Are we better than last year?

[skones]

So when I'm right do me a favor and spare us the "rooting against your own team" garbage.

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Well, like, you aren't right, so just spare us the garbage in general.

[Perishable517]

Yes, but individual player values is not the main reason.
I believe that having one more year of soaking in the Bud culture is crucial.
Also, experiencing ECF loss may have improved both our players' and coach's IQ. If that improvement is enough to win a chip this year, it is to be determined...

As far as I'm concerned, this is the biggest reason we are better.

Giannis got a taste of bitter disappointment by winning the MVP but not the championship. He is driven. That means the team is driven.

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[DavidDunn21]

So when I'm right do me a favor and spare us the "rooting against your own team" garbage.

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Well, like, you aren't right, so just spare us the garbage in general.

The You Aren't Right Store called and they're all out of you

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[Baddy Chuck]

Career 36% shooter Sterling Brown will stay at 39?

This is an unintentionally hilarious line.

[skones]

The You Aren't Right Store called and they're all out of you

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Sorry to hear that they'll have to spend all of that money grinding your gears with a rebrand to "The Aren't Right Store." Hopefully they don't have to change their color scheme too much! If only they had the foresight to tell a Seinfeld joke in a way that makes sense.

[AussieBuck]

Yes we are better. Spacing is better, defense is better, depth is better, Giannis is better and we have Donte.

[DavidDunn21]

The You Aren't Right Store called and they're all out of you

Sent from my moto g(7) power using RealGM mobile app

Sorry to hear that they'll have to spend all of that money grinding your gears with a rebrand to "The Aren't Right Store." Hopefully they don't have to change their color scheme too much! If only they had the foresight to tell a Seinfeld joke in a way that makes sense.

Wait are we doing Family Guy references now or are we still on Seinfeld

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[Ruben Quevedo]

Yes.

The defense is better because of DDV and Wes.

The offense is better because we are moving and cutting and passing like a championship team instead of running the clogged toilet offense.

The effort and energy on defense and the ball and player movement on offense last night were extremely encouraging. The stakes were low but that was legitimately some of the most impressive basketball I have ever seen.

[MickeyDavis]

The You Aren't Right Store called and they're all out of you

Sent from my moto g(7) power using RealGM mobile app

Sorry to hear that they'll have to spend all of that money grinding your gears with a rebrand to "The Aren't Right Store." Hopefully they don't have to change their color scheme too much! If only they had the foresight to tell a Seinfeld joke in a way that makes sense.

Wait are we doing Family Guy references now or are we still on Seinfeld

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Both of you have made your points now take a break

[vital_signs]

I love Brogdon, but honestly I always considered him a great 6th for a team that want to win the title. I can't explain it, but I had the feeling that something is wrong with him. Maybe it's because that he is good at everything, but not great at something. Losing him sucks, but...

Giannis' leap = Losing Brogdon

I don't think you can equate one of the best players in the world, possibly the best, improvement in his mid 20's to another player leaving. He's still improving as a player with or without.

[emunney]

I feel like the press hasn't caught on yet to the fact that this is either a 50 win team without Giannis or Giannis is by far the best player in the history of the sport. I love Giannis but I know what the correct answer is.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

i feel like the team is better and the posting about the team is worse

[Perseus1966]

West sucks this year and we win games against teams we lost last year ,we play against officials too , so i think we are better.

[4xBuck]

i feel like the team is better and the posting about the team is worse

[aboveAverage]

I think we're better. The offense has been a nice surprise. We are running different kinds of sets. I see pick and rolls, pick and pops, off ball screens, cuts to the basket, post ups to Brook when they build a wall, etc... Bud has definitely improved on offense after last years playoffs.

As for defense, we are peskier and close out faster than last year because of DDV and Wes.

And Giannis is better, of course.

Still doesn't mean anything if we can't keep this up in the playoffs, but for now I think we're legitimately better.

[jute2003]

i feel like the team is better and the posting about the team is worse

You do seem to be posting more this season.

[Baddy Chuck]

We're shooting unsustainably well right now. RealGM mobile app

LOL no they are not, their luck adjusted 3pt stats skew very heavily to them being unlucky so far. Stop making up **** to further your agenda

So you think career 38% 3 point shooter George Hill will continue to shoot 52 from deep?
Career 36% shooter Sterling Brown will stay at 39?
You think Khris won't have a bad stretch when that's what he's always done going back to Kidd?

I still can't get over how outside of George Hill's shooting the other example of unsustainable shooting on the team is a third year guy who shot 36% from three shooting 39%. If he literally misses one three he made in 16 games he's shooting his "career norm" and this team is in shambles .

What a gem.

[CharityStripe34]

More or less the same, though Yianni's 10% improvement raises the ceiling of the team regardless of who's around him. The only apparent weakness that I can see is Budenholzer's system and his tendency to not adjust on the fly. I'm astonished they don't run more pick-and-roll but that could be the lack of the right players to run it. Brogdon was a good pick-and-roll player for this team. If Middleton improves in that department as a pick-and-roll initiator with Yianni rolling to the rim it could become deadly. Time will tell.

[midranger]

Three things worry me about this team.

1. Giannis FT shooting. 59% is really bad. It will cost us playoff games if it continues.

2. Early threes by Giannis, Brook, and Bledsoe. They are the three worst shooters on the team and they lead the team in attempts. Having them shoot as a secondary option seem fine, but it shouldn’t be the first action of our offense as much as it is.

3. Can Bud make a (any) adjustment when things are going south? This is more historic than based on anything this year.

[M-C-G]

The offense is better because we are moving and cutting and passing like a championship team instead of running the clogged toilet offense.

The effort and energy on defense and the ball and player movement on offense last night were extremely encouraging. The stakes were low but that was legitimately some of the most impressive basketball I have ever seen.

This is a really important point, and I think it gets lost under an umbrella statement of 'another year in Bud's system'...but with all of the attention Giannis gets, it obviously opens up threes, but now threes are getting enough attention that it is opening up cutting lanes and we have a number of guys that are both good at making the cut and finishing and our guys that shoot threes are pretty good at feeding that cut with the pass.

This reminds me of when I watch the Spurs in awe of them just destroying teams by making them look silly running all over on defense only to give wide open lay ups. It is a really important growth stage, or maybe it is more of a milestone in our growth toward being a truly great team.