PG: Raps lose to the Nets

[YogurtProducer]

Not worried you lose the tone setting quarter by damn near 30 points? At no point did the Nets even take this team serious. CLAXTON sees the team as soft food forget anyone else haha

He’s being sarcastic lol

This board will over analyze this game. Nets were incredibly hot to begin the game and we started slow. But they were like 7/7 from 3 to start weren’t they?

Feels like teams being hot and us not generating offense is a trend. It's almost like the team is just kind of bad.

Two games ago this team was great?

[hyper316]

I am officially getting sick and tired of watching this team. All this just to lose in the 1st and 2nd round every year. We know we're not good enough to compete and beat the Bucks, Nets or Celtics. We will never ever get to witness a championship in our lifetimes. What a joke

Chaos defense system always have a chance to backfire on any given night. Defense should be the most consistent thing you can do compare the offense when some nights shoots fall/don't fall.

I never get why having such good length on defense, I see so many blow-bys and double the ball with 3 other defenders frantically trying to cover 4 players.

[TrustFundBaby]

MU built a poor roster, that's all there is to it. No guards, no bigs, and a glut of Wings, but those wings are not truly versatile outside of Siakam.


FVV/GTJ/Barnes are a serious issue. Terrible defenders and inefficient scorers. Siakam genuinely can't carry these bums. OG is his only help at this point.

GTJ and Barnes need to be off the bench full time, with Thad and Juancho starting, and Precious replacing Juancho when he returns.

[pingpongrac]

I think Fred's play as of recent cannot be defended by any posters. The guy has been bad.

However, it does get tiring seeing the same posters rip on him while giving Barnes a free pass.

If you're gonna trash one player (and it is justified to be honest), at least be fair and trash everyone playing like ass and not pick favourites.

And vice versa? Those who continually find something negative to say about Barnes every game but conveniently say nothing about FVV who has been brutal for the majority of the season?

This take can also use some balancing to be honest.

Really? How many people always find something negative to say about Scottie? Two or three at the most? Now how many people complain about FVV in basically every thread while throwing out childish nicknames to describe him/his play? 20 or 25 or even more?

It's not even close to comparable. Almost everyone on this board loves Scottie and most FVV "stans" are also Scottie "stans". The difference is most people pointing out Scottie's flaws or terrible play for half of this season realize that he's 21 and it's largely growing pains/a sophomore slump in addition to some questionable decision-making as he's trying to figure out other ways to be effective with more defensive attention on him this season. When it comes to FVV taking 15-20 shots (most of which are usually threes) which tends to be one of the biggest complaints about him "chucking," people tend to overlook why FVV is taking so many shots. Hint: it's because we need him to take those pull-up threes off a screen or transition threes as one of our best three-point shooters, especially in those games where Siakam was out and we needed every bit of extra offence.

[Potential]

It's might be time to package FVV and GTR to the LA Lakers

RUSS
FVV
REAVES
BRON
AD

As the closing lineup. Time to make a playoff push in the west and go all the way

[Los_29]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

[Los_29]

Tonight was the 10th game in a row we have used a different set of starters. Unsurprisingly, we have been outscored by a total of 74 points (!!!) in the first quarter in those 10 games and we have had to fight back from early double-digit deficits numerous times. I know we've been dealing with a bunch of injuries and whatnot, but we need to stick to one starting lineup or these games where we just look completely disconnected for the first 6-12 minutes are going to keep happening.

Outside of that, both Scottie and FVV are going through a rough patch the last few games while Boucher has also been a non-factor off the bench. On the plus side, Siakam has been good since returning (22/8/4 in somewhat limited minutes at 32 MPG) even though it's clear he isn't at 100% while GTJ has been hooping off the bench. OG is still doing OG things and Juancho has been playing well over the last few weeks.

These last two games have been ugly and it's definitely concerning that we've fallen so far behind so early in the game due to our non-existent defence and effort. A complete team win/blowout against Orlando tomorrow then at the very least a competitive game against the Celtics would make me feel a bit better, but our lack of consistency this season is frustrating.

more than a rough patch man. he'll have a good shooting game once in a blue moon and loyalists will call for an apology, but his shooting numbers have been atrocious way more often than not and he brings pretty much nothing else if he's not hitting 3's. rather management actually follow through with their positionless plan and roll with a 6'7+ line up. it was beautiful basketball without FVV against the 76ers in the 2 games they won. likely would've been swept with him if he played all the games.

