for the time being), I think it'd be good discussion to talk about things we had expectations for, that were completely surpassed or turned upside its head.
My own:
- I did not think MD would be anything until at least next year, and if he were to be brought on at any point this year he'd just be floundering in his minutes. Instead, he gives us some of that manic mann energy that can help to turn some games around. I hope he completely overtakes brown and gives us that energetic, big man presence we could really use.
- I thought batum wasn't totally washed, but I just thought he was mostly gonna be a 10-15 mpg kinda guy while covington overtook him in his role. Instead, he looks just as good as he's ever been for us, and you can see how high impact this dude is over the past few games. I thought a little last night about which role players are indispensable on this team and my short list is zubac/luke/batum.
- On that note, I really expected covington to become our top reserve/defensive guy and that hasn't really happened. I almost expect him to be traded at this point, which sucks because I do think if he has the minutes he can elevate the defense in a big way.
- I think there's a lot to read between the lines with kawhi/pg and who's handling the ball. There was a snippet about kawhi being the pseudo-point guard on the team because he's just really smart and solid, and that makes sense to me. Last night I 1000% thought they were utilizing him in a point-forward role, and it was only after he started making a couple shots that he decided "hey, I might be back, maybe I'll just keep shooting" and we saw the results. But before he started hitting, well, everything, you could see how steady the team was on offense with him being the hub of the offense (I'd also add that I've always found it all kinds of backwards that lue went to PG in his first year and tried to designate him as the handler/passer, when it felt like kawhi was much better suited to do that from the post as a triangle-y type of initiator). Anyway, my hope is they continue with whatever they were doing last night because it looked like a night and day difference compared to the usual PG ISO into reggie ISO into morris ISO into bad shot with 2 left on the shot clock.
- In that same vein, I thought PG had really improved a lot last year after returning from his UCL injury in terms of ball handling, passing, and decision making, and I thought he would carry that over into this year to be that guy lue wanted him to be. I woulda put him on the short list of MVP candidates to begin the year, partly because of that. This year? He's just back to his usual mediocre decision making. There was a moment last night where I was like um, yeah, kawhi pretty much puts to rest who the best player on the team is, and by good margin. There's a steadiness that kawhi brings that affects almost every facet of the game that PG cannot bring. If PG is playing lights out defense and hitting all his crazy iso shots then sure, he can probably bring near equal impact, but not so much that it fixes all the kinks of bad shots, bad passing, etc etc. Kawhi's still that guy and he's our only guy for that, IMO. No surprise, I guess. I'll add something that I hadn't really thought of up until last night: I'm a little over PG right now, and last night's the first time I thought that since we first acquired him, and I sure hope that feeling goes away.
- Related to that, I had long been of the idea that this team doesn't need extra playmaking per se and that they could not just get by, but do quite well without a traditional point guard. And it's really weird saying this, but I think john wall is the one who's changing my mind. Because when he's on the court with the key guys, he's not acting as a multiplier for them - instead, he's taking bad shots, making bad TO's, and doing a buncha things that, hey at least when reggie does it, he's SUPPOSED to do that, and he shoots better anyway. Wall's not doing the job we ideally need him to be doing and it just takes the touches away from the guys who need it. I mean I don't think you trade wall or whatever as of just yet but I would hope that lue's figuring something out where wall can shift his priorities. Wall taking a buncha shots right now is hurting the team, a lot. And all that kinda tells me that a traditional, pure passing point guard would do big things for our offense.
- Morris I think i've mentioned several times already. He's showing me he's not close to washed up, and that he's actually still providing decent value on the court as a scorer/shooter, despite our plethora of them. Do I think he needs to be moved still? Yeah, but I keep seeing him make shots and I'm always like "yeah we actually needed that." Powell's supposed to be the guy who bridges that scoring gap from the big two into the rest of the team, but morris is doing now what I thought he was not capable of, not all that long ago.
- I'll end with luke. I'm certainly pleasantly surprised with his development as a player. I think he's taken a bit of a step back in his aggressiveness as he had a couple gun-shy moments last night that had my eyes rolling into the ceiling. But I would consider that to be a blip, and something he knows he needs to be working on, and not a big deal at all considering the elephant in the room: his greatly improved defense. He moves around in sync with the team, his hands are active, I mean who in the hell expected this? If I'm lue I tell him I want him to work on his ball handling every day like steph curry because that gives him way more options as a shooter (can you imagine him with that 1v1 off the bounce 3 point ability?) and it gives US the ability to work him in as a superior version of reggie in our starting lineup.
Anyway, just some thoughts. What's pleasantly surprised you guys this season, so far?
