Road to a Championship start here, 2022 Draft.

[Whole Truth]

Agree bad call on Bizz. Should have been a moving screen on Zeller.

[Whole Truth]

Consecutive bad calls against Pels help Memphis get back to within 13 to start the 3rd. I'm shocked, not really. That call on Herb was lol.

[Whole Truth]

Officiating the only reason Memphis are still in this game. Pels up 10 to start the 4th.

Daniels the biggest catalyst for the 2nd Q run didn't see a minute 3rd Q.

[Whole Truth]

Who didn't see this finish coming. NBA is fake trash. lol

Green doesn't escape this neither. Game turned when Dyson came in on the ZIon charge, he barely played 2nd half where Pels couldn't stop the refs momentum shift.

Go back, review the tape & see how many offensive charges refs turned over the Pels in this game.

[Whole Truth]

NO's starters had a combined 17 FT's. Memphis soft stretch big man had 15 by himself. 27 FT's between him & JA

Jonas & Zion on 24 paint shots had 7 FT's between the 2 of them. 3J on 10 FGA's, 3 of which were 3 pointers had 15 FT's twice as many as 2 post big men putting up 24 shots at the rim.

Memphis make a concerted effort on the boards but best believe Jonas only having 3 FT's shows the physicality Memphis smaller front court was allowed to play with.

Memphis shot 50% from 2 (82 possessions), 32% from 3 (31 attempts), 79% FT's (29 attempts)
NO's shot 47% from 2 (85 possessions), 44% from 3 (25 attempts), 91% FT's (24 attempts)

Memphis 19 PF's
NO's 23 PF's

Down 19 at the half

3rd Q -
Jonas offensive foul - 17pt lead
BS Jones shooting foul without touching Bane who slips on court - 15 pt lead
Jonas is fouled on 3 foot attempt no call, Bizz scores - 13 pt lead
Jones fouls 9pt game
Jones fouls remains 9pt game
Jonas fouls 7pt game
refs go quiet for a bit & Pels open the lead back to 11 (81-70)
Zeller foul 81 - 72
Jose foul Memphis in bonus 83 - 75
Pels finish 3rd Q 87 - 77

Refs had their finger prints all over Memphis cutting that 19pt lead. Someone cashed in on the -14 underdogs & if this league wasn't fake trash that officiating crew should be fired but they won't be.

Credit Memphis when the game got close late they/JA closed it well but it should have never been close to begin with.

Stern still knows where the bodies are buried.

[Whole Truth]

I got around to looking at some of the comments off last nights loss & see a lot of criticism going Greens way. Some deserved, some not. Here's the cold hard truth.

Last night when Zion picked up his charge & had to sit 2nd Q. Daniels was subbed in & the team went on a 26-2 run to open a 24pt lead, 19 into the half, by subbing your best offensive talent for best defensive talent. 2nd half Zion played, Daniels pretty much didn't, which is expected because it's Zion but it was also the reason Pels could not hold onto the lead & get stops, in combination with a bunch of momentum calls going against them.

Here's the problem with the roster makeup. The team can get away with playing 2 of 3 of Jonas, Zion, CJ but the 3 combined cannot successfully function defensively. They bleed points & still don't have enough spacing because teams can easily cut off the lone shooter CJ. So you're giving up both a offensive & defensive edge with these starters in relation to their individual talents..

Jonas carries blame for rim protection, with Zion letting his defender get a straight line or CJ incapable of slowing the ball enough for a slow footed center that struggles to guard in space. Whereas Daniels ball denial closes that space. Check Jonas defensive production with Daniels vs CJ & get back to me.

Zion as the best offensive player, is also the weakest of the 3 poor defenders, which means his offensive efficiency needs defensive compensation, which he is not getting with both Jonas & CJ on court at the same time as him.

CJ is not capable of the required ball denial needed for a Jonas & Zion front court or even a ZIon front court as we saw vs the Lakers. He can't even provide the necessary spacing because as the lone threat on court, he's easy to cut off in a zone defense, which the Lakers did in a 44pt blowout of the Zion/CJ pairing. With this trio on court together, the defense bleeds, which is why Daniels with no spacing & Pels playing 4 on 5 offensively, was so much more effective with the starters than CJ in his 9 games.

