Post Game Thoughts. Hosting Mavs.

[coolcono]

I have been a little tired from work.

Good-Hmmm.

Meh- Edwards is the best option when we have primarily defending rotation out there. But he has terrible shot selection.
McDaniels was always in good defensive positioning, but the opposition's shots still went in.

Bad- Does this team have a historical finishing at the rim percentage this season?

Other thoughts- I would not be opposed to trading Edwards or McDaniels. I would believe Edwards has more value on the market. I hope Rubio gets traded as he deserves better than this.

[Jedzz]

Rosas is as bad at drafting top of draft as anyone we've had before.

The team currently operates like every front office here as before. Start rooks, allow them to unravel. Claim them untradeable.

Next front office please. I'm ready to get behind a different Pobo and Gm.

[winforlose]

MCD is the real deal. His defense against Doncic was legit. He has things to learn and his offense needs some work, but he is legit.

Nowell once again proving that Finch is like the poker player who would rather chase the inside straight then focus on flush right in front of him. Nowell should be the center of the offense when KAT is on the bench. He is Beasley light and if you give him 30+ minutes and a true role he can be your MVR (most valuable role player.)

Ant did something well. He made a case for coming off the bench. He proved he is not mature enough to function as a focal point of the offense.

KAT amazes me. He went 8-20 and 4-9 from deep. You would think that is a bad night. Yet, with an injured wrist, being the focus of the defense and having so few people to pass to who will hit the shot. KAT is like Superman pulling off what he does with what he is dealing with.

[jpatrick]

Rosas is as bad at drafting top of draft as anyone we've had before.

The team currently operates like every front office here as before. Start rooks, allow them to unravel. Claim them untradeable.

Next front office please. I'm ready to get behind a different Pobo and Gm.

Rosas’ biggest three moves have been franchise killers: Culver, Edwards, D’Lo.

I don’t see how he turns it around. The only thing that will save his job this offseason is doesn’t look like Taylor will sell anytime soon.

[moss_is_1]

We suck. Would be nice to see our whole team play together, but our defense will be so bad with Russell/Beasley.

Nowell is great offense off the bench most nights.

McDaniels looks like he could be a real good defender, needs to get stronger and work on his 3 ball.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Rosas is as bad at drafting top of draft as anyone we've had before.

The team currently operates like every front office here as before. Start rooks, allow them to unravel. Claim them untradeable.

Next front office please. I'm ready to get behind a different Pobo and Gm.

Rosas’ biggest three moves have been franchise killers: Culver, Edwards, D’Lo.

I don’t see how he turns it around. The only thing that will save his job this offseason is doesn’t look like Taylor will sell anytime soon.

Ant wasnt a killer. Outside of Ball and Haliburton, hes right there.
Culver isnt horrible either, his role needs to be fixed. He needs to mold himself into an OG Anunoby type player. The entire draft after the top 4 isnt setting the league on fire.

DLO is the only true disaster transaction right now. However, Rosas still believes that DLO can be the Harden for this team. So much so that he is an untouchable according Moore. DLO will get every opportunity to reward Rosas for his trust or take the team down with him. Giving up that pick is a potential game-changer for this franchise.

[LesGrossman]

To say something positive, i think this version of KAT is miles away from the offense-only whiny brat he was when he got drafted. I see him do a lot of good things, including expending energy on D, deferring to get a better shot, not whining so much, listening to team mates and coach and laughing with them. He seems to have gotten a lot more resilient, mabye reality check helped. I would not give this version of KAT away as long as he is happy playing here.

[KJauger]

Ant wasnt a killer. Outside of Ball and Haliburton, hes right there.
Culver isnt horrible either, his role needs to be fixed. He needs to mold himself into an OG Anunoby type player. The entire draft after the top 4 isnt setting the league on fire.

DLO is the only true disaster transaction right now. However, Rosas still believes that DLO can be the Harden for this team. So much so that he is an untouchable according Moore. DLO will get every opportunity to reward Rosas for his trust or take the team down with him. Giving up that pick is a potential game-changer for this franchise.

Right there my ass...I would trade Edwards for Ball in a heartbeat, but could you say the same for the Hornets? Hell **** no.

Beyond his stats, Lamelo balls impact on his team is ridiculous and every question mark has been answered.

Edwards on the other hand, the only thing going for him is his athleticism.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Ant wasnt a killer. Outside of Ball and Haliburton, hes right there.
Culver isnt horrible either, his role needs to be fixed. He needs to mold himself into an OG Anunoby type player. The entire draft after the top 4 isnt setting the league on fire.

DLO is the only true disaster transaction right now. However, Rosas still believes that DLO can be the Harden for this team. So much so that he is an untouchable according Moore. DLO will get every opportunity to reward Rosas for his trust or take the team down with him. Giving up that pick is a potential game-changer for this franchise.

