I agree. I thought it was ridiculous to bench him for not moving the ball when he's the only consistent (over 50% shooter) on the floor and he's red hot making 4 for 4. Here's the thing, I don't really understand why our offense is so sucktacular with the starting unit. There is no reason for it. You have Lopez who is one of the premiere post up bigs in the entire league who has a variety of weapons there and can also pass out to an open man. Instead of playing inside out we are using Lopez primarily as a spot up shooter behind the arc. It's fine that Lopez has added the three ball to his arsenal. But at the end of the day he's still only a 30% shooter from distance. That's not high percentage ball. And long shots lead to long rebounds that lead to run outs/fast breaks for the opponent which IS high percentage for them. I don't get why we aren't featuring Lopez more in the post when you have Kuz on the floor. Sure some of the time you want that lane open for Ingram to drive or Lonzo to drive and kick, but you can vary that with a steady diet of Lopez posting up and either kicking it out to shooters (KCP, Kuz, Ingram) or back to Lonzo for a hockey assist. Luke's offensive sets have not impressed me at all. Props for getting our defense out of the cellar and up near the top of the NBA, although I think our ratings are going to drop in that department after December's opponents. We need to not go so dry on the offensive end to start games or in the third. These 15 to 20 point deficits are killing us. The bench doesn't have much trouble scoring between Clarkson and Randle and the ball movement with the small ball core.
Exactly my thoughts. Having a prototypical new era stretch 4 paired with a premier post player and not using that advantage is a huge mistake IMO.
As much as I hate it when Luke takes Kuz out of the game early in the 1st quarter when he's playing well I understand it. Luke wants to set an expectation that defense is parimount and wants to make it a teaching moment for Kuz. Even when his shot selection is iffy, Luke will pulll him aside and point something out. Luke knows he can do this with Kyle because he's coachable and doesn't let it affect him offensively. I know that Luke knows this kid can score the ball a ton of ways so he's not as considered by taking him out early in the 1st and Kuz losing his touch. Kyle seems to really like his coach too: This was during his Q & A session on Twitter on Thanksgiving
..Meh just being PC .... what Kuz really meant when asked his thought's on Luke's coaching style: He's a Dope for taking me out when I'm hot and starting off 4 for 4 in the 1st quarter.
Or maybe because Lopez is their best shooter during practice or 3pt drills. Sent from my E6533 using Tapatalk
I love Kuzma as much as anyone as he is like the first rookie in ages that doesn't suck right out of the gate. With that said, he is currently a bigger version of Jordan Clarkson, who is pretty much exclusively a scorer. He needs to rebound much better, he needs to create better to be able to have the offense run through him and he needs to play better man defense. Scoring is generally the most popular stat, so if you score and do little else, people will still love you. But Kuzma needs to understand that he needs to do more.
He needs to play defense mostly. If he could play defense, he'd have been the starter the very first game. Hey though, that comes with being a rookie. I loved his extra pass down low to Brewer in the 2nd half(?).
He is a very good passer, that's for sure. He just needs to blend scoring with playmaking. Then he can take what the defense gives him.
long term, one of kuzma/randle/nance will probably need to go in order to shore up another position. but in any case, i think we need to see kuz getting a lot of burn at the sf spot. need to see if that's possible long-term.
