PG: Knicks vs ATL

[Spree2Houston]

Thibs smokes weed with the guys. Postgame cyphes

[TheGreenArrow]

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[WaltFrazier]

So what happens when Mitch returns and the defense looks a lot better?

What happens if it doesn't? More importantly, what does that say about the HC? He can only run one defense? Not a good look. Especially since there is a good chance Mitch gets hurt again and isn't around for the playoffs. Then what? We lose? Not a good look for a HC who is supposed to be a defensive guru. I do expect the defense to improve some though. TBD exactly how much.

Honestly though, I just want to enjoy this ride wherever it leads. If Thibs can survive and get us a title because we have a great team, cool. It won't change anything I have said about him. Like you said, there's only a handful of great coaches. Thibs isn't one of them IMO. He might be holding us back but, that remains to be seen. Let's see what happens when the team is back and healthy. Which Thibs needs to do his best to keep them that way. IOW, USE THE BENCH MORE. Another huge flaw of his.

You still need high end talent to win in this league and we are lucky to have that now. That's what matters the most. It's just been a reflex that whenever you criticize Thibs the defense team comes rushing in and these debates get started. I really don't want to drag it out anymore. I just think he's more of a Mark Jackson than a Steve Kerr. The guy before the guy. Look at the difference in CLE since they made a coaching change with basically the same exact roster. Sometimes a good coach isn't good enough. Either way, we have no say in who the HC is so, we have to roll with the punches and hope for the best. That's where I am trying to get to. It's just so damn difficult.

Any team that loses a guy like Mitch at the 5 is going to struggle a bit defending the paint, downplaying of what Mitch does is insanity on these boards. Especially when there's no one else on the roster to fill that role. Let's see how the D is after OG and Mitch are back, I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised

Lost Mitch and iHart, if you take it as last year to this year's team.

[HEZI]

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Newspapers still exist? Mind blown

[TheGreenArrow]

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And this is the current problem I don’t think can be fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jalen Bluntson]

So what happens when Mitch returns and the defense looks a lot better?

What happens if it doesn't? More importantly, what does that say about the HC? He can only run one defense? Not a good look. Especially since there is a good chance Mitch gets hurt again and isn't around for the playoffs. Then what? We lose? Not a good look for a HC who is supposed to be a defensive guru. I do expect the defense to improve some though. TBD exactly how much.

Honestly though, I just want to enjoy this ride wherever it leads. If Thibs can survive and get us a title because we have a great team, cool. It won't change anything I have said about him. Like you said, there's only a handful of great coaches. Thibs isn't one of them IMO. He might be holding us back but, that remains to be seen. Let's see what happens when the team is back and healthy. Which Thibs needs to do his best to keep them that way. IOW, USE THE BENCH MORE. Another huge flaw of his.

You still need high end talent to win in this league and we are lucky to have that now. That's what matters the most. It's just been a reflex that whenever you criticize Thibs the defense team comes rushing in and these debates get started. I really don't want to drag it out anymore. I just think he's more of a Mark Jackson than a Steve Kerr. The guy before the guy. Look at the difference in CLE since they made a coaching change with basically the same exact roster. Sometimes a good coach isn't good enough. Either way, we have no say in who the HC is so, we have to roll with the punches and hope for the best. That's where I am trying to get to. It's just so damn difficult.

Any team that loses a guy like Mitch at the 5 is going to struggle a bit defending the paint, downplaying of what Mitch does is insanity on these boards. Especially when there's no one else on the roster to fill that role. Let's see how the D is after OG and Mitch are back, I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised

We didn't simply lose a guy like Mitch. He has played about 10 games in a the last 15 months. After missing 31 games the previous year. They KNEW he wasn't coming back until January at the very least. It will be damn near MARCH by the time he plays a game for us. No one is forgetting what Mitch can do at all. He's an elite shot blocker and rebounder. He is never on the court. There are things a HC must do called adjustments. We haven't seen ANY in that entire time. It's called bad coaching,

Will the defense improve when he comes back? Most likely. Let's put all of our very expensive eggs in one basket? Come on man. We are dead last in 3pt defense. Make adjustments. That's all anyone is asking for. Acting like that isn't the logical thing to do is the insanity. Carry on. I'm done explain things that shouldn't need to be explained. You are supposed to put your players in the best position for success as a HC. We haven't done that at all.

