Captain Ballmer wrote:nickhx2 wrote:
i respect and trust lowe's basketball opinions far more than i'd ever trust my own, and he was one of my favorite writers (before he went behind the paywall)
but...
if this is his criticism then i am kinda shocked. PG showed us year after year, and big game after big game that he's not the dude you can trust when the stakes get higher and higher. there are TONS of players who play really well until those stakes rise and the anxiety becomes too much to deal with. and there are the rare ones whose games get tougher as the challenges get tougher. and paul george is the former, through and through.
like, the fans had enough of that and obviously very clearly the team did, too. and despite me being someone who values modern analytics as the foremost tool of telling us what goes on, on a basketball court, there's a resilience factor in any competitor that's not really quantifiable, and is only observable through our repeat experiences of seeing what we see on the court.
and he doesn't have that, and he's gone, and i think if feedback informs us of anything, the overall lack of lament at his departure should say something. and i think lowe doesn't get that or see that, at all.
Also, it is absurd that last year's 4th place in the West caused us to be projected as 12th this year just because Paul George left. PG's departure will definitely set us back, but He's not that type of impact player at all. It's ridiculous this media underrates the moves our FO have executed to a point "just a bunch of role players" as if we haven't put anything in place.
"just a bunch of role players" is true for last year's garbage.
How many times did Russ knock us out of the games we were cruising ahead?
How many times did we bleed points because we gave PJ Tucker playing time?
How many times did we fall behind while waiting for Mason Plumlee to find himself coming back from injury?(he never did)
How many times did we have to take Theis off due to his undersized physique?
How many times have we had BJ Boston taken out immediately because he couldn't add anything to the game other than bad shot choices?
Bones Hyland and his immature behaviors?
We replaced 5 of this players and PG13 with 4 players respectively, who will not write a net negative as soon as they enter the game; Derrick Jones Jr, Nic Batum, K. Dunn, M.Bamba. Additionally, we rolled the dice on Kevin Porter JR, who could potentially raise the ceiling(big if though).
Finally, we must also take into account the possible forward steps of players such as T.Mann, Zubac, Norman Powell, who sacrificed their talents and rotation time while playing a very stagnant, isolation heavy game around 3 stars last year. With less isolation and more movement in the offence, the impact of these players will increase much more. Defensively we already better than last year.
Lets see what our homegrown guys T-Mann and Zu will do? Are they going to step up? Can Zu become 15+ ppg player? T-mann like Iggy stats 13 ppg-6 Reb-5 ast? These guys are deserving to be a starter for the opening night in Intuit dome and excitement is there.
All we need to do is keep ahead of Houston so we can protect our 25 1st rd pick swap with OKC, have pick in teens rather than like OKC's #29.
