Bobby Webster Press Conference Today (First as the Boss)

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

I don’t believe you. And player 1 gets much more time than player 11…

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

What part of this team makes you think the coach is willing and empowered to hold highly paid players accountable. Darko has shown he’s willing to lie publicly about doing it, but not do it

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

if there’s a real defensiv focus, than you’d put defensive players in the starting lineup. Imo

[MEDIC]

I'm just going to watch them until the new year & see how the offense looks. It will be fun to dissect things. As far as I am concerned, it's a clean slate for everyone.

I am far less concerned about the offense than the defense. If Darko can get these guys playing like a top 10 defensive team, they should be a .500+ team & possibly 6th seed.

I think the defense is real. Last season they improved a lot as season progressed. Even if the teams they were playing were below .500, I still am confident they will be a solid defensive team this season. Lets see if they can get top 7 for the whole year.

That would be a really successful season. I would be super happy about that.

[MEDIC]

if there’s a real defensiv focus, than you’d put defensive players in the starting lineup. Imo

Bobby basically said tbat there is zero chance that the roster stays intact the whole season.

You run your defensive system until the end of January & see who can play & who can't. Then you start tinkering. Identify players in the league that can do what you are asking & target them.

I have no doubt that Bobby will want to make his own blueprint.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

if there’s a real defensiv focus, than you’d put defensive players in the starting lineup. Imo

Bobby basically said tbat there is zero chance that the roster stays intact the whole season.

You run your defensive system until the end of January & see who can play & who can't. Then you start tinkering. Identify players in the league that can do what you are asking & target them.

I have no doubt that Bobby will want to make his own blueprint.

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

[youngRAPZ]

if there’s a real defensiv focus, than you’d put defensive players in the starting lineup. Imo

Bobby basically said tbat there is zero chance that the roster stays intact the whole season.

You run your defensive system until the end of January & see who can play & who can't. Then you start tinkering. Identify players in the league that can do what you are asking & target them.

I have no doubt that Bobby will want to make his own blueprint.

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

lol the season hasn’t even started yet and already you in a panic. How do you guys live like that? Constantly thinking about the negative. Try letting the season play out a bit before thinking the sky is falling.

[PushDaRock]

if there’s a real defensiv focus, than you’d put defensive players in the starting lineup. Imo

Bobby basically said tbat there is zero chance that the roster stays intact the whole season.

You run your defensive system until the end of January & see who can play & who can't. Then you start tinkering. Identify players in the league that can do what you are asking & target them.

I have no doubt that Bobby will want to make his own blueprint.

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

The projected starting lineup hasn't played a single minute together. How do you evaluate them?

This isn't NBA 2K, you don't get to just choose your perfect roster. Teams aren't just giving away players that can play both ends of the floor.

[ConSarnit]

I'm just going to watch them until the new year & see how the offense looks. It will be fun to dissect things. As far as I am concerned, it's a clean slate for everyone.

I am far less concerned about the offense than the defense. If Darko can get these guys playing like a top 10 defensive team, they should be a .500+ team & possibly 6th seed.

I think the defense is real. Last season they improved a lot as season progressed. Even if the teams they were playing were below .500, I still am confident they will be a solid defensive team this season. Lets see if they can get top 7 for the whole year.

I don’t see the path to top 10 defense.

-too many weak links in the starting lineup. Poeltl is an above average defensive C. Barnes is good

-Mamu is really bad defensively. And if he can’t play we’re relying on Mogbo or CMB as backup C

-Darko wants to move the ball on offense. This inevitably leads to turnovers. That’s going to hurt the defense

We’re going to play a lot of defensive question marks and our offensive system isn’t designed to help the defense. At best we’re probably an average defense that could be hurt by our desire to move the ball on offense.

[MEDIC]

Bobby basically said tbat there is zero chance that the roster stays intact the whole season.

You run your defensive system until the end of January & see who can play & who can't. Then you start tinkering. Identify players in the league that can do what you are asking & target them.

I have no doubt that Bobby will want to make his own blueprint.

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

The projected starting lineup hasn't played a single minute together. How do you evaluate them?

