Its much worse than i thought........

[Thaddy]

It is much worse than I thought as well..

Poeltl has been the worst player in the league

This is so annoying considering Poeltl was arguably are most productive starter the last couple years.

The guy is visibly injured. Why don't we give him some time to recover and see where he's at?

This is a great opportunity for CMB to get extended minutes. He built some confidence in that game against Wemby.

He should be starting today. Otherwise it just shows how clueless Darko is.

[ConSarnit]

Legit concerns imo:

1. defense
2. Jak's health
3. Scottie's immaturity

Some of these other things feel cherry-picked. We've played four games and while having to introduce two significant new pieces, one of whom is a rookie. We need at least 15-20 games to know what we have. I suspect we'll be a lot closer to that 6-8 seed many of us were predicting before the start of the season than a .250 team.

Jak's health is very concerning. He's never had a 3 game stretch this bad since coming back here.

The D will take some time for things to normalize especially with the insane amount of foul calls league wide. That disproportionally affects us because we fouled more than anyone last year and we are attempting to establish an identity as an extremely physical defensive team. Hard to do that when you are being whistled for everything.

Scottie is who he is. Maybe he will mature at some point but he would likely need a change of scenery on another team for that to happen IMO.

Darko is going to have to dial back the aggressiveness imo. It's a marathon not a sprint, and we don't have the horses to press and recover like that anyway. CMB is going to help a lot, but it might take him time to figure out how to stay on the floor.

Scottie probably needs a change of scenery just to shock his system (a la Luka who was way more of a professional), but no way we do that yet. This feels like a pretty good group to get the most out of him at this stage of his career - a good mix of vets to check him, and young players for him to (very slowly) grow into leadership.

Anyway, I remain optimistic about the trajectory of the team and think the general tenor of this thread is a little too pessimistic.

Like who? Temple and Poeltl have been here for 2+ years now. If they were going to "check" Barnes they'd have done it by now. Ingram? Does he seem like the vet mentor type?

Which vets are you looking at on this team and thinking "now there's a leader"?

[NinjaBro]

Masai/Casey

vs

Bobby/Darko

it's night and day in terms of a culture of accountability, discipline and "tough love"

You mean "come hell or high water" tough love and accountability Casey?

[HumbleRen]

These were always concerns going into the season.

The starting lineup is at complete odds with Darko’s coaching philosophies and it’s not something that can be fixed. It’s why he’s searching desperately for line ups that can win their minutes.

A coach's job is to devise schemes are strategies optimized to the roster he is. These ridiculous never ending excuses for Darko's poor record need to stop

He’s not going to change it, regardless of how we feel about his coaching lol.

It’s up to Bobby to make a move on changing the roster or firing Darko.

[TakeYourHeart]

The aggressive defense can be the identity of the bench. They have to play like that because they lack offense. The starters, the offense has actually been good. They don't need to force turnovers and run. The whole team doesn't need to play the same way.

[Shakril]

It is much worse than I thought as well..

Poeltl has been the worst player in the league

So you saying its all poeltls fault and everybody else plays great?

[DelAbbot]

Looking back to that on-court shouting match between Thad and Scottie - it was a sign.

[dballislife]

it was nice last season watching for young player develop and not for a win...but they set higher standards this year so i was watching for wins at start...i think its already time to not watch the games for wins and just hope to see young guys keep developing

[Pointgod]

The most glaring part is the defence. What happened to all the defensive energy and pressure from pre-season? This team is straight up just letting players walk into the paint. I get that not all of our players are strong defenders but there’s a lack of effort and focus. I don’t expect them to win every game but at least show the effort.

[sbsat]

These were always concerns going into the season.

The starting lineup is at complete odds with Darko’s coaching philosophies and it’s not something that can be fixed. It’s why he’s searching desperately for line ups that can win their minutes.

A coach's job is to devise schemes are strategies optimized to the roster he is. These ridiculous never ending excuses for Darko's poor record need to stop

He’s not going to change it, regardless of how we feel about his coaching lol.

It’s up to Bobby to make a move on changing the roster or firing Darko.

I really hope both happen this year

[lolwut]

One thing I've noticed happen in multiple games is IQ committing fouls in the back court right after an inbound. What's up with that? It looks like an intentional foul, but there are no substitutions or anything. All it does is put the opposing team in the bonus early.

[Pointgod]

One thing I've noticed happen in multiple games is IQ committing fouls in the back court right after an inbound. What's up with that? It looks like an intentional foul, but there are no substitutions or anything. All it does is put the opposing team in the bonus early.

He’s being aggressive but the thing is the refs are always going to call that because there have a clear line of sight lol

[tsherkin]

One thing I've noticed happen in multiple games is IQ committing fouls in the back court right after an inbound. What's up with that? It looks like an intentional foul, but there are no substitutions or anything. All it does is put the opposing team in the bonus early.

He’s being aggressive but the thing is the refs are always going to call that because there have a clear line of sight lol

When you're behind the guy, blindly swiping, it's pretty much always a bad, foul-prone play, for sure.