With Nance out, there's no real depth behind Jonas or anyone close to his production to make sense as a replacement starter. Zion is the teams best scoring talent, extremely efficient but also the worse defender in a starting rotation that has only one plus defender. He could be replaced by several options on roster in a sum greater than it's parts but he's paid like it & supposed to be the teams franchise. IMO, The easiest solution is to bring CJ off the bench for Daniels. One lone shooter is not going to give you the necessary spacing needed, Daniels however in combination with Herb elevates the defense & makes a difference defensively. Those 2 help that lineup produce enough stops that Zion's efficiency, Jonas efficiency can compensate for playing 4 on 5... All Herb or Daniels need to do is hit the occasional open 3 to make it work. Then you bring CJ in to change the pace & adjust the defensive tone set.

What would be ill advised, is trading your most reliable & stable front court player in the hope a defensive centre would be the solution. In a target like Allen's case, further clogging the paint as Jonas is a 3 level threat & has gravity to his game apposed to Allens being a defensive rim runner. When you can in house replace CJ with an elite defensive PG you saw work for 9 games in a strong schedule & get the required balance needed while simultaneously developing Daniels game.

Understand this teams/Zion's defensive ceiling hinges on Daniels growing his offensive game where he can become playable with Herb. CJ starting is currently a road block to this teams potential ceiling. What's hard to swallow is in his 9 starts only twice have they not handed the bench a lead in the 2 instances in 9 games they didn't it was no more than a 1 possession deficit.

[Whole Truth]

Saw the article talking about spacing & Green's reluctance to field shooters over defenders & while I agree Green has a tendency to neglect offense for defense he's not the issue here.

With BI & CJ, NO's should have 2 capable threats from range but there's a lack of willingness from BI.

What makes things difficult to add shooting, is that ZIon is a poor defender, which requires defensive compensation. So until BI becomes a more willing threat or NO's get a center who can hit threes at an efficient volume (Markkanen) there will always be only one 3pt threat on court with ZIon..

There's another solution to this problem. Zion diversifying his game to take more 3's. Which he has shown some capability of doing Until he does, this issue will keep NO's from reaching their pinnacle with ZIon's potential.

The benefit of offense is it's unpredictability. The fact that the lone shooter with the starters is so easy to guard with the 4 scorers NO's put on the court is the fact every defense knows what ZIon wants to do with the ball & in going to that zone, they also effectively guard Jonas & BI's mid range game. So in reality while ZIon is extremely talented, he's actively hurting this team on both ends & an adjustment needs to be made both to his individual game by diversifying it & for Green to add defensive compensation not more shooting until he does. We saw it work with Daniels for 9 games. Then you can put more shooters around ZIon coming off the bench to better balance the teams roster not just starters.

Jonas -
Zion
BI
Herb
Daniels

= defensive compensation for 3 efficient scorers but spacing is sacrificed for a considerable defensive upgrade. What we saw out of this lineup over 9 games was an uptick in transition offense ... That said, Daniels defensive compensation for not just Jonas but ZIon is where this teams ceiling is at so he needs the reps & to build his confidence from range.

CJ 6th man, manu role is the stable offensive factor, change of pace defense to offense according to how the game is going.

Zion
Murphy
Naji
Hawkns/Jose
CJ/Jose 

Bench unit. Zion's post gravity is now surrounded by effective spacing where you can look to outscore bench units that can't as effectively expose the lack of defensive compensation. It's the reason James subbed out in a tie game with 6 mins left 1st Q to matchup with ZIon off the bench in a zone defense. Easy 22mins for Lebron zoning Zion & cutting off CJ. When Daniels was starting this is the bench unit teams & weak benches were exposing but here with Murphy, Hawkins & to a lesser extent Naji now available/included, it would be impossible to just cut off CJ while playing Zone to stop Zion. Who's going to defend Murphy & Hawkins?.

Starting CJ you are delaying the inevitable. Daniels defense & offensive development, is key to making ZIon work. Just like Herb's defense was needed yr 1 without the offensive growth & 2nd yr step back. Herb is now reliable offensively. This is where you need to get Daniels & the sooner the better.

As I've stated a couple times already. What's crazy is the starters have not been losing their minutes with Daniels despite playing 4 on 5 for the defensive compensation ... so It comes down to if CJ is a team player or not to accept coming off the bench. Coach Greens job is in jeopardy & it's not really his fault he has to find a defensive & offensive balance for Zion's limitations on both ends from his offensive diversity & predictability to his need for defensive compensation. If Zion was a more complete scorer NO's could go all out offense but they can't because teams can effectively plan for Zion's post game & simultaneously defend 3 of the 4 scorers on court because of that predictability. Though both Jonas & BI are 3 level scorers, packing the paint takes away their bread & butter offense. Jonas post game, BI's mid range...

