minimus wrote:When Tyus and Rose got injured I started to watch games of other teams. Here my couple of thoughts based on my observation.
The way our roster constructed we MUST have a ball handler AND quality shot creator at PG position. Let me explain. Our core is KAT-RoCo-Wiggins. None of them is a quality shot creator. KAT is an elite shot maker, maybe the best in the league along bigmen, but he is not at the same level of team impact as Jokic. RoCo is very limited ball handler, slasher. Same story with Wiggins. However, the biggest problem to me is lack of execution. We can survive lack of ball handlers if we can execute as team, i.e. have decent, experienced passers at all positions. Biggest improvement here might be insertion of Saric in starting lineup and more minutes for Tyus. However, it might be disaster because KAT-Saric-RoCo-Wiggins-Tyus lineup won't have elite shot creator, ballhandler. For instance, UTA uses Ingles, Mitchell, Rubio as ball handlers, passers AND shooters at wings to make their offence work. Here comes Rose. His combination of experience, shooting efficiency and still elite slashing ability complement Tyus as much any other player in the league. This combination have been our cheat code: we survived in defence with Tyus and executed well with him in offense, while against bench player Rose scored efficiently. That have been our recipe for success.
How we can improve? IMO there are three ways
1) Unrealistic. Get an elite PG on the market. Holiday, Conley check all boxes for us.
2) Realistic. Re-sign both Rose and Tyus. Trade Teague, get quality shooters at wings AND limit Wiggins inefficient minutes. If I imagine Wiggins keeping shooting that bricks now, there is no real backup at SG, I wish Okogie and Terrell were the answer, but they are still raw. However, if we add someone like Ellington then we can survive Wiggins bad night by better execution getting open looks to KAT, RoCo, Saric and other shooters.
3) get an elite 3&D wing and lockdown perimeter. Danny Green, Avery Bradley might be available they can give us spark in defense, without much sacrificing offense.
Saying this I think it is more on GM than Ryan. I like his coaching, but asking him to win now it is like asking for miracle. I don't believe miracles if there is no serious work done beforehand by whole organisation. Injuries are bad luck, but look at LAC: West and Balmer have done a great job, being proactive. In our case I see only reactive approach.
Very. Well. Said. We already had one of the best pass first PG's in the league in Rubio over the last few years, how did that one go? Imagine a Rubio-led Utah without the playmaking of EITHER Mitchell or Ingles? I'm not here to bash Rubio, but rather to back up your point that a PG who can carry his load offensively, space the floor, and use his quicks to draw defenders to get others involved (3 things a healthy Rose has done well this year) makes a HUGE difference and especially with the non-playmaking Cov and Wigs, it's vital. Scoring PG's don't have to be ball hogs, they just need to be professional scorers at their position. Push the ball, penetrate, draw the D, score, hit the 3. Hit the open man when attention comes. Lather, rinse, repeat.
In fact, if I could have 2 PG's on the floor at once without suffering defensively, I'd do it as much as I could. Wiggins is such a problem in this scenario because he's the opposite of what a Pg is. That being said, I am going to put a little heat on Ryan Saunders. Early on we heard of practices where long 2's were penalized. Yet here we are, the same Wiggins, chucking long 2's with no fear of a benching, no fear of benching for all of the Wiggy stuff that happens all the time, ugh. Let me just say that if Wigs is here for next few years, if I'm running things I demand that he puts on 20 pounds of muscle so he can maximize getting to the rim, finishing, and not getting stripped of the ball. If he could then see how much better he is at that, maybe he wouldn't settle for the long 2's, and maybe guys would sag off of him, giving him a little cushion from 3. And of course that added muscle would make him a better rebounder and defender.
It would never happen, but if I could add 2 players from the draft this summer, it would be Coby White and Nickiel Alexander-Walker. NAW is an 2 guard with PG like instincts, a great on ball defender, willing ball mover, ambidextrous ball handler, great from 3, and scores well from other areas of the floor too. And of course Coby is the scoring PG that could be the player you're talking about. Give those 2 young guns 2 years to develop and play together and run the team and co-pilots. Pipe dream, I know. But again, great post...