This isn't NBA 2K, you don't get to just choose your perfect roster. Teams aren't just giving away players that can play both ends of the floor.

Yeah. If I was GM, I.would want to do.some quantitative & qualitative analysis before making any moves. Especially when you have a new #1 option that hasn't played a game yet. You want to see how the other players fit in around him. You also want to see if the guys who typically aren't known for their defense can step up & contribute.

[ConSarnit]

Bobby basically said tbat there is zero chance that the roster stays intact the whole season.

You run your defensive system until the end of January & see who can play & who can't. Then you start tinkering. Identify players in the league that can do what you are asking & target them.

I have no doubt that Bobby will want to make his own blueprint.

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

The projected starting lineup hasn't played a single minute together. How do you evaluate them?

This isn't NBA 2K, you don't get to just choose your perfect roster. Teams aren't just giving away players that can play both ends of the floor.

We have a pretty good idea of what each starter is individually. We know the 1-3 isn’t going to give us much defense. We know the 4/5 isn’t going to give us any spacing. We don’t have a high level creator for others. Every starter is either average or below average efficiency for this position. Average efficiency across the board, no real floor raiser for others, poor shooting at 2/5 positions. It’s not unreasonable to project a middling offense.

Same with defense. Only Barnes and Poeltl are pluses. We plan to move the ball on offense. That creates turnovers which hurts our defense. It’s possible we can be better than average on this end if Barnes takes a leap to all-defense level.

Bench development will probably factor more into our successes (or disappointments) while trying to project what this team will be.

[VanWest82]

IQ, Barrett and Ingram

Who is the fourth guy?

I’m sorry, but Barnes shooting decently from 10-16ft does not compensate for his putrid shooting outside of 16ft. Also, how is Barnes a good off ball player? His cut volume (and ppp) is low. He doesn’t screen. And he definitely doesn’t space the floor. On the whole RJ is a below average off ball player when you consider the shooting teams normally expect from their SG (the highest volume and fg% 3pt shooting position). If Mamu can’t hold up (I’d say it’s 50/50 he’s actually playable) we’re looking at backup bigs of CMB and Mogbo. That would give us by far the worse shooting front court rotation in the league.

You sound like you're on the low end of the expectation curve for Scottie this season. I think he's going to perform better on a more competitive team.

You don't play your way into top5 draft pick conversation playing off ball to two other top5 picks unless you're good off ball. He fit in well in that role his first couple years while we were still competitive. He's proven he can make a shot when it counts, and has averaged 19 ppg the last two years. He isn't hurting us. Agree?

My point was you have four dangerous players in your SL with some complimentary skill sets and an unselfish connector big. That's going to work. Bench shooting needs to step up, but we did draft and trade for a bunch of guys who do that.

If Mamu can't hold up, then we have one of the top 3-4 college players in the country looking for mins. Maybe Chomche is ready to play. There are some high outcome possibilities with this team that are interesting, and it's premature to rule some of it out at this point.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

Not all of these players are new to the league- we have a good idea what they do and don’t do. Why do we need to prove an ingredient doesn’t work in a recipe - you don’t need to put a bunch of poor shooter to space the floor and see how it pans out.

I’d love to be more excited for this year than I am. I’m not in panic - but this isn’t a roster that meshes with the expectations they’re selling. It’s like shrug, oh well. I mean if we falter can you blame Darko - or was he not given the pieces to play how he wants to play? Because as much as I don’t think Darko is a great coach, he’d be correct to say the roster had holes at pg, 3pt shooting and defense- which I would say are currently the most important for winning. And I just don’t know why? Why can’t we move players to make a better fit. If we can’t find takers for their contracts, why do we start them? Why doesn’t a team that had Fred and Kyle understand the value of the point guard? What about IQ says he’s that kind of player and leader and not just a mist-cast Shooting Guard? I’m annoyed because there are pieces, but leadership not enough deliberate action takes place. I like Walker, CMB Shead - from what I see of Gradey he doesn’t shoot well enough to make up for his defensive shortcomings. It’s hard work, but we used to have like the top paid gm to make that happen. When he didn’t I didn’t mind criticizing him. I’ll do the same with Bobby, even if he’s not a top paid gm. I suspect he knows if he’s got a roster and payroll that matches where we are trying to go and I don’t believe we do. We have a ascending roster and a descending cap sheet. We need to cut money by the end of the year - does that sound like a team that looking to sneak in to the playoffs and build? It sounds like it knows it ain’t - so I think he should fix it. Whether it’s moving RJ, IQ, Scottie - there should be no untouchables. My fear is we have unmoveables, which I complained about at the time.