The problem is evident. To make Zion work you need to find a healthy balance which with his limitation on both ends is difficult but you stumbled into Daniels working, are you going to ride CJ into getting fired ?

This is not about CJ, he's played great this yr so far, this is about fit & balance.

[Whole Truth]

I had a feeling Bulls could take that Lakers game. Outside of the Suns being supposed contenders, Lakers have 4 wins in their first 28 games against teams over 500. The majority of their wins have been against bottom feeders. 9 of their 15 wins are against teams with under 5 wins or major injuries.

That whistle they've been getting is what carried them. Favorable whistle, favorable schedule etc.. favor.

Now that they've lost to the Bulls & are 2 games over 500, they got Wolves, OKC & Boston before their next weak opponent.

Really hoping Lakers stumble this yr & give NO's a lotto ticket, even if it's in the 6-12 range of picks, I would like to see NO's package up their picks for Alex Sarr.

If NO's decide ZIon is not it. Trade with Detroit who's desperate to start winning for their top 3 pick.. reset cap & value with an Alex Sarr trade, considering they also have & like Duren.

[Whole Truth]

I want to go back on the officiating of the Memphis game.

First red flag I had was finding out Pels were near 8pt favorites with Ja returning to action. I could understand if it were Memphis without Ja with Pels coming off a couple good wins but with Ja back that favorable spread was to favorable & It had a story cover in his return. A successful JA comeback most would not question upsetting the heavy favorite. Nothing to see here, an unexpected performance & win.

They attempted to foul Zion out first Q, half but it led to Daniels unexpectedly taking NO's on a 26-2 run 2nd Q, 24pt lead, 19 at the half. Notice 2nd half, the whistle cooled on Zion & Daniels who was +18 barely saw the court in his favor. Part of that is on Green. Refs weren't going to do him any favors by fouling Zion's defense out again in favor of the 6mins Daniels helped hold them scoreless 2nd Q.

Memphis soft stretch big man 3J had 15FT's on 10FGA's 7 of which were inside the arc. So with minimal aggression & maybe half those 7attempted fouls coming at the rim, he got to the line 15 times in relation to a Jonas & ZIon who's 24 attempts were mostly at the rim for 7 FTA's total. LMAO. That's a heavy front court tilt. No mention Jonas & ZIon 2 passive defenders, committed more defensive fouls than the aggressive shot blocker.

Ja was aggressive to the rim so I would give his 12FT's the benefit of doubt. However, he got away with a couple travels & a couple of committed fouls leading to TO's for NO's, while Herb was not allowed much contact without fouling in relation to 3J's defensive aggression allowed.. The way NO's defended JA is partly on Green as well, for not reading the tea leaves of the officiating leaving Herb on a defensive island. Not to mention, as good as Herb is, Daniels is the better on ball/man defender.

The mere fact 3J had more FT's than the entire Pels starting rotation with Jonas & Zion putting up 24 shots mostly at the rim, should say enough. The fact he had 8 more FT's than Jonas & Zion combined putting up 7 FGA's inside the arc maybe half those attempts being at the rim, to Jonas & Zion 24 which were mostly at the rim, is well, blatantly obvious to non biased views how much the game was tilted in Memphis favor.

Let me paint the picture

3J - 10 FGA's, 3 3pt attempts, 15 FTA's, 4 PF's (aggressive shot blocker)
Jonas & Zion - 24 FGA's, 1 3pt attempts, 7 FTA's, 11 PF's (2 passive defenders)

LMAO

[Whole Truth]

Broke my post because it was too long

3J - (6-10) FGA's, (1-3) 3pt attempts, 15 FTA's, 4 PF's (Aggressive shot blocker) 3 blks
Zion/Jonas - (14-24) FGA's, (1-1) 3pt attempts, 7 FTA's, 11 PF's (2 passive defenders) 4 blks

NO's 2 physically efficient big men combined for 23 shots at the rim, 7 FT's
Memphis soft stretch big man, 3J in taking 7 shots inside the arc, received 15 trips to the line.

3J & Ja combined for 26 shots inside the arc, 27 FT's
Zion & Jonas combined for 23 shots at the rim, 7 FT's

Memphis + 20 for the equal aggression at the rim by these pairings.

