Eating Crow Thread

Post #1 » by **Andre Roberstan** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 1:11 pm

This is a Trade Board tradition, but I figured that since we're getting pretty close to the end of the season it might be a fun one for our board too.

Post something you were wrong about this season. It has to be something YOU were wrong about—it's not a Calling People Out thread, it's an Eating Crow thread.

For me, the biggest thing is probably Ferguson's impact. He's been a nice surprise.

Kizz Fastfists · Post #2 » by **Kizz Fastfists** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 1:37 pm

Grant improving his 3pt shooting. I didn't think he had that in him.

Post #3 » by **ThunderBolt** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 1:38 pm

I didn’t think Dononvan could be worse.

Also didn’t think George would get the start in an all star game.

Post #4 » by **slick_watts** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 1:41 pm

grant and george impact much higher than i expected.

adams plateauing, did not expect.

abrines and patterson.

Pillendreher · Post #5 » by **Pillendreher** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 2:33 pm

I've been right about everything.

acheema0 · Post #6 » by **acheema0** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 2:44 pm

Was very wrong about Grant did not want him starting and was mad when Billy went away from Pat.

Pillendreher · Post #7 » by **Pillendreher** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 2:47 pm

acheema0 wrote:Was very wrong about Grant did not want him starting and was mad when Billy went away from Pat.

Starting Grant has been the downfall of this team.

RalphSampsonJr · Post #8 » by **RalphSampsonJr** » Thu Apr 4, 2019 11:37 pm

Yea Grants shooting is a big one. His mechanics showed no sign of him improving his 3pt shooting but here we are at the 78th game of the season and hes at 38%.

Noel too i guess. I thought he would be getting 20 mins a game and playing next to Adams more. Truth is hes just not that good

SecondTake · Post #9 » by **SecondTake** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 12:26 am

Pillendreher wrote:
acheema0 wrote:Was very wrong about Grant did not want him starting and was mad when Billy went away from Pat.

Starting Grant has been the downfall of this team.

Wait what? You being serious?? What's wrong with grant? You're implying even ferg is better?

Sent from my SM-G950W using RealGM mobile app

Pillendreher · Post #10 » by **Pillendreher** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 7:49 am

SecondTake wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
acheema0 wrote:Was very wrong about Grant did not want him starting and was mad when Billy went away from Pat.

Starting Grant has been the downfall of this team.
Wait what? You being serious?? What's wrong with grant? You're implying even ferg is better?

Sent from my SM-G950W using RealGM mobile app

He can't set screens, which is killing us offesively. When you don't move players and don't move the ball, screens are the only way to get better shots than the wide open 3s teams are giving us on every possession. I don't think him giving us 1.2 points more per game on his 3s than expected (based on his career 3P% prior to this season) is making up for that. We always had a big 4-5 combo with guys setting screens, playing physically, but we have been going away from that since the Ibaka trade and it has not helped us imo. Other teams are starting a smaller guy at the 4 as well, but those guys play with a physicalness that almost matches what bigger guys can offer. Meanwhile we start 4s that play like 3s on the offensive end (Melo, Grant) and unless Ferguson suddenly turns into a guy that can set screens like Roberson was able to, we'll always be in trouble unless we suddenly get hot from 3.

RalphSampsonJr · Post #11 » by **RalphSampsonJr** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 8:12 am

Pillendreher wrote:
SecondTake wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
Starting Grant has been the downfall of this team.
Wait what? You being serious?? What's wrong with grant? You're implying even ferg is better?

Sent from my SM-G950W using RealGM mobile app

He can't set screens, which is killing us offesively. When you don't move players and don't move the ball, screens are the only way to get better shots than the wide open 3s teams are giving us on every possession. I don't think him giving us 1.2 points more per game on his 3s than expected (based on his career 3P% prior to this season) is making up for that. We always had a big 4-5 combo with guys setting screens, playing physically, but we have been going away from that since the Ibaka trade and it has not helped us imo. Other teams are starting a smaller guy at the 4 as well, but those guys play with a physicalness that almost matches what bigger guys can offer. Meanwhile we start 4s that play like 3s on the offensive end (Melo, Grant) and unless Ferguson suddenly turns into a guy that can set screens like Roberson was able to, we'll always be in trouble unless we suddenly get hot from 3.

Not to mention is poor rotating on D. Thats been a problem all season

Pillendreher · Post #12 » by **Pillendreher** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 9:08 am

RalphSampsonJr wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
SecondTake wrote:Wait what? You being serious?? What's wrong with grant? You're implying even ferg is better?