[PushDaRock]

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

The projected starting lineup hasn't played a single minute together. How do you evaluate them?

This isn't NBA 2K, you don't get to just choose your perfect roster. Teams aren't just giving away players that can play both ends of the floor.

We have a pretty good idea of what each starter is individually. We know the 1-3 isn’t going to give us much defense. We know the 4/5 isn’t going to give us any spacing. We don’t have a high level creator for others. Every starter is either average or below average efficiency for this position. Average efficiency across the board, no real floor raiser for others, poor shooting at 2/5 positions. It’s not unreasonable to project a middling offense.

Same with defense. Only Barnes and Poeltl are pluses. We plan to move the ball on offense. That creates turnovers which hurts our defense. It’s possible we can be better than average on this end if Barnes takes a leap to all-defense level.

Bench development will probably factor more into our successes (or disappointments) while trying to project what this team will be.

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

[PushDaRock]

What’s stopping him then? Why not start the season with a balanced roster why punt and start with a hand tied behind your back.
I know that once this team has disappointed it’s not hard to cut someone. Avoiding the tax is not the same roster management as putting the talent to support the way you want to play. In today’s league it’s true two way players or elite shooters, we’re zagging I guess. Thats not what we’re putting together.

In the Good era - even if we had little shooting slumps, as long as we played hard def and took good shots we’ll be ok. To keep Scottie happy and lean in to the promise of his potential, we acted like everyone was holding him back - and got rid of them. Now we’ve lost 50 games in back to back seasons - first time in a while and we don’t even have a player for it that factors into the plans this year - (CMB is a back up 3/4 where we already have to max players)

Do we have players who take good shots and play good defense, a few- I would not say that’s the impression of the Starting lineup. We got some guys that score an inefficient 20. Let someone else overpay the fake all stars.

We have poor defensive and efficient players, and only two 3 pt shooters, and one of them is the pg. we have a sg that can’t shoot 3’s well and a back court that isn’t very good defensively. I’m sorry RJ believed he was going to be a star, I’m sure a lot of players did and had to get over it.

The projected starting lineup hasn't played a single minute together. How do you evaluate them?

This isn't NBA 2K, you don't get to just choose your perfect roster. Teams aren't just giving away players that can play both ends of the floor.

Yeah. If I was GM, I.would want to do.some quantitative & qualitative analysis before making any moves. Especially when you have a new #1 option that hasn't played a game yet. You want to see how the other players fit in around him. You also want to see if the guys who typically aren't known for their defense can step up & contribute.

The complaining just gets exhausting. This team is still in talent accumulation mode, this is not even close to the final product. There's not a single player on the roster that's untouchable.

[PushDaRock]

Not all of these players are new to the league- we have a good idea what they do and don’t do. Why do we need to prove an ingredient doesn’t work in a recipe - you don’t need to put a bunch of poor shooter to space the floor and see how it pans out.