NO's starters - 52 FGA's inside the arc, 16 3's, 19 FT's for their aggression at the rim
Memphis starters - 41 FGA's inside the arc, 22 3's, 29 FT's while taking 6 more 3's on less possession

NO's starters were + 5 in possession, + 11 at the rim, - 10 on the line, in a 2pt loss.

Someone cashed in big on the 8-14pt underdogs.

[Whole Truth]

Murphy 28pts on 16 FGA's, 4 rebs, 3 asts team high +20

Cavs hit 17 3's on near 40% efficiency & lost by 20.

[Whole Truth]

Zions = high volume efficiency, paint gravity
Murphy = low volume efficiency, 3pt gravity

There's a reason these 2 seem to have chemistry, lol. For 2yrs I said he should be playing with Zion.

A poster suggested he take CJ's spot & the response was why would you replace CJ's shooting & Murphy is nowhere the creator CJ is.

I showed you why, using Daniels as a reference point. With Daniels starting Zion was averaging 16-20 FGA's a game. When CJ is playing Zion has a tendency to defer to him & BI where he averages 8-10 FGA's a game where his worth is in volume efficiency. What am I saying. CJ's ability to create, dominate the ball & shot attempts is a negative effect on Zion. Hence the +22 rating playing 4 on 5 with Daniels & the -6 rating playing with CJ's creation ability & spacing. With Daniels you got high usage Zion & defensive compensation. With CJ you got Zion playing down to CJ's efficiency with his defense over Daniels. It's not complicated.

If you want spacing without sacrificing defense, rebounding & Zion's touches. That's why you go Murphy over CJ instead of taking the defensive backbone out of the lineup for all out offense.

The added benefit of this is you get CJ's creation ability carrying the bench unit & off the bench for a change of pace. Where you guessed it, Murphy is not as good a creator, lol.

Balance & balancing skillsets.

[Whole Truth]

Murphy in Zion's absence put up 28 on 16 shots = Zion type efficiency, which is the main thing ZIon brings to the table.

Except he brought paint spacing instead of paint gravity which benefit the starters on a whole. Whereas with Zion, Green has to find a healthy balance of offense & defense to compensate his skillset. Murphy brought defensive effort & rebounding to his efficient 28. Cavs were bombing 3's and couldn't pace. They hit 17 3's on near 40% efficiency & lost by 20.

Zion is the most talented player on roster but he's also the most difficult fit because of his lack of diversity & defense, If he was a good defender, Green could get away with not playing Herb, If he wasn't as predictable in the post, NO's would not need an additional shooter with Jonas shooting 40%, Herb 36%, CJ 44% & BI a capable 40%.

This is why Zion should be taking more 3's if he's capable. So the offense wouldn't be so predictable.

When teams leave Jonas (40%) open & Herb (36%) open because they're not volume, they are picking a poison because packing the paint takes away Zion, Jonas post efficiency/rebounding & BI's mid range game where he's a reluctant 3pt threat.

This is why in a hypothetical Zion trade situation I'm trading him to Detroit for a top 3 pick to net Alex Sarr, a 7-1 switchable defensive C with range where Murphy's efficiency & spacing slides into place, while shedding the necessary cap...further compensation would just be gravy. Reason for targeting Detroit is their 2 win season, Zion could be something to feed their fans instead of another hopeful draft selection. NO's get a centre of the future, a better fitting piece to the current roster & the necessary cap adjustment.

If Zion doesn't diversify his game this team already has it's ceiling.

(top 3 pick Sarr) - Jonas 2yrs team option for Sarr's development & integration
Murphy - Nance
BI - Naji
Herb - Hawkins - Jose
Daniels - CJ (supersub) - Jose

[Whole Truth]

It's a good morning. Pels won. Lakers lost & are now 1 game over 500 at the bottom of a 3 way tie for 8-10 seed because of the loss column. That's right Lakers currently tied for 10th seed.

OKC & Boston up next. Lets get that ball rolling.

Crazy that Pels current 7th seed in the West are 5 games over 500.

Houston, Memphis, Utah, Lakers on deck. I want retribution for that stolen Memphis game. **** I could say the same for the earlier Hoston loss where a Brooks ignored flop was called a moving screen in another close loss from a double digit lead, that the refs put their fingers all over.

