GT: Heat @ Hornets Sat 10/26 7:00

[yosemiteben]

Understaffed and 2nd of a B2B and 3rd game in 4 days, I thought the way we ended was very encouraging. Lots of stuff to clean up, but the fight and defensive effort is there.

There are lots of negative stuff one could say after this game, but I'm just gonna call it a schedule loss and move on.

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[fatlever]

Early observations

other than the obvious of missing three starters the main issues I'm seeing with the team are

- a gaping hole at the backup point guard position. The Serbian Michael Carter Williams is borderline unplayable.

- turnovers and fouls are killing us on defense. Clifford must be freaking out watching this LOL.

- offensively there's not much movement either with the ball or the players. Lot of standing around a lot of iso a lot of guys just hunting for threes. I do suspect this is partly why micic look so bad because he's definitely a player that looks better in a system with a lot of movements back door Cuts screens that sort of thing give him the ball and ask him to create one-on-one just ends with him pounding the ball endlessly at the top of the key.

[wilson115]

Richards has been outstanding.

Encouraging to see Nick responding to the new player development staff, but the turnovers still look so bad Hornets twitter made a post about it. Something to work on obviously.

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[Bassman]

Agree with the observations from several of you on lack of movement on offense, Micic poor play, too much fouling, etc. Very encouraged by Melo’s play other than his turnovers as he’s making solid efforts to defend and drive the ball a bit more. Mann is such a key part of what we’re doing…he’s kept us in some of these games. Miles has been good not great. Nick better than last year by a smidgen but still not good enough for volume minutes. Most disappointed in G Williams, as his lack of effort to defend has hurt us more than I expected. Honorable mention to Micic, who is just bad.

It’s early and of course, it’s not Hornets basketball without bunches of injuries. When will Miller be back? Is there any report of Mark taking the training wheels off? I am encouraged by the effort and competitiveness shown by this team, but moral victories aren’t part of the stat sheet. Let’s hope we get healthy quick and see what we’ve got against these tough teams coming up.

[MasterIchiro]

No doubt there was more player movement, and more ball movement in JB's offense. But I don't think we saw it right away. At first, the quick decision-making resulted in high turnovers. Some of this ball movement/player movement will come with chemistry. With all the injuries, our core key players still haven't shared the court much at all, going on year 3. We do have better isolation scoring with LaMelo & Miller growing in that area, and with Tre Mann's emergence. Miles is decent in iso. Get those 4 together with Mark and we will win more games in closing time.

I think we're better than the Heat, Hawks, and Rockets if we get some continuity.

[MasterIchiro]

Biggest disappointments for me are Micic and Grant. Both did less than nothing in the offseason and it shows. They eat and drink whatever they want.

They can't get any separation from NBA players so it's 4-on-5 when they're out there, on both ends.