Presti press conference reaction

[Andre Roberstan]

bbms, I didn't expect different but there is plenty of room between what Presti gave and the straw man reveal you opposed it with. He noted issues with fouls and turnovers. Then said "marginal improvements" would help a lot. No, marginal improvements would yield marginal gains.

More honesty would have included:

Semaj was a good passer but struggled with his shot and needs more time to be an acceptable leader of the bench unit.

Victor was in a new situation but he needs to be more assertive.

Steven improves in some ways but regressed in others. He needs to take responsibility for creating more offense and stay 100% on D and be more consistently vocal leading it.

Alex found some shots but he needs to find some assists too.

Doug did some good things in playoffs but he has to get go a higher level if we are going to a higher level.

Jerami can do some good things but his plus minus needs a lot of improvement.

While I tend to agree, there might be some element of wanting to leave that criticism in the hands of the coach there.

[jambalaya]

True Presti seems to stay out of coach talk space publicly. The coaches do too publicly. Privately, probably pretty soft too but unknown.

[dacodebreaker]

Oladipo "most efficient year": highest efg% (but barely above league average), ts% only tied last season (and was below league average).
But that is just shooting. For overall efficiency Oladipo had his worst season by BPM, tied for worst by PER, 2nd best by WinShares per 48 minutes. RPM, 2nd best but down from last season.

Adams "room to improve". Yeah from lowest FT rate of career, lowest defensive rebounding rate, lowest block rate, BPM very near his worst, still anemic assist rate, etc.\

Explore "players in new roles more" Why didn't you do more of that quicker and more effectively?

Still touting with pride the incredible youth of team. Only valuable if players grow & stay. Will they? Will Russ still be there?

My major take on the players in new roles thing was: Oladipo running lead guard more and McDermott playing the 4. FINALLY.

(that is, if they stay around).

I'm not sure if they are talking about him being a full-time or in certain situations but i feel like Doug is more suited and would benefit more playing as a full-time 4 he does have disadvantageous with length and height but he struggles to guard the more quicker SF and SG tho he has the lateral quickness to guard almost all PF's.

In order for Doug to do that he needs to:

-add 10-20 pounds of weight/muscle
-get more leaner/stronger on his upper and lower body

Then defensively:

-Needs to work on his lateral quickness
-Max out his ATH which can help him in certain areas
-on-ball defense and positioning

Then his defense as well he needs to work on as well especially his on-ball defense and positioning. When i see Doug at times he puts himself in such awful positions defensively and gets beat but when he does stay in front he gets bullied from certain guys cause he is so weak needs to get stronger and try to improve his STL/BLK rate a little bit. I think his off-ball defense is okay but from what i have seen from Doug so far he is more of a space defender.

I agree with Dipo playing more lead guard cause he struggles from spot-up given he can get better at that in time but i like him being a guy who can run the offense and setup shots for others cause he does have a good ability to get to the rim and collapse the defense opening shots for others but i'd like to get another shooter or two maybe a Korver or Jason Terry there more cheaper options but i don't see us getting a big name and etc cause of the cap maybe unless you get rid of Kanter and Singler maybe.

[Andre Roberstan]

Oladipo "most efficient year": highest efg% (but barely above league average), ts% only tied last season (and was below league average).
But that is just shooting. For overall efficiency Oladipo had his worst season by BPM, tied for worst by PER, 2nd best by WinShares per 48 minutes. RPM, 2nd best but down from last season.

Adams "room to improve". Yeah from lowest FT rate of career, lowest defensive rebounding rate, lowest block rate, BPM very near his worst, still anemic assist rate, etc.\

Explore "players in new roles more" Why didn't you do more of that quicker and more effectively?

Still touting with pride the incredible youth of team. Only valuable if players grow & stay. Will they? Will Russ still be there?

My major take on the players in new roles thing was: Oladipo running lead guard more and McDermott playing the 4. FINALLY.

(that is, if they stay around).

I'm not sure if they are talking about him being a full-time or in certain situations but i feel like Doug is more suited and would benefit more playing as a full-time 4 he does have disadvantageous with length and height but he struggles to guard the more quicker SF and SG tho he has the lateral quickness to guard almost all PF's.