[Whole Truth]

Quote from another forum

"The game against Memphis was lost because we couldn't get a stop in the last 4 minutes with the starters on the floor. Ja put CJ & Zion/Jonas in pick n rolls over & over again"

When Zuon had to go to the bench 2nd Q with his 3rd, the Dyson UNINTENTIIONAL sub put Memphis in a 6 minute scoring drought. (26-2) run to get the 19pt half time lead. The above quote is the very reason the starters with Daniels ball pressure & zero offense or spacing was +22 against the roughest part of the schedule vs CJ's creation & shooting ability being -6 in the softer part.. Individually & or combined, Jonas & Zion are 2 efficient scorers with defensive deficiencies, they NEED better ball pressure than what CJ can provide. It's why they've entertained trading Jonass but then Nance went down & once again UNINTENTIONALLY Jonas is having a good season not being subbed every minute for Nance's defense. What compounds the defensive issue is the fact ZIon becomes less involved with CJ dominating the offense & shots. As I've shown, Zion 16-20 FGA's with Daniels elite defense in the 9 games CJ went down, 8-10 FGA's with CJ's creating & spacing ability coming back. Zion's who's worth is in volume efficiency, ends up playing down to CJ's efficiency in taking less shots, while becoming a defensive liability paired with his defense.

NO's need Daniels defense & for him to become a threat from range to make Zion work. Talk all you want about the need for spacing & how good CJ has been individually this yr which he has. With ZIon on court with CJ's ball pressure the teams defense is taking this team nowhere fast.

Last yr they went to Nance for the defensive solution to ride CJ & they fell completely out the PO race & had to end up trying to involve Jonas offensively late in the season for a late run & PI miss. Now they're going back to talk of Allen... lol. Daniels with no offense showed the root cause of the starters is a lack of ball pressure.

Allen won't solve the perimeter defense & ball pressure issues the affect Zion. If anything he will clog the paint further & you have Nance's minutes to go off of from last yr to compare going with a defensive big man & Nance can & will hit the occasional 3.

The starters have after 9 games & 84minutes a +22 net rating with Daniels ball pressure playing 4 on 5 offensively with very limited spacing. Trading Jonas to facilitate CJ, isn't going to work. Moving CJ to the bench is an easy in house fix that won't cost assets.

If Atlanta blows it up, Murray is a far better trade target than Allen to improve this roster.

[Duke4life831]

I think it’s very clear the trio of Zion/BI/CJ isn’t the best fit. Been said a lot already, they just east into each other’s production. How many games have those 3 played where they played off of each other and it looked like all 3 were in rhythm and had big games? Not many at all. Most nights it’s the “who out of BI or Zion are going to play the decoy tonight” when all 3 are out there.

The thing is, there just isn’t the need for that much on ball offense. Zion/BI with Murphy and Jonas as the 3rd and 4th scorers is plenty of scoring ability.

No Zion last night, CJ got his 15 shots, Murphy got 16 and BI only got 12. But he was in rhythm all night because he had the ball in his hands and was facilitating a lot. And still put up 17/7/6 in 3 quarters.

I do agree there is an issue with the Jonas/Zion/BI front court. They do all want to score from the same areas and because of that, they make it tougher on each other. But there is a lot of talent there.

Honestly I think best case scenario (don’t think this will happen) is to move CJ. Honestly I’m not sure I’m going to be the biggest fan of him even coming off the bench. If the scenario was for him to come off the bench and have only 2 of Zion/BI/CJ on the court and whenever CJ is on he plays as the 2nd option to BI or Zion, okay. But I just don’t think that’s in his DNA. The dude loves to dribble and shoot. I think he still will view himself as the 1 option when he’s coming off the bench. You still have the CJ/Zion defensive issue as well whenever they play.

The benefit of Dyson and Jose at the point is, those two are so good at defending at the point of attack, it makes just attacking Zion tougher. And I think if you have some combo of your offensive guys out there, you can make it work offensively.

But I think best case scenario would be to move CJ. Try and get a big that can spread the floor (doesn’t need to be a starter). Then you can have that Jonas/Zion/BI starting front court. But from the first sub, you rotate the rotations around where you try to only have 2 on the court at once. Then you toss in Murphy, Hawkins, and a 5 off the bench that can shoot it. I really think you can really make those pieces work.

Honestly just not the biggest fan of CJ with this team and I’d try as trade him now where I think you could get a team to bite on him since he’s still productive and maybe get an asset in return instead of having to give one up later on.

