hugepatsfan wrote:As others have said, the pieces just didn't fit. The players they had took away from their teammates in a lot of cases rather than complimenting them. The fit of the team was clunky and duplicative in different ways. They were doubled and tripled up in some skill sets while totally lacking in others.
This essentially was the strategy. Lowe used to call it "vision 6'9" on his pods. The roster was designed so every player could be interchangeable. Ultimately, I think it came down to 3 key factors in my opinion on why the team never amounted to the sum of its parts:
- No one on the team could shoot off the dribble and even FVV slumped for a year and half; this made them very easy to guard in the half court
- Barnes/OG/ Siakam all wanted to operate in the same area, which due to the lack of shooting, was always clogged
- All 4 of FVV/OG/Siakam/Barnes believed they deserved to have their games and touches prioritized, there was no understood hierarchy on the team; this partly came from the strategy to have everyone be interchangeable
It's not a coincidence that Barnes, FVV, and Siakam all saw their numbers and impact increase when they were broken up. OG is the only "stagnant" performer, though it sounds like he no longer is expecting more touches and plays run for him in NY.