[Jalen Bluntson]

What happens if it doesn't? More importantly, what does that say about the HC? He can only run one defense? Not a good look. Especially since there is a good chance Mitch gets hurt again and isn't around for the playoffs. Then what? We lose? Not a good look for a HC who is supposed to be a defensive guru. I do expect the defense to improve some though. TBD exactly how much.

Honestly though, I just want to enjoy this ride wherever it leads. If Thibs can survive and get us a title because we have a great team, cool. It won't change anything I have said about him. Like you said, there's only a handful of great coaches. Thibs isn't one of them IMO. He might be holding us back but, that remains to be seen. Let's see what happens when the team is back and healthy. Which Thibs needs to do his best to keep them that way. IOW, USE THE BENCH MORE. Another huge flaw of his.

You still need high end talent to win in this league and we are lucky to have that now. That's what matters the most. It's just been a reflex that whenever you criticize Thibs the defense team comes rushing in and these debates get started. I really don't want to drag it out anymore. I just think he's more of a Mark Jackson than a Steve Kerr. The guy before the guy. Look at the difference in CLE since they made a coaching change with basically the same exact roster. Sometimes a good coach isn't good enough. Either way, we have no say in who the HC is so, we have to roll with the punches and hope for the best. That's where I am trying to get to. It's just so damn difficult.

Any team that loses a guy like Mitch at the 5 is going to struggle a bit defending the paint, downplaying of what Mitch does is insanity on these boards. Especially when there's no one else on the roster to fill that role. Let's see how the D is after OG and Mitch are back, I think everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised

Lost Mitch and iHart, if you take it as last year to this year's team.

Exactly. We haven't had the personnel AT ALL to run the defensive style everyone raves about yet here we are. Dead last in 3pt defense and near the bottom of the league in total defense. Great job coach.

[K_ick_God]

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And this is the current problem I don’t think can be fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One call on a 3 foul that was BS and we have a good shot to win that game. And that’s without OG, without KAT making shots, without the New Precious.

And Boston is not that great.

[K_ick_God]

I love KAT.

[ctorres]

yo, how cool is this!



Mikal and OG dominate the corners

Brunson knocks down the middy from the wing

KAT doesn't shoot a high enough volume of threes. He shoots a higher percentage than Poole. KAT shoots 51% from where Poole shoots 38%, but Poole shoots twice as many threes

Turner and KAT are close to identical from the top of the key, but Turner has shot a few more threes at just a slightly higher percentage

It's funny to see DeRozan on this. Of course he dominates shooting from mid-range, that's part of the reason why every team he is on is mid

[KnixinSix]

The defense improves substantially with a defensive center, that is not a Thibs issue. Look around the league - you don't see any top defensive teams with low quality defense at the center position, and we have the worst center defensively. A new coach isn't changing that.

This isn't a "Thibs needs Mitch" but rather NBA teams that want to have a top defense need to not have the worst center on defense.

That's not blaming KAT because he makes up for it with what he brings on offense. In fact, I don't feel like calling anybody out when we are a top 5 team in the league. Not sure why everyone spends so much time looking to place blame when the team keeps winning.

I look forward to Mitch coming back. What I don't know is, can a team play one defensive scheme, ie drop, when he's on the court and another with more switching when he's off? I feel like Thibs would not be flexible enough to do that. But I'm not sure it's practical either. Can other players adapt to having different schemes. Does Minnesota switch things up when Gobert is on court vs off? I don't know enough about that to say.

Sure we are a top 5 team but also a team that will not sniff a championship without improving the defense Especially in the paint. Celtics are able to do it without a dominant center. But Thibs demands that type of presence in the middle. His drop system sucks without all the right pieces but when he has the right pieces it can be amazing.