[Whole Truth]

We remain on pretty much the same page.

My biggest issue with CJ besides starting, is his contract. I think he could fit in if used correctly but therein is the rub because he hasn't been so far & I'm not sure he ever will be. It will inevitably cost this team some of it's quality depth. I mean, they were ready to dump Jonas 15m contract until Nance got injured despite an already thin & fragile front court where Jonas is consistent reliability & great production value at his price point. He's a better version of Vucevic, at half the cost & coaching neglect. They already tried moving away from Jonas last yr for more Nance, CJ & they fell out the PO picture. With Nance down for a good portion of the season & CJ missing 9 games during the teams toughest stretch, along with other key injuries, they're still 5 games over 500 with 8 blown double digit leads & 4 games lost by 2 points or less with Jonas as the lone big man. Fortunately & unfortunately that injury to CJ was to a benefit. Fortunately because the starters over that span were +22 against top level teams with Daniels where they were nowhere near as effective with CJ against lesser comp. Unfortunately, If they had any kind of bench depth, either one of CJ & or Murphy to hand their leads over to, there was 4, 1 possession games lost over this span & a potential top 2 record in the West.

It shouldn't take injury to understand what is needed & it's happening too frequent because the team is beholden & trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. On the face CJ for spacing seems to make sense but what happens when teams zone & shade the lone shooter because Zion needs Herbs defensive compensation ?. There's no defensive counter for the Pels which is why CJ was -6 with the starters in relation. Reason I pointed to the fact the starters with Daniels defense actually have/had the better 3pt% than with the floor spacer CJ, where they were in the negative. So if you're sacrificing defense for CJ's spacing shouldn't that lineup 3pt% be higher ?. hence the net production disparity. By replacing Daniels, there was no spacing gain, only less Zion efficiency in lost touches, less Daniels elite defense & ball pressure.

Zion is not as easy to build around as one would think. Ideally, 1 defensive stretch 5 & atleast 2 perimeter players that can defend & be a 3pt threats... Between Jonas & Nance they can man the 5 by committee, if Nance is healthy. Herb has made some considerable strides offensively & Daniels looks like he's potentially capable with some gained confidence & reps... But NO's is choosing to cater to the vet, over raising the teams ceiling. What's even harder to swallow is that in Daniels 9 starts only twice the starters didn't hand a lead over & both time the deficit was no greater than one possession. So it won't cost NO's to start & develop their #8 pic to raise the teams defensive ceiling come PO time. Instead they will ride CJ & hope Daniels can just step up when needed.

[Duke4life831]

We remain on pretty much the same page.

My biggest issue with CJ besides starting, is his contract. I think he could fit in if used correctly but therein is the rub because he hasn't been so far & I'm not sure he ever will be. It will inevitably cost this team some of it's quality depth. I mean, they were ready to dump Jonas 15m contract until Nance got injured despite an already thin & fragile front court where Jonas is consistent reliability & great production value at his price point. He's a better version of Vucevic, at half the cost & coaching neglect. They already tried moving away from Jonas last yr for more Nance, CJ & they fell out the PO picture. With Nance down for a good portion of the season & CJ missing 9 games during the teams toughest stretch, along with other key injuries, they're still 5 games over 500 with 8 blown double digit leads & 4 games lost by 2 points or less with Jonas as the lone big man. Fortunately & unfortunately that injury to CJ was to a benefit. Fortunately because the starters over that span were +22 against top level teams with Daniels where they were nowhere near as effective with CJ against lesser comp. Unfortunately, If they had any kind of bench depth, either one of CJ & or Murphy to hand their leads over to, there was 4, 1 possession games lost over this span & a potential top 2 record in the West.

It shouldn't take injury to understand what is needed & it's happening too frequent because the team is beholden & trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. On the face CJ for spacing seems to make sense but what happens when teams zone & shade the lone shooter because Zion needs Herbs defensive compensation ?. There's no defensive counter for the Pels which is why CJ was -6 with the starters in relation. Reason I pointed to the fact the starters with Daniels defense actually have/had the better 3pt% than with the floor spacer CJ, where they were in the negative. So if you're sacrificing defense for CJ's spacing shouldn't that lineup 3pt% be higher ?. hence the net production disparity. By replacing Daniels, there was no spacing gain, only less Zion efficiency in lost touches, less Daniels elite defense & ball pressure.