Beautiful basketball? We lost by like 50 points in game 6.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Tank commander vanvleet baby!

Imagine we replace FVV with RVV tho...

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Tonight was the 10th game in a row we have used a different set of starters. Unsurprisingly, we have been outscored by a total of 74 points (!!!) in the first quarter in those 10 games and we have had to fight back from early double-digit deficits numerous times. I know we've been dealing with a bunch of injuries and whatnot, but we need to stick to one starting lineup or these games where we just look completely disconnected for the first 6-12 minutes are going to keep happening.

Outside of that, both Scottie and FVV are going through a rough patch the last few games while Boucher has also been a non-factor off the bench. On the plus side, Siakam has been good since returning (22/8/4 in somewhat limited minutes at 32 MPG) even though it's clear he isn't at 100% while GTJ has been hooping off the bench. OG is still doing OG things and Juancho has been playing well over the last few weeks.

These last two games have been ugly and it's definitely concerning that we've fallen so far behind so early in the game due to our non-existent defence and effort. A complete team win/blowout against Orlando tomorrow then at the very least a competitive game against the Celtics would make me feel a bit better, but our lack of consistency this season is frustrating.

more than a rough patch man. he'll have a good shooting game once in a blue moon and loyalists will call for an apology, but his shooting numbers have been atrocious way more often than not and he brings pretty much nothing else if he's not hitting 3's. rather management actually follow through with their positionless plan and roll with a 6'7+ line up. it was beautiful basketball without FVV against the 76ers in the 2 games they won. likely would've been swept with him if he played all the games.

Beautiful basketball? We lost by like 50 points in game 6.

There's no reason to trash our hometown team Los, just to defend FVV. I expected more from you.

[pingpongrac]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

Seriously. Do people not remember last season when we lost to KD and a bunch of role players to fall 2 games below .500 in mid-December? We've been even less healthy to this point in the season and we've been playing better than last year when we nearly won 50 games. This season is far from over.

[Raps in 4]

Nurse aint nothing but a modern day Thibs.

Let's bring Smitch out of retirement.

[Tha Cynic]

I think Fred's play as of recent cannot be defended by any posters. The guy has been bad.

However, it does get tiring seeing the same posters rip on him while giving Barnes a free pass.

If you're gonna trash one player (and it is justified to be honest), at least be fair and trash everyone playing like ass and not pick favourites.

And vice versa? Those who continually find something negative to say about Barnes every game but conveniently say nothing about FVV who has been brutal for the majority of the season?

This take can also use some balancing to be honest.

Should we do the numbers?

Before we count them i bet the dengrating fred posts outnumber the denigrating scotty posts by a factor of 10 to 1. What do you think the ratio is? Want to make a gentlemen's bet?

Why are you attempting to draw a clearly false equivalence?

And let's be clear about what constitutes a "denigrating post": calling someone a name, being overly negative without nuance, being dismissive, calling into question their character, using childish puns of their govt name, etc.

I bet it's more like 20 to 1.

Yup, kind of like making up faking injuries. Talking about their character by saying they're immature using that strawman to make that distinction. Again, all this is completely different from what any player on the team has said and strangely about the one player on the team that teammates have actually had glowing things to say about. Very bizzare.

I never said anything about the number of posters on both sides being equal. Barnes is 21, and FVV is 28 and a veteran so I would expect FVV to get way more criticism, as we already know what the player is by now and it's not getting better. The point is there are posters on both sides, and it's kind of ironic that you're the one commenting here about this because quoting you alone is enough to make my point.

[Clutch0z24]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

I don't think its about the losses or wins...Even when we win games i think most people here see the writing on the wall for this team or at least i do....And if your a GM like Masai im sure he sees it as well....Team is just not that good, Not well balanced, Lacks offensive firepower in a league where that is crucial, Lacks the proper bigs to matchup against certain teams, Lacks 3 point shooting, Lacks any kind of depth since we have about 6 G-League type talent at the end of our bench....Just not a very good put together team....Sure we have a few good players but every team has that and then some...

[TrustFundBaby]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

Seriously. Do people not remember last season when we lost to KD and a bunch of role players to fall 2 games below .500 in mid-December? We've been even less healthy to this point in the season and we've been playing better than last year when we nearly won 50 games. This season is far from over.

Difference in expectations though. Last season was a welcome surprise as expectations were low but we got ROTY Barnes, All Star FVV, and All NBA Siakam along with a 6 seed. Most optimistic fans thought play ins with many thinking a late lotto pick was more probable

Now the expectation is another top 6 Berth at minimum with the players building on their seasons from last year, but there's so much regression across the board besides Siakam and surprisingly OG.

