DarkXaero wrote:NyCeEvO wrote:DarkXaero wrote:I don't think this is true. We have a legitimate rotation player in Tyler Johnson who is buried on the bench. TJ used to be a 6th man in Miami, and I realize that he had an awful year & a half before signing with us, but he played quite well for us in the bubble. He's a secondary shot creator/ball handler who can shoot off the dribble.
We also have Bruce Brown who started 43 out of 58 games for the Pistons last season, and he's probably the best perimeter defender on the entire roster. He's a subpar player offensively, but he can make the corner 3, and he has some ball handling/playmaking ability as well.
Those are 3 options, that can all be tried over Shamet or the over reliance on Levert, who has arguably been the worst player in our rotation.
Offense isn’t the problem. Despite Levert’s struggles, we’re still scoring the ball quite well as a team. Our main problems are wing/interior defense and rebounding. TJ, Bruce Brown, nor Chiozza are going to address any of those issues. But to address the players you mentioned...
Tyler JohnsonTyler Johnson has arthroscopic knee surgery towards the end of the 2019 season and is nowhere near as good as he was when we signed him to an offer sheet in 2016. Hence the reason why he had an awful year & a half. There’s a reason why he wasn’t already on another team when we were heading into the bubble...he’s not that good.
And if one’s play in the bubble was an indication of how good a player is right now, Levert should be playing like a really good 6th man. Now, Tyler Johnson is a slashing guard who can shoot some 3s. He’s definitely no longer a ‘shot creator/ballhandler who can shoot off the dribble’. While I’m sure he’s a better spot-up shooter than Levert, there’s no way he’s a better ballhandler or shot creator.
Bruce BrownThe Pistons won 20 games and were clearly tanking last season. Brown being a starter on that team means next to nothing. Derrick Rose was clearly the better PG, but at this point of his career, he’s better as a 6th man than as the daily starter.
Levert is still a better ballhandler You’re massively overrating Brown’s ballhandling/playmaking ability if you think he can essentially take over Levert’s position and run the team
IMO, Chiozza is clearly the best ballhandler and facilitator out of the 3 players you mentioned. The main issue is that if he’s on the floor for too long, the opposing team will take advantage of the size mismatch. I think Levert would look much better out there if he was paired with Chiozza, so that he could actually spend some time as a slasher and get his points from cuts to the basket and catch-and-shoot midrange shots. He’s clearly struggling handling full-time ball distributor duties.
Offense is absolutely a problem, we're getting NOTHING outside of KD, Kyrie, and Joe (when he has good games). Have you look at KD & Kyrie's numbers? They're putting up awesome numbers on god tier efficiency that isn't sustainable, playing heavy minutes and yet we're still 3-4. Sure, the incredibly sloppy turnovers will reduce in frequency over time, and we'll perhaps start running better/more offensive sets as the season progresses. But our bench has been a huge problem and its a clear struggle offensively for those guys, and that's what I'm referring to. Our "depth" gets outplayed by the other team's depth.
What I meant was that out of all of the issues that are contributing to our current situation, our offensive output is not responsible for our mediocre record. Of course, our offensive production is unsustainable and far from ideal, but my point is that if we played better defense and rebounded better, the opposition would have lower quality shot attempts and fewer extra possessions.
With an average defense and rebounding effort, we should be 6-1 based on what Kyrie and KD have given us. We lost 3 games on turnovers, poor defense, and abysmal rebounding, not due to a lack of offensive execution.
Tyler Johnson averaged 12 PPG, 3 APG, and 3 RPG on 55.2% TS% in the 8 seeding games in the bubble. He followed that up by averaging 14 PPG on 58.7% TS% in the 4 playoffs games against the Toronto Raptors. It's incredibly unfair to bring up Levert's play in the bubble as a comparison to downplay what Tyler Johnson did there. Levert has been inconsistent his whole NBA career. Tyler Johnson has shown nothing but positive play here when he has actually been given playing time. I don't see why you feel the need to downplay or dismiss this. All I'm saying is that he deserves a chance and that he actually makes sense for our bench unit atm.
Bruce Brown was an okay starter on that Pistons team, and certainly proved himself to be a NBA player. I've mentioned what he actually showed last season: a legitimately really good perimeter defender who actually has some ball handling/playmaking skills, but a poor shooter who can only hit the corner 3. I said he has "some ballhandling/playmaking ability", and you somehow took that as "massively overrating Brown's ballhandling/playmaking ability if you think he can essentially take over Levert’s position and run the team". What are you on, man?
I merely disagreed with your assessment of Tyler’s play style, that’s all.
His overall production was quite fine, although one could argue that he began with a bad streak in his first 4 games [7/36 FG (19.44%) & 3/15 3FG (20%)] and ended on a good streak pretty good in his last 4 [23/42 FG (54.76%) & 11/21 3FG (52.38%) plus the playoffs.
I never said he shouldn’t play. I just don’t think Tyler and Bruce Brown getting minutes addresses our biggest areas of weakness at the moment.