Right there my ass...I would trade Edwards for Ball in a heartbeat, but could you say the same for the Hornets? Hell **** no.

Beyond his stats, Lamelo balls impact on his team is ridiculous and every question mark has been answered.

Edwards on the other hand, the only thing going for him is his athleticism.

Read before u post.

[Heimdal]

Culver has to be the worst player in the entire NBA.

We are again into "when are the wheels going to fall off?" basketball.
First 28 minutes of the game: 56-62
Last 20 minutes of the game: 72-46 --> bad for your health. DO NOT WATCH

Finch had a great gameplan to stop Doncic, but we would need a committee of hall-of-fame coaches to get this bunch of low-IQ players to have some kind of success.

[Jedzz]

Rosas is as bad at drafting top of draft as anyone we've had before.

The team currently operates like every front office here as before. Start rooks, allow them to unravel. Claim them untradeable.

Next front office please. I'm ready to get behind a different Pobo and Gm.

Rosas’ biggest three moves have been franchise killers: Culver, Edwards, D’Lo.

I don’t see how he turns it around. The only thing that will save his job this offseason is doesn’t look like Taylor will sell anytime soon.

Ant wasnt a killer. Outside of Ball and Haliburton, hes right there.
Culver isnt horrible either, his role needs to be fixed. He needs to mold himself into an OG Anunoby type player. The entire draft after the top 4 isnt setting the league on fire.

DLO is the only true disaster transaction right now. However, Rosas still believes that DLO can be the Harden for this team. So much so that he is an untouchable according Moore. DLO will get every opportunity to reward Rosas for his trust or take the team down with him. Giving up that pick is a potential game-changer for this franchise.

Canuck I think I might disagree with every line there. If you are into reading why, jump in. If not, don't.

Spoiler:

Dlo and the pick are the result two things. I have just long enough of a memory to know many people claimed it might take two frps to move Wiggins early in his contract. One was a given. Lobbing all this on Dlo and calling him garbage is strumming a broken violin. Rosas did make the choice to target Dlo even after the reality of what his contract would be changed. It wasn't a rush judgement that we can tell, the process took an offseason and half of the next season. So if paying that contract and in doing so bending a knee to Towns is your gripe, that's a point you could maybe argue better. His play in this warted logjam mess has been better then most the guards even though showing a bit that he lacks the versatility or patience to deal with it. Descriptions of his play otherwise just don't appear to be objective in nature. It's very easy to see how he could lead this offense given the correct roster makeup which was closer to correct after the prior trade deadline and the team looked better then.

Culver keeps getting opportunities and just can't seem to get it done here. Rosas traded up to 6 for him from 11th and costed Saric (who was a decent pairing for Towns and part of the return for Butler). Rosas failed to trade up to 5th or above even though Atlanta did attain New Orleans' #4. The claim was that a PG and Garland was the target and that was believable since Rosas simply walked away from Rose and the cubboards were bare at the role. Yet Rosas passed on Coby White for Cutler at 6 when he traded up. Players available back at 11 have done really well since. Culver has long been passed by their second round pick of his draft year and undrafted players, players with a fraction of the chances Culver was handed to date other than Rosas did not give Culver Gleague minutes others have gotten. Something that may have hurt him. Culver is no where near the size/length of OG Anunoby. Undrafted Vanderbilt is a much closer match to OG size and being a combo forward, and has already out shown Culver's play from those roles. Culver is a guard that could possibly fill in at SF by size, his aptitude for 1 on 1 defense maybe his best showing so far. He was drafted to be a guard and sold to fans as a playmaker for others and was even lofted into starting PG role in rookie season.

Rosas speaking after the draft..."For us to be able to put a group of wings like we're going to be able to put on the floor at certain points this year gives us a lot of versatility, gives us some shooting, gives us playmaking," Rosas said. "That's how we want to play."

Yet undrafted JMac is tiers further along and undrafted Nowell's shooting and game IQ seems far further advanced even though he started with initial shooting confidence issues during transition to the main team and still is battling for a steady chance there near the level Culver started with. One could argue Culver's free minutes all season his first year have held Nowell back from offering more to this team. Rosas choice to walk away from Rose and instead target a PG at top of his first draft by trading up for Culver is probably the big disaster of Rosas time so far. He could have had a vet leader in the position helping to develop that role. But it's actually moreso the insistance on trying to give that top player choice more chance to succeed than two other guards he and his crew brought in that have really been the disastrous decisions. It has wreaked of defending his own Ego and his first draft choice to the detriment of his roster development. In an article by Dunking with Wolvesthey talked about how it might have ended up lucky to land Culver given who he instead showed he was in the first season, given a cutting ability he was showing while playing off of McLaughlin who was onball. As Culver was able to find cutting lanes and finish in the hoop as long as he didn't need to be the one putting the ball on the ground. This was a team need given Layman's inability to stay healthy. But of course, McLaughlin wasn't going to be recognized for his strong PG play with enough of a cotract or role in plans for the next season. And Rosas was about to throw two cherrys atop the logpile at guard/wing that would just make it harder on the Culvers.