Barnes massive struggling, FVV physically cooked, GTJ with a drop in defections/steals and in Nurses doghouse, Precious reverting to bad habits before suffering Injury.

Team as a whole is bottom 5 in jump shooting etc just a hard watch this year

[nestea]

Honestly think they should sit scottie for a couple weeks or something just so he can reflect and heal up

That'll never happen

[Los_29]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

I don't think its about the losses or wins...Even when we win games i think most people here see the writing on the wall for this team or at least i do....And if your a GM like Masai im sure he sees it as well....Team is just not that good, Not well balanced, Lacks offensive firepower in a league where that is crucial, Lacks the proper bigs to matchup against certain teams, Lacks 3 point shooting, Lacks any kind of depth since we have about 6 G-League type talent at the end of our bench....Just not a very good put together team....Sure we have a few good players but every team has that and then some...

[TRik]

Gotta love the know betters

[Chandan]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

I don't think its about the losses or wins...Even when we win games i think most people here see the writing on the wall for this team or at least i do....And if your a GM like Masai im sure he sees it as well....Team is just not that good, Not well balanced, Lacks offensive firepower in a league where that is crucial, Lacks the proper bigs to matchup against certain teams, Lacks 3 point shooting, Lacks any kind of depth since we have about 6 G-League type talent at the end of our bench....Just not a very good put together team....Sure we have a few good players but every team has that and then some...

pretty much. Precious Banton flynn Koloko isn't some high quality prospects.

[pingpongrac]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

Seriously. Do people not remember last season when we lost to KD and a bunch of role players to fall 2 games below .500 in mid-December? We've been even less healthy to this point in the season and we've been playing better than last year when we nearly won 50 games. This season is far from over.

Difference in expectations though. Last season was a welcome surprise as expectations were low but we got ROTY Barnes, All Star FVV, and All NBA Siakam along with a 6 seed. Most optimistic fans thought play ins with many thinking a late lotto pick was more probable

Now the expectation is another top 6 Berth at minimum with the players building on their seasons from last year, but there's so much regression across the board besides Siakam and surprisingly OG.

Barnes massive struggling, FVV physically cooked, GTJ with a drop in defections/steals and in Nurses doghouse, Precious reverting to bad habits before suffering Injury.

Team as a whole is bottom 5 in jump shooting etc just a hard watch this year

Difference in expectations, yes...but context also matters.

First 22 games last season
- 9-13 (10 home / 12 away; 10 games vs lottery teams / 12 games vs playoff-level teams)
- 23 combined games missed from starters and 12 combined games missed from key bench players (Achiuwa, Birch, Boucher)
- 13th ranked ORTG and 24th ranked DRTG

First 22 games this season
- 11-11 (10 home / 12 away; 5 games vs lottery teams / 17 games vs playoff-level teams)
- 22 combined games missed from starters and 28 combined games missed from key rotation players (Achiuwa, Boucher, Porter)
- 16th ranked ORTG and 7th ranked DRTG

I get that these last two games have been embarrassing, but that shouldn't take away from how we played through the first 20 games. Overall, we're still playing fairly well considering our injury issues and tough schedule to this point. We are within .5 games (ahead or behind) of Philadelphia, Miami, Golden State, Minnesota and Dallas – all of which were expected to be closer to contending than us this season. Coincidentally, most of those teams are having similar issues as we are on the road; we are 3-9 on the road and Miami is 3-8 while Dallas (1-8) and Golden State (2-10) have been two of the worst teams in the entire league on the road.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Lost a road game to KD and Kyrie in early December. Trade everyone, fire the coaching staff and front office.

The Sky is falling!

I don't think its about the losses or wins...Even when we win games i think most people here see the writing on the wall for this team or at least i do....And if your a GM like Masai im sure he sees it as well....Team is just not that good, Not well balanced, Lacks offensive firepower in a league where that is crucial, Lacks the proper bigs to matchup against certain teams, Lacks 3 point shooting, Lacks any kind of depth since we have about 6 G-League type talent at the end of our bench....Just not a very good put together team....Sure we have a few good players but every team has that and then some...

pretty much. Precious Banton flynn Koloko isn't some high quality prospects.

I've heard some say they should perhaps not be treated too differently from Scottie Barnes and are perhaps the same level of general quality.