I’d love to be more excited for this year than I am. I’m not in panic - but this isn’t a roster that meshes with the expectations they’re selling. It’s like shrug, oh well. I mean if we falter can you blame Darko - or was he not given the pieces to play how he wants to play? Because as much as I don’t think Darko is a great coach, he’d be correct to say the roster had holes at pg, 3pt shooting and defense- which I would say are currently the most important for winning. And I just don’t know why? Why can’t we move players to make a better fit. If we can’t find takers for their contracts, why do we start them? Why doesn’t a team that had Fred and Kyle understand the value of the point guard? What about IQ says he’s that kind of player and leader and not just a mist-cast Shooting Guard? I’m annoyed because there are pieces, but leadership not enough deliberate action takes place. I like Walker, CMB Shead - from what I see of Gradey he doesn’t shoot well enough to make up for his defensive shortcomings. It’s hard work, but we used to have like the top paid gm to make that happen. When he didn’t I didn’t mind criticizing him. I’ll do the same with Bobby, even if he’s not a top paid gm. I suspect he knows if he’s got a roster and payroll that matches where we are trying to go and I don’t believe we do. We have a ascending roster and a descending cap sheet. We need to cut money by the end of the year - does that sound like a team that looking to sneak in to the playoffs and build? It sounds like it knows it ain’t - so I think he should fix it. Whether it’s moving RJ, IQ, Scottie - there should be no untouchables. My fear is we have unmoveables, which I complained about at the time.

If there are no untouchables on the roster, why would we be optimizing for fit?

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

The projected starting lineup hasn't played a single minute together. How do you evaluate them?

This isn't NBA 2K, you don't get to just choose your perfect roster. Teams aren't just giving away players that can play both ends of the floor.

We have a pretty good idea of what each starter is individually. We know the 1-3 isn’t going to give us much defense. We know the 4/5 isn’t going to give us any spacing. We don’t have a high level creator for others. Every starter is either average or below average efficiency for this position. Average efficiency across the board, no real floor raiser for others, poor shooting at 2/5 positions. It’s not unreasonable to project a middling offense.

Same with defense. Only Barnes and Poeltl are pluses. We plan to move the ball on offense. That creates turnovers which hurts our defense. It’s possible we can be better than average on this end if Barnes takes a leap to all-defense level.

Bench development will probably factor more into our successes (or disappointments) while trying to project what this team will be.

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

[ConSarnit]

IQ, Barrett and Ingram

Who is the fourth guy?

I’m sorry, but Barnes shooting decently from 10-16ft does not compensate for his putrid shooting outside of 16ft. Also, how is Barnes a good off ball player? His cut volume (and ppp) is low. He doesn’t screen. And he definitely doesn’t space the floor. On the whole RJ is a below average off ball player when you consider the shooting teams normally expect from their SG (the highest volume and fg% 3pt shooting position). If Mamu can’t hold up (I’d say it’s 50/50 he’s actually playable) we’re looking at backup bigs of CMB and Mogbo. That would give us by far the worse shooting front court rotation in the league.

You sound like you're on the low end of the expectation curve for Scottie this season. I think he's going to perform better on a more competitive team.

You don't play your way into top5 draft pick conversation playing off ball to two other top5 picks unless you're good off ball. He fit in well in that role his first couple years while we were still competitive. He's proven he can make a shot when it counts, and has averaged 19 ppg the last two years. He isn't hurting us. Agree?

My point was you have four dangerous players in your SL with some complimentary skill sets and an unselfish connector big. That's going to work. Bench shooting needs to step up, but we did draft and trade for a bunch of guys who do that.

If Mamu can't hold up, then we have one of the top 3-4 college players in the country looking for mins. Maybe Chomche is ready to play. There are some high outcome possibilities with this team that are interesting, and it's premature to rule some of it out at this point.

Disagree about Barnes. I know it’s controversial but: he was actually hurting us his first couple of years. He was questionable defensively overall and his offense was bad too. He got a (deserved) pass under the guise of potential and the flashes he showed. We saw him repeatedly get blown by on defense his first 2 years and we saw teams give him the Tony Allen experience by not guarding him on the perimeter at all. Now, some of the defensive stuff probably wasn’t his fault. We asked a young guy to play a crazy helping/recovery style while he was still learning the league. It’s hard enough to learn simple coverages let alone the scrambling we were doing under Nurse. Don’t get me wrong, I get why we played him. He showed tantalizing flashes. I think on the whole he was probably slightly negative (some his fault, some system related).

