Post#58 » by TyFrekey » Thu Mar 28, 2024 7:43 am
I'm team run it back, but agree that Monk at something like $25 million is not the answer. Hopefully he enjoys Sacramento enough to not take more from another team but if not, I wish him well and thank him for two great seasons. Overall, Monk epitomizes the issues with this roster:
1. Too many players who are a liability on one side of the ball.
2. Too hot and cold and the quality of the basketball falls off a cliff during the cold stretches.
Who on this team is a consistent positive on both sides of the ball? Sabonis is the only one I can think of (his defensive deficiencies are way overblown here imo and the team's perimeter defense makes him look worse than he is...what can the guy do when any perimeter ball handler essentially has a free lane to the paint). Fox has potential, but is too consistently lazy defensively, especially off ball. Davion and Ellis are good defenders but offensive liabilities; Keegan should be lumped in here this year because of his shooting regression and lack of development as a playmaker and scorer, though his defense has really taken a step back in the second half. Barnes and Huerter have been essentially unplayable for much of the season. Keon replacing Huerter has helped a ton because he has been a reliable shooter and great defender, and thats saying a ton because Keon does not have a lot of offensive skills.
Compounded on that is that the team just plays so awfully when this aren't going right. They settle for bad threes, get stagnant and devolve into hero ball. Too many turnovers. They start to foul and gamble too much defensively. Incredibly poor discipline and iq when things start to go bad. It's why they have a 7-3 record against the top 3 teams in the west, but have found a way to lose to the Wizards, Hornets, and Pistons at home, not to mention multiple drubbings at the hands of good to great teams.
So why run it back?
Because they have shown the POTENTIAL to not suffer from these things. Fox was playing at an mvp level for the first month or two of the season on both sides of the ball, can he do maintain that level for more of the season? Keegan was an elite shooter last year and great defender for most of this year, can he do both at the same time and potentially develop into a more versatile scorer? Is Keon a long term answer at the 2? Davion has been contributing off the bench while being at least a net neutral offensively since the all star break, why can't that sustain? This season has been more a consistency issue than a talent issue; run it back and see if you can figure out the mental part of it that is holding the team back while making improvements on the fringes like upgrading Barnes and/or Huerter and maybe a bench player.
Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk