I don't know that I'll ever get over losing Caruso for nothing. It's on the list of things that will probably hurt for the rest of my life. Life like the 2004 finals, or the Tim Thomas offensive rebound in game 6 against Phoenix. Still stings.
The lineups we were using certainly didn't help Bazemore. I mean to start, we had DJ, AD, Lebron, Bazemore, and Russ. Just awful spacing... I wouldn't mind giving him some minutes now that DJ is out of the rotation. I'd play him and Ellington over Ariza.
i don't think it's on that scale of disappointment, but it was also just entirely within the team's control. it'd be different if he got a huge offer or something. we let him go over like a 2.5 million dollar difference in annual salary or something. furthermore, we didn't have a replacement lined up. when we let ariza walk, we gave his money to artest. letting caruso walk is at least as stupid as letting brook lopez walk for 3 million when we had his bird rights three or four years ago.
Aah Tim Thomas: his picture will be right next to "contract year" player in the NBA dictionary for a long time. Ariza also had a bit of this in him lol
…. thought it would be fun to eavesdrop on Thelma and Louise for some reason and snuck into their trunk …. oooooops!
This still pisses me off. Brook was the perfect Lebron and AD era Center. And we just let him walk. The guy has even become a great defensive anchor in Milwaukee and a better shooter.
just so frustrating. made worse by the fact that we justified the russell trade as more than a salary dump because we got lopez. then we let him walk for nothing. then he won a title as a starting center. he would have been perfect here.
AD and Lopez would have been great to watch. I like the comparison @abeer3 The worst part is that they both wanted to stay.
I couldn’t imagine much better of a Center for us than Lopez. He boxes out, blocks shots (3 per game last season), defends well now, passes well and was hitting 3’s at a decent rate. And in a pinch he can still put up 20 points when you run your offense through him if AD or Lebron are down. He has become a super role player at the 5. I find letting him go a similar decision to letting Caruso go, just strange and disappointing.
yeah, i hated it at the time (not as much as i hated the AC choice, but in retrospect they're basically equivalent). old marc was our poor man's lopez, and we couldn't appreciate that, either. fans or front office.
I, too, no longer watch games live with Westbrick around, just can’t throw away more life force anymore considering my age, soul crushing disappointments should be minimized
Get one back, the other is out. No breaks with injuries these past two seasons. That being said, it’s still all Russ’ fault!
Lack of shooting is really biting this team potential right now: Russ/THT everyone knows but Reaves numbers are cratering and have been worse than those two. Add in Bradley and Stan who no matter the numbers aren't going to respect and you have a problem Really hope they can get a like Eric Gordon: a dead eye 3 point shooter who can defend at the 2 and push Bradley to the bench and this team will be much closer to a true title contender
Tonight every single player not named Russ or AD shot like complete garbage. I guess Dwight was fine but he only shot two and made one.
We just don't have enough depth, no shooters ontop of injuries to starters and lack of effort on defense team wide. Unless 'Melo or Monk are draining from outside we struggle mightily. Not going anywhere like this. Be lucky to sneak in with the 8th spot and get dropped by a scrub team in 4-5 games first round. I'd just send Russ to the rim relentlessly and let him draw fouls, brick layups and try to find A.D. / Bron or Monk/Melo. Not aggressive enough, we draw hardly any fouls or get +1 situations.. I'd play Dwight a lot more minutes he had like what 7 rebounds in 10-11 mins? Who cares if he's fouling ppl, let him foul out at least he stops easy shots grabs boards and punishes some fools.
I stole this from LG. Guy is a pretty good poster. Put in quotes from his observations. Nice write-up.
