Game 1 : Charlotte Hornets (0-0) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (0-0) - 7:00 PM

ducler · Post #1 » by **ducler** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 8:26 pm

Stillwater · Post #2 » by **Stillwater** » Wed Dec 23, 2020 10:58 pm

So the Cavs lottery picks are all starters in game 1 no surprise there... It will be interesting to see how many minutes Ball gets coming off the bench to start the season for CHA I think most people just assumed he would start.
I fully expect Dre to take and make 2 or 3 triples and start raising his stock lol

Stillwater · Post #3 » by **Stillwater** » Thu Dec 24, 2020 1:18 am

rotations look smarter than expected... defense is not bad so far. maybe they will surprise me and be a 500 team idk yet

Roger Murdock · Post #4 » by **Roger Murdock** » Thu Dec 24, 2020 2:31 am

Strong performance by Okoro, Garland, Sexton, and Nance.

Really proud of Garland especially who probably had the most to prove but damnit he was fantastic and you can tell he really worked on his game. If he plays confident hes gonna be amazing.

gflem · Post #5 » by **gflem** » Thu Dec 24, 2020 2:57 am

Stillwater wrote:rotations look smarter than expected... defense is not bad so far. maybe they will surprise me and be a 500 team idk yet

Rotations, defense, ball movement all look much improved over much of last season, given that its only one game against one of the weaker teams in the east but I will definitely take it.
Garland surprised me a bit, hopefully he can continue that kind of play.

JonFromVA · Post #6 » by **JonFromVA** » Thu Dec 24, 2020 5:18 am

Yep, not to get carried away over a win over the Hornets, but there were plenty of positives, and plenty of things that will need to get cleaned up. Hopefully Windler isn't out for the season with a wrist injury.

The 34 assists were very impressive, and we crushed the Bobcats on the boards 50 to 32. Sexton and Garland were pretty solid whether together or apart. The extra length in the middle was helpful at times, and problematic as Drummond and McGee playing back on the P&R's contributed to Rozier going off. Nance was splendid, and Okoro was solid for his first start in the NBA.

Quite a contrast between Okoro and Ball ... it's going to be nice to have a rook who can just be on the floor and get 11 & 5 without having to do anything fancy or force anything.

We need to work on dealing with the usual stuff ... traps, presses, zones and it wouldn't hurt if we had a switchable lineup we could go to when a player like Rozier is abusing our D in the P&R.

JonFromVA · Post #7 » by **JonFromVA** » Thu Dec 24, 2020 3:24 pm

Looks like Windler didn't break anything, apparently Zeller did, though. Hopefully Dylan can recover quickly and get his shot back on track, it doesn't take much to mess up a shooter.

JonFromVA · Post #8 » by **JonFromVA** » Thu Dec 24, 2020 4:22 pm

I think improved passing / ball movement will benefit Darius. Rarely in his short career has he entered a game and started knocking down 3's. He seems to need to get in the flow and find the range, and having willing passers like Nance Jr and Okoro in the lineup means he will either get some easy open looks to get him started or defenses will be forced to stay home on him.

As his inside game improves, he can also play more of an inside/out game to help get himself rolling.

Or maybe it's just a confidence thing and for now he needs to see the ball go in and settle down.

LivingLegend · Post #9 » by **LivingLegend** » Fri Dec 25, 2020 7:59 am

JonFromVA wrote:I think improved passing / ball movement will benefit Darius. Rarely in his short career has he entered a game and started knocking down 3's. He seems to need to get in the flow and find the range, and having willing passers like Nance Jr and Okoro in the lineup means he will either get some easy open looks to get him started or defenses will be forced to stay home on him.

As his inside game improves, he can also play more of an inside/out game to help get himself rolling.

Or maybe it's just a confidence thing and for now he needs to see the ball go in and settle down.

It's weird because Garlands biggest strength as a prospect was his shooting ability. So far he's been solid but far from great in that area. His shot is so pretty but it just a little bit off most of the time.

His confidence is sky high right now and his passing vision is great for a guy who was never billed as a high assist guy. He might turn it over a bit too much forcing passes but at least he's looking to do it.

JonFromVA · Post #10 » by **JonFromVA** » Fri Dec 25, 2020 4:13 pm

LivingLegend wrote:
JonFromVA wrote:I think improved passing / ball movement will benefit Darius. Rarely in his short career has he entered a game and started knocking down 3's. He seems to need to get in the flow and find the range, and having willing passers like Nance Jr and Okoro in the lineup means he will either get some easy open looks to get him started or defenses will be forced to stay home on him.

As his inside game improves, he can also play more of an inside/out game to help get himself rolling.

Or maybe it's just a confidence thing and for now he needs to see the ball go in and settle down.

It's weird because Garlands biggest strength as a prospect was his shooting ability. So far he's been solid but far from great in that area. His shot is so pretty but it just a little bit off most of the time.

His confidence is sky high right now and his passing vision is great for a guy who was never billed as a high assist guy. He might turn it over a bit too much forcing passes but at least he's looking to do it.

