Nashty & Cactus: Game 22 vs Pacers

[batsmasher]

Standings

How it works

This one didn't really feel like much of a basketball game.

[PackSuns]

-3 Sarver
-2 Rowley
-1 McD

This organization has systemic issues. If you don't think so then I don't know what to tell you.

[kennydorglas]

+3 Chandler : didnt played a great game by any means, especially in the 2nd half
+2 Barbosa : at least he was somewhat efficient
+1 Ulis : changed the game in the brief 6 minutes but of course never came back to the court.

-1 Bled : hit statline looks decent but it was another sluggish fest.
-2 Duds : unusual bad game, looked off all game long
-3 Tucker : TJ cant come back early enough

[darealjuice]

-3 Bledsoe, Booker, Tucker, Chriss, and Chandler for quitting on the team and giving up hope in a winnable game at the end there.

To me the only people who deserve a positive are Barbosa and Ulis, at least they competed in their short time on the court and did more than ISO, get stopped, kick it out to the perimeter, and rinse and repeat with whoever has the ball now.

Knight is constantly looking for his own opportunity to force a drive into traffic and inevitably make a bad pass to someone who isn't in the position to do anything with the ball, Booker just holds the ball waiting for screens and looks for his own shot with one of the premier defenders in the league draped on him unless there's a wide open roll man, and Bledsoe couldn't hit water if he fell off a boat tonight. PJ sucked, Dudley was sloppy, Len couldn't defend an ancient Al Jefferson without fouling every time, Bender looked scared to do anything with the ball in his hands, Chriss got burned on simple pick and rolls like 100 times. What a frustrating game to watch.

[nashrambler13]

Wow that second half was one of the most wildly depressing halves of basketball I've ever watched.

+3 Booker: Idk man, I guess? This is mostly for his +/-; Giving the Nashty to 13 pts/5 asts feels wrong though.
+2 Tyson: Loved the lobs, mad respect to Tyson for still being a killer example out there.
+1 Barbosa: It's really hard when a black-hole is maddeningly efficient. I don't know how to feel.

-1 Dudley: Off night from three, generally bad basketball, idk.
-2 Tucker: PJ is literally just a football player playing basketball idk how he's gotten away with it for so long.
-3 Knight: Look he got 3 assists tonight but I swear to god we had good ball movement and flow until he came in the game. Stay commanding the tank, Tank Commander.

Some notes, positive and negative:
+: Ulis is incapable of playing basketball without pumping out assists.
+: I don't know how to feel about this, but Leandro Barbosa is unequivocally better and more valuable to this and any team than Brandon Knight. Is low-key just as good an iso scorer as BK, is a way better professional than BK, is a better influence on the younger guys than BK, is cheaper than BK... Hopefully BK goes far away from the Phoenix Suns so I don't have to watch him once we have the talent to be good, but he needs to take some notes from LB.
-: That said, having BK and LB is redundant. It blows.

[LacosteM]

-3 Knight
-2 Tucker
-1 Bledsoe

[ImNotMcDiSwear]

+3 Barbosa
+2 Ulis
+1 Booker

-1 Bledsoe
-2 Knight
-3 Tucker - Dude was invisible for the second straight game.

Didn't think lottery season would be here so soon.

[Thespianoid]

Bender looked scared to do anything with the ball in his hands

curious about the specifics of this. In what situations is this happening? Catching the ball on the perimeter during a stagnant possession? After a kickout? During a PnR?

From what I've seen and understood over the years with Bender. he's a very smart on-ball guy but it heavily skews towards playmaking. He does not have a scoring mentality/skillset so when he gets the ball (aside from spot-up situations) he is primarily looking to make a pass/play for a teammate. If there are no pass opportunities it may translate as if he is scared to do anything.

[Saberestar]

+3 Barbosa
+2 Booker
+1 Ulis

-3 Knight
-2 Bledsoe
-1 Tucker

[darealjuice]

Bender looked scared to do anything with the ball in his hands

curious about the specifics of this. In what situations is this happening? Catching the ball on the perimeter during a stagnant possession? After a kickout? During a PnR?

From what I've seen and understood over the years with Bender. he's a very smart on-ball guy but it heavily skews towards playmaking. He does not have a scoring mentality/skillset so when he gets the ball (aside from spot-up situations) he is primarily looking to make a pass/play for a teammate. If there are no pass opportunities it may translate as if he is scared to do anything.

It feels like he isn't comfortable anywhere but the corner to be honest.

When we had him out on the wings a lot last night, he rarely made himself a threat with the ball and was just looking to swing the ball back to the top of the key instead of squaring up to the basket and seeing the floor. There's nothing wrong with looking to move the ball on offense, I like that, but when he doesn't make himself a threat and is just looking to swing the ball in the offense his passes end up being telegraphed, which led to an open court turnover last night when he was staring down the top of 3-point line looking to pass to a shooter coming off a screen. On his second turnover, he did square up to the basket but was hesitant to attack the basket until it was too late and he ended up leaving his dribble behind, which is fine with me because it's him trying to be more involved in the offense and you can live with those mistakes. I don't want him to be looking to score all of the time, but he needs to keep the defense honest and take what he can get with the defense.

In retrospect, it's probably more that he is a little hesitant because he hasn't completely adjusted to the speed of the game yet more than him being scared. I don't think he played a really bad game or anything like that, he even played some solid defense on Paul George in the first half, but he seemed hesitant to put the ball on the deck and do more than float to the corner for spot up 3s.

[batsmasher]

Final.

3. Barbosa
2. Book
1. Chandler

-3. Tucker
-3. Knight
-1. Bledsoe