Following up that draft by selecting another guard at #1 that by size seemed capable of filling multiple roles, reality could already be seen predraft of an Edwards' mindset choosing to play onball point instead of flexible wing, more of a Harden mindset the size of the moon in full phase. The Harden mindset comparison has held true and this season has wrecked prior PG addition decisions such as Dlo, JMac and simultaneious choice Rubio. In fact, Rosas insistance of Ego plowing these top draft positions into success had him again and now featuring both Edwards and Culver in the beginning of this season, further destroying chances for other truer points such as Jmac and Rubio, and the Max deal Dlo into confusing secondary off gard roles at times. There may be no more questionable of a decision by a team pobo or gm for this team since I've been watching. But it came after another head scratcher as the guy capable of moving more than half the roster at one deadline and basically already flipping the roster twice since taking over couldn't get himself to accept any offers to trade down from that top #1 pick when the choices there seemed difficult and nonfits to all his prior choices to build something here. It seems to me he fell in love with the idea that he might have a chance at a second James Harden. I doubt he would ever admit to that. I won't even talk about the LaMello option as he was a risky option that only teams with full access and people paid to evaluate should chime in on, though he too would have broke prior choices. Many fans (not myself) did want him to be the choice.

Summary question: How can a group capable of finding players like JMac, Nowell, McDaniels on the fringes be the same group that chose Culver/Edwards and the same group that traded for Dlo/Rubio and chose to handle their playing time and roles so insanely and really all these at the same time? My only guess is that Rosas makes the big spotlight decisions in drafts and someone else in that group who is better is being allowed to make the lesser pressure choices. This would help explain how those other choices also don't get the same free playing time regardless of play, as they don't come with the Pobo's ego attached. But none of that explains how they can pay the costs they did to bring in Dlo and then also add Rubio while drafting as they have. One foot doesn't seem to follow the other and the team somehow has three left feet from all this.

[winforlose]

I think I figured out what Finch is doing wrong with Ant. One thing that got a lot of attention with Ryan’s practice style was the modified practice scoring system with long 2s being worth negative points. Though somewhat patronizing the concept is simple, if you shoot from here regardless of whether you score you have already hurt the team by taking a bad shot. During the 2019 season Graham took a lot of open 3s and we all watched them miss. Someone needed to explain to Graham that a bad 3 point shooter taking an open 3 is a loss on any particular possession. JO learned that same lesson at the end of 2020 beginning of 2021 when he missed a ton of open 3s. When Ant shoots 12 3s in a game that is 12 possessions with a bad outcome. You might say “he needs to shoot a few to keep defenses honest, or if the clock is low.” This argument could be made for Okogie and though technically correct it ignores the overall shooting percentage of Ant on the season. Another argument I hear is “If he is wide open for a catch and shoot his percentage is higher.” While this statement is true, it’s also true that Ant driving instead of shooting will likely unbalance the defense and allow Ant to either finish at the rim or dump it off for another post player or distance shooter.

What someone needs to explain to Ant is he is one of the worst jump shooters on the team by percentage and should not be shooting from outside the paint more than 3 or 4 times per game at most. Ant needs to understand that each possession is a win/lose proposition and regardless of whether the shot goes in when he takes a 3 we lose the possession automatically.

[Sugarless]

Went to bed at half-time, finished watching in the morning. I nearly puked. I probably will if nothing happens at the deadline today and I have to keep watching guys like Edwards and Russell running point, going ISO and chucking shots nonstop. This franchise is beyond repair and it's been that way for 15 years.

[Jedzz]

Ant did something well. He proved he is not mature enough to function as a focal point of the offense.

This might be the worst part about how this team operates with rookies. Forever letting them destroy their own value when instead they could be limiting their time and responsibilities to create confidence building flashing moments that builds their confidence and outside confidence in them as well. Apparantly we are supposed to believe that they don't care because he's already written in as a pillar of the future and minutes will fix all ailments. Just contract this mess already. We can see what Rosas is attaching his hip to and it's a submarine yet again.

[LesGrossman]

Went to bed at half-time, finished watching in the morning. I nearly puked. I probably will if nothing happens at the deadline today and I have to keep watching guys like Edwards and Russell running point, going ISO and chucking shots nonstop. This franchise is beyond repair and it's been that way for 15 years.

Yep. Imagine being the worst franchise in the league and not feeling the need to do something at the deadline. Its mind blowing.