He’s become very good defensively and is a clear positive on that end. Last year he was a negative on offense. People don’t realize how damaging 52% TS is on 25%+ usage. His own individual offense (and by association what he was producing for the team) was some of the worst in the league. It doesn’t matter that he scored 19ppg. 150 guys could do that if the bar was 52% TS. There is just zero evidence he is good off ball. None of his tracking stats show it and we know he’s no threat to space the floor. We drafted him because in college he showed flashes that may he could be an on-ball guy with his ball handling, passing and size. The hope was to teach him to shoot and I think this has been backed up by the fact that we’ve played him more as an on-ball/creator type as well as giving him the shooting reps. He definitely hasn’t been doing any sizeable amount of traditional off-ball actions like cutting, screening, rolling, movement shooting, etc.

As for drafting or trading for guys to surround Barnes I’d say the jury is still out. Poeltl, CMB, Shead, Mogbo, RJ. None of these guys are shooters (ymmv on RJ but he’s still low output for a SG). IQ and Ingram should help.

I don’t believe his role in high school has much of anything to do with where he was drafted. It’s easy to have success on a stacked AAU team even if the pieces don’t fit all that well. He had the ball in AAU as evidenced that he was always top 2 in assists on his teams.

I’m down on Barnes but I think he still has upside. We need to clean up his shot diet a bit to get him to league average efficiency. He has high level defensive potential. The Poeltl/CMB pairings aren’t doing him any favors. Given his lack of shooting he needs to be able to get to the rim and playing with those guys won’t help. Hopefully he can play more small ball C this year where his shooting issues should be mitigated. If we try and stick with the Barnes as a top 2 option strategy I don’t know how helpful he really is. I think forcing it with him hurts the team. I get that we needed to find out but to be a real positive he needs to scale back his scoring. I also tie his contract into all of this when considering how much he’s helping. He has a lot of positive traits but man, the scoring is not good, and it’s not just the 3pt shooting.

[TakeYourHeart]

We have a pretty good idea of what each starter is individually. We know the 1-3 isn’t going to give us much defense. We know the 4/5 isn’t going to give us any spacing. We don’t have a high level creator for others. Every starter is either average or below average efficiency for this position. Average efficiency across the board, no real floor raiser for others, poor shooting at 2/5 positions. It’s not unreasonable to project a middling offense.

Same with defense. Only Barnes and Poeltl are pluses. We plan to move the ball on offense. That creates turnovers which hurts our defense. It’s possible we can be better than average on this end if Barnes takes a leap to all-defense level.

Bench development will probably factor more into our successes (or disappointments) while trying to project what this team will be.

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

I can't think of anything that Shead does better than RJ. Like not even defense. Shead did not have a good rookie season on both sides.

[ConSarnit]

We have a pretty good idea of what each starter is individually. We know the 1-3 isn’t going to give us much defense. We know the 4/5 isn’t going to give us any spacing. We don’t have a high level creator for others. Every starter is either average or below average efficiency for this position. Average efficiency across the board, no real floor raiser for others, poor shooting at 2/5 positions. It’s not unreasonable to project a middling offense.

Same with defense. Only Barnes and Poeltl are pluses. We plan to move the ball on offense. That creates turnovers which hurts our defense. It’s possible we can be better than average on this end if Barnes takes a leap to all-defense level.

Bench development will probably factor more into our successes (or disappointments) while trying to project what this team will be.

What are you suggesting we should do instead?

If I was Darko and I was trying to win the most games possible - I’d play

Shead/8th man Martin
IQ/6th man RJ
Ingram/7th man Ohchai
Scottie/CMB
Poeltl/Mamo

Walker is on the outside looking in at 9 and Gradey behind him at 10 with room to grow if his def comes around. Walker room to grow to if he can finish at the rim and create more. If I couldn’t change the roster that’s how I’d play it.

Starting Shead probably destroys our offense. Leaves us with 2 plus shooters in IQ and Ingram. We’d be one of the worst 3pt shooting teams and we’d get zero rim pressure. No amount of defensive lift that Shead might give us would be able to compensate for how bad our offense would be.

Martin has done nothing to deserve 8th man minutes. Most rookies have defensive issues and we have no idea if his shooting will translate. Martin is an 2nd round small 3+D pg. It’s 50/50 he ever becomes a real NBA player. I just can’t see him filling the 8th man role this year.