GT: Hornets vs OKC Sat Jan 2 7PM EST

[bigbob]

post season slowly slipping away....

One bright spot out of this game is cliff finally decided to manage minutes properly for the squad. Good job cliff, i guess when injuries started piling up, you realize fast that you can't play guys 40+ minutes per game consecutively

[yosemiteben]

post season slowly slipping away....

One bright spot out of this game is cliff finally decided to manage minutes properly for the squad. Good job cliff, i guess when injuries started piling up, you realize fast that you can't play guys 40+ minutes per game consecutively

I have no idea what you are getting at, but that is about the worst possible lesson from a game where we are missing multiple rotation players to injury and we had like five guys in foul trouble.

[sidestep]

PnR defense has been awful, this game especially, but in general as well recently. We talking blow-bys against the defender on the roll-man even before the defender on the ball-handler gets to recover. I'm not sure who the main culprit is, it's prolly everyone, including Marvin who's not been playing well on either hand, besides some spectacular blocks now and then. Not sure what's up Marvin, if he has some nagging injury or something. Adams sets excellent screens, so gotta give OKC credit there (unlike the wussy screens set by our bigs).

PJ had a tough assignment guarding Durant, who can reliably draw fouls against inexperienced players. Durant requires a really physical and experienced defender, and there is no one on this roster that can do it. Seeing Lamb guarding Durant for long stretches made me cry heh. Batum is out, but, in truth, his defensive prowess is average at best, despite whatever Cliff seems to think. Aside from having length to bother the dribble, Batum doesn't fight through screens well, doesn't move his feet well, or even close out well. Most of the time he just dares ppl to shoot, with a lackadaisical hand up and doesn't even jump. If he closes out hard, he is easily taken off the dribble. Batum is a poor-man's Iguodala: well rounded player, but lacks Iguodala's defensive fundamentals and the ability to guard positions 1-4.

Kam was eaten alive by Adams and Ibaka under the boards.

Anyway, not much to say. Just don't have the personnel to deal with OKC's roster. Al and Batum and Hawes wouldn't have made much difference.

[bigbob]

post season slowly slipping away....

One bright spot out of this game is cliff finally decided to manage minutes properly for the squad. Good job cliff, i guess when injuries started piling up, you realize fast that you can't play guys 40+ minutes per game consecutively

I have no idea what you are getting at, but that is about the worst possible lesson from a game where we are missing multiple rotation players to injury and we had like five guys in foul trouble.

i don't mean anything by it but what I said. One of the reasons that makes the Spurs the most successful team in NBA history is time management. Pop effectively manages the minutes of his players, WIN or LOSE, he does NOT care, he will NOT play his players consecutive months for 36+ minutes, let alone consecutive games. A player like Kwahi Leonard, MVP candidate, all defensive team, DPOY, finals MVP, and only 24 years old has his minutes carefully managed. Some months he plays 35minutes, other months he only plays 31 minutes. Pop doesn't just do it out of the goodness of his heart, he knows it will pay dividends down the road. Now spurs are the oldest team in the league by a wide margin, and at the same time one of the teams with the lowest injury rates in nba history. Cliff should emulate Pop as much as possible and manage the minutes of ALL players on the team better, have it down to a science.

[fatlever]

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/1/2/10703258/hornets-fan-screams-kevin-durant-red-card

[Yit]

Tracking players performance (game points/average)

Playing above average:
Walker (41/26), Lin (20/16), Daniels (8/3), Hairston (12/9), Hansbrough (8/4)

Playing at average:
Lamb (16/16)

Playing below average:
Roberts (1/4), Harrison (1/2), Williams (15/18), Zeller (11/15), Kaminsky (7/11)

[fatlever]

post season slowly slipping away....