Zion is not as easy to build around as one would think. Ideally, 1 defensive stretch 5 & atleast 2 perimeter players that can defend & be a 3pt threats... Between Jonas & Nance they can man the 5 by committee, if Nance is healthy. Herb has made some considerable strides offensively & Daniels looks like he's potentially capable with some gained confidence & reps... But NO's is choosing to cater to the vet, over raising the teams ceiling. What's even harder to swallow is that in Daniels 9 starts only twice the starters didn't hand a lead over & both time the deficit was no greater than one possession. So it won't cost NO's to start & develop their #8 pic to raise the teams defensive ceiling come PO time. Instead they will ride CJ & hope Daniels can just step up when needed.

Ya we've been on the same page about this for what seems like at least a year haha. And I agree on the surface CJ in the starting lineup makes sense. A floor spacer and a guard that teams have to respect in all aspects of the game and that should lead to making life easier for BI and Zion.

But that is the issue, its only surface level. Once you really start looking at it, the flaws start to really show. Like youve said, attacking a defense where CJ is defending the at the level of attack and Zion is the secondary guy, well that is easy work for most NBA teams. Then on the other side, he leads the team in touches and time per possession. On a team where the two stars like to have the ball. So on most nights youre choosing to have Zion or BI play decoy and not in rhythm. So any individual positives CJ brings offensively over Dyson, gets wiped away when your essentially sacrificing one of your two stars every night.

And ya even though I do question CJ's fit as the 6th man (I think this shouldve been his role his entire career), you dont want to be spending 30+ mil a year for a 30+ year old 6th man.

[Whole Truth]

It's disturbing to me that it only takes you a couple paragraphs to say what it takes me a wall of text lol.

I mentioned at the point of trade that NO's would be beholden to CJ. He's endeared himself to management & city.

The issue doesn't end with the spacing facade. They think replacing Jonas with someone like Allen will rectify the defensive issues. It won't because as the Daniel starts showed, the defensive issue is ball pressure ... what Herb is doing defensively, is nothing short of astonishing. We saw them try to replace Jonas with Nance every opportunity Green could afford, it led to missing the PO's. Sad reality here is, Nance also spaces the floor better than Allen who's also more expensive as a rim runner which is why Cavs would be making him available. What's more disturbing to me is that/Green can't see how much Jonas is actually contributing to this team being 5 games over 500 being the lone big man, with no viable backup with Nance out, outside of the unsuccessful 6'6" Zion at the 5 bench lineup that's being decimated even by weak benches & the 3rd stringer Zeller who's also limited offensively.

Look no further than the Lakers match. A team that has 4 wins against teams over 500, Pels being one of them. They decimated the ZIon, CJ pairing at 4 different points of the game, starting & bench, Jonas & no Jonas, for a 40pt spread in their 20-25 minutes together. The most concerning part was Green trying to match them up & having seen it fail in 3 other points of the game before the blowout 3rd Q. They gave up a near double digit leads at those 3 separate points of the game & still Green went back to it a 4th time in the same game because he put his faith in CJ like that last vet he used to ride off the bench... Daniels should have been on Lebron start to finish & make him work for it. Instead Lebron finished his night in 20 minutes of play lol.

This team with better decisions to this point would already be top 3 West despite the considerable injuries suffered.


Brings me back full circle to Daniels ... The starters being +22 playing 4 on 5 offensively because of Daniels perimeter defense & ball pressure. At what point can we say with Nance over Jonas there was such an obvious improvement in defense & net production ? None, nada, zilch. Allen would be nothing more than added salary & less of a floor spacer than Nance. He's good defensively but he won't be stopping the line drives to the basket from Zion's man walking around him, he won't be erasing the loose TO's & ill advised shots in transition & he definitely won't be able to defend the perimeter if the plan is to take Herb out to get Murphy in for 2 shooters.

[Whole Truth]

With the cap situation what it is, the better move is to target a big man in the draft & extend Jonas for as cheap as possible to facilitate the rookies development & acclimation to the team. The rookie takes sooner than expected, NO's could look to move off Jonas contract in extending BI apposed to committing to Allens 20m, the very reason Cavs would make him available to trade.

Not to mention the way Lakers are trending... NO's might have an outside ticket/chance at Alex Sarr... or another quality lotto pick to get a good cheap big man.

Personally I would use some combination of the remaining picks to package up if possible.