[manjusaka]

There are tons whistles around the league. The aggressive defensive scheme is not allowed at the moment. Maybe it should go back to the basics positioning and rotate.

[nikster]

One thing I've noticed happen in multiple games is IQ committing fouls in the back court right after an inbound. What's up with that? It looks like an intentional foul, but there are no substitutions or anything. All it does is put the opposing team in the bonus early.

He’s being aggressive but the thing is the refs are always going to call that because there have a clear line of sight lol

When you're behind the guy, blindly swiping, it's pretty much always a bad, foul-prone play, for sure.

I get the idea of being more aggressive to start the season and the tone it down as you adjust to the refs. Some of the whistles from aggressive defense im okay with, but those kinds of plays are frustrating.

It seems like we are in bonus halfway through every quarter

[ATLTimekeeper]

He’s being aggressive but the thing is the refs are always going to call that because there have a clear line of sight lol

When you're behind the guy, blindly swiping, it's pretty much always a bad, foul-prone play, for sure.

I get the idea of being more aggressive to start the season and the tone it down as you adjust to the refs. Some of the whistles from aggressive defense im okay with, but those kinds of plays are frustrating.

It seems like we are in bonus halfway through every quarter

I don't mind the FTs against if the Raptors spamming the paint nets some for us as well, but it hasn't gone our way. And then add in fouling AND giving up massive points per possession when pressing tells you that there's absolutely no impact in playing this way. The fouling is just extra insults.

[Son Goku 25]

There were some concerns about Darko being too nice in his 1st year. I think those concerns are still valid. Do players like playing for Darko because he is "fun" and they experience less stress? Probably. Do they respect him as their coach and leader? I am not so sure.

I think a coach like Darko is the wost possible coach for a guy like Scottie. He already has major issues with accountability & disceplene. He needs a coach that will do those things for him. He needs a disceplenarian.

Scottie plays really really well sometimes but the truth is overall he has a lot of bad/ lazy habits that show up far too often. Having a guy like that as your "franchise player" or "leader" is a recipe for disaster. Many of our players have been babied too much & you can see the result on the floor. Especially Scottie.

Guys like MJ & Kobe became who they were because they were extremely disciplined & had excellent work habits. Their teammates followed them because of these traits.

I don't know if he'll ever change.

I remember lowry was known as a head case and issues with coaches but you never saw him do the stuff Scottie does out there. I'm comparing the two because I hope was and still kind of is that Scottie can be that Lowry replacement for us due to his heart and will to win and get team going etc. I don't like it but I'm open to trading him away for the right pieces but I think for now we need to look at improving our roster around our top guys and that might mean getting rid of Yak, RJ and a consistently soft Quickley.

[Son Goku 25]

I also don't know how much a coaching change will help but obv a better coach helps regardless it's still our roster makeup, our guys don't fit well together I think that's been the issue last few years.

[PushDaRock]

He’s being aggressive but the thing is the refs are always going to call that because there have a clear line of sight lol

When you're behind the guy, blindly swiping, it's pretty much always a bad, foul-prone play, for sure.

I get the idea of being more aggressive to start the season and the tone it down as you adjust to the refs. Some of the whistles from aggressive defense im okay with, but those kinds of plays are frustrating.

It seems like we are in bonus halfway through every quarter

Being aggressive and getting burned is going to happen, but we are seeing some reckless gambles out there leading to easy buckets and fouls. RJ would be one of the main culprits there.

[TheGeneral99]

There were some concerns about Darko being too nice in his 1st year. I think those concerns are still valid. Do players like playing for Darko because he is "fun" and they experience less stress? Probably. Do they respect him as their coach and leader? I am not so sure.

I think a coach like Darko is the wost possible coach for a guy like Scottie. He already has major issues with accountability & disceplene. He needs a coach that will do those things for him. He needs a disceplenarian.

Scottie plays really really well sometimes but the truth is overall he has a lot of bad/ lazy habits that show up far too often. Having a guy like that as your "franchise player" or "leader" is a recipe for disaster. Many of our players have been babied too much & you can see the result on the floor. Especially Scottie.

Guys like MJ & Kobe became who they were because they were extremely disciplined & had excellent work habits. Their teammates followed them because of these traits.

I don't know if he'll ever change.

I remember lowry was known as a head case and issues with coaches but you never saw him do the stuff Scottie does out there. I'm comparing the two because I hope was and still kind of is that Scottie can be that Lowry replacement for us due to his heart and will to win and get team going etc. I don't like it but I'm open to trading him away for the right pieces but I think for now we need to look at improving our roster around our top guys and that might mean getting rid of Yak, RJ and a consistently soft Quickley.

One thing we desperately miss from Lowry was his ability to just manage the game and make winning plays. He kept everyone organized on both ends, made sure everyone was in the right spot, and defensively he was a pest grabbing rebounds, getting deflections, and every **** game he would take 1-2 charges would change the momentum immediately. When was the last time we saw a player take a charge? Most importantly, Lowry held his teammates accountable.