Sent from my SM-G950W using RealGM mobile app

He can't set screens, which is killing us offesively. When you don't move players and don't move the ball, screens are the only way to get better shots than the wide open 3s teams are giving us on every possession. I don't think him giving us 1.2 points more per game on his 3s than expected (based on his career 3P% prior to this season) is making up for that. We always had a big 4-5 combo with guys setting screens, playing physically, but we have been going away from that since the Ibaka trade and it has not helped us imo. Other teams are starting a smaller guy at the 4 as well, but those guys play with a physicalness that almost matches what bigger guys can offer. Meanwhile we start 4s that play like 3s on the offensive end (Melo, Grant) and unless Ferguson suddenly turns into a guy that can set screens like Roberson was able to, we'll always be in trouble unless we suddenly get hot from 3.

Not to mention is poor rotating on D. Thats been a problem all season

To be fair, that's a weird place to be in. He has to be on point every single possession for us not to give up a wide open lane to the basket. But yeah, contrary to public belief, he's not as good as a help defender as one might think.

Post #13 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 1:24 pm

grant's improvements in other areas make up for his poor screening and overall questionable court awareness. i hated that pat got jerked around also but grant's just been miles better. he's probably been better offensively than melo was last year. if we're comparing grant to ibaka, well, yeah. he's not as good as ibaka. it's not like melo was setting beastly screens last year but our offense was much better.

Pillendreher · Post #14 » by **Pillendreher** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 2:12 pm

slick_watts wrote:it's not like melo was setting beastly screens last year but our offense was much better.

Post #15 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 2:19 pm

Pillendreher wrote:
slick_watts wrote:it's not like melo was setting beastly screens last year but our offense was much better.

idgi

Pillendreher · Post #16 » by **Pillendreher** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 2:39 pm

slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:
slick_watts wrote:it's not like melo was setting beastly screens last year but our offense was much better.

idgi

We're down one screener compared to last season. Roberson averaged ~1 screen assist per game. He was the one screening for guys next to Adams with the starters.

Post #17 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 2:44 pm

Pillendreher wrote:We're down one screener compared to last season. Roberson averaged ~1 screen assist per game. He was the one screening for guys next to Adams with the starters.

er, ok. wouldn't that be an indictment on terrance ferguson then? relative to roberson. and our offense wasn't bad after roberson got hurt, was it?

Pillendreher · Post #18 » by **Pillendreher** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 2:50 pm

slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:We're down one screener compared to last season. Roberson averaged ~1 screen assist per game. He was the one screening for guys next to Adams with the starters.

er, ok. wouldn't that be an indictment on terrance ferguson then? relative to roberson.

Yes, it would be, but it's even worse for us because SGs normally don't set screens that often while it's one of the main tasks for guys playing the 4.

slick_watts wrote:and our offense wasn't bad after roberson got hurt, was it?

Relative to league average it was actually way better than our offense on the whole season: +3.8 after Roberson went down, -0.5 on the season this year.

Post #19 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 2:55 pm

Pillendreher wrote:
slick_watts wrote:
Pillendreher wrote:We're down one screener compared to last season. Roberson averaged ~1 screen assist per game. He was the one screening for guys next to Adams with the starters.

er, ok. wouldn't that be an indictment on terrance ferguson then? relative to roberson.

Yes, it would be, but it's even worse for us because SGs normally don't set screens that often while it's one of the main tasks for guys playing the 4.

slick_watts wrote:and our offense wasn't bad after roberson got hurt, was it?

Relative to league average it was actually way better than our offense on the whole season: +3.8 after Roberson went down, -0.5 on the season this year.

i know that, i'm just saying. i don't think lacking andre roberson for screen setting is among the top issues for the team offensively. since they were able to live without it for the most part last season (its' the defense that fell apart). i do think we downgraded on offense from roberson to ferguson. but grant / melo is a push imo. perhaps even slight edge to grant.

how different would this team look with healthy dre and abrines?

Pillendreher · Post #20 » by **Pillendreher** » Fri Apr 5, 2019 3:13 pm

slick_watts wrote:how different would this team look with healthy dre and abrines?

Playing Westbrook next to a proper SG instead of Schröder would have helped this team ths season imo.

Btw: After Roberson went down, the team averaged 254.3 passes per 100 and 8.7 miles covered per 100 on offense. That's less movement on offense than this season (8.9 miles covered per 100), but more passing (231.6 passes per 100). I wonder how much of that nosedive in passing is due to Schröder being used as a trash carbon copy of Russ that isolates and then either attempts a mediocre shot or tries to set up a teammate. As the season went on, they went away from ISO Melo a little bit and I think this shows in the numbers.

EDIT: Yep - last season Melo average 1.9 FGA per game after touching the ball for at least 7 seconds while averaging 7.2 FGA after touching the ball for 0-2 seconds. This season, Schröder 5.0 FGA per game after touching the ball for at least 7 seconds.