GameTime_3 wrote:What interesting about this season, is that to start the year, we look very lost on offense as if we never played together. Last year, the team was fighting to get paid and individually made strides that helped team. Since Spo has been HC, I've always wanted him to sign an offensive minded assistant to help him with this. We go small yet, we have little ball movement, that won't work.
Tyler or Josh need to be moved for a SF with length. Neither of them get in a rhythm and when they do, they get minutes split with other as Spo will never ride a hot hand for more minutes, he always keeps it consistent.
Would love to see Justise get more aggressive more often. He has made a few moves this year where I go, OK do that. But doesn't follow it up.
Tyler's contract explodes to $19.2M per annum for 2 seasons in July 2018, and his play has been mediocre at best. Richardson cannot be traded until March 15. Neither player can be traded, nor are they playing well enough to garner interest. If Riley moves a wing, it will be Winslow (maybe one of the reasons he's being given minutes?) or Waiters. Ellington is an expiring who also holds value.
I only expected to scrape into the playoffs with this team, hoping that incremental improvements would give us 3 or 4 wins, but where we have improved (such as getting Winslow back from injury), have been offset by the turnover machine that our offense has become. This is a collective problem, affecting all players, that comes down to three related issues: our offense doesn't present good options because it's too predictable, players attempt unnecessary plays that are well beyond their capabilities, and players get desperate when they fall behind and take terrible shots because they think they'll catch fire. All of this is spurred on by the mentality that you want to push through bad shooting, so 0-30 is better than 0-9. It's only better if you eventually fix the issues that made you 0-30, not if it becomes the normal day at the office.
Here are our needs in the order they should be addressed:
1. Point guard for when Dragic is off the court. Waiters and James Johnson are our team leaders in terrible distribution. It gets worse when they are pressured. This worked last season, and it might work again if we add a primary ball handler. But as it stands now, it's not working. When the game gets tight, Waiters goes into hero-mode and James Johnson tries to make drives that lead to getting stripped or bad passes.
2. We're not playing Whiteside enough. It's frankly criminal. Moreover, Kelly Olynyk is not a backup center. We need one pretty badly if we're not giving the keys to Bam, who (and I know most will disagree) isn't ready to take a primary role. I'd send Bam to Sioux Falls to develop so at least he's playing. After Dec. 15, I'd target a disgruntled professional basketball center.
3. The effort on the court is just not enough. We see flashes of what these players can do (like in the extra attempts to get rebounds in the third quarter last night), but we are lax when we cannot be. We're not finishing games well at all. This is a coaching/front-office issue that comes from unfairly parceling out minutes for slack play. If we bench Whiteside for 22 minutes because of nonchalant performance on the court, why play James Johnson or Dion Waiters when they are delivering the same crap?
My suggestion:
1. Trade 1:
Joakim Noah and Jarrett Jack for Wayne Ellington, Tyler Johnson, AJ Hammons, & Okaro White
Noah is Whiteside's backup. Olynyk becomes a PF. Dumping TJ's contract for Noah's can help both teams.
Jarrett Jack is experienced point guard who can play behind Dragic.
Opens 2 roster spaces.
New York can waive White without penalty. Ellington is an expiring who can help them in a playoff run. Hammons has another year.
2. I'd try Matt Williams for TJ's spot first. Play him for 30 days or so in a backup role (we control his rights). If he shows promise, give him part of the MLE (like we did with McGruder and JRich) to guarantee bird rights. Otherwise maybe try Aaron Harrison who is playing well for Charlotte's D-League affiliate.
3. I'd leave the other spot open, though I'm tempted to sign Matt Barnes for SF backup (behind Richardson) at veteran minimum. Thomas Robinson is also available but plays PF, not SF.
4. Trade 2 (at end of season): Josh Richardson for Jahlil Okafor. Noah will have many injuries. Adding Okafor and resigning him in the off-season will allow us to run him beside Winslow, which worked well at Duke.
C: Whiteside/Noah/Okafor/Adebayo
F: James Johnson/Olynyk/Winslow/Mickey/Haslem
G: Dragic/Jack/McGruder/Waiters/Williams or Harrison
1 open roster space (or sign Barnes or Robinson)
Also, trade 2 (Richarson for Okafor) doesn't have to happen if Noah shows any sign of being in basketball shape by March. In that case:
C: Whiteside/Noah/Adebayo
F: James Johnson/Olynyk/Richardson/Winslow/Mickey/Haslem
G: Dragic/Jack/McGruder/Waiters/Williams or Harrison
Thoughts?
Kelly 
JJ 
JRich 
