Residual-Heat wrote:Maybe Im wrong, and WCJ was fine when the play offs started. In which case, it was a mistake to start Isaac. I agree Isaac at center probably works against many other teams, but we know the Cavs are a big team. The play offs are no time to experiment, you make adjustments if you need to, but you have to initially stick to what you've done all season.
He did say he was ramping up minutes for Isaac before the playoffs started (or wanted to before his back spams), and they still all follow data. Fultz lost his starting spot, Ingles minutes have gone down, Cole has gotten less lately too. Basically just the anti-Thibs in terms of wanting to burn guys out with crazy minutes in the regular season, but it was VERY telling who he was willing to play in a do-or-die game against the Bucks. Fultz got like 5 minutes and Isaac was clearly his big man of choice.
Again though, I think you're operating from a default of WCJ clearly outplaying other big men and being a force inside. He clearly has regressed in that area. We were also 5-7 going into the playoffs with consistent terrible starts and a potential date with the play-in after flirting with the 2nd seed the prior week. All bets are off at that point, and WCJ's own play put him in that position.
Basically, there was nothing really pointing to WCJ as some move we shouldn't have tried to change other than we've played that lineup the most down the stretch, which is a decent argument, but you don't want to limp into the playoffs either. WCJ was 1-1 against the Cavs in the RS but in both games he was -11 and -22 having 2 rebs in one of the games.
But yeah, having multiple changes did end up helping, but I also think if we started WCJ, we'd still most likely be down 0-2, and we'd have different changes occurring lol.
edit: Basically, my overarching point was there was no concrete data you can point at saying how Isaac wouldn't work, considering he's been outplaying him all year, plays bigger, is a better defender, can switch better, starting lineup is floundering, both are up and down rebounders. Just turned out the extra 20 lbs and screening is important. It 100% was a bad move in retrospect, but also completely understandable considering the thought process.