Post#55 » by darealjuice » Thu Jan 25, 2018 4:34 am
These are exactly the kind of losses we need to avoid. We got out hustled, out muscled, out shot, and out defended. Literally nothing went our way until that run at the end of the game. Booker struggled, Warren struggled, Bender was soft as tissue. Jackson was the only core player that came to play today, and we'll never win a game this year when that's the case.
This team is going to suck as long as our point guard rotation is the worst in the league. We go into every game with an immediate disadvantage on both ends. Ulis has been absolutely awful this year, and while Canaan has been better he's far from being a starting point guard on a decent team. I don't care if it's done by draft, trade, free agency, or Booker at the point next year; we can not have Tyler Ulis starting next season. If we continue it this season for "stealth tanking" then whatever, but he's been so bad that it's almost crazy he's still starting.
Quese can't come back to the starting lineup soon enough, which feels weird to say. I don't know if it's because he's usually up against bench players, the second unit just moves the ball and fits him better, or what ever else could be going on, but Bender has been very bad since taking the starting spot. He still plays decent defense at times and he'll get a few assists finding TJ cutting off screens in the offense, but he's been incredibly soft with the ball on offense and his shot isn't falling at all. Pretty disappointing, I was hoping he'd start putting it together with this opportunity but it's basically gone the other way. Still far too soon to give up on him though, plus the last game against the Pacers may have been even worse lol.
Jackson was a boost tonight though, can't imagine how bleak things would be here if every single young player played terrible lol. Definitely can tell he's working on his outside shooting and free throws even if it hasn't been consistent. Really encouraged by how well he's getting into the paint despite being pretty weak and needing to tighten up his handles too.
I'm not panicking though, we've had terrible games to close out every road trip this season. It'll only be up from here next year, hopefully starting with replacing the worst starting point guard in the league and our ancient center that plays defense once every 5 games.