But, you know, we're fans, we don't know everything the team is planning for, and the best we can mostly do is speculate and discuss. And in lieu of things looking pretty good (for the time being), I think it'd be good discussion to talk about things we had expectations for, that were completely surpassed or turned upside its head.
My own:
- I did not think MD would be anything until at least next year, and if he were to be brought on at any point this year he'd just be floundering in his minutes. Instead, he gives us some of that manic mann energy that can help to turn some games around. I hope he completely overtakes brown and gives us that energetic, big man presence we could really use.
- I thought batum wasn't totally washed, but I just thought he was mostly gonna be a 10-15 mpg kinda guy while covington overtook him in his role. Instead, he looks just as good as he's ever been for us, and you can see how high impact this dude is over the past few games. I thought a little last night about which role players are indispensable on this team and my short list is zubac/luke/batum.
- On that note, I really expected covington to become our top reserve/defensive guy and that hasn't really happened. I almost expect him to be traded at this point, which sucks because I do think if he has the minutes he can elevate the defense in a big way.
- I think there's a lot to read between the lines with kawhi/pg and who's handling the ball. There was a snippet about kawhi being the pseudo-point guard on the team because he's just really smart and solid, and that makes sense to me. Last night I 1000% thought they were utilizing him in a point-forward role, and it was only after he started making a couple shots that he decided "hey, I might be back, maybe I'll just keep shooting" and we saw the results. But before he started hitting, well, everything, you could see how steady the team was on offense with him being the hub of the offense (I'd also add that I've always found it all kinds of backwards that lue went to PG in his first year and tried to designate him as the handler/passer, when it felt like kawhi was much better suited to do that from the post as a triangle-y type of initiator). Anyway, my hope is they continue with whatever they were doing last night because it looked like a night and day difference compared to the usual PG ISO into reggie ISO into morris ISO into bad shot with 2 left on the shot clock.
- In that same vein, I thought PG had really improved a lot last year after returning from his UCL injury in terms of ball handling, passing, and decision making, and I thought he would carry that over into this year to be that guy lue wanted him to be. I woulda put him on the short list of MVP candidates to begin the year, partly because of that. This year? He's just back to his usual mediocre decision making. There was a moment last night where I was like um, yeah, kawhi pretty much puts to rest who the best player on the team is, and by good margin. There's a steadiness that kawhi brings that affects almost every facet of the game that PG cannot bring. If PG is playing lights out defense and hitting all his crazy iso shots then sure, he can probably bring near equal impact, but not so much that it fixes all the kinks of bad shots, bad passing, etc etc. Kawhi's still that guy and he's our only guy for that, IMO. No surprise, I guess. I'll add something that I hadn't really thought of up until last night: I'm a little over PG right now, and last night's the first time I thought that since we first acquired him, and I sure hope that feeling goes away.
- Related to that, I had long been of the idea that this team doesn't need extra playmaking per se and that they could not just get by, but do quite well without a traditional point guard. And it's really weird saying this, but I think john wall is the one who's changing my mind. Because when he's on the court with the key guys, he's not acting as a multiplier for them - instead, he's taking bad shots, making bad TO's, and doing a buncha things that, hey at least when reggie does it, he's SUPPOSED to do that, and he shoots better anyway. Wall's not doing the job we ideally need him to be doing and it just takes the touches away from the guys who need it. I mean I don't think you trade wall or whatever as of just yet but I would hope that lue's figuring something out where wall can shift his priorities. Wall taking a buncha shots right now is hurting the team, a lot. And all that kinda tells me that a traditional, pure passing point guard would do big things for our offense.
- Morris I think i've mentioned several times already. He's showing me he's not close to washed up, and that he's actually still providing decent value on the court as a scorer/shooter, despite our plethora of them. Do I think he needs to be moved still? Yeah, but I keep seeing him make shots and I'm always like "yeah we actually needed that." Powell's supposed to be the guy who bridges that scoring gap from the big two into the rest of the team, but morris is doing now what I thought he was not capable of, not all that long ago.
- I'll end with luke. I'm certainly pleasantly surprised with his development as a player. I think he's taken a bit of a step back in his aggressiveness as he had a couple gun-shy moments last night that had my eyes rolling into the ceiling. But I would consider that to be a blip, and something he knows he needs to be working on, and not a big deal at all considering the elephant in the room: his greatly improved defense. He moves around in sync with the team, his hands are active, I mean who in the hell expected this? If I'm lue I tell him I want him to work on his ball handling every day like steph curry because that gives him way more options as a shooter (can you imagine him with that 1v1 off the bounce 3 point ability?) and it gives US the ability to work him in as a superior version of reggie in our starting lineup.
Anyway, just some thoughts. What's pleasantly surprised you guys this season, so far?
We just need both Kawhi and PG on the floor to really hit our stride.