In order for Doug to do that he needs to:

-add 10-20 pounds of weight/muscle
-get more leaner/stronger on his upper and lower body

Then defensively:

-Needs to work on his lateral quickness
-Max out his ATH which can help him in certain areas
-on-ball defense and positioning

Then his defense as well he needs to work on as well especially his on-ball defense and positioning. When i see Doug at times he puts himself in such awful positions defensively and gets beat but when he does stay in front he gets bullied from certain guys cause he is so weak needs to get stronger and try to improve his STL/BLK rate a little bit. I think his off-ball defense is okay but from what i have seen from Doug so far he is more of a space defender.

I agree with Dipo playing more lead guard cause he struggles from spot-up given he can get better at that in time but i like him being a guy who can run the offense and setup shots for others cause he does have a good ability to get to the rim and collapse the defense opening shots for others.

Pretty good synopsis. Welcome to the board, BTW!

[dacodebreaker]

My major take on the players in new roles thing was: Oladipo running lead guard more and McDermott playing the 4. FINALLY.

(that is, if they stay around).

I'm not sure if they are talking about him being a full-time or in certain situations but i feel like Doug is more suited and would benefit more playing as a full-time 4 he does have disadvantageous with length and height but he struggles to guard the more quicker SF and SG tho he has the lateral quickness to guard almost all PF's.

In order for Doug to do that he needs to:

-add 10-20 pounds of weight/muscle
-get more leaner/stronger on his upper and lower body

Then defensively:

-Needs to work on his lateral quickness
-Max out his ATH which can help him in certain areas
-on-ball defense and positioning

Then his defense as well he needs to work on as well especially his on-ball defense and positioning. When i see Doug at times he puts himself in such awful positions defensively and gets beat but when he does stay in front he gets bullied from certain guys cause he is so weak needs to get stronger and try to improve his STL/BLK rate a little bit. I think his off-ball defense is okay but from what i have seen from Doug so far he is more of a space defender.

I agree with Dipo playing more lead guard cause he struggles from spot-up given he can get better at that in time but i like him being a guy who can run the offense and setup shots for others cause he does have a good ability to get to the rim and collapse the defense opening shots for others.

Pretty good synopsis. Welcome to the board, BTW!

Thanks

[jambalaya]

Add weight / strength AND improve lateral quickness? Possible if everything goes right where nothing worked in past but it is more usual to go for one or the other. In Doug's case I don't see either quest producing much change. If either did it might more lateral quickness accompanied by less weight.

[jambalaya]

Presti admitted to needing to reducing turnovers, fouls and opponent drives. He probably mainly hopes for instruction / internal change. When I see major problems I mainly think player change has to carry the load if much change is going to happen.

Reducing turnovers? Need better passers, hands, dribblers and less dawdling and less risk taking. Where do you need to do this? Basically everywhere for one or more of the reasons.

Reducing fouls? The general answer may be stop playing so many young players who don't know what to do or when to lay off.

Less opponent drives? Less lax play at PG and different reserves everywhere else.

[richboy]

Dipo more lead guard? Sounds like the old Orlando Magic talk. The bar is very low for back up PG if Dipo is the backup. Presti talked like Dipo at point hasn't been tried.

Doug at PF sounds good. If this team is going to invest in Roberson they have to play a stretch 4. If Sabonis also improves his shooting that would be a big boost.

No matter what this team needs a 3d swing who can play when they can't afford to leave Roberson open all game. In reality the only way to build a championship contender around a 1 superstar team is great outside shooting and strong defense. I don't see the makings of a top 5 defense if Kanter is on the team. If they could Keep Taj and trade Kanter for another wing that would be a pretty nice off season in my eyes.

[spearsy23]

I want to get off Mr Presti's wild ride.

[jambalaya]

Kanter shooting 3s? Downsides: perhaps reduce offensive rebounds and increase fast breaks against, and reduce putbacks & foul shots. Shift in passing from "out" (fairly safe) to side to side or forward (more risky). If he takes one wing he is probably taking a perimeter's place. Upside: more lane. Useful with Russ. Not much without Russ.