sunsbg wrote:How did we get to a fire sell ? "Big 3" but still talented players, Nurkic + Allen actually looked pretty good this time last season, two great A/TO PGs, two promising rookies, championship coach...the team shouldn't be that bad. It's mind boggling. Cursed ?
It is. I think it's a combination of things. Book and KD just won at the very highest level in the olympics and played all summer. I don't think that has increased their motivation because they feel like they just won everything (even though they were on the most stacked team you can be on), they make money, are doing what they love, and they just don't have that fire. They still put up nice stats, but I mean the win at all costs fire....try hard on defense all the time even when your shot isn't falling, etc.
And then I think as much as I like Tyus Jones, and Beal for that matter, promising Jones to start was probably a mistake. Now of course they probably don't get him if they don't start him, but they did have Morris.
Because last year they were like 15-15 before Beal came back completely from the back spasms, and they finished 49-33.
So with Beal, they were 34-18. They were really good when all of them played.
They did turn it over a lot, but it worked. It also helped that Allen was on fire from 3.
This year I think with Tyus they maybe got too small, as has been mentioned. Allen is only 6-4, but a few inches, so I'm not sure it's only that, but I think also even though that him handling the ball helps with turnovers, I think when you have 3 guys like our big 3 that are good with the ball in their hands, and creating for himself, having that pure PG who creates for others, isn't nearly as impactful.
Everyone mentions Beal with the bench, which works as well, but I honestly think Tyus' talents would better be utilized if he played most of his minutes with guys like Royce, Allen, Dunn, etc....with maybe only one or two of the big 3, and not all 3 of them. He initiates offense and offense wasn't our problem.
I think we maybe would have been best served to start Beal/Book/Royce/KD/Plumlee...and now maybe Dunn that he has proven himself, and then let Tyus come in when Beal rested and let Tyus play as stars sub out and Allen, Dunn (or Royce), Oso, etc, come in.
Of course that puts Morris further down the pecking order, and it was great to get both but I'm not sure that was our biggest need.
I don't think initiating more offense was what we needed necessarily.
I think after watching it though, and knowing what I know now, that if Tyus starts, it is best for Beal to come off the bench, as I don't think you need 4 offensive initiators at once. Nurkic is even kind of a 5th...so Plumlee should work better.
But I think mainly KD and Book are just not totally into it even though they are our best two players and put up great numbers. I don't think they have enough fire to overcome our weaknesses at C, athleticism, defense and size.