One bright spot out of this game is cliff finally decided to manage minutes properly for the squad. Good job cliff, i guess when injuries started piling up, you realize fast that you can't play guys 40+ minutes per game consecutively

I have no idea what you are getting at, but that is about the worst possible lesson from a game where we are missing multiple rotation players to injury and we had like five guys in foul trouble.

i don't mean anything by it but what I said. One of the reasons that makes the Spurs the most successful team in NBA history is time management. Pop effectively manages the minutes of his players, WIN or LOSE, he does NOT care, he will NOT play his players consecutive months for 36+ minutes, let alone consecutive games. A player like Kwahi Leonard, MVP candidate, all defensive team, DPOY, finals MVP, and only 24 years old has his minutes carefully managed. Some months he plays 35minutes, other months he only plays 31 minutes. Pop doesn't just do it out of the goodness of his heart, he knows it will pay dividends down the road. Now spurs are the oldest team in the league by a wide margin, and at the same time one of the teams with the lowest injury rates in nba history. Cliff should emulate Pop as much as possible and manage the minutes of ALL players on the team better, have it down to a science.

You can't compare how Pop manages minutes with the Spurs vs how any coach would manage minutes with the Hornets. The situations are too different. Pop knows that even if he plays his core guys 28-30 mpg they are still a playoff team. All he is doing is trading playoff seeding vs having fresh legs in May. If Clifford played Kemba, Lin and Batum less minutes every night all it would do is put us further behind in our slim chances of making the playoffs.

That is not to say that we should play any of our guys 40+ if we can help it, but I do not think for a second we can get away playing those guys much less either and still have a remote chance at winning any game, let along enough to make the playoffs.

[yosemiteben]

i don't mean anything by it but what I said. One of the reasons that makes the Spurs the most successful team in NBA history is time management.

The other is their ridiculous depth and foundation built on transcendent talent. Popp has the luxury of being able to sit guys because of the quality of his roster.

This would be a relevant comparison if the Spurs were ever in danger of missing the playoffs.

Kemba's MPG ranks 17th this season. Durant, PG, LBJ, Harden all average more minutes, and not just because their coaches haven't thought of the strategy of lightening the load now so they are fresh later.

[tondi123]

This game is kind of what I thought our whole season would look like prior to its beginning. Terrible defense and Kemba dominating the entire offense while everybody else looks totally uninvolved and/or incompetent.

[Roy Tarpley]

Some thoughts from the game:

1. I'm starting to see the scary version Kaminsky's future, where he's not even a poor man's Channing Frye. Frank is a 7 footer, yet he doesn't rebound well. Given his growth spurt in high school, he tries to play like a guard and drives a lot, which he's actually decent at, but he can't seem to finish. If I was Cliff, I'd tell Frank, "Your goal every game is to get 10 rebounds. I don't care if you score 0 pts or 20 pts, if you do nothing else, get 10 rebounds."

2. Ok, so Troy Daniels is pretty limited. We all knew that. But he can hit the 3. I'm okay with Troy just camping out in the corner but the playmakers MUST look to find him. I saw one play where Frank did his usual pumpfake, then drove to the basket, and when he got to the key, he dished back out to Troy for a 3 -- all of which is fantastic. But Nic, Kemba, and Lin need to do this too. If PJ can take 10 shots in 10 minutes, then so can Troy. Whenever Troy is in, I feel like the playmakers should try to find him. I think Kemba is particularly terrible at trying to find shots for others that maximize their strengths.

3. Lin's shot just wasn't falling. In fact, a lot were good, open shots that he just wasn't hitting. He was missing open 3s, open 18 fters, even open 6 fters. Not sure what to do except to keep taking them. He didn't have many assists either but it didn't seem like it was because people were missing shots. There just weren't many great plays. I remember one drive and dish from Lin to Hansbrough near the end but other than that, I wasn't seeing much cutting or off-ball movement.

4. There's a lot of missed opportunities with Kemba. He's so great at driving and having people collapse on him, there should be plenty of opportunities for trailers to get dump offs from Kemba (which is the fault of players like Frank and Cody), and plenty of opportunities for Kemba to pass to shooters like Troy in the corner (which is Kemba's fault for not looking for others more).

5. The talent level just isn't there. Kemba and Nic are the best players but Kemba would be a 6th man on most good teams and Nic was the 4th option after Dame, LMA, and Wes Mathews on a Blazers team that only got to the WC semifinals once.

[Snidely FC]

Imagine you hook up one night with the Red Panda, and in the morning she rides her unicycle into the kitchen and flips you a bowl of oatmeal?

[bws94]

Starters create a hole regardless of really who is starting. Why? This happens in many games. Didn't happen in the Raptors game. Why? In fact in both Raptors games, one a W in OT and the other an L.