He's just a young player who needs a lot of playing time and if we stick with him, eventually we'll see what we've got. I've been enthused about him because I can see the skills that have been touted (the shooting, passing, ball-handling). Heck, you can even see him wanting to bomb from well behind the 3pt line, but he's reigning it in and just being conservative until he knows he's locked in.

Last season he was literally a teen coming off a serious injury trying to play against men and was over-matched much of the time. This season, that won't happen as often and we'll see him finding a comfort zone. With enough time, hopefully he'll figure out how to deal with the tough matchups and tough defensive teams. In the meantime, his teammates can help him out by creating spacing and creating shots (those are areas Garland and Sexton can compliment each other).

Stillwater · Post #11 » by **Stillwater** » Fri Dec 25, 2020 8:35 pm

JonFromVA wrote:
LivingLegend wrote:
JonFromVA wrote:I think improved passing / ball movement will benefit Darius. Rarely in his short career has he entered a game and started knocking down 3's. He seems to need to get in the flow and find the range, and having willing passers like Nance Jr and Okoro in the lineup means he will either get some easy open looks to get him started or defenses will be forced to stay home on him.

As his inside game improves, he can also play more of an inside/out game to help get himself rolling.

Or maybe it's just a confidence thing and for now he needs to see the ball go in and settle down.

It's weird because Garlands biggest strength as a prospect was his shooting ability. So far he's been solid but far from great in that area. His shot is so pretty but it just a little bit off most of the time.

His confidence is sky high right now and his passing vision is great for a guy who was never billed as a high assist guy. He might turn it over a bit too much forcing passes but at least he's looking to do it.

He's just a young player who needs a lot of playing time and if we stick with him, eventually we'll see what we've got. I've been enthused about him because I can see the skills that have been touted (the shooting, passing, ball-handling). Heck, you can even see him wanting to bomb from well behind the 3pt line, but he's reigning it in and just being conservative until he knows he's locked in.

Last season he was literally a teen coming off a serious injury trying to play against men and was over-matched much of the time. This season, that won't happen as often and we'll see him finding a comfort zone. With enough time, hopefully he'll figure out how to deal with the tough matchups and tough defensive teams. In the meantime, his teammates can help him out by creating spacing and creating shots (those are areas Garland and Sexton can compliment each other).

Garland looked solid and much better than anyone should have expected even if hoped for but the idea because he is young and needs pt doesn't fly for me at this point if his performance doesnt show up as good and better than it did in this game going forward.
I mean given his main issue and the common excuse last season according to most was just his lack of an nba body coming off injury and being a rookie etc. The reality is on top of those two things he never really showed any indication he would be a dominant pg anytime in HS or a couple games in college. He did show he can see the floor has a high bb iq and has range ( which interestingly enough seems to be more reliable off the catch than off the dribble) esp considering his greatest strength imo has always been his handles.
If he plays like he did in this one all season and the rotations stay similar to this game I could definitely see them using him on and off ball more than strictly on.

JonFromVA · Post #12 » by **JonFromVA** » Fri Dec 25, 2020 10:08 pm

Stillwater wrote:
JonFromVA wrote:
LivingLegend wrote:
It's weird because Garlands biggest strength as a prospect was his shooting ability. So far he's been solid but far from great in that area. His shot is so pretty but it just a little bit off most of the time.

His confidence is sky high right now and his passing vision is great for a guy who was never billed as a high assist guy. He might turn it over a bit too much forcing passes but at least he's looking to do it.

He's just a young player who needs a lot of playing time and if we stick with him, eventually we'll see what we've got. I've been enthused about him because I can see the skills that have been touted (the shooting, passing, ball-handling). Heck, you can even see him wanting to bomb from well behind the 3pt line, but he's reigning it in and just being conservative until he knows he's locked in.

Last season he was literally a teen coming off a serious injury trying to play against men and was over-matched much of the time. This season, that won't happen as often and we'll see him finding a comfort zone. With enough time, hopefully he'll figure out how to deal with the tough matchups and tough defensive teams. In the meantime, his teammates can help him out by creating spacing and creating shots (those are areas Garland and Sexton can compliment each other).

Garland looked solid and much better than anyone should have expected even if hoped for but the idea because he is young and needs pt doesn't fly for me at this point if his performance doesnt show up as good and better than it did in this game going forward.
I mean given his main issue and the common excuse last season according to most was just his lack of an nba body coming off injury and being a rookie etc. The reality is on top of those two things he never really showed any indication he would be a dominant pg anytime in HS or a couple games in college. He did show he can see the floor has a high bb iq and has range ( which interestingly enough seems to be more reliable off the catch than off the dribble) esp considering his greatest strength imo has always been his handles.
If he plays like he did in this one all season and the rotations stay similar to this game I could definitely see them using him on and off ball more than strictly on.

Ups and downs are the name of the game as he climbs the curve, learns the league, and if he ever starts to become a consistent threat - as the league adjusts to him.